Introduction: Value, Commodity Fetishism, and Capital's Critique

Abstract

Given the interminable debates over the consistency and significance of Marxian value theory, we, the editors of Rethinking Marxism, raised the question: What is at stake in these debates? The contributors concur that these debates are about Marx's/Marxian articulation(s) of (class) exploitation, an understanding of capital, and a critique and adjudication of capitalism. In addition, Marxian value theory allows one to rethink economic categories and to analyze the reproduction, limits, and historical transformations of capital. Focusing on Marx's discussions of commodity fetishism and “the trinity formula,” I, too, suggest that these debates are about the relevance, coherence, and validity of Marx's understanding of capital “as a pumper-out of surplus labor.” With the unique class perspective he elaborates, Marx not only “renders visible” the exploitative capitalist class relations in their historical specificity—thus suggesting the possibility of a noncapitalist, nonexploitative economy—but also provides a critique of and an alternative to mainstream economic analyses.