Very proud of us all who have kept it going. We've gotten into a nice groove now. We looked at the labour theory of value, and how all commodities are commensurable by measuring the labour time. We saw that money is a commodity (gold) used to measure value. We learned that surplus value isn't generated by trade, because that would cancel out over the economy. We saw that surplus value comes from the variation between the value of the food etc. required to MAKE a day's labour, and the value of the work done in that day. We have learned the general formula of capital, and how capital differs from money. Not only am I proud of you, Stalin would be proud of you.

Let's use this shared activity as an excuse to also build camaraderie by thinking out loud in the comments.

The overall plan is to read Volumes 1, 2, and 3 in one year. (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? It'll take you about 8½ or 9 hours to catch up to where the group is.

Archives: Week 1 – Week 2 – Week 3 – Week 4

Week 5, Jan 29-Feb 4, we are reading Volume 1, Chapter 9, and from Chapter 10 we are reading section 1 'The Limits of the Working Day', PLUS section 2 'The Greed for Surplus-Labour', PLUS section 3 'Branches of English Industry without Legal Limits to Exploitation'

In other words, aim to get to the heading '4. Day Work and Night Work. The Shift System' by Sunday

Discuss the week's reading in the comments.

Use any translation/edition you like. Marxists.org has the Moore and Aveling translation in various file formats including epub and PDF: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/

Ben Fowkes translation, PDF: http://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=9C4A100BD61BB2DB9BE26773E4DBC5D

AernaLingus says: I noticed that the linked copy of the Fowkes translation doesn't have bookmarks, so I took the liberty of adding them myself. You can either download my version with the bookmarks added, or if you're a bit paranoid (can't blame ya) and don't mind some light command line work you can use the same simple script that I did with my formatted plaintext bookmarks to take the PDF from libgen and add the bookmarks yourself.

Resources

(These are not expected reading, these are here to help you if you so choose)

  • Harvey's guide to reading it: https://www.davidharvey.org/media/Intro_A_Companion_to_Marxs_Capital.pdf

  • A University of Warwick guide to reading it: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/postgraduate/masters/modules/worldlitworldsystems/hotr.marxs_capital.untilp72.pdf

  • Engels' Synopsis of Capital or PDF

  • Reading Capital with Comrades: A Liberation School podcast series - https://www.liberationschool.org/reading-capital-with-comrades-podcast/

  • Kolibri [she/her]
    ·
    8 months ago

    On the math stuff on this chapter, how did Marx get the calculations for like neccesary labour hours, and then the surplus labour for this part?

    The rate of surplus-value is therefore 80/52 = 153 11/13%. In a working-day of 10 hours with average labour the result is: necessary labour = 3 31/33 hours, and surplus-labour = 6 2/33

    I was following along but then he lost me here. I'm not sure how he got like 3 31/33 hours or like 6 2/33 for surplus labour? I know from above in section 1 of ch.9, that 153 11/13%, besides being like rate of surplus, means like there that degree of exploitation to? Since s/v is also (surplus labour)/(necessary labour). and in that 10 hours, like a majority of it making that surplus and that 80. and then rest of it, is the necessary labor or that 52? I just don't know how exactly Marx got like 3 31/33 hours when applied over 10 hours, or like 6 2/33 for surplus labor for a 10 hour work day? I'm really rusty on my math in general

    also unrelated.

    The calculations given in the text are intended merely as illustrations. We have in fact. assumed that prices = values. We shall, however, see, in Book III., that even in the case of average prices the assumption cannot be made in this very simple manner.

    ohnoes I'm not looking forward to Marx doing more advance math, like if he does calculus. Since I'd probably have to brush up on my calculus then

    • 666PeaceKeepaGirl [any, she/her]
      ·
      8 months ago

      Another way of thinking about it, if you found quarrk's way hard to follow:

      If the ratio of s to v is 80:52, that means that if you divide a period of labour-time into 80+52=132 equal portions, 80 will go to s and 52 will go to v. So in a period of 1 hour, for example, you have

      • 80/132 of an hour devoted to surplus, and
      • 52/132 of an hour devoted to necessary.

      Now it's not immediately obvious since 132 is such a big number, but if you simplify these fractions (by dividing each side of each fraction by 4) you get

      • 80/132 = 20/33 and
      • 52/132 = 13/33 respectively.

      To then get the fractions for 10 hours, you simply multiply each by 10, giving

      • (20/33) * 10 = 200/33 = 6 2/33 hours surplus, and
      • (13/33) * 10 = 130/33 = 3 31/33 hours necessary.
      • Kolibri [she/her]
        ·
        8 months ago

        oh thanks! that helps a lot, I wasn't thinking about the 132, and now it feels like obvious in hindsight.

    • quarrk [he/him]
      ·
      8 months ago

      how did Marx get the calculations for like neccesary labour hours, and then the surplus labour for this part?

      He calculated a rate of surplus value of s/v = 80/52. The ratio of s:v is the same as the ratio of unpaid labor:paid labor. So how would 10 hours divide into two parts, where the size of one part is 80/52 times the size of the other part?

      I like to visualize it by plotting a graph (sorry I don't know how to get Wolfram to flip the axes, but the answer is the same)

      • The rate of surplus value is s/v=80/52 or equivalently s=(80/52)v. Plotting this on a graph, where the x-axis is v and the y-axis is s, the slope is 80/52.
      • Whatever the relative size of s and v, we know s+v=10 for a 10 hour day. So let's also plot the line s=10-v on the same graph.
      • The intersection of these two lines gives us the answer for how much of a 10 hour day resolves into s and v for a rate of exploitation of 80/52.
      • Kolibri [she/her]
        ·
        8 months ago

        thanks that kind of reassuring, since I am like extremely rusty with math