RE: Re: theorizing capitalism

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

> > >And if capitalism were not a mode of production, but a mode of
> > accumulation?<
> >
> > it's both.
> >
> > >And if moreover it were nothing but the cumulation
> process, whatever the
> > mode of it?<
> >
> > I don't think we can separate the statics from the dynamics.

Romain Kroes [romain.kroes@xxxxxxxxxxxx] writes:
> The trouble is that if capitalism is a mode of production, as Marx defines
it, there is capitalism only if there is an industry and (or) an agriculture
employing wage-earning workers, and all other categories of work (freelance
workers, slaves) are excluded from capitalist-style economy.<

one of the points that Althusser and his followers made was that we live in
a "capitalist social formation" that is dominated by the capitalist mode of
production. Thus, even though the mode of production in the southern United
States before 1865 wasn't capitalist, it was dominated by capitalism as part
of the world social formation.

>If it is an accumulation mode, it involves all modes of production based on
investment and turnover of capital.<

Capitalism _is_ an accumulation mode in addition to being a mode of
production (i.e., of exploitation of labor). First surplus-value is
produced; then it is accumulated, allowing a larger scope for exploitation;
etc. But capitalism isn't the _only_ mode of production that involves
accumulation. The old USSR -- which I don't see as "capitalist" -- involved
exploitation of labor and tried hard to accumulate (though it didn't do a
good job). Even feudalism was an "accumulation mode" (without being
capitalist): the overwhelming emphasis was on the accumulation of
military/police power.

One thing the Althusserians missed was the way in which capitalism dominates
other modes of production and reproduction as part of its accumulation
process.

> What are the "statics" and what are the "dynamics"?<

these can be separated analytically, but it's hard to do in practice
(empirically). "Statics" refers to the structure of capitalism (a mode of
exploitation based on the subjection of labor in production by capital)
while "dynamics" refers to the process of accumulation, the expanded
reproduction of the structure.
JDevine