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--- en:the-commodity-and-communism [2022/09/11 08:37]
eaustreum
+++ en:the-commodity-and-communism [2022/12/27 22:05]
eaustreum 1 Introduction: adjust some formulations
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 ===== 1 Introduction =====
-Capital is self-expanding value, dead labour that enslaves the living. It is therefore close at hand to make value and abstract labour the main target of social critique. If abstract labour is the root out of which the categories of capital grow up -- wage labour, profit, modern land rent, accumulation, etc. -- then it must be abolished for a classless state of things to be established. This could conceivably take place in a revolution where the means of existence are made available to all without restriction (gratis), since the compulsion to work for a wage then falls away. A social reorganisation that, on the contrary, relies on abstract labour, or //work// as a distinct social activity, would then constitute a dead-end. At least that was formerly the opinion of the undersigned.((See e.g. Peter Åström, “Crisis and communisation", //Sic// no. 1, 2011.))
+Capital is self-expanding value, dead labour that enslaves the living. It is therefore close at hand to make value and abstract labour the main target of social critique. If abstract labour is the root out of which the categories of capital spring -- wage labour, profit, modern land rent, accumulation, etc. -- then it must be abolished for a classless state of things to be established. This could conceivably take place in a revolution where the means of existence are made available to all without restriction (gratis), since the compulsion to work for a wage then falls away. A social reorganisation that, on the contrary, relies on abstract labour, or //work// as a distinct social activity, would then necessarily constitute a dead-end. At least that was formerly the opinion of the undersigned.((See e.g. Peter Åström, “Crisis and communisation", //Sic// no. 1, 2011.))
 Under the influence of the Arab Winter((That is the counter-revolution in the Middle East and North Africa that began in 2012. See
- [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Winter|Arab Winter]], //Wikipedia//.)), I came to abandon this perspective which emphasises the radically anti-capitalist side of the revolution.((As Henriksson mentions, I took issue with “The suspended step of communisation”, //Sic// no. 1, 2011; see especially pp. 152ff and 164. The author of that article saw the introduction of communism as dependant on the immediate abolition of value, which he assumed require combating all //measuring of labour time//, any distinction between production and consumption as well as the notion of a //product//.)) I became convinced that the positive side must also be emphasised, not dismissed as mere speculation. Despite being completely unsustainable in the long term, the dynamic of the capitalist mode of production does in fact, in the normal case, satisfy basic human needs such as food, water and shelter. For communism to constitute a real alternative, it must therefore take seriously the question of how to secure material reproduction. If not, one or the other reactionary perspective will surely be put forward instead, for example nationalism or religious fanaticism.
+ [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Winter|Arab Winter]], //Wikipedia//.)), I came to abandon this perspective which emphasises the radically anti-capitalist side of the revolution.((As Henriksson mentions, I took issue with “The suspended step of communisation”, //Sic// no. 1, 2011; see especially pp. 152ff and 164. The author of that article saw the introduction of communism as dependent on the immediate abolition of value, which he assumed requires combating all //measuring of labour time//, any distinction between production and consumption as well as the //notion of a product//.)) I became convinced that the positive side must also be emphasised, not dismissed as mere speculation. Despite being completely unsustainable in the long term, the dynamic of the capitalist mode of production does in fact, in the normal case, satisfy basic human needs such as food, water and shelter. For communism to constitute a real alternative, it must therefore take seriously the question of how to secure material reproduction. If not, in the event of a social crisis, one or the other reactionary perspective will surely be put forward instead, for example nationalism or religious fanaticism.
-When, in the light of this revaluation, I returned to //Capital// and other canonical writings, I made a discovery that should have been obvious from the very beginning: Marx does not take //value// as his point of departure but //the commodity//, which puts the question of the former in a very different light. This text, taking the commodity form as its point of departure, is an attempt to summarise important parts of Marx's analysis of capital so as to answer
+When, in the light of this revaluation, I returned to //Capital// and other canonical writings, I made a discovery that should have been obvious from the very beginning: Marx does not take //value// as his point of departure but //the commodity//, which puts the question of the former in a very different light. This text, taking the //commodity form// as its point of departure, is an attempt to summarise important parts of Marx's analysis of capital so as to answer
    * what is value;
    * what does the abolition of capital imply; and
-   * how can a communist reorganization of social reproduction be envisaged?
+   * how can a communist reorganisation of social reproduction be envisaged?
 ===== 2 The commodity =====
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-When the product of labour 20 yards of linen is valued in the bodily forms of all other commodities, it assumes, in addition to coat value, a tea-, coffee-, corn-value, etc. Here, the linen presents itself as interchangeable for every other commodity, but its expression is complicated and ungainly because the product of labour valued is placed next to "a many-coloured mosaic of disparate and independent expressions of value."((MECW 35, p. 74)) In addition, the expression of value grows longer over time as new types of commodities continue to arise.
+When the product of labour 20 yards of linen is valued in the bodily forms of all other commodities, it assumes, in addition to coat value, a tea-, coffee-, corn-value, etc. Here, the linen presents itself as interchangeable for every other commodity, but its expression is complicated and ungainly because the product of labour valued is placed next to "a many-coloured mosaic of disparate and independent expressions of value."((MECW 35, p. 74)) In addition, the expression of value grows longer over time as new types of commodities come into the world.
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 === 2.2.4 The money form ===
-With the general form of value, the thing expressing commodity value may be chosen arbitrarily. In practice, however, the role as general equivalent is awarded a thing that, because of its specific properties, is well suited for it, for instance a precious metal that can be formed into arbitrarily large pieces and fused together again without being destroyed.((MECW 35, p. 100))
+With the general form of value, the thing that expresses commodity value may be chosen arbitrarily. In practice, however, the role as general equivalent is awarded a thing that, because of its specific properties, is well suited for it, for instance a precious metal that can be formed into arbitrarily large pieces and fused together again without being destroyed.((MECW 35, p. 100))
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 > The exchange value of commodities thus expressed in the form of universal equivalence and simultaneously as the degree of this equivalence in terms of a specific commodity, that is a single equation to which commodities are compared with a specific commodity, constitutes //price//.((MECW 29, p. 305))
-In its role as equivalent, a money commodity cannot express its own value, but if cast into developed form (2.2.2), its value appears in relation to all other commodities in definite proportions (2 ounces of gold = 20 yards of linen or 1 coat, etc.) Thus, the expression appears if you read commodity prices backwards.((MECW 35, pp. 104--105)) Marx did not himself discuss the possibility of something other than a product of labour serving as measure of value and expressing commodity prices in a society. In the 1870s, the most important currencies were tied to the gold and it was thus natural to assume gold to function as money-commodity throughout //Capital//.((Strictly speaking, they were tied to the pound sterling which in turn was tied to gold.)) Today, the gold standard is abolished, but states can generally still uphold stable commodity prices thanks to their power of taxation as well as through the ownership of natural resources.((See Duncan Foley, "Marx’s Theory of Money in Historical
+In its role as equivalent, a money commodity cannot express its own value, but if cast into developed form (2.2.2), its value appears in relation to all other commodities in definite proportions (2 ounces of gold = 20 yards of linen or 1 coat, etc.) Thus, the expression appears if you read commodity prices backwards.((MECW 35, pp. 104--105)) Marx did not himself discuss the possibility of something other than a product of labour serving as measure of value and expressing commodity prices in a society. In the 1870s, the most important currencies were tied to the gold and it was therefore natural to assume gold to function as money-commodity throughout //Capital//.((Strictly speaking, they were tied to the pound sterling which in turn was tied to gold.)) Today, the gold standard is abolished, but states can generally still uphold stable commodity prices thanks to their power of taxation as well as through the ownership of natural resources.((See Duncan Foley, "Marx’s Theory of Money in Historical
 Perspective”, in Fred Moseley
 (red.), //Marx’s Theory of Money: Modern Appraisals//, pp. 36–49.))