Das Kapital: come on...you know you read it in like 12th grade!

A few of us tried a "group approach" to it one summer on the banks of the Otonabee River(outside of the classroom), but got only halfway through Vol. 1.

Loved the opening lines regarding what work should look like.

Still think that the labour theory of value is the most pertinent in a world whose minerals, forests and oceans are disappearing at about the rate of asset accumulation by Homo sapiens.

But your tendency to blame Keynesians for the loss of the theory is a bit late from the gate...look to the old classics - even the saintly Veblen (and one of his students, Stephen Leacock) for an earlier avoidance of the concept. Labour was really getting restive, back then. [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]

Only Germans and dilettantes refer to it as "Das Kapital". The rest of us call it Capital.

Enemy_of_capital, sorry for kidding around, I'm just a bit of a kidder by nature. I read all this stuff when I was your age, and I thought I had gone to heaven. I didn't find any of it easy, but I had this feeling that I mustn't miss a word. It was like reading Darwin or (some) Shakespeare. Maybe I'll go back after all these years and have another look. Life takes over, makes you "busy", and is very unforgiving. All of a sudden, you're old, even though you still feel young.

Check this out: [url=http://davidharvey.org/]Reading Marx's Capital.[/url]

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Originally posted by enemy_of_capital:
[b]Das Kapital: come on...you know you read it in like 12th grade![/b]

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We did?

What the heck school did YOU go to, anyhow? [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img] We read Margaret Atwood, Mordecai Richler, and Shakespeare.

[url=http://links.org.au/node/686]Free download: Marxist Economics -- A handbook of basic definitions[/url]

This 42-page handbook, published in 1998, is now available free in .pdf format.

From the Table of Contents:

1. Commodities — 5
2. Use-value — 6
3. Value — 6
4. Concrete labour and abstract labour — 6
5. Simple labour and complex labour — 8
6. Socially necessary labour — 8
7. Exchange — the form of value — general equivalent — money — the law of value — 9
8. General formula of capital — 11
9. Surplus value and exchange — 12
10. Labour-power and its value — 13
11. But what is this newly created value? — 13
12. The production of surplus-value — 14
13. Capital as a social relation — 15
14. Constant capital and variable capital — 16
15. Absolute surplus-value — relative surplus-value — extra surplus-value — 17
16. The wage — 19
17. Production and reproduction — 19
18. Simple capitalist reproduction — 20
19. Expanded capitalist reproduction — capital accumulation — 22
20. The organic composition of capital, the concentration and centralisation of capital — 23
21. Industrial reserve army — 24
22. Relative pauperisation — 25
23. Fundamental contradiction of the capitalist mode of production — 25
24. The cycle of capital — 26
25. Capital turnover — 28
26. Fixed capital and circulating capital — 28
27. Annual rate of surplus-value and methods for the acceleration of capital turnover — 30
28. Capitalist production costs and profit — 32
29. Rate of profit — 32
30. Formation of the average rate of profit and transformation of the value of the commodities into a production price — 33
31. Tendential decline in the rate of profit — 36
32. Commercial capital — banking capital — 37
33. Periodic crises of overproduction — 39

Most people can't get past Volume I. Even if I haven't read Das Kapital in its entirety, I have read key parts to deem Volumes II and III to be more interesting than Volume I.

A better substitute for Volume I would be [i]The Economic Doctrines of Karl Marx[/i] by Karl Kautsky.

Nevertheless, in Das Kapital CLASS is defined NOT by relation to MOP (contrary to the common perception), but to surplus value.

[ 20 October 2008: Message edited by: Jacob Richter ]

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[url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/mandel/1967/intromet/index.htm]An Introduction to Marxist Economic Theory[/url]

Vancouver Socialist Forum is holding a series of three educational discussions, each of which will cover one of the three chapters of this work. I would recommend this work as an excellent introductory text on Marxist economics.

[url=http://rabble.ca/columnists/we-all-need-be-marxian-critics-now][color=me... all need to be Marxian critics now[/u][/color][/url], says Duncan Cameron.

Maybe it would be more accessible with a catchy melody.

[url=http://www.macaudailytimesnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=vie... Daily Times: China to unleash "Marx the Musical"[/url]

Quote:

High-kicking Chinese Marxists are set to bring communism's most famous tract to life – as a musical.

An all-singing, all-dancing stage version of Das Kapital is being produced in Shanghai to show how the thinking of Karl Marx is as relevant in today's economic crisis as when his book was first published in 1867, producers said Monday.

"The entertainment and theatrical elements will help ordinary people better understand why the financial crisis is happening," said Zhang Jun, a Fudan University economics professor, who is an advisor on the production.

He said his role is to ensure Marx's ideas are accurately represented in the stage spectacular.

"I've given an introductory briefing to the crew. They are still working on the script," Zhang added.

"The director, He Nian, will incorporate modern elements in the show to make it easily connect to people's lives and feelings."

The musical will revolve around a group of office workers who discover their boss is exploiting them and each responds differently, the China Daily newspaper reported.

"We will bring [Marx's] economic theories to life in a trendy, interesting and educational play, which will be fun to watch," the paper quoted He as saying.

The show is still in the development stage and would likely debut in the middle of next year at the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre, the centre's general manager Yang Shaolin said.

Yang said the idea was inspired by the popularity of a Japanese manga comic book adaptation of "Das Kapital" published in December.

"That's part of the reason why we are confident a theoretical masterpiece can be transformed into something easy-to-understand," Yang said.

Although Marx was austere, the show might adopt a style and panache comparable to Broadway or Las Vegas, he said.

"We will not rule out any kind of performing style as long as it entertains our audience and helps them better understand the book," Yang said.

enemy_of_capital wrote:

the third volume is where things get messy with much in the way of philosophy which throws one right off when one has spent the better part of a year and a half reading and analyzing 200 year old economic data and theory.

Hardly anybody ever reads the third volume. Yet this is the primary source of Marx's thinking on ecology, and forms much of the basis for the modern movement for ecosocialism.

[Edited to delete link to related thread that is now permanently consigned to babble cut-out limbo]

Marxian economics is an oxymoron.

Its only good in so far as critique as well as wanting to create a completely new way of existing. When it comes to policy on the other hand Marxists tend to be disasters.

When it comes to the former I look to people like Charles Fourier, Max Stirner, the situationists international ect for inspiration. When I think of the latter in terms of a practical appropraition of modern dynamics I tend to see things like the communist manifesto as a bad idea. I would at least look into people like Proudohn someone who was not as radical in critique but at least has a working model.

It's an easy read once you get past the first three chapters.  The chapter on the working day implies a political demand the workers need to raise, even today.

Yes, exchange value is market value, but use-value is NOT intrinsic value.  It is in fact more akin to the marginalist concept of utility.

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Marxian economics is an oxymoron.

Its only good in so far as critique as well as wanting to create a completely new way of existing.

Another liberal who only understands Marx as a crisis economist tries to derail this thread.

The David Harvey videos are good I understand (haven't seen them all myself). However, mention should at least be made of one of the best summaries of Marxist Political Economy in English. I mean Paul Sweezy's The Theory of Capitalist Development. You can still get it from the Monthly Review Press in the US. Sweezy's other famous book, Monopoly Capital, is worth mentioning as well.