[OPE-L] Engels on ghosts (transformation of means of production into capital)

From: glevy@PRATT.EDU
Date: Thu Oct 27 2005 - 21:05:07 EDT 

The following excerpt from Engels' _Anti-Duhring_ is noteworthy
in relation to our discussion of "ghostly" substance in -capital_

"For in capitalist society the MEANS OF PRODUCTION can only function
when they have undergone a preliminary TRANSFORMATION INTO CAPITAL,
into the means of exploiting human labour-power.  The necessity of
this transformation into capital of the means of production and
subsistence stands LIKE A GHOST BETWEEN THESE AND THE WORKERS. It
alone prevents the coming together of the material and personal levers
of production; it alone forbids the means of production to function,
the workers to work and live.  On the one hand, therefore, the
capitalistic mode of production stands convicted of its own incapacity
to further direct these productive forces.  On the other, these
productive forces themselves, with increasing energy, press forward
to the removal of the existing contradiction, to the abolition of their
quality as capital, *to the practical recognition of their character
as social productive forces*." (Part III Socialism, Ch. 2 Theoretical,
CAPITALIZATION added, other emphasis in original, JL)

This is part of the section that was later also published as the
pamphlet "Socialism: Utopian and Scientific".

Is he basically saying the same thing re 'ghosts' as Marx?

In solidarity, Jerry

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