An Introduction to Marx’s Capital—Part-16

(This is based on “Marx’s Capital” written by Ben Fine and Alfredo Saad-Filho, translated and published in Telugu by Prajasakti Book House and also based on the book “The People’s Marx” which is an abridged popular edition of the 3 volumes of Marx’s Capital, edited by Julian Borchardt and published by Prajasakti Book House and “Marx’s Capital, An Introductory Reader” by Venkatesh Atreya and 6 others published by Left Word)

                            (For Part-15, please see the blog entry dated 29-1-2012)

Commodity, Labour Theory of Value, Labour Power, Labour and Commodity Fetishism

Now let us summarise what we have noted so far on commodity production, labour theory of value, labour power, commodity fetishism, surplus value, exploitation and technological changes. In this part, we will summarise what we have noted on commodity production, labour theory of value, labour power, and labour and commodity fetishism.

The labour theory of value

Commodity

1. A commodity has use value and exchange value.

2. A commodity has use value, that is, it satisfies some human want. It is a useful thing. Otherwise it will not be sold and hence will not be produced.The use value of a commodity cannot be measured. If a use value is produced for self or for family and hence not meant for sale, it is only a use value and not a commodity.

3. A commodity has exchange value besides its value, that is, a definite quantity of one commodity can be exchanged with a definite quantity of another commodity. (x quantity of commodity a= y quantity of commodity b)

4. When the two commodities are thus exchanged, it means there is some thing common in them  in equal quantity. That common thing in equal quantity in them is their exchange value or simply, value.

5. The value cannot be any of the physical or chemical properties of a commodity, since 100 grams gold cannot be exchanged with 100 grams cotton just because they are equal in weight; one litre petrol cannot be exchanged for one litre kerosene just because they are equal in volume. Similarly commodities cannot be exchanged on the basis that they are equally hard or equally soft, or having the same color or texture etc.  

6. When it is not any of the physical or chemical property that gives value to the commodity, the only thing left is that the commodity is the product of human labour. It is the common factor in all commodities.

The labour theory of value

7. Any commodity is the product of nature and labour. “Commodities are produced from other commodities, either raw materials or finished products, which in turn have been produced from raw materials sourced from nature and so on. Thus each commodity embodies within itself several other commodities, the ultimate source of which being the raw materials found in nature. What transforms raw materials into finished products, or one set of commodities into another set of commodities? It is the application of human labour. One can argue that the transformation of one set of commodities into another set of commodities cannot be achieved by applying labour alone. Labour has to be applied on a certain technique of production. But techniques are embodied in the means of production, like tools and machines. These means of production are also commodities, which have first been conceived or designed and then transformed from other commodities, with application of labour.” (The Three Stories of Capital and their Relevance Today-Prasenjit Bose, Marx’s Capital, An Introductory Reader)

8. Therefore what gives value to a commodity is the labour embedded in it. But how it can be measured? By the labour time required to produce it.

9. But a worker with less skill may take more time to produce a commodity where as a worker with more skill will take less time. Similarly with a higher technology the commodity can be produced with less time where as with a lower technology it takes more time. Does it mean the value of the commodity will vary with the skill/technology of the labourer who produced it?

10. The value is a socially accepted value. This means the value of a commodity is equal to the labour time socially necessary to produce it, with the average skill and technology available in the particular society at a particular period.

11. Thus the labour theory of value says that the value of a commodity is equal to the labour time socially necessary to produce it.

Concrete labour and abstract labour-the two aspects of the human labour

12. In any society (except the simple primitive fruit gathering/hunting society) there is division of labour where in different kinds of use values are produced at different work places.

13. When the use value is produced for immediate consumption by the producer, it is not part of the social production. But when it is produced for exchanging with another use value, it is a part of the social production.

14. The labour that produces the commodities thus has a two fold character. The labour produces use values. In that respect it is a concrete labour,  a particular kind of labour producing a particular kind of commodity—the labour of a weaver is a concrete labour producing the use value, cloth; the labour of a carpenter is a concrete labour producing the use value, table, etc., Thus while giving the usefulnesss to the commodity, the labour is concrete labour.

15. But all concrete labours are human labour in abstract, where in the brain, nerve and muscle are expended. In this aspect, any kind of labour is an abstract labour. Any concrete labour can be reduced to and measured as abstract labour. Suppose the daily wage of an unskilled manual labourer is Rs 200/- and that of a software engineer is Rs 2000/-. This means what? Both are units of the same kind of labour, the homogenous human labour, called the abstract labour. Other wise they cannot be measured as the quantities of the same unit. The skilled labour is the multiplied unskilled   labour. Hence the one day skilled labour of the software engineer is equal to 10 days labour of the unskilled labour.

Value is a social relation, the relation between individual labour to the total labour of the society

16. The concrete labours producing different use values at different work places are brought together and measured against each other when those use values are exchanged. But while measuring so, they are not measured as concrete labours, but they are measured as absolute labour, homogenous human labour, as units of the labour time socially required for producing the commodity. Thus value is a social relation; where in the different concrete labours are measured as units of the socially necessary human labour. This means the value of a commodity is the fraction of the total labour of the society which is socially allotted for producing it.

Price is the money form of value

17. Price is the value expressed in money terms. Price is not exactly equal to the value. It fluctuates around value, depending up on factors like supply, demand, taste, technology, skill etc.(If the demand is more, the commodity will be sold at a price which is more than its value and if the demand is less, the commodity may be sold at a price less than its value. But on average, over a definite period, the average price will be equal to the value. But what ever may be the supply and demand factors, the price of 100 grams of rice cannot be equal to the price of 100 grams of rice. It is because the labour time socially required to produce 100 grams of gold is several times more than the labour time socially required to produce 100 grams of rice.

18. If in future due to the development of technology, the socially necessary labour time for producing 100 grams of gold and 100 grams of rice becomes equal, then the value of gold and rice will be equal.

The distinguishing feature of capitalism

19. In simple commodity production, the producer, with his labours, produces the commodity and exchanges it for another commodity.

20. In capitalist commodity production, the capitalist hires wage labourer to produce the commodity and then sells it.

21. But what the capitalist purchases is not the labourer himself, but only the labour power of the labourer. The labour power is the capacity of the worker to labour, to work. Therefore there is a distinction between labour power and labour. Marx is the first social scientist who made this distinction.

22. The most important distinguishing feature of capitalism is that labour power has become a commodity which can be sold and purchased. In slavery, the slave himself was the property of the slave owner. In feudal society, the peasant is bonded to the estate of the lord and he has to contribute his labour free of cost to the lord. In capitalist society, the worker is free. He is free in two aspects. He is free from the means of production, and hence he has to sell his labour power for his subsistence. Otherwise he cannot get any work since he has no means of production (land, building, machinery, raw materials etc).  But he is free to sell his labour power to any capitalist, for wage.

23. Therefore to make the workers available for the capitalist production, the peasants were separated from their land and the artisan was deprived of his trade and thus they were separated from the means of production and were compelled to sell their labour power for subsistence.

24. Thus capital is a social relation in which those having the monopoly on means of production stand as capitalists on the one side and those who are deprived of the means of production stand as the workers on the other side in the production.

25. Labour power becoming a commodity is the most important distinguishing feature of capitalism.

Commodity Fetishism

26.  In capitalism, production is organised based on the social relationship between the capitalist and the worker. Commodities have value due to the social relation between the individual labour to the social labour. It is the measurement of the labour of the individual as the part of the total labour of the society. It is thus a social relation. But this relation appears as the relation between things, say commodity x=commodity y. It appears that the commodity is having value intrinsic to it, apart from the socially necessary labour time, a social relation, which is the real value in it.

1.      The production in capitalist system is the result of the social relationship between the capitalist as the owner of the means of production and purchaser of the labour power; and the worker as the seller of his commodity labour power to the capitalist. But this relationship appears as the relationship between things, between commodities.

2.      As a result it appears that the capitalist has the commodity machene, raw material, etc and those commodities give profit to the capitalist; similarly the worker has the commodity labour and it gives him his wage. Thus it appears that the inanimate objects (commodities) are having the mystic property of giving profit to its owner. On the other hand, the living being, the worker, is treated as a factor in the production, human capital.

3.      Fetishism is the attribution of religious or mystic qualities to inanimate objects. In religious fetishism, the inanimate objects are attributed the qualities of human beings. Similarly in capitalism, the commodities are attributed the quality of giving rise to profit, and having a special quality called value. The introduction of money has complicated these appearances still more. Thus in capitalism, the commodities appear to have the special qualities, the mysterious qualities of having value, of giving profit etc. It also appears that there is free exchange between the worker and the capitalist, since the worker freely sells his labour and the capitalist pays for it fully. This phenomenon wherein commodities appear to have these mysterious qualities is called the “commodity fetishism”. It appears that commodities are having the life so that they come into relationship with each other and with human beings.

4.      Since relations between the classes (capitalist class and the working class) appear as the relation between commodities and consequently money relations, it results in alienation. Alienation means separation between things that naturally belong together.Alienation in society (social alienation) means separation of people from the aspects of their human nature.  

5.      In capitalist society the worker has no control on his work process, that is, he has to work as directed by the capitalist who purchased his labour power for his (capitalist’s) use. The worker does not own the product, since the product belongs to the capitalist. Thus the worker is alienated from his work and the product of his work. The capitalist also is alienated since his actions are not decided by his free will, but decided by the imperatives of profit, competition, stock market etc .

6.      Therefore for both the capitalist and the worker it appears that some external powers are controlling them,  and not their social relations in production, as capitalist and worker. When a capitalist becomes bankrupt, or when a woker loses job, they blame an impersonal force or thing like the break down of a machene, changes in the consumer preferences, competition or economic crisis, but will not understand it as the result of the capitalist relations of production, as the result of the relations of production established between them as capitalist and worker.

7.      But there is a difference between religious fetishism and commodity fetishism. We can be clear from the religious fetishism in our mind and can keep away from worshipping such fetishes in practice. But how ever great we may understand, we cannot wish away these appearances –price, profit and wage, by an act of our will. These are the real appearances of the underlying realities of social relations. But the underlying realities are grasped from time to time through the consequences of the practical realities. The reflection of such realities like  unemployment, poverty, price rise, vast inequalities,  economic crisis etc  in our thinking   becomes the subject of both material struggle ( struggle between the capitalists and working class and middle class)  and ideological struggle ( The debate why there is unemployment, poverty and crisis in the capitalist society and whether these problems are the inalienable characters of the capitalist system itself and therefore whether these problems can be cured with in the system or the transformation, the changing of the capitalist system into a new social system is required etc.,).