Ajit writes:
>problem. First, there are two concepts in marxist literature, dialectics and
>class-struggle, that are used as mantra for solving all the problems, and I
>resist that tendency. They are also code words by which some scholars
>recognize each other.
Okay. This is likely true.
> The slogan that wages are determined by
>"class-struggle" usually means that wages are determined by a bargaining
>process over the net output between the workers and the capitalists. This
>completely does away with the historical and cultural aspect of wages and
>its prior determination in the context of production of surplus as
>streatching of the labor-time beyond the necessary labor-time. All these
>ideas are extremely important to Marx. You will find that people who raise
>the slogan that wages are determined in the "class-struggle" are always in
>favour of the *given* money wages over the idea of *given* real wages. So
>that the workers share in the net output comes out as a solution to the
>pricing problem for all the commodities.
I'm confused here. Workers bargain over money wages. And, bargaining over
wages, hours, working conditions, entry requirements, exit criteria, etc are
one element of the process of class struggle. The "real wage," or standard
of living is set during a given timeperiod. And, it is precisely this
standard of living which is most strongly connected to the historical and
cultural conditions of a given society.
Where do we agree? disagree?
peace, patrick l mason