Capital Chapter 7 The Labor Process the Valorization

Capital, Chapter 7: The Labor Process & the Valorization Process

Structure of Chapter Section 1: The Labor Process (in general) Section 2: Valorization (in capitalism)

The Labor Process in General Generic discussion (a-historical) Labor Process = three elements a) workers using b) tools to transfrom c) non-human nature Humans transforming nature humans active, have will nature passive, no will

Questionable Assumptions assumption that generic discussion is possible concept of “labor” itself historically determined assumption that only humans have will plenty of evidence that much of rest of nature also has “will” in some sense, to some degree Hegelian, Enlightenment tradition anthropocentric perspective, destructive

Objectification In the labor process workers, as active subjects, exercise their will in order to: appropriate nature transform it embue products with aspect of themselves Product is objectification of workers’ subjectivity, individually & collectively Humanity makes nature part of itself

Living & the Dead As active subject, Marx treats workers as “living” As passive objects, Marx treats tools & raw materials as “dead” Labor process = necromancy, raising the dead Labor = life giving, creative process

Labor as self-realization Worker acts according to own will So, worker realizes individual self as subject in world Worker objectifies self in product, concreteness Labor is social, collective So, worker realizes self as member of a community in the world

Self vis à vis Collectivity Marx: “In your enjoyment or use of my product I would have the direct enjoyment both of being conscious of having satisfied a human need by my work, that is, of having objectified man’s essential nature, and of having thus created an object corresponding to the need of another man’s essential nature. I would have been for you the mediator between you and the species. . .

in the individual expression of my life I would have directly created your expression of your life, and therefore in my individual activity I would have directly confirmed and realized my true nature, my humanm nature, my communal nature. Our products would be so many mirrors in which we saw reflected our essential nature. ”

Other forms of self-realization Some have seen Marx’s analysis of work as specificity of what it is to be human But, we can also read it as an analysis of ONE way to be human His concern with reduction of work shows his awareness of other forms of selfrealization: replacement of labor value by disposable time as measure of wealth

Sec 2: The Valorization Process “Valorization” = labor process within capitalism, . . . P. . . within entire circuit Hired labor, working under capitalist control, producing products which are sold and on which a profit is realized, so that the whole process can be carried out again on a larger scale. i. e, M - C(LP, MP). . . P. . . C’ - M’. M - etc.

Valorization “Quantitative” aspect focus in this chapter turns out to be major “qualitative” aspect Other Qualitative aspects focus in 1844 Manuscripts we’ll return to this afterwords

Quantitative Aspect: Surplus Value In general terms: investment = M - C(LP, MP) In value terms: Investment: M = C + V C = constant capital = value that buys C V = variable capital = value that buys LP Criterion of success: Total value must = C + V + S = M’ S = surplus value = M’ - M

Surplus Value = Greed Usual critical reading: S = profits Profits desired for personal enrichment S = motive of capitalist activity = investment to make money to get rich Evidence: top CEOs make millions socially irresponsible speculation USSteel takeover of Marathon Oil

Surplus Value = Social Service Usual apology: profits create jobs Capitalism as “gift-giving” (G. Guilder) S = M’ - M = profits ( ) is reinvested as new M which creates more jobs, output

Surplus Value = Surplus Labor Political reading of surpus value? Substance of value = abstract labor Abstract labor = labor as K’s social control Surplus value = surplus abstract labor = surplus social control S = = more jobs, but more jobs means more social control

Gothic Metaphors - 1 Marx: “Capital is dead labor, which, vampire like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more it sucks. ” Sucking living labor = imposing work

Gothic Metaphors - 2 Marx: “Were-wolf hunger for surplus value” Shelly: Frankenstein Dr. Frankenstein = life giving worker (Sec. 1) Monster = product turned against creator (Sec. 2)

Qualitative Aspects: Alienation Valorization = ever more labor Ques: what kind of labor? Ans: Alienated Labor Valorization involves transformation in the meaning of work for those engaged in it Instead of self activity, it becomes an activity imposed from the outside This imposition has negative consequences

Kinds of alienation: 1. Labor itself is alienated 2. Product is alienated 3. Workers are alienated from each other 4. Workers are alienated from species being

1. Alienated labor Capitalist control means lack of control for workers Instead of executing their own wills, they execute those of the capitalists They do not choose, but are told what to do, how to do it, at what rythmn, etc. From using tools, they find themselves increasingly subordinated to machines

Alienated Labor in Factory Early on: capitalists annex workers who still control, manage their work Later: they take control of work by gathering workers in factories Capitalists reorganize work to improve their control, extract more labor, more surplus labor E. g. , Taylorism: separation of manual & mental labor

Alienated Labor in Schools = “sites of learning”? ? Learning ≠ following your curiosity & intellectual nose, ≠ self realization of desires Schools = activity organized from outside Students told what to do and how to do it Learning = school. WORK, home. WORK Schools = disciplining of labor power

2. Alienated product Before product was objectification of workers’ wills In capitalism product is K’s design Moreover, capitalists OWN the product Capitalist control over product gives them control over workers, e. g. , both C’ as MP and C’ as MS, machines, arcade games

3. Alienated relationships Co-operation can be collaboration toward collectively defined ends But, capitalist control organizes division of labor for exterior goals in ways designed to divide and conquer Workers are pitted against workers Competition among individuals

4. Alienation from Species-being For Marx “species-being” is what makes humans unique: exercize of will, individually and collectively But by imposing work capitalists usurp will and deny it to workers K tries to reduce workers to drones, taking orders, doing what they are told Even with respect to “creative” work

Alienation & Attitude NB: all of above ignores workers’ feelings and attitudes BUT, alienation often does imply estrangement in attitude as well as activity Workers resent imposition of work Workers resent competition, etc Workers estranged, lonely, or angry Frequently expressed in popular culture

Sounds of Silence Hello darkness my old friend I've come to talk with you again Because the vision is softly creeping Left its seeds while I was sleeping And the vision that was planted in my brain Still remains within the Sounds of Silence

In restless dreams I walked alone Down the streets of cobblestone Beneath the halo of the 8 th Street lamp I turned my collar to the cold and damp When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light that split the night and touched the Sounds of Silence

And in the naked light I saw: 10, 000 people, maybe more People talking without speaking People hearing without listening People writing songs that voices never share No one dares Disturb the Sounds of Silence

Fools said oh you do not know Silence like a cancer grows Hear my words that I might teach you Take my arms that I might reach you But my words like silent raindrops fell Echo the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed To the neon god they made And the sign flashed out its warning In the words that it was forming And the sign said the words of the prophets Are written on the subway walls, tenement halls Disperse the Sounds of Silence.

“Sounds of Silence” Simon & Garfunkel, Sounds of Silence, 1965 in Collected Works Columbia, 1990, CD 45322

Revolt Against Alienation Workers subvert labor process, introduce their own modifications, reappropriate it Workers directly appropriate output, on the job and off Workers elaborate networks of collaboration outside and against K div of L Workers assert their own species-being either constructively or destructively, on job or off

Alienation of Capitalists? Capitalists get to command Capitalists get to exercise THEIR wills Products belong to them No alienation among capitalists? Capitalists only free humans? Capitalists as happy heros?

Alienation of Capitalists impose work on themselves --prototypical “workaholics”, accept/impose endless stress Capitalist “will” not free, but circumscribed by rules of game Capitalists alienated from workers due to antagonistic relationships, not heros but villains Capitalists alienated from other capitalists, must compete to survive Workaholism = alienation from friendships, family Expressed in high & popular culture

Alienation of Capitalists in High Culture Shakespeare Shylock in Merchant of Venice Alienated from daughter Richard Wagner Das Rheinegeld Reine maidens warn against gaining gold and losing love

Alienation of Capitalists in Popular Culture In literature J. Austin’s Mansfield Park C. Dickens’ Dombey And Son H. Melville’s Moby Dick In song 60 s: Simon & Garfunkel’s Richard Cory 80 s: Explosives, Come Clean

Richard Cory They say that Richard Cory owns one half of this whole town with elliptical connections to spread his wealth around born into society a banker's only child he had everything a man could want power, grace and style

(chorus) But I work in his factory and I curse the life I'm livin and I curse my poverty and I wish that I could be oh I wish that I could be Richard Cory

The papers print his picture almost everywhere I go Richard Cory at the opera Richard Cory at the show and the rumours of his parties and the orgies on his yacht Oh he surely must be happy With everything he's got

(repeat chorus) But I work in his factory and I curse the life I'm livin and I curse my poverty and I wish that I could be oh I wish that I could be Richard Cory

He freely gave to charity he had the common touch and they were grateful for his patronage and they thanked him very much so my mind was filled with wonder when the evening headlines read Richard Cory went home last night and put a bullet through his head

(repeat chorus) But I work in his factory and I curse the life I'm livin and I curse my poverty and I wish that I could be oh I wish that I could be Richard Cory

Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel, Sounds of Silence, 1965 Collected Works, 1990 CD 45322

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