Bordigist
Member
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2019
- Messages
- 110
- Reaction score
- 16
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Communist
To whit, my claim is not that you have to recognize it as such; you likely won't if your definition of capitalism posits a dualistic opposition between State and market. But I do contend that Marx would have, and the best demonstration of this is through a juxtaposition of the writings of Marx and Stalin.
The opening section of Das Kapital begins with an analysis of the commodity form.
From Chapter III of Stalin's Economic Problems Of The Soviet Union:
Marx defines this law of value as intrinsic to capitalist systems.
From Chapter XIX of Kapital:
Stalin further defends the existence of the law of value within the Soviet Union later in the cited chapter.
Marx further notes the integral function that surplus value extraction plays in the capitalist mode of production, calling it "the normal source of (the capitalists') gain":
The opening section of Das Kapital begins with an analysis of the commodity form.
The wealth of those societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails, presents itself as “an immense accumulation of commodities,” its unit being a single commodity. Our investigation must therefore begin with the analysis of a commodity.
A commodity is, in the first place, an object outside us, a thing that by its properties satisfies human wants of some sort or another. The nature of such wants, whether, for instance, they spring from the stomach or from fancy, makes no difference. Neither are we here concerned to know how the object satisfies these wants, whether directly as means of subsistence, or indirectly as means of production.
From Chapter III of Stalin's Economic Problems Of The Soviet Union:
It is sometimes asked whether the law of value exists and operates in our country, under the socialist system.
Yes, it does exist and does operate. Wherever commodities and commodity production exist, there the law of value must also exist.
Marx defines this law of value as intrinsic to capitalist systems.
From Chapter XIX of Kapital:
In order to be sold as a commodity in the market, labour must at all events exist before it is sold. But, could the labourer give it an independent objective existence, he would sell a commodity and not labour. Apart from these contradictions, a direct exchange of money, i.e., of realized labour, with living labour would either do away with the law of value which only begins to develop itself freely on the basis of capitalist production, or do away with capitalist production itself, which rests directly on wage-labour.
Stalin further defends the existence of the law of value within the Soviet Union later in the cited chapter.
In our country, the sphere of operation of the law of value extends, first of all, to commodity circulation, to the ex-change of commodities through purchase and sale, the ex-change, chiefly, of articles of personal consumption. Here, in this sphere, the law of value preserves, within certain limits, of course, the function of a regulator.
But the operation of the law of value is not confined to the sphere of commodity circulation. It also extends to production. True, the law of value has no regulating function in our socialist production, but it nevertheless influences production, and this fact cannot be ignored when directing production. As a matter of fact, consumer goods, which are needed to compensate the labour power expended in the process of production, are produced and realized in our country as commodities coming under the operation of the law of value. It is precisely here that the law of value exercises its influence on production. In this connection, such things as cost accounting and profitableness, production costs, prices, etc., are of actual importance in our enterprises. Consequently, our enterprises cannot, and must not, function without taking the law of value into account.
Marx further notes the integral function that surplus value extraction plays in the capitalist mode of production, calling it "the normal source of (the capitalists') gain":
... This jeremiad is also interesting because it shows how the appearance only of the relations of production mirrors itself in the brain of the capitalist. The capitalist does not know that the normal price of labour also includes a definite quantity of unpaid labour, and that this very unpaid labour is the normal source of his gain. The category of surplus labour-time does not exist at all for him, since it is included in the normal working day, which he thinks he has paid for in the day’s wages. But over-time does exist for him, the prolongation of the working day beyond the limits corresponding with the usual price of labour. Face to face with his underselling competitor, he even insists upon extra pay for this over-time. He again does not know that this extra pay includes unpaid labour, just as well as does the price of the customary hour of labour.
Last edited: