>no, not interested in discussing marxism? didn't think so. {{answer
>me this then: why are you moderating a marxism list?
>
>angela
There are many places where Marxism can be discussed, such as Doug's
LBO-Talk. The Marxism list is designed to facilitate Marxist analysis. This
is a sample of what people are discussing right now. I admit it is not
everbody's cup of tea, but we gobble it up.
=====
Andy wrote,
"To take two examples. The creation of the proletariat in Europe, their
transformation to this from peasantry, is the moment of primitive
accumulation; they are driven from off the land and into the urban centers,
etc. Once the proletariat is formed, then they fall under the logic of
surplus-value. Same it true with the creation of chattel slavery in the
Southern US and South America. The removal of people from Africa constitutes a
moment of primitive accumulation. Once chattel slavery is formed, Africans in
the Americas become labor under capitalism, and thus fall under logic of
surplus-value. Marx explains all of this in Capital; I have added nothing new
to his account."
In Europe, it was not just the removal of (many) peasants from land and
herding them into cities. Also required was the expropriation of tools
(capital), destroying the power of guilds. Journeymen may have been the
embryonic labor aristocracy, their expropriation and absorption having been
substantially less radical (because crafts had never been the independent
basis of class society) than the peasantry's. Then followed the political
revolutions that crushed the power of feudal rulers, while leaving their
relations of production intact in agriculture for additional centuries.
Ken Lawrence
Louis Proyect
(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
