Reply to Philip

[Hinrich Kuhls <kls@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 14:12 12.03.00 +0900, Philip L Ferguson wrote:

>No, my point is clearly different from George's.  The capitalist mode of
>production cannot prevail in other societies.  Capitalism is the society in
>which commodity production is dominant.  That is what is most distinct
>about capitalism.  There is no other form of society in which commodity
>production is dominant, and thus no other form of society in which wealth
>can be measured in commodities.

What is most distinct about capitalism:

"In the controversies on this subject the chief fact has generally been
overlooked, viz., the *differentia specifica of capitalist production*:
Labour-power is sold today, not with a view of satisfying, by its service
or by its product, the personal needs of the buyer. His aim is augmentation
of his capital, production of commodities containing more labour than he
pays for, containing therefore a portion of value that costs him nothing,
and that is nevertheless realised when the commodities are sold. Production
of surplus-value is the absolute law of this mode of production..."

[Marx, Capital, Volume 1, Chapter "The General Law of Capitalist
Accumulation"]

>In pre-capitalist societies (whether feudalism or the slave systems of
>antiquity, or the 'primitive communism' of pre-class societies all over the
>globe), production was not carried out predominantly for the market.  There
>was *some* commodity production in a whole range of societies before
>capitalism, but it was marginal not dominant.

It's not as easy as this. Marx:

"The correct observation and deduction (of the capitalist relations of
production)
as having themselves become in history, always leads to primary equations
..., which point towards a past lying behind this system. These
indications, *together with a correct grasp of the present*, then also
offer the key to the understanding of the past..."

[Marx, Grundrisse, p. 460-461]

>In post-capitalist societies, like the former Soviet bloc or Cuba or China,
>production was also not for the market and not ruled by the law of value
>(although I think in China it is going back that way, and in the Soviet
>bloc it already has).

Youth is accompanied by courage. I thought the question of markets in
post-capitalist societies is still a topic of socialist discussion.

Thanks once again for replying. Apologies for only giving quotations and bye.

HK