My laptop is fucked so I can't even format this in the usual way or encourage your brain-switches with a progress bar.

Explain the bookclub: We are reading Volumes 1, 2, and 3 in one year and discussing it in weekly threads. (Volume IV, often published under the title Theories of Surplus Value, will not be included in this particular reading club, but comrades are encouraged to do other solo and collaborative reading.) This bookclub will repeat yearly. The three volumes in a year works out to about 6½ pages a day for a year, 46⅔ pages a week.

I'll post the readings at the start of each week and @mention anybody interested. Let me know if you want to be added or removed.

Just joining us? You can use the archives below to help you reading up to where the group is. There is another reading group on a different schedule at https://lemmygrad.ml/c/genzhou (federated at !genzhou@lemmygrad.ml ) which may fit your schedule better. The idea is for the bookclub to repeat annually, so there's always next year.

Archives: Week 1 – Week 2 – Week 3 – Week 4 – Week 5 – Week 6 – Week 7 – Week 8 – Week 9 – Week 10 – Week 11 – Week 12 – Week 13 – Week 14 – Week 15 – Week 16 – Week 17 – Week 18

Week 19, May 6-12, From Vol. 2, we are reading all of Chapter 1, 'The Circuit of Money-Capital', plus just the first part ('Simple Reproduction') of Chapter 2

In other words, aim to reach the heading 'Accumulation and Reproduction on an Extended Scale' by Sunday.

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1885-c2/index.htm

Discuss the week's reading in the comments.

Sorry this lacks the usual links and polish: I have tech problems and little time to solve them

  • Kolibri [she/her]
    ·
    2 months ago

    Whatever the social form of production, labourers and means of production always remain factors of it. But in a state of separation from each other either of these factors can be such only potentially. For production to go on at all they must unite. The specific manner in which this union is accomplished distinguishes the different economic epochs of the structure of society from one another.

    That part in section 2 of chapter 1, and the rest of section 2 with Marx talking again slightly about development mainly for capitalism, reminded me of how socialism will have its own development stages towards communism based on surrounding material conditions. Mainly it just reminded me of China, and other AES states working on their own paths of developing socialism towards communism. And it's interesting to think of the different economic epochs kind of happening concurrently in our time? With capitalism being highly developed, along with socialism also being developed in AES states towards communism.

    Also it's really nice that for this week reading there not so much footnotes surprisingly. I really like Marx expanding upon the circuit of capital more, and it's also nice just like, Marx putting things into place/carrying stuff from the last volume and it just easily fitting into place.

    • Doubledee [comrade/them]
      ·
      2 months ago

      Yeah it feels like being back at the beginning of 1 a little, dealing with a lot of the same ideas but deliberately changing which part of the process you focus on to show more features of the cycle.