Marxist Theory II and III
~Capitalism and the Labor Process~
~History and Class Struggle~
February 1, 2012
Instructor: Sarah Whetstone
Social Theory 2012 Blog
CHANGE YOUR USERNAME to first and
last name BEFORE YOU POST AN
entry- INSTRUCTIONS ON THE BLOG!
FOR This week:
 If you posted a reflection essay-for-credit on a
canceled reading, it still counts!
 you are permitted to write reflections FOR
Marx I or II readings after class and still get credit.
– must be posted By end of day, Friday
Feb. 3rd for credit.
2
Three Periods of Marxist Thought
Philosophical
Materialist perspective of social
reality; Alienation as fundamental
human experience in capitalist
systems
The German Ideology (1844)
Economic & Philosophic Manuscripts
(1844)
Political
Class struggle as driver of social
change; Marxist vision for
socialist utopia
Manifesto of the Communist Party
(1848)
Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis
Bonaparte (1852)
Economic
How capitalism works to exploits
workers; Competition, labor
theory of value, commodification,
fetishism, etc.
“Wage Labor and Capital”
“Classes”
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SUPERSTRUCTURE
Historical Materialism… Marx
turns Hegel on his head!
MATERIAL REALITY
BASE
politics, love, social
relationships, family,
religion, ideas, culture
-Hegel: The development of ideas and
knowledge drive historical change
(economic, social, political)
-Marx: Changes in the economic bases of
society drive all other changes (social,
political, production of knowledge)
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Base-Superstructure: Capitalist
Ideologies
Choosing to Marry for Love
Democratic Liberties
Religious Freedom
Belief MeritocracyAmerican Dream
Consumer
Freedoms to
Buy
We are self-interested actors.
Economic Relations in Free Market Capitalism
5
Love in Capitalism: “Shopping” for Love
Commodification of Love
and Relationships
Commodification of
Romance
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“Shopping” in the Pharmaceutical
Industry
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POP QUIZ: Alienation!
According to Marx & Engels, how does
capitalism alienate workers from their
species-being?
a) It allows workers to fulfill their creative
human potential.
b) It creates a culture of mutual exploitation.
c) It encourages humans to act out biological
drives to compete for survival.
d) It’s the first economic system to create class
struggles.
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Capitalism and the Labor Process
“Wage-Labour and Capital” – Karl Marx
• Key Concepts
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Wage
Labor theory of value
Commodity
Competition: between capitalists and between
workers
Cost of production
Real wages
Relative wages
Surplus Value
Exploitation
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Commodities
everything is for sale…even labor power
com·mod·i·ty – noun.
1. A thing that exists “outside of us” that we exchange
for something we want or need.
2. Something with use-value and exchange-value.
=
=
protect your feet
when walking
= USE VALUE
$65 or 20
=
(0f little use to the capitalist)
=
EXCHANGE VALUE
(potential profits for the capitalist)
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Cost of Production
Wage, Labor and Capital
• What is a wage? How is it derived?
– In capitalism work/labor is a commodity, it is exchanged
– Wage = sustenance cost for the worker’s labor
– But the value of work vs the value derived from the work
are not the same
•
•
The labor market is not the same as the market of goods
Workers sells her labor to survive– her labor becomes a commodity
– Capitalists sell the goods produced by the worker, makes
profit and re-invests
• Exchange value of labor product – wage paid for work = surplus
value (profit) that goes to the capitalist
• Capitalist pays labor sustenance costs, and extracts value from
worker to produce more value, in a process of exploitation.
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Creation and Extraction of Surplus Value
Cost of Production
Raw material  machinery plus human labor 
product of labor
Commodities
Exchange value of labor product (price) = 2X
Creation of Surplus Value - profit
Exchange value of labor (wages, or what it takes
to survive) = X
Cost of Production Decreases
MORE
SURPLUS
VALUE
Raw material  faster, more efficient machinery plus greater
division of human labor  cheaper goods
Widening Gap
of Class
Inequality!
12
pg 128
Further as the division of labor increases, labor is simplified.
The special skill of the worker becomes worthless. He becomes
transformed into a simple, monotonous productive force that
does not have to use intense bodily or intellectual faculties. His
labor becomes a labor that anyone can perform. Hence,
competitors crowd upon him on all sides, and besides we
remind the reader that the more simple and easily learned the
labor is, the lower the cost of production needed to master it, the
lower do wages sink, for, like the price of every other commodity,
they are determined for by the cost of production.
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The puzzle of surplus:
The labor necessary to
make the commodity
Money required to
make the commodity
M = C = M’
Money made from the
sale of the commodity
always greater
By somehow getting more out 14
of
the commodity than he paid for…
From “Wage-Labour and Capital”…
Even the most favourable situation for the
working class, the most rapid possible
growth of capital, however much it may
improve the material existence of the
worker, does not remove the antagonism
between his interests and the interests of
the bourgeoisie… Profit and wages remain
as before in inverse proportion… The
material position of the worker has
improved, but at the cost of his social
position. The social gulf that divides him
from the capitalist has widened.” (pg.
126-127).
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What Happens?
– Capitalism is dependent on
individuals craving more and more for
products
• Capitalists can only generate more
profit (and surviving) by
expanding markets and selling more
and more
– Commodification of social life: More
and more of social life (our
institutions, desires and feelings)
becomes commodified: packaged and
sold in the marketplace for profit
– More Alienation!!!
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The Contradictions of Capitalism
• Interests of Bourgeoisie and Proletariat are “one
in the same,” yet fundamentally opposed
• The accumulation and expansion of capital
necessarily leads to systemic poverty and
widening inequality
– Relative v real wages
• As working-class grows more miserable,
capitalism plants the seeds of its own undoing:
class revolution!
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PBS: Land of the Free, Home of
the Poor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ2zE4e1
HjI
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Communist Manifesto
• Manifesto of Communist Party aimed at both explanation
(theory) & emancipation (action)
– Scholar Activist
KEY CONCEPTS:
•
•
•
•
•
History is the history of class struggle
Bourgeoisie as a revolutionary class?
Proletariat as the “real revolutionary class”
Global spread of capitalism
Capitalists dig their own graves
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Marxist theory of historical materialism
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mode of production
relations of production
means of production
Capitalism creates a class-based society…
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POP QUIZ: Class Revolution
What does Marx mean when he says that the
proletarians must move from a “class in itself”
to a “class for itself?”
a) The working class must abandon class
politics to focus on extending universal
democratic rights.
b) The working class must find ways for
technology to reduce their labor time.
c) The working class must develop a class
consciousness and join a common movement.
d) The working class must strive to become
part of the bourgeoisie through the
dedication of hard work.
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internal antagonism
growing alienation
class in itself
0rganize & unionize
Power of bourgeoisie weakens
class consciousness develops
workers understand their interests
class for itself
revolution!
…classless communism
A nd it nev er w ent
Why the working class is the true revolutionary class….
th ey u n d erstan d th e
w o rk in gs
o f capitalism
p e tit-b o u rg e o isie
b o u rg e o isie
b u t are
b lin d ed to th e
to tality b y
th eir in te re sts
hat
w ay again
Credit T. Gowan
lefto vers fro m
feu d alism , th ey o n ly
see th e sy m pto m s o f
capitalism , n o t th e
fu n d am en tals
w o rk in g c la ss - th e o n ly class
capab le o f seein g th e to tality .
A b stracted , alien ated , to rn fro m
n atu re, w ith n o th in g to lo se
an d n o illu sio n s o f estate left.
p e a sa n ts
*
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Marx’s Communist Vision
• The theory of the Communists [is] the abolition of [bourgeois] private
property.
• “Communism deprives no man of the power to appropriate the
products of society; all that it does is deprive him of the power to
subjugate the labor or others by means of such appropriation.”
• “In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class
antagonisms, we shall have an association, in which the free
development of each is the condition for the free development of all.”
• Communism opens up the realm of freedom- Instead of the forced
division of labour, in communism we would work together in a way
which leaves room for creativity. Work is not just about survival, but is
about what we really want to do: “that development of human energy
which is an end in itself.”
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GROUP ACTIVITY: COMMUNIST MANIFESTO
Go through each policy and how Marx and Engels justify it. Choose volunteers to speak for the group–
someone to explain each policy and justify it – and a different person to also develop Smith’s critique. You
should all participate, but choose one group writer to turn in your ideas at the end of class– Label your group
worksheet with all group members’ first and last names. You can incorporate phrases from the original, but
surround the quotes with your own language making it nice and clear to a contemporary audience.
Communist Program: Your policies to explain and justify!
1.
Abolition of private property ("Bourgois property") (105-106)
2.
Abolition of individuality and freedom (106-107)
3.
Abolition of class culture (107)
4.
Abolition of the "bourgeois" family and the institution of marriage (108)
5.
Abolition of countries and nationality (108-9)
6.
The "most radical rupture with traditional ideas" (109-110)
And then:
1.
Develop Adam Smith’s Critique of the same policy– What would Smith have to say about
the Communist Program?
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Scholar-Activistism and the Role
of Sociology: Discuss in Groups
• What is the role of sociology as a science,
according to Marx?
• What about the role of the sociologist?
What should sociologists be studying? Do
they have a responsibility to do anything
beyond making reports? What would
Marx say, and what do you think?
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