>Hi Rakesh, 2 questions for you: > >>It is of course possible to give a *description* of crises, working >>class struggle within the abode of production and unemployment >>without reference to labor value (all one has to do is remove rose >>blinkered spectacles); it is not however possible in my opinion to >>give a deep explanation of the root causes of said developmental >>tendencies of the capitalist sytem on any other foundation than the >>one of labor value (or as Tony Smith would put it, in the >>commodity-form, money form, and capital form themselves; of course >>one could argue that rooting said phenomena in these forms does not >>necessarily commit one to the theory of labor value). > >i) do you agree with Tony that Marx provided some grounds for 'rooting said >phenomena' in the value forms? > >If you do agree, let's (for arguments sake) say that the value-form >determination of productive activity (and determination of patterns of >consumption) is the Lakatosian hard core concept of Marxism, and labour >values little more than a protective belt. Then: > >ii) are theories that attempt to develop this strand of Marx's thought >Marxist theories, given that they can explain the said phenomena without >recourse to labour values? > this is appealing and well put indeed, Nicky, but my answer is no! yes capitalist crises are rooted in value forms (by which I mean the basic institution of commodity production (the commodity form) by means of wage labor (wage form) for the purposes of private appropriation (money- and capital-forms). But I think Marx's explanation of why such an institutional arrangement--value form theories helps us to specify its key features--leads to crises and immiseration depends on the theory of labor value; moreover, it is my hunch that without the theory of labor value it is not possible to go from the value form specification of bourgeois institutions to a satisfactory theory of general crisis. But I may not understand value form theory properly. Now that I have moved, I wanted to ask Michael Williams for a photocopy of his book with Geert Reuten because the Stanford Library does not even have it! I think Michael W was offering copies to people on the list? Rakesh
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Feb 02 2002 - 00:00:05 EST