[OPE-L:6853] Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: surplus value, commercial workers and merchant capital (fwd)

From: Rakesh Bhandari (rakeshb@stanford.edu)
Date: Mon Apr 01 2002 - 21:12:39 EST


re 6851

>Re [6880]:
>
>Ian wrote:
>
>>  I agree that some slave owners (especially the slave owners of
>>  the new world) have appropriated surplus value (this was said in
>>  one of the opening comments of this thread, I think),
>
>Rakesh replied:
>
>>  yes but Jerry does not agree with us.
>
>On the contrary, I have never disputed the claim that slave owners
>can _appropriate_ surplus value.  That was never in dispute.
>
>In solidarity, Jerry

Again Jerry this is cleary not my claim.   Ian may or may not be 
agreeing with me--I will let him clarify. He seemed to be agreeing 
with me and thus not using "appropriate" in the sense of claiming 
surplus value produced by other capitals employing formally free wage 
labor for the production of commodities.

At any rate,  I have clearly argued that formally unfree workers can 
*themselves produce surplus value*. You seem to dispute that. Brass 
does not; neither does Banaji (and Henryk Grossman and Rosa Luxemburg 
by the way). Patrick Mason does not. It seems to me that Paulo C does 
not either. I am sure there are people on this list who agree with 
you. Perhaps Ian does.  I am not clear as to who they are and more 
importantly  what their (or for that matter your) reasons are for 
dismissing the possibility that formally unfree workers can ever 
produce surplus value.

Perhaps you could give a brief account of the reasoning behind your 
negative dismissal?

Thanks, Rakesh



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Thu May 02 2002 - 00:00:08 EDT