basic terms – Unity–Struggle–Unity

Reproductive labor

Comrade Editor J. Katsfoter — Fri, 12 Aug 2022 12:36:32 +0000

The conditions that permit people to exercise their labor power don’t occur naturally; that is, the work force must eat, sleep, replenish lost calories, regenerate their muscles, and eventually replace the members of the workforce who die from sickness and old age. Nor do the conditions of the generalized exercise of labor power reproduce themselves without effort. Lastly, there are social conditions of the labor process that must be reproduced and maintained (for example, a laborer cannot go to work naked due to social convention arising from certain real needs not to be exposed to hot sparks on bare skin, and so forth). Reproductive labor, then, is all labor primarily involved in the historically determined aspects of the production of labor power, in the general labor power of society, and in the social preconditions of the labor-process.

Capitalist

Comrade Editor J. Katsfoter — Fri, 12 Aug 2022 01:54:33 +0000

Another word for an “owner,” that is, a member of the bourgeoisie; i.e., someone who owns capital but does not support themselves through their own labor.

Wage labor

Comrade Editor J. Katsfoter — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 23:02:29 +0000

An element of commodity production – the mode of production whereby one sells their labor power in exchange for a wage.

In order for waged labor to exist as a widespread productive mode (and not merely as isolated exchanges), there must exist a class of people who have no other way of subsisting – in the instance of industrial capitalism, that is the proletarian class. This pre-requisite can only exist where the means of production have become private property, otherwise those who would normally work for a wage could instead merely work the means of production themselves and support themselves from their own labor.

The capitalist buys the labor power of the worker for a wage (based on the socially necessary labor time required for the working class to reproduce itself), and then disposes of the product of labor – the commodity – in order to realize a profit. The worker, however, is alienated from the product of their labor.

Value

Comrade Editor J. Katsfoter — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 23:01:00 +0000

Marx identifies three values that exist under commodity production: labor value, a quantitative measure of how much work is expended to create a commodity; use value, a qualitative measure of the properties of a commodity and what it is used for (food for eating, coats for wearing, and so on); and exchange value, a quantitative measure of how much money one can obtain by selling a commodity.

In a properly functioning market, without interference from outside forces, governments, monopolies, and so on, the labor value of a commodity is equivalent to its exchange value so long as the commodity has a socially-required use value. This is because, in a world where two people are exchanging goods and have perfect knowledge, they will not knowingly choose to be “cheated” of any value. The minimum “break-even” amount that an item can be exchanged for is the amount of (socially average) labor time imbued in it. Of course, the socially-required use value is necessary because it is perfectly possible to spend time making something that no one wants.

There are many exceptions to this simple scenario and, as a matter of fact, markets are very rarely “properly functioning.” They are subject to numerous stresses, regulations, overproduction, underproduction, monopolies, and so forth. However, we must set out the above as the axiomatic or ideal circumstance to establish the law from which we can then comprehend all actual, material, deviations.

Every aspect of commodity production can be broken up into a discrete unit of labor. We should keep in mind that Marxism is a social science that studies large groups, however, and thus this value is actually arrived at from the total calculation of all production across a society. What does this mean? That there is a socially average labor value, despite the fact that individual firms and factories deviate from it. It is the socially average labor value that concerns us now.

In order to transform the natural world into objects and things which are beneficial to humankind, we must exert labor upon it. This labor, as a measure of time, is the only truly valuable thing in the world. Things which are scarce and difficult to find are valuable not because of their scarcity, but because of the socially average labor time required to obtain them.

In its simplest form, we could reduce all work into the equivalent amount of bread produced by that same labor time. Instead of working in a factory or a workshop, we should imagine that our fictitious worker were able to turn to the soil and grow grain and make bread from the proceeds. Let’s give some numbers for illustration only; let’s say the minimum wage is $1/hour. Let’s say a loaf of bread costs $5. If, in one hour’s labor, expending the same amount of effort, a worker can make 1 loaf of bread but in a factory where they are required to expend the same amount of effort and energy they would be paid the minimum wage ($1) for that hour, they would be under no incentive to work in the factory; they would rather make their own food than to work the same amount and be paid five times less. Indeed, they could make 1 loaf of bread in that hour and sell it to a factory worker for $5, thus making $4 in profit over working in the factory.

In reality, it is not possible to simply get land to work and choose to do that instead of laboring, although that pattern was the foundational one in U.S. history, in which settlers and homesteaders chose to settle “new” (stolen, through direct accumulation) land rather than work for others.
Ok, so far so good. But now let us restrict the land – it costs money. Let us say that our worker requires 1 loaf of bread a day in order to survive and their rent costs another $2 per day. They now must make $7 every day; that is, they must work for 7 hours at a minimum wage job, otherwise they will starve or be thrown out on the street.

Let’s say they work for 8 hours a day, receiving a wage of $8 (leaving them with a meager $1 savings at the day’s end). The factory in which they work is getting the labor of 8 loaves of bread from our imaginary laborer. We know this because if they worked on the farm, that’s what they would produce. Thus, the worker benefits the factory owner to the tune of $4/hour – they are paid $1, and they produce the equivalent of one loaf of bread ($5). At the end of the day, for every worker the factory owner employs, the owner makes $4 dollars x 8 hours – or $32 dollars. The worker makes $1 and gets to feed themselves and live in a house (value $7).

But surely the machines and tools must have something to do with this, no? Yes, except the machines and tools are also products of human labor. They are labor multipliers, which means they make labor more efficient. They degrade little by little, with each commodity made. After so many uses a hammer (or an industrial press) must be repaired or replaced, again using up human labor. A machine or tool used to produce a commodity imparts some of its value into that commodity to the tune of how many commodities it can make on average before it is not usable anymore. Thus, an industrial press that costs $1,000 and can make 1,000 cars before it is used up imparts to each car the additional value of $1. That is, in order to replace the press, the boss must sell each car it can make for $1 over the cost of wages and material.

What about raw material? It is the same as a machine; however much is used up is imparted to the cost of the final commodity. The aluminum in the car costs $5,000 (the wages of the workers used to extract, mold, and process it + the degradation of the machinery used in its processing + the transportation costs = $5,000 per car). Thus, the car, which must absorb let’s say 10 man-hours of labor, costs in total $1 (press degradation) + $5,000 (raw materials) + $10 (wages).

So where does profit come from?

Profit is the difference between wages ($10) and production ($5 x 10 = $50). The laborer who makes the car is actually selling short their labor by a factor of 5 because they work for $1/hour when they actually produce $5/hour worth of commodity. The car sells for $5,061, but the worker is shorted $40.

Marx lays out this diagram so we can see it clearly:

M -> C -> M’

That is, money is advanced to put labor, raw material, and machines into motion -> that money becomes a commodity -> the commodity is sold for more than the initial money advanced. Because merchants and capitalists always bargain so as not to lose money with one another, the source of the money prime, the increased money, must be coming not from raw material or machines (these are purchased from other cut-throat capitalists, who cannot afford to sell anything for less than its value). Thus, the increase is the value capitalists do not pay to their workers.

Profits are the unpaid wages of the worker. They are whatever the worker produces above and beyond the bargained-for wage price, which is the socially average cost of reproduction. In the case of the U.S. empire, the socially average cost of reproduction is very high, because U.S. workers in the imperial center demand certain standards and quality of life.

We can therefore divide the value of any given commodity into the following:

subjects of labor (see below) + instruments of labor (see below) + labor time

Labor time breaks down further into socially-necessary labor time and surplus value. It is surplus value that represents profit.

White terror

Comrade Editor J. Katsfoter — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 23:00:05 +0000

White is the color taken up by the old nobility, counter-revolutionary nationalists, and other conservative forces during the 19th and 20th century. White terror is therefore the rule-by-terror (police raids, executions, and so on) of this group during a counter-revolutionary period.

In the U.S., White Terror is also literally an expression of white supremacy and serves to reinforce it through police action, right-wing militias, and so forth.

Red Terror

Comrade Editor J. Katsfoter — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 22:59:34 +0000

Red Terror refers to the active suppression of the bourgeoisie after the Revolution.

Tendency of the rate of profit to fall

Comrade Editor J. Katsfoter — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 22:59:15 +0000

(see also, rate of profit; composition of capital)

The general rate of profit has a tendency to decrease over time. As capital becomes more competitive, it is required that more and more machinery be employed in production to match the productive output of its competitors.

For instance, if the prevailing composition of capital in the economy is 4:1, or $400 worth of machines which must be worked by $100 worth of waged workers, then the capitalist must invest $500 to start a new firm that operates at the same productivity as the rest of the market.

However, if a new machine or process is invented, soon all the capitalist firms will need to have it (or its equivalent) in order to maintain competitiveness. Let’s say the new machine costs another $100 and cuts out 1/2 of the necessary wage work. Thus our composition of capital is now $500:$50 or 10:1.

Now, the capitalist must have $550 to start his firm. His return is much less. Instead of making profit on the $100 of waged work, he is now reduced to making profit on the $50 of waged work. Let us say that the rate of exploitation is 10:1 for demonstration.

At a rate of exploitation of 10:1, the waged workers in the first instance are paid $100 but produce $1,000 worth of commodities. Thus, for $500 worth of capital, the capitalist makes $500. However, in the second instance, the workers are only paid $50 and they produce 10 times their own wages in value – $500. For a $500 investment, the capitalist is now returning merely $500. The rate of profit has shifted from 1:2 to 1:1.

It is important to note here that the machinery is not completely used up in a single cycle, and thus the initial investment of $400 (in the first instance) and $500 (in the second instance) can be pro-rated over many cycles. For the ease of math we have not done that here.

Surplus value

Comrade Editor J. Katsfoter — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 22:58:31 +0000

Any period during which the worker has already made back the value of their wage and yet is still producing commodities for the capitalist.

The formula for calculating surplus value can be taken as follows:

Where c = constant capital (capital outlay on raw materials, machines, electricity, factory space, etc.), v = variable capital (capital outlay on wages), and e = exchange value of produced commodity:

v = e – c – w

This is derive from the formula for the exchange value of a commodity, namely:

c + v + s = e

State

Comrade Editor J. Katsfoter — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 22:57:29 +0000

(see also, class dictatorship)

The “public power” which no longer directly coincides with the population organizing itself. This public power becomes necessary as a matter of historical development when society splits into classes. The public power consists “not merely of armed men but also of material adjuncts, prisons, and institutions of coercion of all kinds”.

Socialist construction

Comrade Editor J. Katsfoter — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 22:54:03 +0000

This is the period during which the material basis for socialism is being laid down. Productive relations are being changed, social formations are being altered, and, in the periphery, productive forces are being expanded.