Ss ee
By OC. Grogs
(Hote, The impetus to write thia article comes from two directions. From tha ultra-left ws have the 0,L.H. Jamas review of Trotaky's "Revolution Batrayed' reprinted by International Socialism (Mo 16), in which he erzued that saliemted lsbour exists in the U.5.5.R. and tharsfore characterised the ayatem as State Capitalist. On the right, bourgeols industrial psycholocists neve discoversd tha notion of Alienation in the early Marx, but usually argue that the condition ia endemic in moder aocioty and industry in general end hence is not apetifically capitalist, They concentrate on alleviating the situation of the worker witheut changing the property relationships,
Hoevever what follows cen be understood without reference to theaa discussions.)
Cae major source of Marx's writings on olienation ia-the Paris Manuseript of 1644, end it must be said that this suffers from savers) dafects, Firstly Marx wos still very affected by his Hegelian upbringing and thus writes ima peoulmr jargon - expressions like: 'species-life’ abound, Second, tha-work ia not prepared for publicution and hence is axtransly untidy and ambiguous. Thus Merx here diacerns soveral aspects of alienated lebour, but not all of them are of the same level of historical spacificlty.
For oxompls he seems to suciast at one point that any Inhour necessary to secure o man's physical existcwes eounta oa alienated lebour, but clearly such labour. ia necessary in all epochs, even, Marx notes in Copital III, in commmist socgiety.
“freedom in thia fisli* ho tide, “cannot consist of anything elise but tha fact thet secinlised man, the essceinted producara, regulate thoir interchingea with nature rationally, tring it under commen control, Instead of boinc ruled by it as by some blind power; thet thay scocoplish their task with the Least expenditure of anarsy under conditions most adequate to thot huann asturs and most worthy of it. But it slwiys romiins a regim of nacassity, Beyond it bezins thet devalopmant of humen powar which is iva own end, the true realm of froodem, which, however, can only flourish upon thot realm of necessity sa ite basia, The shortening of the working doy is ita fumlamentel promise.”
Thus this reolm of nocesaity ia not apecific to enpitaliam, but tho form it takes varias in each opechs It is ona thing to do unpleascnt tasks ag a aslove, tnother na a aerf, snothar as o wege worker, snd another yot apain as a perticipant in sotialiscd production covernod by tho naaspogietad producers,
What is it then, whieh fa spocifie sbout Labour in sapiteliat socisty?
Tt is not that it Sa unpleasant, something more is nodded. If wa return to
tha Manuscripts of 1644 wo find that Marx characterigas Men'a ‘apecies being"
aa frec erontive many=sided production,
“In creating an objoctive world by hia practical sctivity, Im working-
up inorganic noturc, ‘man proves himscl? a sonsélous spacios baling asses
An animel produces one=sidedly, whilst open produces universally, It. procucos
only under tha dominion of immsdiate physical nesd whillat man produces. even
when he is free from physical need and only troly: produces in freedom there=
iron. *
Physical existences is, for animals, on ond in itsel?, but for men 1t
is morely . condition for tho free development of further potentialities.
4 saysten which cuts off for a Large part of menkind their possibilities of
development, and makes thoir life netivity 4 mesna to their physical
existence, is thersfora a aystam which parpotuates un-frasdom. Thus in
cetranged lebour the workor has no interast in the product, it belongs to
another; ho has no intorest in the work, it is "forsed Labour® which hs
must do to earn his meena of life.
Howiver oven this is not enough to «at to She nub of More's eonnept of
enpitalist society as 2 system based on alienated labour, for siter all the
slave and the serf hom thelr product taken from them, Thia logs of the
product may be called exploitation, Sut samethine other than this is required
to ooksa this situation an alienated one.
The «luc has already been previded in the quote above from Ospitel
where Merx talke of men “boing ruled aa by some blind pover." In the 1éd4
Manuscript Marx seys “Pho product of lsbour doce not telens to tha: worker wa.
it confronts him ss sn Glicn powor ..." #n alien powirl In this lige the
breathtaking kermol of the Marxiet conespt of alienated labour. It 1a not
just that the worker is degraded, not just thet hisproduct is lest to him,
not fuet thet he is powerless, redurced te tho level of = sommocity foresd to
s011 his lebour powar in order to liv, but thot the very products of hia
lsbour fura round snd cominate thoir producers
This concapt of slionation hed clraedy baen sappliad by Fouorbach in
his ¢ritique cf rolizion, Ho arfued that Mon first of nll ercetoa the Gods
by alienating his human guclitios inte something ‘external’ and then is
fominated by Hisawm ereation and falls down and: worships it,
Marx applics tha eonesp} to Comuodity production with ilLuninatin:
results, In Tho Gormen Idsolocy Marx states it is "an ampiricel fect that
sepnrate indivicuels hava, with the broadenins of their activity into world
historical activity, become nore and mors suslevyed under a power Slian to
shem sess 8 power which line become more ond mora onormous and, in tha test
instanec, turns out to be the world merict,” “Tho social powr, io the
multiplied productive foree which arises throuch the cooperation cf differans
individuals determined within the division of isbour, spposre to these
individuels, since their cooperation is not volMbary but notursl, not as
their own united powor but as on alion furco etistins outaide of thom, of tha oritin and end of which thoy ara ignorant, which thay thie eannot control, which on tho contrary passos throwth a peculiar sobs of phases and stages, independent of tho will and action of mn, nay evon teaing the prim gorernor of these."
iarx hos here noticed tha sxtraordinery fact that, though economic . phenomena cannot bo anything but the: product of Man's own activity, naver= fhaless etonomic movements scom beyond anyone's control. Instead of the producers controlling the rosults of their om activity wa find boom and slump; unemployment, inflation, ote, trested by political acenomisats ae objective phanomnt, following their own lews, os if mon wors as incapeble ef deciding thoir ow destiny os is the moon of avadins tha lavs soverning its orbit.
The antlysis of this strange phanomons finds finished expression in 'Sopitel’§ perticularly in the section on tha Fatishiam of comaoditios (I14) He hes here stopped talking in scmi-philosophical form of ‘slionation', but it is dcrivsd from this: source.
In commodity production, hs says, "the isbour of tha individual asaorta iteelf aa = pert of tha lsbour of acciety, only by monne of the rela tiona © which the act of exchanges ostoblishas dircetly betwoon tho products, end indirectly through tham, between ¢50 producara. To the letter therefora, the relations connacting tha labour of one individual with thet of the rest appear, not ae direct socio] relations batwoen: individuale at.work,. but as whet tiey really ore, materiel reletions botween pereons and social rolations botwasn things.?
The poéogiier relations boetwoon the preducts of labour which stamp thom h8 commoditics have no connoction with their phyaical proportios: it haa littis to do with their use valusa; but itis detarminod by the ozchéngs value current on the mrkot which is cutside thea control cf one men and indesd' of all mans In commodity production ‘it is 8 definite social relation betwoon mon that assuméa, in their eyes, tho fantastic form of a relation betwoon things, '
The subservience of ments production to “soeinl relations betweon ; products” is perhaps a Little clearer when contrasted wlth faudoal preauetio Here Baye:
* selor ths vary raeeon that parscual dapondoncea forms the. growndwork of society trers 1s no necsassity for lebour and its. products to aasums 2 fantastic form different: from their reslity, Thoy take the shape, in tha transactions of soclety, of serviess in kind.and poymonts in tcind. sero the partieulor cond natural form of labour, end not ss in 2 society based on ordduction of commeditiss, its goneral abatract form is tha immediate social form of labour ss... very serf knows that whaot ha expands in tho service @ hig lord ie.a dofinita: quantity of his ovn personal irbour power .... The aocial relations betwoen individuals in the performance cf their labour
appear at all events as thair own mutunl personal relationa, and aro not
diseuised unior the shape of social relations botweon tha products of
lebour.s”
SEqin Marx contrasts commodity releticns with 4. picture of 1 community
eorrying on their work with tho moons of production hold “in common, in
which tho labour powor of individwols is consciously applied as the eombined
power of the community, Eero the totol product is a social product.
Libour<time would be apportioned in seccordence with o definite sociol plan
tallored to the roo] neads of tho comunity.
"Ths social relations of tho individusl producars, with ragard both to
their lnbour ond its products, oreo in thie ease. perfectly aimpesnd intell-
teible.."
uowoyer in a eapitalist socioty resting on Aliansted lebour we find that
tha myetificetion of commodity fotiahiam allows commeditios to agsume 2
Dover of thoir own and tho rolotioghips sot up between tham- to dotermina
production, inetecd of tha noeds ond wishes of the producoras Ey depending
upon such imaginary ceneopta, the acebersa of mxlorm “siyilised" sociaty
are retlliy like the sivige and hia fetish, controlled by the work of their
hands.
The whole rovolutionary Sim of iarx's thought con be scen in the neod
to crarooma this subordination of aan tby-hie ow oconomy.
fnesla suns up powerfully ot tho end of 'Socinliam Utepion tend fclantific’,
os follows “Tha Inve of his own steial oction, hithesrie etandias fsoe te
focg with mn as laws of noturo foroign to ond domineting him will then be
used with Tull understanding, snd so-mistored ty him, ifn's own sooliel
orzinisetion, hitherte confronting Him na a necessity imposed by nature and
history, now becomes tho result of his own frac action, The oxtranaqus
objactive forgta viich hove hitherte governed history pose under tha control
of min himaolf sesesslt is the nacont of man from the kKinsiom of nacesalty
to the kincdom of freedom.
To soc how peryteiye is tha subordination of mon by his: product wo only
hove to nota that not only doses the worker auffor insecurity ond: misery
from this but the eopitalist nlao ia ansinved, If bo nisjudgea tho stato
of tia aeoncny His prefit tuma into 1 Loss = his invostment -saerificsd,
Of course the onpitalist's uleora cannot be compared te ths misery of tha
prolotaricti
Furtharmora 2 second eepset of alidencted labour we inve not yot touched
on ¢rupifics the wooker but cives tho capitalist a -feosling of power and
'. somblance of human oxistoncas,” This :is tha ralctionship whereby tho
product confronts the worker not 19 1 mysterious commodity but as ¢apital.
For, why is tho worker dominated in tho factory? Bocsusa he haseno capital
nnd the boss has, But whence doos the eapltoliat deriva hia everincrosasing
stero of enpitaly ‘hy, from tho aurplus yelue ofida- when he oxehangea: the
product on the market. But who mado tho product? Only tho worker!
“hat o situction the worker is in than! Tho mora bo works, tho more ho projuces, the mora surplus wolue the onnit-list mokes, ond bonco the grote er hia stores of capital and with it his dominanes over the worker. ‘The erenter the riches bo producoa, the poorer, rolntively at ony rate, he batons,
Marc's cheractorisntion_of capitalist socioty aB.4 system of alicnstad labour tharoforea reats on the doublo dominnnes of the workor by his product; first in the form of fatishisead comacdity relations, snd second sa Capital.
New: wo org ina position to ask = 'Wint-of the-2eviot Union?" I sty streisht sway that 1t sesame to mo incontestable that, howover degraded tho ioviet worker, howsyor dominated, however unjustly or arbitrorily ho is treated, however many irrctionnlitisa occur in tho tconomy, howavor great the socinl differantiotion, tho worker 1s not dominated by his product, by commoditics, by Capital, Tho source of his oyils must lic slaowhero; and tharafers 1t would ba a grant oistnake to designacte tho system as anpit- Slist. Tho irrationalitica and woste in tho Soriet acenomy hoya quito a differant source from thoss in A capitclist.coomocy, ‘“horess in capital= ist socioty the wiato and -abaurdity cecur without anyone boing h:ld part deulorly responsible for tinm, because overything is onvolopod in the voil of commodity fotishiam: in tho Sovict Union,if, @.¢.,9 sudden shortage or surplus of some product occurs everyones knows that “the bursaucrata have mesecd it up aeains’ There is some individuol, identifinbls in principle, who wis too busy Linine his own pockets or ansuring his political survival, to parform his rolo in tho planning systea cfficiontly, ‘horena a capitalist aconomy ia dominntod by “rolntions betwoon things, by tho Commodity systoms inn ‘orkers' State, rosting as it dees on proletarian forna of property, humnn politicn) dociaions arc pornmount. = Sholl we go fer asovry induatry? Or licnht> Shall wo build ecora, or busca? Revelop :iborls, or tha Uleraine?
Of course tho wystom is not yet socinlist. For that, thaso decisions must bo taken by tha -ossecintod sroducorat, Instand.o aclf-perpotuting clique of bureaucratic ponzsters hos usurpod this function. 2ut it novertheless raproscnta © fundamontal change from sopitalian, Tho ineradiblio progrose mide by ths U.5.5.Re since the wor, to becoma the second power in the world is proof of tho superiority of tha systen, in apite of burcau~ erotle bungling and tho stifling of the initintive of thos mesou.
Let us romiibernenin the wy winrz contrasts the clarity of asecial relations in Faudallam, with the “discuised' chorncter of social relations within eapitaliam which nseuwe tho fantastic form of a rolotion batweon thinga.' That da relations botwoon oon in eapitolist scciety are mediated nnd oyatifiod by the comolity-aystam,
Now lea it not closr that sovict Society con ba contrasted with capitalist society in cxnetly tha sam wey? Eocinl roletions in Bussin aro ne matory. fvory worker knows who it is thit is pushing him about = from tho factory mnacer up to the Proosidion, It da orecisely because tho bureaucracy
oAmnet «lock its privileces with the oystifiertiona of comucity for= ishian $hot tho nood-for o huge oppirttus of repression orlaca,. Givyon omdinira democratic norms of frocdom of discussion, oesocintlon, ete,, and their privileces ond power vould be awopt ainy ino a day =/8o {trons porontl¥ pourasiticnl-ore thoy.
Sa tor tho dominones of the workor by onpitol, how can onyons sany tact this mechonise is tho soures of bureiueratic powsr in tho Ujoieate Soo ae not joan the burcsaucriey becouse you boyo eapitel! It is roerulted, supplemonted and ronewed in tha manner of any adriiniatrative hiorn rely 5 indopendont of ony apecial property relations of ite own. Hoithar: eon rou inhorst o pleco in tha burs: nuceicy., (Nor further chorecterisation of the bureqpersey ono em rofor to Troteky's anolysia of ita ducl chorneter in the'grvolution Batrayod' or olsowhera.) Ficmolly o brief word on tho most likely objaction-te op -thosia, nansly, thet I hive ade too mush-of planning. 2For after oll sare tha enpiteliats notinow plannors? So what cen bo specifically proletarian about it? Ghortly, thore is o]1 the difforgnce in tho world betwoon cia by pltenine nnd so-cenlled planning or “progreming! in copitaliam, Ccpiteliat Planning sesentinlly consists in tha mxtropolntion of the wy the scone la morin= ao thet the individual enterprises con coordim ate their activit ay wigh it ond honeo stond less risk of invostmonte coinn soures %o qucations nbgut ands sro mised excapt tha vory gomeral one of "rrowth" psorinpa = Ang if thet de taken too sericusly the plan becoros so euch moonshine like Brewn's miceroble effort. One srotosque exomplo of the essence of cepitrliat 'plisnhine™ wos the Tories'Plon.for the South Post, Thies simply conelated of an cstinata of tho numbers likely to drift to tho Sowth.Eoet eo thot eome provision fer hvusing developmont, servicds,ofe.,could bo.onde, Tha ‘Flon' doas not Quise the qguostiona of whether wowint thease pooplo in the S,E, of whothor “hoy they wonrtste com, of whathor it saa be boatior to Sulld industry in-Scotloni, Tha tPiant simply copitulote othe trond, troote it os on gbjective phenemenc, and triea to adapt bebe ous to it,
Evan with cnpitoliat "plannins* and Goy.t interfstenco “in tho -eeconoay Rt still receina truco thet tho law of waluc is ths primes doterninmt of Production = 43 it must be if 2 commodity syten-is toa work, In a-Workers' stete, on the controry, the notionsliastion of +he aconomy opans thot the operation of tha low of viluc becomes subordinate to politienl decialons, That ia, investuents will uot now-flow towrrds “hich profitability cresa" but will be-eonsciously determined -by rool sogicl neode, A crude- iliustroticon:may oske thie-elo tra, Baasino n..couletto. 20h. Now imesine thot the-pleyars hare painod sone sort of imowledes of tho wy the ball is running ond place their bots necordingly, and hence loge loss often, Wow ima “ine tint somaone catia in oma simply oliskeup the bell me dropa it in ths helo ho wanta 4¢ is, Tho mdlocy if obviouae Tha firet Bort Of plarnsing still leava the bell tellowing: ite om lowe with tho
pinyers sdnpting their bahayiour to it bet with loge risk then usuni, It ig .still poulstta, The other oosa is pot rouletiea at all, Tt. is the ond of the domination of han by his product,
Of caurso it te still truo thet sctlculations of rolAtive officionoy WLLL be Gece ond token account of in taking decisions, Also, in so for the econony los orlantated towirds the world market the law of value ceonot be disrorarded completely thoush ft nood not bo the final arbiter, For & fuller cistussion of auch points in the transitional period, aso Germein in Fourth Internetionel Ié,