Socialist Standard March 2020 - World Socialist Movement
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Socialist Standard March 2020 1
Editorial
Towards a Disunited Kingdom?
The turmoil of the Brexit process has of the 2008 financial crisis, many workers It must be noted that the electoral
exacerbated the fissures within the UK, turned away from the mainstream successes of the SNP and Sinn Féin do not
which threaten to tear it apart. The capitalist parties. In Scotland, this helped always reflect support for their respective
Scottish National Party leader, Nicola the SNP to secure a majority in the 2011 aims of an independent Scotland and a
Sturgeon, seized on the fact that the elections for the Scottish Parliament and a united Ireland, but more often a deep
majority of Scottish voters opted to landslide in the 2015 General Election. dissatisfaction with the political status
remain in the EU, and is demanding a The Irish border has been in contention quo. Nevertheless, these parties will use
second independence referendum. The since 1921. However, with the repression their increased leverage to push for their
border between the North of Ireland and of the Civil Rights movement in the aims.
the Irish Republic which appeared to be North of Ireland in the late 1960s, Irish Do the working class have any
invisible since the Good Friday agreement republicanism experienced an upsurge interest in whether or not the United
became a stumbling block in the Brexit of support. In the 1980s Sinn Féin was Kingdom remains intact? Or should
negotiations. Sinn Fein wasted no time in able to capitalise on the outrage that they, as the Left urges them to, support
pressing for a border poll which they hope the British government’s response to the an independent Scotland and a united
will lead to the reunification of Ireland. hunger strikes elicited in Catholic working- Ireland? We say no on both accounts
The spectre of Scottish independence class areas. It also managed to gain a as, wherever the boundaries are drawn,
is nothing new. Scottish workers were foothold by providing welfare services to workers will still be subject to the vagaries
badly affected by the economic downturns Catholic workers. With the peace process of the global market system and will
of the 1970s and 1980s which hit the and the IRA laying down its weapons, continue to experience problems such as
traditional industries (shipbuilding, coal, Sinn Féin was able to reinvent itself as a unemployment and low wages. Workers
steel) particularly hard. Many workers workers’ party. will need to organise for a socialist society
were also dissatisfied with Labour In last December’s general election, which will abolish borders rather than
governments. North Sea oil seemed the SNP increased its seats in Scotland, rearrange them.
to promise higher living standards. In whereas the pro-Brexit Conservative
these circumstances the SNP was able Party prevailed in England and Wales.
to position itself as the workers’ party. In Northern Ireland, for the first time,
With the establishment of the Scottish Nationalists won more seats than
Parliament in 1999, the then Labour Unionists. Sinn Féin has made a significant
government thought they had seen off the breakthrough in last month’s general
nationalist threat. However, in the wake election in the Irish Republic.
Introducing the Socialist Party
The Socialist Party advocates a society why actions to prevent the depredation of unattractive -- meaning: state ownership
where production is freed from the the natural world can have limited effect and control. As the Socialist Standard
artificial constraints of profit and and run counter to the nature of capitalism pointed out before both courses were
organised for the benefit of all on the itself. followed, the results would more properly
basis of material abundance. It does not Gradualist reformers like the Labour be called state capitalism.
have policies to ameliorate aspects of the Party believed that capitalism could be The Socialist Party and the World
existing social system. It is opposed to all Socialist Movement affirm that capitalism
war. is incapable of meaningful change in
The Socialist Standard is the combative the interests of the majority; that the
monthly journal of the Socialist Party, basis of exploitation is the wages/money
published without interruption since system. The Socialist Standard is proud
1904. In the 1930s the Socialist Standard to have kept alive the original idea of
explained why capitalism would not what socialism is -- a classless, stateless,
collapse of its own accord, in response to wageless, moneyless society or, defined
widespread claims to the contrary, and positively, a democracy in which free and
continues to hold this view in face of the equal men and women co-operate to
notion’s recent popularity. Beveridge’s produce the things they need to live and
welfare measures of the 1940s were transformed through a series of social enjoy life, to which they have free access
viewed as a reorganisation of poverty and measures, but have merely become in accordance with the principle ‘from
a necessary ‘expense’ of production, and routine managers of the system. The each according to their abilities, to each
Keynesian policies designed to overcome Bolsheviks had to be content with according to their needs’
slumps an illusion. Today, the journal developing Russian capitalism under a All original material is available under the Creative
exposes as false the view that banks one-party dictatorship. Both failures have Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 UK: England & Wales
create money out of thin air, and explains given socialism a quite different -- and (CC BY-ND 2.0 UK) licence.
2 Socialist Standard March 2020 Socialist Standard March 2020 3
Stories from the city rounded triumphal arches. Empires didn’t What’s always gone on in the
PEOPLE ASK a lot of questions about
socialism in practice, some we can answer,
come more bad-ass and macho than
Rome, which is why the growing empires
background and is also hot today is the
‘vernacular’ style, which is designing Islands of socialism? Reply:
buildings in local materials and in the Dear Socialist Party,
some we can’t. But nobody ever asks what of the Renaissance revived its styles and Thanks for your supportive remarks.
local or regional style, so that they fit I’m a big fan of yours. I used to be a liberal, When we talk about socialism we
the architecture would look like. it finally arrived in Britain with Inigo Jones It’s nice to feel appreciated. You make
harmoniously into their surroundings but you guys have opened my eyes and mean a worldwide sustainable society
It’s not a pressing social issue, after all, in the 17th century. Instead of piety, it some interesting points and we agree
instead of clashing horribly with them. In I would like to thank you for that. I have of common ownership, with no leaders,
like food or disease prevention. In fact it’s was all about muscular statements of that the story of Nestor Makhno and
theory anyway. realized that the only solution to our so by our global definition socialism has
rarely discussed at all, except to complain state power. You often see it on banks the Makhnovists deserves to be better
When you start thinking about the problems and the way to a better life for never existed before. Temporary or small-
about some new local monstrosity. or theatres or museums, as well as known, especially as it is a good example
socialist architecture of the future, you all is through socialism. But, having read scale experiments have certainly occurred
When you think about it though, there’s government buildings. Not surprisingly, of something which leftists often tend to
realise that all bets are off. First you would the replies under your tweets, I’m aware at different times in history, but we tend
something a little strange about this. the Georgians and the Victorians, who gloss over.
have to ask how people wanted to live. there is still a long road ahead. to question their usefulness in convincing
People who live in rural areas often have a had a high opinion of themselves as rulers Leninists usually excuse the top-down,
Would they stay in settled communities However, there’s also something else anyone of the viability of socialism. If
great familiarity with their landscape and of an emerging globally dominant power, authoritarian structure of the Bolshevik
as now, or move around constantly, that I’d like to address: what do you guys anything, the very fact that they didn’t
its features, right down to individual tree couldn’t get enough of the neo-classical regime, as well as its murderous excesses,
exploring the entire world and ‘working think of the Free Territory of Ukraine that last long can be trumpeted as proof that
and plant species. They know the language style, and neither could Mussolini later by saying that ‘there was a war on’. But
their passage’, in the sense of helping out existed from 1918 to 1921? Was that a socialism is not viable. Of course it’s not
and vocabulary of their environment, and on. But changing political priorities that war didn’t stop the Makhnovists,
with odd jobs wherever they happen to real example of socialism working? They proof of any such thing, but neither is it
this knowledge undoubtedly adds to their could change tastes. When the Houses who were under attack from both the
be? Would the current global urbanisation had no top down control (only a defensive proof that socialism could work long-term.
appreciation of it. White Army and the Bolshevik Red Army, Besides, not everyone finds such obscure
trend continue, or go into reverse, with military, which was needed considering
The majority of the world lives in from, as you say, trying to set up an historical debates either attractive or
cities becoming depopulated? There are they were under threat from all sides);
cities, and the built environment has its egalitarian social system, although given relatable. Perhaps what such attempts do
pros and cons to this question. Would they had collective property; lived in
own language and vocabulary, that of the constraints they were operating under, show, however, is that the human desire
there be a need for public buildings, communes; used no money in most parts,
architecture, but most of us don’t know whether we could call this ‘socialism for social equality, real democracy, free
perhaps to house representative decision- and the parts that did use money were
much about it. We know ‘door’, ‘wall’ working’ is somewhat debatable. access and so on is very real and very
making bodies, or is this an obsolete planning on abolishing it soon, and not to
and ‘roof’ but not ‘quoin’, ‘corbel’ or What it does show is that the Leninist strong, and the fact that people have
democratic methodology when everything forget, they had working co-ops and direct
‘voussoir’. We rush past buildings every justification is meaningless, and that acted on that desire in the past is a very
can be done directly and online? What democracy. They were quite successful
day without really noticing them. We the main reason Bolsheviks employed good reason to think they will act on it
weight would be given to aesthetic and would have achieved more had the
might acknowledge that some grand authoritarian repression was because that again in the future, next time we hope
statements, if it meant more expenditure Bolsheviks not invaded them.
buildings are beautiful, but we can’t is the nature and mentality of Leninism. with happier results. –Editors.
of work and resources? Perhaps socialist There have been other attempts to
really understand or appreciate what’s of Parliament burnt down in 1834, a This vanguardist mentality is one of the
architecture would be plain and functional anarchism as well.
interesting about them because we don’t discussion ensued about what to replace things that makes Leninism quite different
as people found pleasure in things other So would you say this was a real and
have the words. it with. Neo-classical was the obvious from the socialism/communism that
than the built environment, or perhaps good example of socialism working? If
Architecture is applied art on a giant choice, however the Americans had just Marx and Engels understood, and that we
it would surpass the exuberance of the yes, why don’t you mention this in your
scale, and it’s immersive, because you finished rebuilding the White House in understand.
Victorians, or even the Gothic period, tweets against all the ignorant people
live in it. Some of the art is good, some the neo-classical style after the British Ultimately the anarchist endeavour was
with no effort spared in reflecting the who ask ‘when has socialism ever worked’.
terrible. It’s also a living historical record had burnt it down in 1812. Relations were defeated by armed force, and the same
magnificence of a new and free social era. Of course you would mention that in the
of the past, its moods and crazes and still somewhat frosty, so to avoid any can be said of other famous attempts to
Even the design of the simple domestic future, socialism would have to be enacted
fads. It has a function, obviously, but it connotation of republicanism the architect establish such libertarian communities
dwelling is open to question. The practice on a larger scale, but this is as close as it
likes to make statements too, sometimes Charles Barry was tasked with producing a within capitalism, such as the 1871 Paris
of having separate rooms for specific gets out of all real life attempts so far, in
grandiose political or aspirational Gothic design, which in turn kick-started a Commune. Such ‘islands’ will always be
purposes only really started with the my opinion.
statements, that tell us how ruling class Victorian Gothic revival. swamped by capitalism as long it remains
Victorians. Would people still want to live Greetings from the Netherlands,
ideas have changed over the centuries. The Victorians, incidentally, were globally dominant.
private and secluded lives in their little Tamer Gözübüyük
If you know how, you can read these exuberant mash-up artists who would
messages as plainly as words on a page. throw caution to the winds and chuck walled space, or would sharing of lives
Learning even the rudiments of this in any feature from any style they liked and living space become the new normal?
There might be a revival of something like Nestor Makhno
language can be a revelation. Your own without the least concern for artistic or
city reveals itself in a whole new light. historical integrity. The more you learn to the ancient Roman model, where people
It’s not hard to pick up some basics. Just read their architecture, the more you start use public baths and eat out, and only go
four category words virtually encompass to understand their mindset. They were home to sleep. Perhaps even the concept
the past thousand years of building in world conquerors in matters military and of ‘home’, in the sense of a permanent
Britain. They are Gothic, Neo-classical, scientific. Rules were for other people. personal abode, could become obsolete.
Vernacular and Modern. ‘Modern’ architecture is a catch-all All of these questions will certainly
Gothic started with the Normans and for anything post-World War 1, when shape the architecture of the future. And
became de rigueur for churches and looking forward started to seem better let’s not forget emerging technologies like
cathedrals, and often for colleges and legal than looking back, so that revivals went translucent wood for windows, hydro-
institutions. It was all about the power out of the window and modern capitalism ceramics for zero-energy air conditioning,
of God, so it features a lot of pointed was anyway more interested in making light-generating sulphur concrete and
arches, lofty verticals and spires reaching money than making grandiose and costly self-repairing concrete, high-insulation
heavenward like arms in supplication. The statements. Trends did exist though, bricks, nano-alloys, phase-changing
point was for commoners to gaze upward like the short-lived Futurism of the materials, gels, carbon-fibre, aluminium
with their jaws on the floor, mutter a 1920s, which swiftly looked dated, and foam mouldings, clear solar panels and
reverential What the Fuck? and vow never, the Brutalism of the 1960s, a distinctly much more. In the end, nobody can really
ever, to argue with the beings who could Orwellian statement that said unattractive answer the question we started with,
create such soaring marvels. things about encasing populations what socialist architecture would look like.
Neo-classical is anything that looks like in hideous concrete boxes and gave Maybe the best response we can give is:
it’s from Ancient Rome, such as pillars architects a notoriety they’ve never really what would you like?
with a triangular ‘pediment’ on top, or recovered from. PJS
4 Socialist Standard March 2020 Socialist Standard March 2020 5
The Art of Cynicism
THOSE WHO might be unaware of it can dispute is the quality of musicianship despite being of equal aesthetic quality,
be confidently assured that we live in a that produces the aesthetic catharsis so drifts into historical obscurity. Of course
‘Golden Age of Rock Music’. The music of essential to great rock music (or any art without the artist, recording technology,
bands like: Disturbed, Ghost, Godsmack, form). Another possible avenue for a capital investment, the internet etc. we
Rammstein, Epica, Kamelot, Nightwish cynical critique is the appearance of the wouldn’t have any art to discuss but
and Band Maid represent the evidence band. They wear doll-like house maid although the motivation, inspiration and
for this. The last two bands have released uniforms which emphasize the extreme integrity of those concerned in its creation
new singles that have rekindled the old feminine quality of many young Japanese is intriguing it is not the most decisive
debate between the cynical and the women. Again whether this is purely factor in the political and historical fate of
hopeful. Some see Nightwish’s Noise and a commercial decision to attract male any work of art.
Band Maid’s The Dragon Cries as merely audiences or whether it represents an In America the music of Jimi Hendrix,
profiting from the environmentalist intriguing antithesis to the macho posing Marvin Gaye, The Doors and Creedence
zeitgeist whereas others hope that these and costumes of the traditional purveyors Clearwater Revival all fed the anti-Vietnam
tunes represent the political integrity of of heavy rock music is debatable. If we War zeitgeist that helped to end the
the respective bands and will help create like a band we feel the need to defend it conflict. The music of James Brown, Gil
political change. Obviously these videos against criticism, whether justifiable or Scott Heron, War, the Temptations and
and the music that they promote are not, but is it necessary or important to do Harold Melvin all strengthened the Civil
extremely costly and can only be made so? Rights movement in the US. Not that this
within the capitalist context because they Art, as with all concepts, is full of represented the cause of any political
represent a commodity that will, for the dialectical contradictions; it can serve the improvement but it would be foolish
investors, sell at a profit. However this powerful or it can subvert their power. to deny that it helped create a cultural
fact, beloved of the cynics who choose It can also, if it’s any good, contradict background for change. Perhaps the
to believe that nothing will ever change, the intentions of the artist through the reason that we see such a flourishing of
does not exclude the possibility that the interpretation of its audience. Born in rock music is because of another surge of
nature of that commodity might itself the USA by Bruce Springsteen became, political discontent? Another irony is that
become subversive of the system which famously, an anthem for patriots despite many of these bands no longer come from
helped create it. Change, for good or ill, is the composer’s opposite intentions. In rock’s birthplace (the USA) and oppose its
Same difference
COOKING THE BOOKS economically interdependent and have annual world leaders’ junket in Davos a
inevitable and we can ask what role music
and the arts play within our culture’s
restless history.
his effort to communicate with a global
audience Bob Marley, according to some,
sold his soul to Island Records. Art seems
economic and cultural imperialism. The
German band Rammstein have said that
they will never use English in their lyrics
So, the UK left the EU at 11 pm on become more so over the nearly half- week later, he was forced to backpedal Nightwish have a long track record quickly to become independent once it for this reason. Ironically seventy years on
Friday 31 January. Well, not exactly. The century of UK membership. The UK can’t and explain: of using their music to communicate a leaves its creators hands. We use the word from the end of the Second World War
UK left the EU’s political institutions become ‘independent’ of that, whatever ‘“Britain will not diverge from European political perspective. It is only recently zeitgeist to emphasise this phenomenon we see a young band from Germany’s old
(Parliament, Commission, Council, ultra-nationalists might want, at least not rules “just for the sake of it” after Brexit, that this Finnish band, courtesy of in an attempt to understand axis ally Japan having to make the decision
Court of Justice, etc) but remains in without a severe disruption which would Sajid Javid said yesterday, as he softened the internet, has started why some art becomes of whether to confront (like Rammstein)
its economic arrangements (customs affect both the UK and the EU. So both the government’s rhetoric on future reaching a global mass iconic whilst other art, the contemporary icon of capitalism and
union, single market, free movement, have an interest in avoiding this. EU trade talks. In a move to reassure audience. They have its destructive
trade deals, etc) until at least the end Given that previous options of staying business, the chancellor said that while become commercially values or try to
of this year. No wonder nobody noticed in the single market and/or customs ministers were determined that Britain powerful enough to subvert it – that
the difference. union are now ruled out, the only one left would not become a “rule taker” from only create the music is if they do
Some ultra-nationalists wanted us to to avoid this is some sort of agreement Brussels, it did not mean the UK would that they want to indeed possess
celebrate ‘independence day’, though for the UK to ‘align’ in some way its necessarily diverge from European make rather than bow the political
Boris’s idea to have Big Ben bong fell regulations on technical standards, food standards. “We will be a sovereign and to the commercial integrity one
flat. But what is ‘independence’? As far standards, workers’ rights, state aids independent country,” he told a lunch for pressures incarnated might wish
as states are concerned, it’s the same and the like, with those of the EU. At British executives at the annual meeting by studio execs, them to have. It
as ‘sovereignty’. A political territory is the moment, both sides are at the pre- of the World Economic Forum in Davos. producers and owners has always been
independent if the rulers there have negotiation stage of rhetoric and laying “But we’ll always protect the interests of of record companies. challenging to
the final, supreme, say in matters down ‘red lines’. Even so, some ministers British businesses throughout this process The Japanese Band believe that
concerning it. have made fools of themselves, the then and we’ll maintain high standards — not Maid, although very those with
‘Independence’ and ‘sovereignty’ Chancellor of the Exchequer, Savijd Javid, because we are told to, but because we popular with the rock extraordinary
are political concepts, but politics is for instance. want to.”’(Times, 24 January) cognoscenti online have talent might
one thing and economics another. On 18 January the BBC reported that he One way of interpreting this is that he not reached a similar have no moral
A state can make what ‘sovereign’ ‘has warned manufacturers that “there his saying that the UK will align with EU stage of commercial integrity or
decisions it likes but whether they are will not be alignment” with the EU after rules but it will do so as an ‘independent ‘independence’. Their political good will and
effective is another matter. No state Brexit and insists firms must “adjust” to nation’ making its own decision – to do single The Dragon Cries is their first would sell themselves to
can be independent economically as new regulations’ (www.bbc.co.uk/news/ what it would have done had it remained overtly political song but because it the highest bidder but,
all are dependent directly or indirectly uk-politics-51157933). Faced with the in the EU. If this is indeed the final result, was produced in the USA and is sung to misquote the lyrics of
on the world market, which places resulting howl of protest from the CBI it will confirm that Brexit has been a fuss in English some suspect it of cynically another great rock band,
limits on the effective exercise of their and other representatives of capitalist about nothing, just about how a decision exploiting the environmental and ‘we’ve all been fooled
sovereignty. The UK has an additional industry at this expression of unconcern is made not about what it is. political concerns of its intended before’.
problem. It and the EU countries are for their interests, when he went to the youthful listeners. What is beyond WEZ
6 Socialist Standard March 2020 Socialist Standard March 2020 7
Contact details website: www.worldsocialism.org/spgb email: spgb@worldsocialism.org
UK BRANCHES & CONTACTS LU2 7LP. Gabalfa, Cardiff, CF14 3LG. 02920-615826.
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Africa’s food potential
month, 2.30pm. Head Office, 52 Clapham High Essex. Contact: Pat Deutz, 11 The Links, cana.
St, SW4 7UN. Contact: 020 7622 3811. Billericay, CM12 0EX. patdeutz@gmail.com.
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Email: stephenshapton@yahoo.co.uk. 02890 930002 THE PERCEPTION of many in know it is possible to restore
AUSTRALIA the developed countries is that exhausted soils and damaged
NORTH SCOTLAND Contact: Trevor Clarke, wspa.info@yahoo.com. Africa is always associated with ecosystems. In many parts of
North East Regional branch. Edinburgh branch. Meets 1st Thurs. 7-9pm. au poverty, disease, famine and war.
Contact: P. Kilgallon, c/o Head Office, 52 The Quaker Hall, Victoria Terrace (above Vic- Africa, the potential for restoration
Clapham High Street, SW4 7UN. toria Street), Edinburgh. Contact: J. Moir. 0131 EUROPE It is as if the Four Horsemen of the is enormous. Increasing climate
Lancaster branch. Meets 2nd Sun (Jan 3rd Sun), 440 0995. jimmyjmoir73@gmail.com Denmark. Contact: Graham Taylor, Kjaerslund Apocalypse have made the continent change resilience requires greater
3pm, Friends Meeting House, Meeting House Branch website: 9, Floor 2 (middle), DK-8260 Viby J. their personal domain. irrigation and more efficient water
Lane. Ring to confirm: P. Shannon, 07510 412 http://geocities.com/edinburghbranch/ Germany. Contact: Norbert. Yet Africa has considerable riches.
261, spgb.lancaster@worldsocialism.org. Glasgow branch. Meets 3rd Weds. at 7pm in weltsozialismus@gmx.net management. Over 90 percent of
Manchester branch. Contact: Paul Bennett, 6 Community Central Halls, 304 Maryhill Road, Norway. Contact: Robert Stafford. Africa has long been known for agriculture depends on rainfall,
Burleigh Mews, Hardy Lane, M21 7LB. 0161 Glasgow. Contact: Peter Hendrie, 75 Lairhills hallblithe@yahoo.com its resource abundance in both with no artificial irrigation aid.
860 7189. Road, East Kilbride, Glasgow G75 0LH. Italy. Contact: Gian Maria Freddi, agriculture and mineral resources. Many small farmers lack access to
Bolton. Contact: H. McLaughlin. 01204 844589. 01355 903105. Via Poiano n. 137, 37142 Verona. The ore deposits are so abundant
Cumbria. Contact: Brendan Cummings, 19 peter.anna.hendrie@blueyonder.co.uk. Spain. Contact: Alberto Gordillo, Avenida del mechanisation. Equipment such
Queen St, Millom, Cumbria LA18 4BG. Dundee. Contact: Ian Ratcliffe, 12 Finlow Ter- Parque. 2/2/3 Puerta A, 13200 Manzanares. that some of it has yet to be as cold storage and packaging can
Doncaster. Contact: Fredi Edwards, fredi. race, Dundee, DD4 9NA. 01382 698297. discovered. To date, though, Africa end the waste of food rotting and
edwards@hotmail.co.uk Ayrshire. Contact: Paul Edwards 01563 541138. COMPANION PARTIES OVERSEAS has struggled to translate these ease the transport to the cities
Liverpool. Contact: D. Whitehead, rainbow3@btopenworld.com. resources into shared wealth and
liverpool spgb@gmail.com Lothian Socialist Discussion @Autonomous Socialist Party of Canada/Parti Socialiste and other regions. The technology
Centre Edinburgh, ACE, 17 West Montgomery du Canada. Box 31024, Victoria B.C. V8N 6J3 sustained economic development. and the techniques are there. All
SOUTH/SOUTHEAST/SOUTHWEST Place, Edinburgh EH7 5HA. Meets 4th Weds. Canada. SPC@iname.com South Africa’s potential mineral in collusion with the foreign corporations, it requires to harness them is a change in
Kent and Sussex regional branch. Meets 2nd 7-9pm. Contact: F. Anderson 07724 082753. wealth is estimated to be around $2.5tn, the basis of society so that food can be
Sun. 2pm at The Muggleton Inn, High Street, World Socialist Party (India) 257 Baghajatin ‘E’ siphon off the proceeds from the
Maidstone ME14 1HJ. Contact: spgb.ksrb@ WALES Block (East), Kolkata - 700086, 033- 2425-0208.
while the mineral reserves of the Congo continent’s wealth – lining their own produced to directly feed people.
worldsocialism.org. South Wales Branch (Swansea) wspindia@hotmail.com are thought to be worth $24tn. In natural pockets, to the detriment of ordinary We can end and we must end global
South West regional branch. Meets 3rd Sat. Meets 2nd Mon, 7.30pm (except January, resources, Africa is still largely unexplored. Africans. poverty. We have the solutions for
2pm at the Railway Tavern, 131 South Western April, July and October), Unitarian Church, High World Socialist Party (New Zealand) There is so much natural wealth on the addressing malnutrition. Food produced
Road, Salisbury SP2 7RR. Contact: Ray Carr, Street, SA1 1NZ. Contact: Geoffrey Williams, 19 P.O. Box 1929, Auckland, NI, New Zealand. On a continent with an abundance of
Flat 1, 99 Princess Rd, Poole, BH12 1BQ. 01202 Baptist Well Street, Waun Wen, Swansea SA1
continent that a great deal of it is as yet arable land, Africa imports billions of in Africa could make a big contribution to
257556 or 07929627689. 6FB. 01792 643624. World Socialist Party of the United States. untapped. pounds worth of basic foodstuffs and still this. Millions of African farmers need no
Brighton. Contact: Anton Pruden, South Wales Branch (Cardiff) P.O. Box 440247, Boston, MA 02144 USA. However, most of the continent’s many parts there are not food secure. longer be poor or endure precarious lives.
anton@pruden.me Meets 2nd Saturday 12 noon (January, April, boston@wspus.org existing natural resources are owned and Africa has the land, water and people
Canterbury. Contact: Rob Cox, 4 Stanhope July and October) Cafe Nero, Capitol Shopping There is absolutely no reason for Africa to
Road, Deal, Kent, CT14 6AB. Centre, Queens Street, Cardiff. exploited by foreign, private corporations. be food insecure. Farming in Africa could needed to be an efficient agricultural
Luton. Contact: Nick White, 59 Heywood Drive, Contact: Richard Botterill, 21 Pen-Y-Bryn Rd, There is a common view that believes the theoretically become a major breadbasket producer.
wealthier countries are helping and aiding for the world. Africa has 65 percent of Under capitalism and without a change
the undeveloped and developing nations the world’s remaining arable land. Its vast in the economic structure there is good
in Africa, but such an outlook ignores the savannahs are estimated at 400 million reason to fear the projected rise in Africa’s
imbalance of trade and the relationship hectares. only 10 percent of which is population. Nevertheless, such a rise
that exists with the extractive industries cultivated. The Guinea Savannah, an area should not necessarily be treated as a
that dominate the African economy. across many countries, has the potential curse. The share of Africa’s working-age
More wealth leaves Africa every year to turn Africa into a bulk food producer. population is rising faster than any other
than enters it. It was calculated that Africa could feed itself and could help region and it will have a larger potential
African countries received $162bn in feed the world, too. The world is not workforce than either China or India. It is
2015, mainly in loans, aid and personal winning the war against global hunger. not a matter of an extra mouth to feed but
remittances. But in the same year, $203bn Climate change is already worsening an extra pair of helping hands and another
was taken from the continent through the situation, especially in sub-Saharan brain to think.
multinationals using subsidiaries to Africa. The challenge is not a technical The time is ripe for Africa to make
transfer profits into tax havens. Trade issue but rather a question of which type better use of its natural resources but
mis-pricing, that is, transfer pricing, and of society we need for production to take capitalism’s drive for capital accumulation
trade mis-invoicing, over-reporting of place. At the moment the techniques and profits at the expense of people’s
costs and under-reporting production used to cultivate the soil still lag behind consumption precludes long-lasting,
output are the most common ways what has been adopted in other parts sustained prosperity in Africa and will not
companies seek to maximise profits of the world. Improved grain varieties permit it to bear fruit. Looking at Africa
artificially through maximising expenses exist which produce harvests that are from a socialist perspective, we see the
in high-tax jurisdictions and maximising larger and drought and disease resistant. situation is far from hopeless. Africa is
income in low-tax jurisdictions. This The structure of agriculture itself can be one of the most important places for the
enables corporations to minimise tax changed. Smart farming with the use of future and its people among the most
payments and transfer the funds abroad. mobile phones and GPS can give farmers useful and needed in the world. The
This is compounded by overly generous information and advice. New techniques potential is enormous.
tax concessions provided by governments, in agriculture such as agro-ecology ALJO
often under duress. Local political elites, are proven to be more productive. We
8 Socialist Standard March 2020 Socialist Standard March 2020 9
What about Ireland?
S
inn Féin, recycled from being the political wing of one of the Change: Building Economic Democracy One Worker Co-op produced. The first enterprise to adopt some cheaper think that a single market will be a prelude to a single political
the physical-force Irish republican groups into a left-wing at a Time’. production method reaps extra profits, but this encourages, entity, especially as in the case of Ireland the Good Friday
reformist party, did surprisingly well in the elections in Those who voted SF are unlikely to have voted for this, in fact obliges those that can, to follow suit and the price of Agreement provides for a referendum on uniting with the
Ireland last month. They got the most first-preference votes but merely so that something should be done about growing the product falls, with the innovator’s profits falling back to Republic to be held if it is judged that a majority might favour
(24.5 percent) and ended up with 37 of the 160 seats in the inequality and poverty. However, it does illustrate the illusions normal. If an enterprise were to distribute all the profits it this. But this does not necessarily follow, as the co-existence
Dáil. The result was in effect a tie between them and each of SF’s policy makers. They criticise traditional private made to its owners for them to spend on their consumption, in Ireland for years of the political border with the economic
of the two other rather absurdly named traditional Irish enterprises for concentrating on short-term profits, but if then its cost of production would not fall and its products unity of the single market and customs union showed. Even if
political parties, Fine Gael (‘Tribe of the Gaels’), the party of worker co-ops are to compete against them with any chance of would become uncompetitive; eventually it would go under a majority were to favour political unity, holding a referendum
the outgoing Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, and Fianna Fáil surviving they, too, would have to pursue the same economic and its owners would lose their money. Very few private would risk igniting ‘the Border’ as a burning – and completely
(‘Soldiers of Destiny’), founded by Republican hard-liner De objective of profit. They would have to make profits as they enterprises are that short-termist. irrelevant and dangerously divisive -- issue again, with a
Valera, which got 35 and 37 seats respectively. would be operating within the context of a capitalist economy, The point is that the same pressure to give priority to profit- significant minority likely to be fiercely opposed to it, even to
When the original Sinn Féin was founded in 1905 it was an which is based on competitive profit-seeking. making and re-investing most of it applies whatever the legal the extent of taking up arms. It would be better from all points
Irish nationalist party (‘We Ourselves’) catering for small- form and internal structure of the enterprise. A worker co-op of view to let sleeping dogs lie.
scale Irish capitalists eager to break away from the rest of the The capitalist economy would have to operate on the same basis. Internally it might But even if it did happen without re-igniting political
UK so as to be able to erect tariffs to protect them from the The capitalist economy – which SF would leave unchanged be more democratic and less hierarchical but the decisions violence, it wouldn’t make much difference to the life of
competition of bigger British capitalists. Its first leader, Arthur while launching ‘one worker co-op at a time’ – is based on that have to be taken, whoever takes them, will have to be ordinary people. Capitalism would remain, and they would
Griffith, proclaimed that, if an Irish capitalist firm was being separate enterprises competing to meet paying demand in the same. And of course a worker co-op can also go under, remain excluded from ownership and control of the means of
undercut by an English competitor, ‘it is the first duty of the their sphere of activity. The weapon used in this struggle with the workers losing not only their jobs but their savings life and so obliged to work for a wage or salary for those who
Irish nation to accord protection to that Irish manufacturer’ is to produce more cheaply than your rivals but, to do this, too. Some succeed but those that do end up behaving like any own and control them. The pillar boxes in the North might be
and that ‘under the Sinn Féin policy... no possibility would you must re-invest the major part of the profits you make other business enterprise, even employing non-members as painted green – or maybe the settlement would allow them to
be left... for a syndicate of unscrupulous English capitalists in machinery and other ways that reduce the cost per unit wage-workers. remain red – but that would be all.
to crush out the home manufacturer and the home trader’ In any event, given the nature of Irish politics, SF will never ADAM BUICK
(Arthur Griffith, The Sinn Féin Policy, 1907). govern on its own but only as part of a coalition. Its openly
This was the policy that the De Valera Fianna Fáil pro-capitalist partners may well indulge it by allowing it to
government that came to power in 1932 began to implement, fund setting up a worker co-op or two but that will be as far
involving a tariff war between Britain and Ireland. as it goes. And if the experience of those set up by Tony Benn Mary Lou McDonald, President of Sinn Féin
Now it’s a different story. In a 2019 policy document, in Britain when he was minister of industry in the 1970s is
Ownership Matters, Sinn Féin states that it wants ‘an economy anything to go by, their chances of succeeding wouldn’t be that
that works for workers’ (mind you, don’t they all, given that high; all those he patronised eventually folded.
workers make up the vast majority of electors?). After citing
figures for wealth inequality and poverty in Ireland, SF went Up the Border?
on: Sinn Féin still stands for a 32-county Irish Republic – as did,
‘Sinn Féin believes that this wealth inequality is a result at one time, the more fiercely named Fianna Fáil party – but
of our economy being detrimentally ‘short-termist’ in its this has come into prominence, not as a result of SF’s election
outlook – with private firms, through financial intermediaries, successes north and south of the Border but as a fall-out from
weighing near-term profit outcomes too heavily at the expense Brexit. Which is rather ironic in itself since Sinn Féin, as an
of longer-term sustainability. This has become the hegemonic isolationist nationalist party, opposed Ireland joining the EU
strategy for private enterprise. The reality is that ownership and urged a No vote in all the referendums to amend and
shapes purpose. If we allow our economy to be owned and extend the EU’s powers.
controlled by a small group of elites whose objective is that People in Northern Ireland voted 56 to 44 percent in
of profit, then that will be the purpose of our economy. If, favour of Remaining in the EU and the EU insisted – and Boris
however, we agree as a society that our preference is to Johnson acquiesced – that the political border on the island
establish an economy based upon productivity, sustainability should not become an economic border again. It never was
and equality then ownership of our economy must be until De Valera and Fianna Fáil came to power in the ‘Free
equitably spread across society’ (www.sinnfein.ie/files/2019/ State’ as it then was and pursued a policy of independent
Workers_Co-operatives.pdf). capitalist development before they eventually gave up and
Then came the punch line: ‘This new economy can be signed the Anglo-Irish Free Trade Agreement in 1965. In 1973
achieved through alternative models of business ownership. Ireland and Britain joined the European Economic Community
Sinn Féin believes that the Worker Co-operative Model offers (as the EU was then called and still essentially is) together.
an exciting and innovative alternative.’ Not to be achieved in So, the north and south of Ireland will continue to have
one go, but, in the words of a slogan the document coins, ‘Own frictionless trade. As with the EU itself, there are those who
10 Socialist Standard March 2020 Socialist Standard March 2020 11
Dr Hannah Fry Noam Chomsky
applications came from men, and thus decided that being male computing techniques.
was a desirable quality in an applicant (reut.rs/3af79FS). The capacity of such algorithms, Church points out, brings
into play the possibility for them to handle resource allocation,
Resource allocation to actively supply human wants in a real-time fashion:
Deep reinforcement learning, though, is a powerful tool. ‘Over the last few decades, researchers have developed
AlphaGo defeated a human grandmaster at the immensely a range of pretty effective mathematical solutions that can
complex Japanese boardgame ‘Go’ after teaching itself allocate resources across a variety of industries and scenarios
the game (this is radically different from when human so they can attempt to keep up with the daily demands our
programmers helped Deep Blue to defeat Gary Kasparov at lives place on them. But when an allocation made at one
T
chess). time affects subsequent allocations, the problem becomes
he apparent brains behind the Johnson ministry, potential to profoundly benefit broader society too’ (Guardian, ‘Systems employing this approach have already been used dynamic, and the passing of time must be considered as part
Dominic Cummings, has been ruffling feathers with a 5 January). to optimise system performance in areas including resource of the equation. This throws a mathematical spanner in the
blog post calling for ‘data scientists, project managers, She points out there are limits to using maths to model management, device payment optimisation and data centre works, requiring these solutions to now take into account the
policy experts, assorted weirdos’ (tinyurl.com/yx3yrpd8). society, and that an understanding of humans must go cooling’ (Gemma Church, The maths problems that could bring changing and uncertain nature of the real world’.
Tellingly, the posts are advertised via his blog, rather than alongside any such scientific modelling. the world to a halt, tinyurl.com/sc767a8). Amazon is already using the data it collects to train
the usual civil service recruitment routes, and applicants are As Noam Chomsky has pointed out: Such systems are beginning to solve problems that have algorithms to anticipate what it needs to stock and ship.
asked to apply to a Gmail address. Cummings has form for ‘A vision of a future social order is in turn based on a hitherto been considered computationally intractable: Amazon has to solve optimisation problems, trying to
trying to use personal accounts to circumvent freedom of concept of human nature. If in fact man is an indefinitely involving too many permutations and requiring too much maximise use of its warehouses, while minimising its delivery
information rules. This is all part of his ‘disruptive’ persona, malleable, completely plastic being, with no innate structures processing time to be realistically solved using traditional routes and matching that with courier availability and flights,
looking to shake up the stuffy old civil service, and get things of mind and no intrinsic needs of a cultural or social character, trains, etc. The trick with such immensely complex problems
done: then he is a fit subject for the “shaping of behavior” by the is not to solve them absolutely, but to approximate as closely
‘We need some true wild cards, artists, people who never state authority, the corporate manager, the technocrat, as possible in a computationally realistic amount of time. It
went to university and fought their way out of an appalling or the central committee. Those with some confidence in is this non-absolute characteristic that enables algorithms to
hell hole, weirdos from William Gibson novels like that girl the human species will hope this is not so and will try to steadily improve. The solution to the millions of variables in a
hired by Bigend as a brand “diviner” who feels sick at the determine the intrinsic human characteristics that provide the delivery system is to look for good enough, not the perfect.
sight of Tommy Hilfiger or that Chinese-Cuban free runner framework for intellectual development, the growth of moral The algorithms that YouTube and Amazon use to
from a crime family hired by the KGB. If you want to figure out consciousness, cultural achievement, and participation in a recommend content to customers are changing and evolving
what characters around Putin might do, or how international free community’ (Language and Freedom). in an ecosystem that drives them to improve and ultimately
criminal gangs might exploit holes in our border security, you Fry herself had addressed these questions in the Royal provide us with the goods and services we want. Effectively,
don’t want more Oxbridge English graduates who chat about Institution Christmas Lectures (which should be available via producing a profit-driven, private planned economy.
Lacan at dinner parties with TV producers and spread fake YouTube by the time this article comes to print). In one of Algorithms are unhuman, as per Searle’s Chinese room
news about fake news’. them she addressed the: (see: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_room) they can learn
It is a bit strange to complain of liberal arts graduates via ‘decade in which we learned the lessons of charging ahead to follow a set of rules and respond to inputs, but they lack
citing a work of fiction, and tellingly, Cummings remembers without first carefully thinking about the ethics of forcing intentionality and the inherent structures of feeling and
the name of Hubertus Bigend, the uber-capitalist anti-hero of equations on to human systems. There were the stories humanness that people possess. Humans are essential to
Gibson’s Blue Ant series, but not Cayce Pollard (‘that girl’). about racist algorithms in the criminal justice system, and working with algorithmic artificial intelligence to make
He also wants data scientists to look at models of system sexist algorithms designed to filter job applications. YouTube it serve our needs, rather than that of the special form of
change and dynamic modelling of viral information. was accused of unwittingly radicalising some of its viewers. Artificial Intelligence that is the capitalist firm. The computing
Seemingly, Cummings wants to bring systems analysis and Indeed, some would argue that the world is still reeling from resources are there to enable us to better model and predict
mathematical thinking into the heart of government. He’d the consequences of mathematical equations gone awry, both chaotic systems, but they need a political determination on the
have to be prepared to pay well, since those skilled with such during the time leading up to the 2008 financial crash and part of us all to avoid them being used to service the needs of
talents can find good work in automated trading and business Facebook failing to consider the consequences of its newsfeed the ruling minority. We don’t need Cummings’ technocratic
analysis in the City. algorithms’. weirdos to change and shape our world, but we can use their
She also explained, however, how algorithms are being ideas to improve our lives: but only if we are running society
Maths not everything taught to learn, through deep reinforcement learning, being on our own behalf.
The mathematics populariser Dr Hannah Fry took issue with ‘rewarded’ for successfully finding the correct result in their In the words of D.H. Lawrence:
Cummings’ call: task, and ‘punished’ for failing. She demonstrated this via a For God’s sake, let us be men
‘There is some truth to this – there are a host of government pile of matchboxes that had been ‘taught’ to play noughts and not monkeys minding machines
questions that could benefit from a more mathematical take. crosses. or sitting with our tails curled
In everything from bin collection timetables to Brexit policy, The problem, as with the racist and sexist algorithms, is that while the machine amuses us, the radio or film or
I’d love to see more decisions made on the basis of evidence if the original data used to teach the algorithm is skewed: Fry, gramophone.
over instinct. The big-data revolution has transformed in her Guardian article, linked to an example of how Amazon’s Monkeys with a bland grin on our faces.
the private sector, and I wholeheartedly believe it has the recruitment algorithm had learned that most successful John Searle PIK SMEET
12 Socialist Standard March 2020 Socialist Standard March 2020 13
A Bad Criticism of Marx’s Labour
Theory of Value Capital and Labour by Henry Stacy Marks
I
n an article on 12 January for the website Dissident Voice that gives them exchange value. Marx is not a materialist after
entitled ‘Marx’s Labor Theory of Value: Bad Science and all, at least not when it comes to exchange value’
Bad for Ecological Socialism’, David Pena launches a For Marx’s theory to be ‘scientific’, claims Pena, it needs
stinging attack on the Marxian theory of value and outlines to identify ‘an empirically detectable and measurable
an alternative theory which he evidently considers more property that gives value to commodities, and a theory that
appropriate to an age of heightened environmental concern is consistent with fundamental propositions of other relevant
(tinyurl.com/tbgjo92). sciences, such as physics and chemistry’. But since abstract
Pena is not exactly breaking new ground, though. The labour is not something physical and therefore not empirically
intellectual origins of some of his ideas can be traced back to detectable and measurable, it follows that Marx’s theory
writers such as Sergei Podolinsky, in the 1880s, a pioneer in cannot be materialist or scientific.
the field of ‘energetics’, who tried to reconcile Marx’s labour Oddly enough, until recently there was no empirical
theory of value with the laws of thermodynamics. evidence for the existence of black holes in outer space. Were
Classical economists like Adam Smith and David Ricardo the astrophysicists inferring the existence of such phenomena
maintained that a commodity’s value depended on how much being ‘unscientific’ in doing so? The value of scientific theory
labour went into making it. This argument was taken up and lives in its predictive power and this is the basis on which
refined by Marx. It is important to understand that Marx’s Marx’s theory must be judged.
theory does not equate ‘value’ with the actual amount of
labour it took to produce a good – ‘concrete labour’. If that Naïve empiricism
were case there would never be any incentive to introduce It is precisely the kind of naïve empiricism Pena espouses
labour-displacing technology since this would mean less value which focusses only on the outer appearance of phenomena
being produced. Rather the metric of value is ‘abstract labour’ that Marx criticised in his analysis of capital. Capital is not a
– the socially necessary labour time it takes to produce a good, thing but a social relationship. As he explained in Wage Labour
from start to finish, under average industry-wide conditions. and Capital (1847):
‘Socially necessary labour time’ is not something you can ‘A Negro is a Negro. Only under certain conditions does he
measure with a stop watch – like concrete labour. Moreover, become a slave. A cotton-spinning machine is a machine for the labour of nature in its production should be paid for Value as a social relationship
it can only express itself through market exchange. As Marx spinning cotton. Only under certain conditions does it become before it is carried off and made use of? When the miner Pena does not see this because he does not grasp that value is
explained: ‘Social labour-time exists in these commodities capital. Torn away from these conditions, it is as little capital has dug his way down to the ore, does Plutus hinder its essentially a social relationship based on economic exchange.
in a latent state, so to speak, and becomes evident only as gold is itself money, or sugar is the price of sugar.’ appropriation? Nature is not, as so many would have us to His physical reductionist approach to the whole subject also
in the course of their exchange. Universal social labour is Pena is committing the same error as those who conflate suppose, frugal and grudging. Her rude products, and her informs his absurd claim that Marx’s labour theory is ‘bad for
consequently not a ready-made prerequisite but an emerging these things. This can be extended to include also natural various capacities and powers, are all freely offered to man. ecological socialism’. Since the theory posits only labour as
result’.(A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, resources as in Schumacher’s comment that ‘Natural capital She neither demands nor receives a return for her favours. the source of value it overlooks and devalues, he supposes,
Lawrence & Wishart, Ch. 1, p. 45). Meaning the value of a is the world’s stock of natural resources’ (Small is Beautiful, Her services are of inestimable utility; but being granted freely the contribution of Mother Nature to our material wellbeing.
product can change even after it has been produced as a result 1973). Inadvertently or otherwise this ‘has the effect of and unconditionally, they are wholly destitute of value, and But this is to totally miss the point. Marx’s labour theory
of ongoing technological and other changes. ‘naturalising’ capitalism, rendering its categories timeless and are consequently without the power of communicating that of value is an explanation of the modus operandi of a system
ahistorical. quality to any thing.’(The Principles of Political Economy, 1864) socialists want to get rid of, not perpetuate. We want to
Pena’s criticism Pena describes ‘value’ in much the same vein: Nature, along with human labour, is of course the source bring about a society in which the exchange values no longer
Pena begins by identifying what he believes is a basic flaw in ‘value in its original and grounding manifestation, the dual of all use values but, as McCulloch points out, makes no exist and use values are the sole consideration. It is the
Marx’s theory: form of matter and energy, pre-exists human and all other life contribution whatsoever to the production of exchange values. very existence of economic exchange that gets in the way
‘“Abstract human labor,” according to Marx, is the “value forms. The worker is an arranger and discoverer of values, but The latter is a product of human society and even then, only of our fully appreciating, and acting upon, the latter and is
forming substance” that is “materialized” in commodities. not a creator. Nature is the source of all values, not only use a very particular and recent form of human society called incompatible with ‘ecological socialism’.
... But how can an immaterial element (an abstraction) values, as Marx erroneously believed.’ capitalism in which alone the law of value applies. Ironically, Pena himself calls for the retention of exchange
become materialized and take up residence in a physical So instead of commodities having in common the fact that It makes intuitive sense that abstract labour should be the value and even argues ‘If we cannot understand and measure
commodity (like the word becoming flesh)? What a confusion they are products of human labour, their commensurability basis of value under capitalism since this system sprang from value… we cannot have socialism’. But you cannot divorce
of categories!’ hinges on the fact that they all require energy to produce. As alienation of the great majority from the means of producing ‘exchange value’ from the system of generalised commodity
This is making rather heavy weather over what is, after Pena puts it: ‘Rationally expended energy is the “common wealth. The economic compulsion this imposes on them to sell production called capitalism. And you cannot divorce
all, just a metaphor. That Marx saw value as something element” of all commodities. The amount of expenditure their working abilities – or ‘labour power’ – to the capitalists capitalism from the relentless accumulation of capital it
immaterial is quite true (even if he used a ‘material’ metaphor represented by the finished commodity is its objective in return for a wage with which they can buy their own means entails.
like ‘substance’). As he put it ‘the value of commodities is the exchange value.’ of subsistence is precisely what makes for the generalisation When Marx and Engels talked in the Communist Manifesto of
very opposite of the coarse materiality of their substance, Pena thus wants to make ‘energy’ the fundamental metric of of commodity production and, hence, for the ‘value’ to come the need to ‘increase the total of productive forces as rapidly
not an atom of matter enters into its composition’ (Capital exchange value because it is physical and can be empirically into play. as possible’ all they meant by this was that these needed
Vol 1, Ch.1). Value here is a construct in the same way as the measured (unlike the ‘metaphysical’ concept of abstract The worker under capitalism does not approach the to be developed to the point where human needs could be
statement, ‘the national average for children per family unit labour). However, exchange value presupposes and springs capitalist offering a particular bundle of energy (measured in adequately met as a precondition of socialism itself. This was
is 1.8’, is a construct. As far as we know there is no actual from commodity production and cannot really be understood joules) in exchange for a wage. Rather, they offer a particular emphatically not a recipe for infinite growth, as Pena seems to
‘material’ family unit consisting of 1.8 children. outside of this context – which, unfortunately, is precisely skill which the capitalist specifically requires. The application think, or some Promethean desire for ‘production for its own
For Pena, however, this smacks of a contradiction. How what Pena wants to do. of her labour power in the process of labouring is what creates sake’.
can something as immaterial and abstract as value become We see this in his claim that value, ‘pre-exists human and a greater value than the value of the wages she receives and is Unfortunately, by arguing for the retention of a system of
‘congealed’ in (and thus, according to him, be transformed all other life forms’ and has its source in nature. The perfect the source of that capitalist’s great wealth. economic exchange (and exchange values couched in units of
into) a material substance? Labour is a process not a riposte to this is the rather colourful observation made by True, labour in any society (including societies without energy), Pena himself is unwittingly helping to promote the
substance. Consequently: the nineteenth-century Ricardian economist John Ramsay commodities or markets) involves the expenditure of energy very thing that increasingly imperils our global ecosystem
‘Despite all the talk about Marx’s materialism, his theory is McCulloch, as follows: but so too does leisure, love-making and tending to one’s about which he is (quite rightly) concerned.
obviously based on an immaterialist metaphysics, which holds ‘When a fish is caught, or a tree is felled, do the nereids allotment. But none of these latter activities necessarily entail ROBIN COX
that all commodities share a common non-material property or wood-nymphs make their appearance, and stipulate that commodity exchange and the production of exchange values.
14 Socialist Standard March 2020 Socialist Standard March 2020 15
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