Abstract

An Essay by the Associate Editor: McMahon's Analysis of Egypt and the Labor Theory of Value

Highlights

  • McMahon starts out in his Introduction by stating that “Egyptian society is at war” and that the appearances of these antagonisms were misrepresented as “revolution.” McMahon describes the street battles that raged in Cairo, Alexandria and the Suez, as a “particular eruption” (1) of the general crisis between capital and labor, an expression of capitalist crisis, and the crisis of reproducing daily life, (2) but not a revolution

  • McMahon proceeds with his analysis discussing “appearances” and “essence.” He points out that the value of labor power of the Egyptian worker has been consistently and historically eroded by capital accumulation and a number of policies and events that include food price inflation, constitutional and legal reforms, technological reforms, currency reforms, privatization, downsizing, the technology of derivatives, and legal arrangements between capital and the government such as the Commodities Futures Modernization Act (CFMA) of 2000 and the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) of 2008 (2)

  • McMahon describes Egyptian society as comprised of the working class and three factions of capital: (1) predatory capitalists; (2) commercial (the Muslim Brothers organization i.e., the main Islamist group, those capitalists who are primarily engaged in commodity exchange); and (3) productive

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Summary

Introduction

McMahon starts out in his Introduction by stating that “Egyptian society is at war” and that the appearances of these antagonisms were misrepresented as “revolution.” McMahon describes the street battles that raged in Cairo, Alexandria and the Suez, as a “particular eruption” (1) of the general crisis between capital and labor, an expression of capitalist crisis, and the crisis of reproducing daily life, (2) but not a revolution. McMahon proceeds with his analysis discussing “appearances” and “essence.” He points out that the value of labor power of the Egyptian worker has been consistently and historically eroded by capital accumulation and a number of policies and events that include food price inflation, constitutional and legal reforms, technological reforms, currency reforms, privatization, downsizing, the technology of derivatives, and legal arrangements between capital and the government such as the Commodities Futures Modernization Act (CFMA) of 2000 and the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) of 2008 (2).

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