Marx's Labour Theory Research Articles

The People-Nature Relation and the Historical Significance of the Labour Theory of Value

Contrary to some ecological critics, it is argued that it is not Marx's labour theory of value which should be blamed for environmental degradation and the ecological crisis, but rather the nature of capitalism itself insofar as it implies a continued appropriation of natural resources as a free gift of nature to capital. It is also argued that the necessarily limited environmental reforms under capitalism cannot ensure ecological sustainability. In historical perspective, it is argued that communism could offer the conditions for such an ecological sustainability, and create the preconditions for the supersession of the labour theory of value.

What Kind of Theory is Marx's Labour Theory of Value? A Critical Realist Inquiry

This paper uses critical realism to reflect upon the issue of theory in Marx's Labour Theory of Value (LTV). Like any theory, the LTV is rooted in a mode of theorisation. Rooting the LTV in an inappropriate ( deductivist) mode of theorisation encourages the formulation of ( quantitative) versions of the LTV that (a) have severe problems and (b) lack explanatory power. Conversely, rooting the LTV in an appropriate ( causal-explanatory) mode encourages the formulation of ( qualitative) versions of the LTV that (a) lack such problems and (b) have explanatory power.

Which Third Way?

Clinton and Blair have extolled a Third Way policy which is supposed to go beyond the policies of the present world where the `First Way' (capitalism) rules and the Second (socialism) failed. Clinton's Third Way ennumerated positive changes in theory, such as universal health care, equity in the tax code, national education standards and preschool. But in practice, the third way has only resulted in `welfare reform' and a free-trade pact with Mexico and Canada. Blair's policies for the UK mirrored those of the US, and other countries are now talking of the Third Way as a progressive advance. In fact the so-called Third Way, as presently conceived, serves the ends of multinational capital. I show this by reworking Marx's labour theory of value. This article explains the tension between the speed of production and the way that the reproduction of natural resources, including labour-power, cannot keep pace with that speed. Capital does not want to wait for natural resources and labour-power to regenerate, and therefore finds them by going further afield. Hence the endorsement of free trade pacts and globalization by the Third Way, and proposed multilateral agreements (such as the multilateral agreement on investment, or MAI). Under the Third Way, space for the expansion of corporations is doing well, while time for the generational reproduction of people is faring badly with legislation restricting welfare and other social provisions. I conclude that a real Third Way would have to be based on small business, and allow for the reproduction time of natural resources and labour-power.

Recent developments in the labor theory of value

This paper reviews the historical roots of Marx's labor theory of value and some contemporary contributions to the critique of this theory. Modern commentary on Marx's labor theory of value based on dual system of parallel prices and embodied labor coefficients loses sight of the theory's roots in the philosophy of historical materialism and its function as a theory of money. Recently developed empirical single system approaches, including the New Interpretation that identifies the monetary expression of labor time with the ratio of money value added to living productive labor expended in its production, address these problems, and open the possibility of a progressive research program based on Marx's theory.

Recent Developments in the Labor Theory of Value

This paper reviews the historical roots of Marx's labor theory of value and some contemporary contributions to the critique of this theory. Modern commentary on Marx's labor theory of value based on dual system of parallel prices and embodied labor coefficients loses sight of the theory's roots in the philosophy of historical materialism and its function as a theory of money. Recently developed empirical single system approaches, including the New Interpretation that identifies the monetary expression of labor time with the ratio of money value added to living productive labor expended in its production, address these problems, and open the possibility of a progressive research program based on Marx's theory.

Marx's ‘Truly Social’ Labour Theory of Value: Part II, How Is Labour that Is Under the Sway of Capital Actually Abstract?

AbstractIn the first part of this two-part article, I argued that, unlike the asocial classical (Ricardian) labour theory of value, Marx's labour theory of value is a ‘truly social’ one. In fact, it is a purely social one. Marx's theory of value is nothing but his theory of the social forms distinctive of the capitalist mode of production. Thus, we may speak of those forms as value-forms, the (generalised) commodity, money (in its several forms), capital, wage-labour, surplus-value and its forms of appearance (profit, interest, and rent), and more. The labour that produces value, then, is labour of a peculiar social sort. This thought is entirely foreign to the classical labour theory of value, and, likewise, to Marxist accounts of value theory that mistake it for a radical version of Ricardian value theory. The gulf between the classical and the Marxian labour theories of value is wide.

CAPITAL AND FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING: A COMMENTARY ON BRYER'S “A MARXIST CRITIQUE OF THE FASB'S CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK”1

Bryer (1999) reiterates criticisms of the “balance-sheet” approach underlying the FASB's conceptual framework as failing either to explain or guide the development of financial accounting practice, and aims to demonstrate how operational and objective principles of financial accounting can be derived from Marx's labour theory of “surplus-value”. However, the potentially conflicting objectives of “Marxist” accountings remain unresolved, and Bryer's attempted derivation of accounting rules for individual business enterprises appears to misunderstand the rationale of Marx's detailed examination of the circuits of capital in Parts One and Two of Volume II of @9pCapital@2p and to offer no critical foundation for Praxis. It is argued here that the focus of a critical Marxist accounting would more appropriately shift to recognising the extraction of surplus-value from labour and its addition to the value of inventory during the process of production (rather than reporting profit as the result of sale). However, the practical application of such a principle would still require the use of convention-based allocations at least as arbitrary as those of conventional financial accounting and, more fundamentally, such a change of accounting principle could not in itself be sufficient to “force the secret of profit making” under the capitalist mode of production. The accounting would still be consistent with both Marxist and neoclassical economic theories of the nature of capitalism. Bryer's approach to deriving Marxist accounting rules cannot help us to understand the problematic nature of the power of modern financial accounting.

Working at a Discount: Class Consciousness in Merce Rodoreda's La Placa del Diamant

These words are laced with irony. The person uttering them is Natalia, the first-person narrator-protagonist of La pla(a del Diamant (1962), who is seeking employment as a domestic servant in a well-to-do household in Barcelona just before the outbreak of the Spanish civil war. That a pastiche of Marx's labor theory of value should be conveyed cynically to Natalia in the home of a Catalan property owner coping with a changing economy by bringing down her wages is emblematic of the dramatic irony of the most celebrated novel by Catalan writer, Merce Rodoreda (1908-1983). Indeed, as Rodoreda tells the story of a woman working at a discount, this property owner's house of privilege, along with the other work spaces

Economy for the Earth: The labour theory of value without the subject/object distinction

This is a theoretical paper which applies feminist and ecological feminist critiques of the subject/object distinction in philosophy to Marx's labour theory of value. It argues that much of the use of Marx's political economy has been undermined by the centrality of the subject/object distinction in his theory. His deployment of this distinction led him to an exclusive emphasis on subjective human labour-power as the key factor in profit. The main part of the paper reworks Marx's value-theory without the subject/object distinction. Used this way, the paper argues, Marx's value theory becomes a theory of time and speed, in which nature overall is the source of value, and the time of natural reproduction is disregarded in the interests of profit. The paper contends that this reworking of the labour theory of value extends its explanatory force.

Why Marx's Labour Theory is Superior to the Marginalist Theory of Value: The Case from Modern Financial Reporting

Abstract At the heart of all theories of accounting lies a theory of value and the origin of profit. Two conflicting theories of value have dominated the history of Western thought: the marginalist theory of economics and Marx's labour theory of value. Which theory provides the best foundation for a theory of accounting? Most accounting theorists uncritically accept the marginalist theory. Only a few pioneers have pointed out its logical inconsistencies, and begun to articulate a system of accounting based on the labour theory of value. Their work is developed here through an exploration of the relevance of Marx's labour theory of value for a theory of accounting in modern capitalism. It is argued that Marx's analysis of the socialization of capital around the general rate of profit anticipates the description of capitalism embodied in the principles of modern finance theory, and that his analysis of the capitalist process of production provides a remarkable description of the principles of modern financial reporting. It is concluded that Marx's labour theory of value is clearly superior to the marginalist theory as the foundation for describing and explaining the role and practices of financial reporting in capitalism.

Marx's labour theory of value revisited

Providing direct replies to the three charges of redundancy (Ricardian prices), inconsistency (negative surplus value with positive profit and the value-to-price transformation), and lack of realism (immeasurability of labor) often made against Marx's labor theory of value are provided while the conventional homogeneous labor theory of value, the Rubinian value theory, and the value-form analytics are criticized each as tautologies or dogmatism. Marx's original value theory, which does not preclude nonlabor product commodities and unproductive (nonexploitable) labors, the paper shows, can serve as the basis for the theories of class and the state without suffering from the three charges. (c) 1993 Academic Press, Inc. Copyright 1993 by Oxford University Press.

Use-Value, Exchange Value, and the Demise of Marx's Labor Theory of Value

Karl Marx was the greatest champion of the labor theory of value. The logical problems of this theory have, however, split scholars of Marx into two factions: those who regard it as an indivisible component of Marxism, and those who wish to continue the spirit of analysis begun by Marx without the labor theory of value. In the debate between these two camps, the former has attempted to draw support from Marx's concepts of value, while the latter has ignored them, taking instead as their starting point the truism that production generates a surplus. Nevertheless, a careful examination of the development of Marx's logic uncovers the profound irony that, after a chance rereading of Hegel, Marx made a crucial advance which should have led him to replace the labor theory of value with the theory that commodities in general are the source of surplus. Marx's value analysis is thus consistent, not with those who would defend the labor theory of value, but with those who would transcend it.

Developments in Economic Valuation of Environmental Resources in Centrally Planned Economies

Environmental policy in centrally planned economies is nowadays based mainly on administrative measures, such as licences and standards. The realisation of environmental targets by physical planning, management, and regulation alone, however, is falling short of expectations. For that reason, economists in centrally planned economies have recently put forward various proposals for using economic mechanisms in environmental policy based on the economic valuation of natural resources and environmental degradation. Within these economic valuations three leading methodologies can be distinguished, based on Marx's labour theory of value, the notion of differential rent, and the notion of reproduction costs, respectively. Up till now, these proposals are only considered for use in perspective planning and they therefore bypass day-to-day economic practice. Besides that, the emphasis of most proposals is mainly on optimising economic behaviour rather than maintaining a certain level of environmental quality. If compared with the Western World's neoclassical methods of valuation some formal analogies in both approaches can be observed.

Philosophical Presuppositions of Marx's Labour Theory of Value

Reflecting on “The Rehabilitation of Karl Marx” as a theoretical economist 100 years after his death, Robert Paul Wolff, on the way to writing Understanding Marx, noted that Marx had written, “at a conservative estimate, five thousand pages of theoretical material”. Therefore, in order to understand Marx's theoretical achievement, which Wolff compares with Darwin, Freud and Einstein (p. 714), “The simplest sort of common sense demands that we estimate Marx's place in the intellectual history of our civilization on the basis of this mass of economic theory” (p. 713). In addition to the three volumes of Capital, the three volumes of the Theories of Surplus Value, the Grundrisse, and the Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, however, “Marx also wrote, as a young man, a handful of exuberant, obscure, derivative, romantic reflections on the human condition…The same sort of common sense dictates that we not construe these youthful speculations as the final utterances of the true Marx” (p. 713). With these assertions, Wolff is reviving an old issue, for the benefit of a “modern mathematical reinterpretation of Marx” (pp. 715–16), that some had thought was laid to rest by the widespread availability of the Grundrisse.

The Political Economy of Sexuality

This article describes and analyzes contemporary sexual practice and the social context in which it occurs. Heterosexual and homosexual relations are analyzed in a manner analogous to Marx's labor theory of value. It is concluded that heterosexual relations are characterized by patterns in which male gratification is promoted and achieved at the expense of female gratification. In contrast, sexual behavior among homosexuals is found to be mutually satisfying to both partners. To achieve an egalitarian sexual system heterosexual behavior patterns must be supplanted by a sexual practice in which intercourse is not defined as the central sex act.

The ox, the slave and the worker: A pedagogic exercise in Marx's labor theory of value

A basic task of Marxist anthropologists is teaching the Marxian perspective to students who, if they have been exposed to Marxism at all, generally have an incomplete and, usually, a much distorted view of it. This is particularly the case at undergraduate institutions where the absence of specialized curricula and gradu? ate seminars requires us to weave the Marxian world view through our several, more general courses. There is no opportunity, and students seldom have the background, to examine the full range of Marx's philosophy, method, or sociology either through his own writings or those of his numerous interpreters. While several of Marx's papers such as "Wage Labour and Capital" and "Estranged Labour" are ac? cessible to many undergraduates, the more "complete" Marx contained in later writings such as the Grundrisse and Capital generally are not. To those of us committed to teaching the Marxian perspective and, in so doing, main? taining both the richness and complexity of Marx's thought, these strictures pose a formi? dable challenge ? a challenge compounded by the fact that viewing the world in a "Marx? ian" way represents for most students a radical departure from the linear, positivist mode so thoroughly ingrained in them. After one very unsuccessful attempt to relate Marx's labor theory of value by means of the relevant pas? sages in Capital, I developed the following exercise. It proved to be very successful among a class of advanced undergraduates taking a course of Social Stratification. For me, the labor theory of value is the centerpiece of Marx's sociology. An adequate understanding of it is necessary in order to proceed to the issues of class formation, class interests and antagonisms, class struggle and the general notion of "exploitation." The labor theory not only underpins the key social relation in capitalism, the capital-wage labor relation, but can also be used to illustrate other modes of production where different social relations predominate. The exercise below illustrates the comparative uses of the labor theory and the many other Marxian constructs and tenets which can be developed out of a discussion of it.

Karl Marx and the Outcome of Classical Marxism, or: Is Marx's Labor Theory of Value Excess Metaphysical Baggage?

Karl Marx and the Outcome of Classical Marxism, or: Is Marx's Labor Theory of Value Excess Metaphysical Baggage?

Is Marx's Labor Theory of Value Excess Metaphysical Baggage?

Is Marx's Labor Theory of Value Excess Metaphysical Baggage?

The Ontology of Abstract Labor

An examination of recent attempts by Diane Elson and others, to come to grips with the ontological implications of Marx's labor theory of value. The contention is supported that an adequate understanding of Marx's ontology of social relations helps differentiate the aims of Marxist, from other value theories is supported. It is argued, however, that this differentiation must rest on a holistic methodology, while also being linked to historical materialism.

The time of our being together: An inquiry into the meaning of Marx's labor theory of value

The time of our being together: An inquiry into the meaning of Marx's labor theory of value