Date: 07 Dec 96 04:32:21 EST
From: Chris Burford <100423.2040-AT-CompuServe.COM>
Subject: M-I: Re: Castells and stuff


This feels very relevant but there is quite a struggle to adapt it to 
marxist terminology which was evolved in the 19th century when the 
patterns of production were around the application of electric power to heavy
machinery, requiring the concentration of large number of workers in one place.

The most striking passage is perhaps, (Rakesh's notes and Matt'a comment)

>>>>>>>>>
>5. The main axis of oppression today is exclusion, not exploitation--which
>is becoming more and more a privilige.

Interesting.  I guess Africa is the obvious example.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<


I think marxist have to accept how substantial the effects of the gradient of 
different levels of production are in the world. This can certainly mask the 
experience of exploitation within one economy, say the USA, by comparison with
the use values available to people from other countries.

That does not mean exploitation of labour power has ended but that it must be 
analysed both on a global level and within the component economies, however 
increasingly they overlap.

I mistrust the use of the term "real-time" in these discussions about information
technology. What does it mean? Does it imply other time is not real?
The argument by Castells paraphrased here seems to imply that global communications
are instant and not just very fast. I think that is a fatal confusion. It is 
true that at least 1 trillion dollars gets transferred round the terminal networks
of the world each day, but it is for each player, not instantaneous, otherwise
the contest would not be so gripping. If you are 15 minutes behind knowing the 
way the market is moving in Tokyio your quarterly figures could look bad on the 
CEO's desk. And if your internet connection has more than 5% breakdowns or delays
of more than 3 minutes, that could make a difference.

So just as the movement of commodities in the 18th century by the revolutionary
canal system actually took time and energy, so these cannot be ignored even in 
the transfer of bits of information, or commercial significance at the end of 
the 20th. 

Other concepts that IMO are essential for a marxian handle on these sort of 
arguements by Castells:

1. Within increasing productivity and increasing social surplus above that needed 
for bare subsistence, and increasing proportion of commodities are in the form 
of services meeting more psychological or social needs. We need to move the 
marxist idioms from discussing exploitation in terms of the number of hours
needed to make a bushell of corn or a shirt, and to embrace the number of hours
with the latest technology to be able, say, to book 200 holidays a year at a 
gross total price of $200,000.

2. The internet partly because it is new, and partly because it is so flexible,
blurs the distinction between different types of  social activity: spontaneous, 
reciprocal, barter, or commodity purchase. We need the little discussed but 
overarching marxist concept of value, within which exchange value is a component
but only a component part.

3. Labourers, whether wearing white or blue shirts, have better prospects of 
selling their labour power in an area with a higher concentration of capital.
They know this. We ought to acknowledge it more explicitly scientifically.


Chris Burford
London.





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