Re Rakesh's [7037]: I will make this reply brief as I think this exchange with Rakesh has reached an impasse. > > 4. Jerry has argued that I make it impossible to differentiate how > > the intensification of labor is accomplished in slavery from how it > > is accomplished in wage labor capitalism. Does Jerry think that > > employers had no rights to corporal punishment in capitalist > > factories in the 18th and 19th century?! At any rate, even if > > physical coercion is outlawed in modern capitalism, why does this > > mean that surplus value cannot be produced by slaves? I agree with Nicky in [7050] that Rakesh *entirely* misses the point ... but not for the reasons Nicky indicates. Rakesh has argued that slaves when employed in the modern plantation system and engaged in producing products which are intended to be sold on the market produce surplus value in the form of absolute surplus value via increasing intensity of labor. I have repeatedly explained to Rakesh how this completely misses the target for understanding how under conditions of capitalist production the intensity of labor can be increased. I will explain yet again. Do I recognize, Rakesh asks, that capitalists had rights to corporal punishment of workers in previous centuries? Yes, of course, I realize that. I also realize that by raising this question Rakesh misses the point yet again -- just as he did when he raised and re-raised the issue of urine breaks (of which I have first-hand knowledge from years of working 'on the line' at Ford and GM assembly plants.) While this happens it is -- when it happens -- *made possible by* -- the following *essential* relation characteristic of capitalism. The point is simply this: how are capitalists able to increase the intensity of labor? The answer is very simple: what gives capitalists (and their designees, i.e. managers and supervisors) leverage in the labor process over workers so that the intensity of labor can be increased is that workers *fear losing their jobs*. They fear losing their jobs because they fear joining the ranks of the IRA and all that implies. Or, expressing it in an even simpler way, they fear losing their job (and becoming "freed" by their employer) because they understand well that the means of consumption that they need to survive in capitalist society take the commodity-form and that they need money with which to purchase those commodities. Without a job as a wage-worker, how will they get money? How will they -- and their families -- survive? Thus, the way in which capitalists attempt to increase the intensity of labor hinges on the characteristic of wage-labor confronting capital. Therefore, how is that capitalists can get workers to work harder and faster on the job? They fear losing their jobs. Indeed, even when workers resist the intensification of labor, they *still* fear losing their jobs (and this fear is essential in comprehending struggles over the intensity of labor.) This is fundamentally different for slaves. Slaves do not fear losing their jobs -- they are *controlled in different ways* by their owners. Even when physical beatings of wage-workers occur, this does not occur fundamentally because such beatings are legal -- it occurs *because* workers fear losing their jobs. What stops them from hitting the capitalist back? Is it only the possibility of being arrested? No, it is the fear of losing one's job. What makes workers stay at their work stations when they need to go to the restroom? It is the fear of losing one's job. What makes them, in general, obey the 'orders' of capitalists? Again, it is the fear of losing one's job. Thus, how the intensity of labor can be increased (and *how* the ruling class is able to exercise control over producers in the labor process) is *fundamentally* different when you have wage-labor rather than slave production. To understand concretely how the intensity of labor can be increased by capital (and the extent that workers can resist such attempts) depends critically on a comprehension of the social relation that exists in a capitalist society between capitalists and wage-workers. In solidarity, Jerry
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