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Karl Marx in the 21st Century
Ticktin, Hillel
http://solidarity-us.org/atc/197/marx-in-21st-century/Date Written: 2018-11-01 Publisher: Against the Current Year Published: 2018 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX23437 Looking at how Marx's theories can explain today's global crisis. Abstract: -- Excerpt: Marx was searching for the essence of capitalism underlying its growth and eventual replacement. For this purpose he developed powerful concepts that transformed those used at that time. In particular, the concept of "abstract labor" is crucial in reformulating the labor theory of value, taken over from Ricardo. [This means the universal quality of human labor, where "in its character of identical abstract human labour, it creates and forms the value of commodities” that can be exchanged in a system of generalized commodity production. Capital Volume I, chapter 1 — ed.] To understand that measurement of labor time is both an advance and an imposition on humanity was a huge leap forward. Capital can then be seen as built by workers under the control of a ruling class. At the same time, capital has its own independent dynamic driving the class itself both individually and collectively Subject Headings |