CB, Thanks for sending that. I know I owe you some thoughts on Fordism, Leninism, and Marx's general law and they're coming.
In your estimation, how important is cyclical unemployment to Marx's general law? Or, in other words, does permanent unemployment require us to move beyond Marx's general law because the industrial reserve army will never be hired back and, consequently, the great mass of proletarianiazed people no longer have any power at the point of production? An Argentinian marxist named Jose Nun wrote a piece in 1964 where he argued that, in Latin AMerica, there existed a marginal mass of people who, unlike the IRA, were afunctional. They would never be hired into production because the technological revolution taking place during that time (i.e. automation) meant that the industrial working class was no longer constantly growing, as Marx had argued in chapter 32 of Capital but instead was growing smaller. Hope you're well. Peace, Matt On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 9:35 AM, c b <cb31...@gmail.com> wrote: > At one pole increased wealth , 11or 12 trillion dollars or so goes to > Wallstreet; at the proletarian pole a mass reserve army of the > relative surplus population, lazurus layers of immiseration , > concentrated geographically in places like Detroit. > > CB > > > Nearly half of Detroit's workers are unemployed > > > http://detnews.com/article/20091216/METRO01/912160374/Nearly-half-of-Detroit-s-workers-are-unemployed > > > "The greater the social wealth, the functioning capital, the extent > and energy of its growth, and, therefore, also the absolute mass of > the proletariat and the productiveness of its labour, the greater is > the industrial reserve army. The same causes which develop the > expansive power of capital, develop also the labour-power at its > disposal. The relative mass of the industrial reserve army increases > therefore with the potential energy of wealth. But the greater this > reserve army in proportion to the active labour-army, the greater is > the mass of a consolidated surplus-population, whose misery is in > inverse ratio to its torment of labour. The more extensive, finally, > the lazarus-layers of the working-class, and the industrial reserve > army, the greater is official pauperism. This is the absolute general > law of capitalist accumulation. Like all other laws it is modified in > its working by many circumstances, the analysis of which does not > concern us here. " > > > http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch25.htm#S4 > > _______________________________________________ > Marxism-Thaxis mailing list > Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis > -- If one needs a community to resist, interdependence must be seen as a moral obligation. "Men don't need to show our manhood, we need to show our humanity" -- James Boggs, 1990 _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
