Re: Translating Marx

[glevy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

> Marx, in Capital, vol III, p. 1021. Vintage:
>
> "Although on the basis of capitalist production the social character of their
> production confronts the mass of immediate producers in the form of a strict
> governing authority, and the social mechanism of the labor process has
> received here a completely hierarchical articulation--though this authority
> accrues to its bearers only to as the personification of the conditions of 
> labor
> vis-a-vis labour itself, not to them as political or theocratic rulers as in 
> earlier
> forms of production--the most complete anarchy reigns among the bearers of
> this authority, the capitalists themselves, who confront one another simply as
> owners of commodities, and within this anarchy the social interconnection of
> production prevails over individual caprice only as an overwhelming natural
> law."

The above quote appears in Ch. 51 entitled "Distribution Relations and
Production Relations" (the previous chapter concerned "Illusions Created
by Competition").

In this chapter, Marx writes that: "Capitalist production is
distinguished from the outset by two characteristic features:

*First*. It produces its products as commodities." (International, p. 879)

and later,

"the second distinctive feature of the capitalist mode of production is
the production of surplus-value as the direct aim and determining motive
of production." (p. 880).

The paragraph *before* the one in question is:

"The authority assumed by the capitalist as the personification of
capital in the direct process of production, the social function
performed by him in his capacity as manager and ruler of production, is
essentially different from the authority exercised on the basis of
production by means of slaves, serfs, etc." (p. 881)

The paragraph *after* the one in question:

"Only because labour pre-exists in the form of wage-labour, and the means
of production in the form of capital -- i.e. , solely because of the
specific social form of these essential production factors -- does a part
of the value (product) appear as surplus-value and this surplus-value as
profit (rent), as the gain of the capitalist, as additional available
wealth belonging to him. But only because this surplus-value appears as
*his profit* do the additional means of production, which are intended
for the expansion of reproduction, and which constitute a part of this
profit, present themselves as new additional capital, and the expansion
of the process of reproduction in general as a process of capitalist
accumulation.

Having written the above, I would suggest that those who want to
understand the passage should do two things:

1) read the entire chapter (it is very short); and

2) remember that this part of _Capital_ was pieced together by Engels
from incomplete and scattered drafts. Consequently, Marx's prose is not
up to its Vol. 1 standards.

Is competition a anarchic component of capitalism? Think about it.

Jerry


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