Re: [Marxism] Marx on management

[ertugrul ahmet tonak <eatonak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jurriaan Bendien wrote:

> The definition of productive labour is a controversial topic in Marxian
> economics. But Marx's final view, expressed in Capital Vol. 1, is that
> what makes labour productive from a capitalist point of view has nothing
> to do with the particular nature of the productive activity involved,
> but rather whether or not it generates or adds to private profit.


I agree with the above statement but not the following:

 It's a
> social-institutional definition, not a technical one. Of course, Marx
> considers no net new value is generated by acts of exchange in
> themselves, and in this sense he talks about e.g. bank workers as
> unproductive workers from the soial point of view.

Bank workers do not engage in any production activity from TECHNICAL
point of view EITHER and on that ground they cannot be considered
PRODUCTION laborer and consequently cannot be considered PRODUCTIVE for
capital either.

My formulation requires a framework for a clear classification for
economic activities (production, exchange, distribution, circulation,
and consumption) in which one can have a technical criterion for
production activity and relational criterion (capital vs. labor) for
productive labor.  Put it differently, the former criterion functions as
a necessary condition whereas the latter functions as a sufficient
condition for identifying productive laborers (after the former is
satisfied) in a capitalist context.

For a detailed presentation of this approach, you may check my essay (w/
S. Savran) in Capital and Class:

http://www.simons-rock.edu/%7Eeatonak/pupl.htm

--


I was recently asked whether universities should teach
values.  My response was that universities, whether
implicitly or otherwise, always, always teach values.
They teach values in the way they hire and treat employees.

Ruth Simmons
President, Brown University

------------------------------------------
E. Ahmet Tonak
Simon’s Rock College of Bard
Great Barrington, MA 01230

Phone:  413-528 7488
Fax:    413-528 7365
Cell:   413-329 7856

Homepage: www.simons-rock.edu/~eatonak



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