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MOTHER effective militants at work. The bourgeoisie very much want the cooperation of male workers in keeping things so. At the same time, this aids them in victimisation of women during layoffs, selections of shifts to be dropped and so on.
The effect of the crisis on the family can be felt in another way. The cuts being made in social services represent not simply a lack of resources on the part of the state but a backdoor way of cutting real wages. And this is done by returning the burden of social services to the family, that is to say placing it on working class women.
### CUTBACKS
The present struggles against the cutbacks illustrate how important it is to understand the ways the law of value affect the domestic unit. The bourgeoisie's present moves are to ensure cheaper labour power in the factory by increasing the amount of labour-time extended on the maintenance of the home.
A third aspect of the impact of this crisis is the one it has on sexuality. The financial and industrial instability of a crisis period will tend to introduce squander-mania amongst the bourgeoisie. Luxury grows amid ruin.
One effect of this is that increasing numbers of women and male youth are forced into prostitution and 'allied trades" . And we have already seen in publishing that the only field in which prices have stayed steady is in pornography. These tendencies sharpen the sexual conflicts in society. As the sexual market expands, so its values are intensively promoted.
At the same time this development also impinges on relations in the family also impinges very directly on the family in two senses: - first of all, the weakening effect it has on relations in the family obliges the ruling class to undertake periodic 'anti-vice' crusades so that we see decadence and sexual repression going hand in hand But on the other side of the coin, the money gained from, for example prositituion, go into the maintenance of the family's servicing functions.
The value embodied in these goods, and re-expressed in the labour power of the workers in the family concerned, comes from that portion of capital that the bourgeoisie sets asied for his own use, and would set aside anyway. In short, this operation also helps the bou geoisie in an effective, reduction in the cost to them of unit labour.
### LAW OF VALUE
In conclusion -it is, I think, clear, that the operation of the law of value does not stop at the kitchen door. What is even clearer is that without that understanding we cannot grasp the full impact of the crisis on this situation of women and on the family. And, contrarywise, if this isn't understood then neither are some of the most vital economic mechanism of capitalism in breakdown understood.