Labour, Value and Exploitation

The Tutor The tutor will be Simon Renton who last year delivered the highly successful People’s History of Britain series Organisation of the Class Each class will be built around two questions introduced by the tutor. The objective will be to draw upon the varied life experiences of those attending as well as knowledge of the texts.

Those registering will receive a syllabus with readings together with access to the MML’s online course which will be running simultaneously – and where there is easy hypertext access to readings.

For further study after the course Videos David Harvey's video lectures on Marx http://davidharvy.org Richard Wolff's tutorials on Marxist economics http://rdwolff.com/content/marxianeconomics-intensive-introduction

Some reading For the classes Emile Burns, Introduction to Marxism Chapters 2 and 4 https://www.marxists.org/archive/burnsemile/1939/what-is-marxism/

John Eaton, Political Economy Paste into your browser: GIPE-023871Contents.pdf

An Introduction to Marx’s Economics Tutor: Simon Renton on Tuesdays at 7 p.m.

Based on Marx’s Wages, Price and Profit

Books Sam Aaronovitch, Economics for Trade Unionists, 1964* (out of print: secondhand/library) Sam Aaronovitch, The Political Economy of British Capitalism, 1979 + Mary Davis, Comrade or Brother, 2011 edition* Maurice Dobb, Political Economy and Capitalism, 1937+ Maurice Dobb, Studies in the Development of Capitalism, 1944* Ben Fine, Marx's Capital (various editions since 1979)+ Ben Fine, The Elgar Companion to Marx's Economics, 2011* sixty-one short explanations of all aspects of Marx’s economics David Harvey, Limits to Capital, various editions+ David Harvey, A Companion to Marx's Capital* Jim Stanford's website contains much material on the contemporary economy http://www.economicsforeveryone.ca/auth ors * accessible + challenging

Labour, Value and Exploitation

In the Library Thursday 27 April at 7 p.m.

Film screening of Steve Bowles' 'The Guernica Children' with Herminio Martinez, one of the 'Basque children' refugees of 1937, speaking about his experiences __________________________________

18 April

Labour and Value

2 May

Class Power, Political Power and Exploitation

16 May

Labour Value and Capitalist Crisis

30 May

Contradictions of Capitalism

Celebrating the 1917 Revolution Saturday 4 November Congress Hall, TUC, London Confirmed speakers include Aleida Guevara Cuba Slava Tetekin Russia Brinda Karat India Johanna Scheringer-Wright Germany Professor Vijay Prashad Professor Mary Davis Professor David Lane Adrian Weir

Classes start at 7 p.m. The fee for the course is £20 (£10 unwaged). For this, if you are registered, you also get access to the resources of the Marx Memorial Library on-line course including texts and student and tutor discussion so that, if you miss a class, you can catch up and attend the next.

This folder provides a brief introduction and guide to the literature.

Marx Memorial Library, 37a Clerkenwell Green, EC1M 3RU http://www.marx-memorial-library.org/

Our Text: Marx’s Wages, Price and Profit

Labour, Value & Exploitation Class Questions Class One: Labour and Value

Eleanor Marx who edited the Address into a pamphlet in 1896

Marx wrote Wages, Price and Profit as an address to the International Working Men’s Association in 1865 at the same time as he was finishing Capital volume I. The pamphlet contains within it the essence of the arguments developed there.

The address itself was tailored very specifically to a controversy of the time within the IWMA. This organisation, later called the First International, had been established in 1864 to bring together representatives of the trade union movement from across Europe and America. Its British membership included most of the leading trade union figures of the time.

One group within it led by John Weston argued against trade union struggles on wages on the grounds that it simply generated inflation, put up the prices of goods working people buy and therefore could not produce any long term gains for working people. Instead, Weston argued, trade unions should focus on constitutional and legal change as the way of bettering conditions.

Today, in 2017, we are likely to hear similar arguments as inflation pushes towards 3 per cent.

The government and employers will claim that ‘inflationary wage demands’ are counter-productive and must be resisted.

In his address to the IWMA Marx demonstrated that: 

Wage increases do not themselves cause inflation



Unless workers struggle on wages the tendency of capitalism will always be to reduce them



Wages struggle itself creates the collective class organisation required politically to moderate and then end capitalist exploitation.

Question 1 What arguments are used currently to persuade working people to accept lower living standards/not to struggle for better wages and conditions and what evidence can be advanced to defend the role of trade unions today ? How are these arguments different from Marx's day ?

Read WPP sections 1, 2 and 6 Question 2 Why did Marx insist that the value of a commodity was determined by the amount of ‘SOCIAL labour’ required to produce it and what did he mean by 'social labour' ? Is this more or less relevant today ?

Class Three: Labour, Value and Crisis Question 1 Why, according to Marx, has the history of capitalism been marked by regular crises every six or seven years ? What are the ‘orthodox’ explanations and how can they be challenged ?

Question 2 Economic crises since the 1930s have tended to be more protracted, deeper and to have involved more intervention by the state. Why might this be so - and how have governments sought to respond to the post2008 crisis ?

Read WPP section 6

To make this argument Marx laid bare the process by which capitalist exploitation takes place.

Class Two: Class Power, Political Power and Exploitation Question 1 What makes capitalist exploitation possible and what determines the rate of exploitation ? Labour’s changing ‘share’ below.

This is the great value of the pamphlet. Its force and relevance are regained for today’s readers by disentangling its presentation from the circumstances of 1865 and relating it instead to the circumstances of contemporary Britain. This is what will be attempted in the first two of the classes.

Class 4 Contradictions of Capitalism Question 1 How far was the 2008 crisis triggered by a falling rate of profit – or how far was it in essence a cyclical crisis triggered by dislocations in the distribution of surplus value?

How can we explain its long continuation?

Question 2 What options exist for capitalism in Britain today to off-set the longer-term tendency for the rate of profit to decline and resume previous levels of growth ? What factors are worsening this crisis and what steps are those representing the interests of capital taking in order to overcome it ?

Question 2 Marx argued that the relative prices of

The text of the pamphlet can be accessed here: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/ 1865/value-price-profit/

commodities are determined by the amount of living and 'stored--up labour' (as incorporated in the machinery etc.) used in their production (WPP 6). Assess the competing explanations of relative value today - and are they different from those used in Marx's day (WPP sections 4 and 5) ?

Relevant readings will be distributed at the beginning of the course