Re: Marxological query

[Jim Devine <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 5/22/06, Walt Byars <wbyars@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> From Ch. 6 of Capital when Marx is listing the conditions for the sale of
> labor power
> "The second essential condition to the owner of money finding labour-power
> in the market as a commodity is this — that the labourer instead of being
> in the position to sell commodities in which his labour is incorporated,
> must be obliged to offer for sale as a commodity that very labour-power,
> which exists only in his living self."

> i.e. People won't sell labor power if they can sell the goods actually
> produced with their labor.

> Does this imply that a condition of selling LP is that as soon as a
> use-value is produced it must be PHYSICALLY out of the posession of the
> laborer (or that there is a tendency towards this happening) ? To
> illustrate, say a worker must screw the head on a doll. Does this imply
> that they have to put the head on the doll on a moving assembly line that
> they can't stop and the doll quickly moves out of their possession? the
> alternative would be that in the capitalist's factory, using the
> capitalist's materials, the worker screws the doll's head and keeps them
> in a box by his side.

No. Rather, what Marx is talking about is the result of the process of
primitive accumulation. That is, workers can't have control over a
production process (e.g., farming) that allows them to subsist without
selling their labor-power. If they are separated from the means of
production and subsistence (i.e., unable to produce something for sale
besides their LP and unable to "live off the land"), they have no
choice but to sell their LP.

They sell their LP to the boss, who then owns the commodities they
produce. A doll's head may be in a worker's possession why he or she
works on it, but it is not the worker's property.
--
Jim Devine / "These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in
concert, to fleece the people." -- Abraham Lincoln  (attributed)