Re: (OPE-L) Re: From Ian Wright on Weeks and Simple Commodity Production

["michael a. lebowitz" <mlebowit@xxxxxx>]

At 15:17 20/05/2003 +0100, Paul Cockroft wrote:
> gerald_a_levy wrote: 
> > Paul
> > C wrote on  Tuesday, May 20: >
> > It (Capitalism, JL) is inherently a transitory mode 
> > > of production that can only persist so long as it is surrounded
> > > by pre-capitalist production.
> > *Why* can't capitalism persist
> > after the disappearance ofpre-capitalist production?
> > In solidarity,
> > Jerry
> My hypothesis, based mainly on the history
> of British capitalism, the 
> historical lead example is that once the latent reserve army of labour,
> both internal and external is exhausted, then over accumulation of 
> capital occurs with the following effects: 
>
> 1. Organic compositions tend to rise 
>
> 2. Demand for a static or falling labour pool inhibits constrains 
>     the production of surplus value 
>
> 3. Inherent tendancies towards deflation set in in consequence which
>     can only be masked by monetary and fiscal intervention
> by the 
>    state. 
>
> 4. As a consequence of factor 2, the social weight and influence of
>     the working class rises. 
>
> 5. A combination of 3 and 4 lead to an increasing pressure to use 
>     non-capitalist modes of accumulation - raising the
> issues of 
>     social control of accumulation as live political
> issues.

        

I'm not
certain that I understand the reasoning here. If #1 is occurring, then it
does so by recreating the reserve army. And the impulse to this is
greater, the more the labour pool is static or falling. So, if workers
are displaced, if the resulting weakness (all other things equal) of the
working class means a rising rate of exploitation, how do you get to #4 (
not to mention for that matter #2)? The argument might hold without #1,
but there was a section 2 to Vol. I, Ch25.

        

in
solidarity,

        

mike

---------------------

Michael A. Lebowitz

Professor Emeritus

Economics Department

Simon Fraser University

Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6

Currently based in Cuba. Can be reached via:

Michael Lebowitz

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(537) 33 30 75 or 832  21 54

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