At 11/12/01 13:28 -0500, you wrote: >CB: Here's my proposal for defining a qualitatively new phase of imperialism: > >1) The scientific and technological revolution especially in >transportation and communication "machinery" has resulted in Marx's >"cooperation" turning into its opposite, being overcome by machinery. The >capitalist do not have to group large numbers of workers in large >factories to maximize the extraction of relative surplus value( See Marx's >discussion of relative surplus value and the factory system in _Capital_ I).
I stored this post of Charles as a usefully concise statement, and intended to come back earlier. Regarding the point above, could it be slightly rephrased in terms of the dominant way relative surplus value is extracted? I guess a higher and higher proportion of relative surplus value comes from technological innovation while much of the population of the world struggles with comparatively older technology. Their labour power is thereby "morally depreciated" collectively in their states and individually. In the total economic system of the world they are continually transfering relative surplus value to the technologically advanced countries, classes, and strata. Trickle-down second-hand technology will never overcome this global unequal exchange of value, only mitigate it, and intensify the contradictions in other parts of the world. Any takers? Chris Burford
