Date: Sat, 26 Jul 1997 10:27:40 +0200 From: Hugh Rodwell <m-14970-AT-mailbox.swipnet.se> Subject: M-TH: Re: Productive and unproductive labour One or two points have been raised that need answering. This'll have to be quick, unfortunately, I'm going away for some days and have to pack. First, on the use of the distinction between productive and unproductive labour. In the rush to write my last post it slipped my mind that the central thing is of course the definition of the *core* of the working class. The proletariat as such, owning nothing but its labour power, is one thing, while the core of the proletariat, so to say, those engaged in selling their labour power to capital and thus being exploited every day by the normal running of the system, are strategically important in the struggle against capitalist exploitation. Not just from the strike point of view, as many non-productive sectors can damage capitalism if they down tools, but from the awareness point of view. Second, Rakesh brings in the uncompetitive aspect of state production: >Well, to the extent that state or state-induced production cannot generally >compete with private production (which would only contradict the stated >objective of increasing the level of production and employment, see p. 150 >of Mattick's Marx and Keynes: the limits of the mixed economy), the former >tends not to be commodity production; rather the state generally engages in >public works, defense spending and expenditures of varied sorts. > >In this sense, labor in the state sector itself is not generally employed >to produce commodities at a (tendential) average rate of profit. Now the >question becomes how will the state then finance these operations-- that >is, whether through borrowing and taxation the state can command the >requisite surplus value to be turned into revenue exchanged for labor power >while not draining the private sector of the surplus value required for >robust accumulation. This argument requires a more general view of value than is involved in what the capitalists see as directly contributing to profit. Marx's definition covers this. Leo C made the point about the necessity of infrastructure, and I insisted on the role of the commodity labour power. I think what happens here is that the political apparatus (looking after the interests of the bourgeoisie as a whole) has to negotiate a compromise between the productive needs of society (the productive forces which are outgrowing capitalism so phenomenally, socializing behind the backs of observers and actors) and the relations of production (the political aspect, keeping revolution ie the actual transition to a socialist mode of production at bay). So the production of value is organized to both minimize social opposition if possible when necessary (welfare state intervention in the production of the commodity labour power) and to provide necessary large scale infrastructural commodities in the event of market failure (ie the shortsightedness of capitalist investment decisions). Obviously such intervention involves (yet) a(nother) distortion in the classical operation of the system. What happens is that monopoly constraints are introduced by political pressure. The theoretical point both Rakesh and James H seem to be getting at is that the investment cost for this is taken out of revenue rather than directly from capital. But this needs to be looked at combining a national and an international perspective. Nationally (perhaps because the rate of return is insufficient or too uncertain, ie market failure) these sectors may be organized by directly socialized operations rather than indirectly socialized ones "masquerading" as capitalists. This creates a demand on the part of "capitalists" (the quotes because these "individual" owners of capital are far from the autonomous individual private capitalists of the early nineteenth century -- Marx himself considered, as we've seen quoted a number of times now, the joint-stock company to be a kind of abolition of capitalism within the framework of capitalism itself) -- as I said, it creates a demand on the part of "capitalists" for privatization of the sector involved and exploitation of the viable bits at the normal rate of profit, while it also creates a demand on the part of "socialists" for more socialized production allowing better allocation of labour to meet social needs. But internationally the limits of this as a survival tactic for the capitalist mode of production become clear, since interventions of this kind (welfare state, public research etc) are part of the exploitative relation between imperialist heartlands and semi-colonies. What these interventions do is to further increase the efficiency of the capitals in the heartland, enabling them to outcompete foreign capitals and command higher prices (the value pump between nations, sucking value from low capital high labour sectors/nations over to high capital low labour sectors/nations). It should be obvious from the experience of the postwar period with its boom in the heartlands till the mid-70s and the increasing poverty and misery of the semicolonies that the welfare state and large-scale public education & research etc are not viable alternatives for poor countries in the capitalist set-up. They "cost" too much. They are an inefficient, indirect rich man's solution. The reason is that they are solutions raised on capitalist foundations. As such they are distortions and indirect, and they're seen as charges not investment. Even though they contribute to social surplus (produce more value than they cost) they are anathema because they produce less than the sky-high average rate of profit. Also their contribution to the surplus is very difficult to calculate because of the nature of the commodity in one case (labour power), and because of the exploded organization of the production of commodities on the other (the actual components of the labour process involved in designing and producing commodities are not always easy to trace). This makes the argument from principle so necessary. I mean it's bad enough to try and get to the bottom of the categories of wages, profit and rent (as Marx managed to do in Capital) -- what we're facing today is a society that's fetishizing back on itself, the fundamental categories are so distorted by the historical situation of our epoch, where the capitalist relations of productions are so totally inadequate to the needs of the forces of production that this must be the social equivalent of the gravitational pressures in a black hole. This all ties in with arguments regarding the place of women and human reproduction in our society, and with the issue of reform vs revolution. Human reproduction is needed to provide labour power as a commodity within capitalism, and the "private" organization of this social task is a way for capitalism to gouge an advantage and depress wages. The pressures for this will continue regardless as long as capitalism survives. Which means that reforms within capitalism will solve nothing fundamental. People will be no freer or more capable of developing their full potential, even in the heartlands, while the exploitation of the majority of the working class in the world will just get worse. The apparent possibility of sitting on the fence between the capitalist and socialist blocs that seemed to exist in such borderline models as Sweden and Yugoslavia has been blown to pieces. The apparent possibility of sitting on the fence in the class war (the Stalinist line of peaceful coexistence, Socialism in One Country etc) has also been blown to pieces. The more capitalism gets its own way (eg Thatcherism, Reaganomics) the worse things get for humanity and its environment. Reforms can make it easier to survive and to fight, but that's about it. If you don't use them to fight for an end to the system, they just get clawed back again sooner or later (Sweden, New Zealand etc). The same goes for economism of course. In the US there was a period of high wages. It didn't last. Doug was wondering if the theory of value is the foundation of a perspective of imminent catastrophe. But imperialism is catastrophe now, apocalypse now, for the majority of humanity. "Imminent" is a relative term historically speaking. What's involved is the fact that if things don't change, the tensions I've described will just keep intensifying. Something's got to give. This century so far we've seen two world wars, fascism, the October revolution, other revolutions overturning capitalism, lots of vicious wars against liberation, welfare state experiments etc etc. Things give. The question is who does it and how. Cheers, Hugh >In message <l03020901affdff5c7156-AT-[130.244.77.88]>, Hugh Rodwell <m- >14970-AT-mailbox.swipnet.se> writes >>There's been a lot of toing and froing about whether domestic labour and >>cultural labour can be regarded as productive or not, and if so, whether it >>really matters. >> >>1 Domestic labour > >... >> >>First, if the necessary costs of production aren't covered, the production >>doesn't get done, the commodity isn't produced or is not up to standard. >>With respect to labour-power this means people (the owners and bearers of >>labour-power) die or can't perform the labour required of them. This is a >>limit on the desire of capitalists to dispense with all workers of course, >>the limit being the necessity to keep alive and keep reproducing a >>sufficient supply of labour power to produce the profit necessary for >>maintaining the capitalists at the standard to which they are accustomed. > >Marx mooted a family wage. ie that the raising of the next generation of >workers and the daily reproduction of the wage labourer would be >represented in the wage, meaning that the costs of maintaining a family >would be an ordinary part of the value of labour power. Historically >that family wage was something that arose out of a profound social >conflict and legal intervention into the family (to exclude women and >children from the workforce, make schooling compulsory and so on). In >recent years in Britain and the US the family wage has been undermined >(witness the growth of 'work-rich' families struggling to maintain >living standards). > >> >>Second, it doesn't matter how you twist or turn with the technicalities of >>price, value, the labour process etc, these basics have got to be covered. >>However indirect the passing of value to the producers of labour-power, it >>has to get done. However tortuous the mechanisms of price, institution, >>etc, those who add value to the commodity labour-power in the capitalist >>mode of production *must* receive the minimal cost of maintaining their own >>labour-power, or they will not be able to continue their work. > >This is a confusion of use-value and exchange value, surely. Domestic >work contributes to the use-value of the commodity labour power - but >since no exchange relationship exists between man and wife that work >will never be reckoned in exchange value. > >This distinction might seem pedantic but it does have serious >consequences. The most profound is that domestic work in capitalist >societies remains privatised, isolating domestic workers from wider >society. Arising out of that, there is no inherent tendency to raise >productivity in the sphere of domestic work - despite some trivial >labour saving devices, this remains a world of drudgery. Finally, the >persistence of this unsocialised and unrewarded work is the material >basis of women's oppression, excluding them from equal status in >society. >> >>Which all means that under capitalism, health and education workers (say) >>involved in the production of labour-power (variable capital), are >>productive of value, even if the non-capitalist organization of some of >>this (public sector schools and health services) leads to distortions in >>the calculation of pricing and costing etc. These "services" are not the >>same as the services of the private servants Marx discusses in Theories of >>Surplus Value. For those who can't bring themselves to acknowledge these >>producers of commodities as productive workers, there's always the >>semi-cop-out of calling them "service workers". > >Yes, health workers (say) are not the same as servants. But there is a >confusion here between what capitalism as a whole does through the state >and the way that individual capitalists (the ordinary existence of >capital) purchase labour-power. Employees in Britain's National Health >Service do not produce a commodity labour power, they produce a use- >value 'health'. Since they do not charge members of the public for their >service, it never becomes a commodity and hence its 'value' is never >represented in the value of the commodity labour power. The situation is >of course quite different in the US, where rising health costs are a >direct consideration for individual employers. In Britain, the state >takes on the burden of providing health care (inadequately) because of >the shortsighted behaviour of British capitalists, who would happily >work their employees into an early grave. Britain's National Health >Service might be a social necessity for capitalist reproduction, but it >is not a source of surplus value, but rather a drain on profits (as they >never tire of telling us). > >> >>Remember all the time that our present imperialist stage of the capitalist >>mode of production is so thoroughly socialized and planned behind the backs >>of the actors in it and the relations of production, that this kind of >>socialization of the production of the commodity labour-power under >>capitalist appearances is the "natural" development. The Thatcherite model >>of back to private production for everything is destructive of the social >>need for skilled, healthy labour-power. >> >The only conditions under which the production of the commodity labour >power could be socialised in a capitalist society would be wholly >barbaric, since they would imply the end of the labourers' formal >freedom to dispose of that commodity. Such conditions were close in the >apartheid organisation of labour in barracks, or under slavery in the >plantation system in the US. > > >-- >James Heartfield > > > --- from list marxism-thaxis-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu --- --- from list marxism-thaxis-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005