Loved the opening lines regarding what work should look like.

Still think that the labour theory of value is the most pertinent in a world whose minerals, forests and oceans are disappearing at about the rate of asset accumulation by Homo sapiens.

quote:

---

Originally posted by enemy_of_capital:
I personally have read all three volumes...

---

"Three" volumes?

What's "Theories of Surplus Value"?

quote:

---

Originally posted by enemy_of_capital:
the third volume is where things get messy with much in the way of philosophy which throws one right off when one has spent the better part of a year and a half reading and analyzing 200 year old economic data and theory.

---

quote:

---

"Three" volumes?

What's "Theories of Surplus Value"?

Chopped liver?

---

I told you it was heavy but if you can hold your nose its well worth it, if not hit the library for a condensed version, a little easier on the old brain bucket.

to answer your question though it is a theory that suggests that a worker produces a mathmatical profit for the owner of a company/capitalist in a given shift/work period. This is the basis for exploitation for Marxists as we feel that this encompasses a unpaid/stolen portion of our rightful wage (100%) of the fruits of our labour. Thats it in an extreamly small and brutalized knutshell.

quote:

---

Originally posted by enemy_of_capital:
to answer your question though it is a theory that suggests that a worker produces a mathmatical profit for the owner of a company/capitalist in a given shift/work period. This is the basis for exploitation for Marxists as we feel that this encompasses a unpaid/stolen portion of our rightful wage (100%) of the fruits of our labour. Thats it in an extreamly small and brutalized knutshell.

---

quote:

---

seriously though Im pushing it mostly because progressives are so quick to dismiss Marx and Engels these days and they really are a treasure trove for the labour movement.

---

www.marxists.org (literally everything that either is marxist or thinks it is)

or

www.marxist.com

Das Kapital - a best seller!
By In Defence of Marxism
Friday, 17 October 2008
Two decades after the Berlin Wall fell, Karl Marx is back in fashion in Eastern Germany. Thanks to the global crisis of capitalism, Das Kapital, has become a best-seller for the academic publisher, Karl-Dietz-Verlag. This indicates a big change in attitude as a result of the experience of the joys of "market economics".

Unemployment in the former Communist East is 14 per cent, double Western levels, and wages are significantly lower. Millions of jobs were lost after reunification. A recent survey found 52 per cent of Estern Germans believe the free market economy is "unsuitable" and 43 per cent said they wanted socialism rather than capitalism.

quote:

---

Originally posted by enemy_of_capital:
Das Kapital: come on...you know you read it in like 12th grade!

---

We did?

This 42-page handbook, published in 1998, is now available free in .pdf format.

From the Table of Contents:

quote:

---

Originally posted by enemy_of_capital:
I still like the idea of working class people of all persuaisions reading and studying it together fo a fully unbiased understanding.

---

I agree. The material is pretty dense so prior reading then discussion is definitely called for. My group didn't get much past the first half of Volume 1 (a common stumbling block apparently). My recommendation - go easy on the wine. Ms. scott and I used to have "I married a monster from a Marxist study group" buttons.

[ 20 October 2008: Message edited by: scott ]

A better substitute for Volume I would be The Economic Doctrines of Karl Marx by Karl Kautsky.

Nevertheless, in Das Kapital CLASS is defined NOT by relation to MOP (contrary to the common perception), but to surplus value.

[ 20 October 2008: Message edited by: Jacob Richter ]

quote:

---

Originally posted by George Victor:

But your tendency to blame Keynesians for the loss of the theory is a bit late from the gate...look to the old classics - even the saintly Veblen (and one of his students, Stephen Leacock) for an earlier avoidance of the concept. Labour was really getting restive, back then.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Michelle:

We did?

What the heck school did YOU go to, anyhow? We read Margaret Atwood, Mordecai Richler, and Shakespeare.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Erik Redburn:

Keynes' was probably wrong re economic growth, but his singular success permanently demonstrated that Marx was even further off the mark. Nothing happening now can reverse that.

---

Keynes wasn't really successful with his economic theory. It was reliant on dominant powers exploiting the underdeveloped world and, in its pure form, was best suited for Nazi Germany.

Besides, all this current crisis, inexplicable by the Big Media except when resorting to "banker greed," can ONLY be explained at a structural level from a "Marxian" viewpoint (overaccumulation of capital, falling rates of profit, and especially the transformation of this capitalist crisis into the impending conflict between capitalist states resulting from bank nationalizations).

[ 21 October 2008: Message edited by: Jacob Richter ]