File spoon-archives/marxism-intro.archive/marxism-intro_1997/97-02-04.192, message 86


Date: Wed, 29 Jan 1997 10:23:09 +1030
From: MO-AT-pseud.pseud
Subject: Re: M-INTRO: a class of free labourers


>::P:Emma "I was woundering what Marx meant by: "there must exist a
>class of free labourers".

Marx is saying that for capitalism to work there must exist a class of
persons who own their own skills (unlike a slave, whose body and skills are
owned by a slave owner) and are free to sell them (unlike a serf, bondsman,
traditional wife, etc who are not under social obligations to commit their
labour to a landlord, creditor, husband for example). These labourers must
also be compeelled to sell their skills because they have no easy
alternative livelihood (it is too difficult if not impossible for the
average member of this class to save enough to set up in business on her
own, to live reasonably by crime or by handouts, whether public or private)
which Marx summarises by saying, tongue in cheek, that they must also be
'free of means of production of their own'. Giving these two social
conditions, owners of money will find that there is a flexible supply of
labour from workers who are desparate enough for a job and livelihood that
they will accept wages which are barely sufficient for a decent standard of
living




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