The Practical Truth of Abstract Labour - Chris Arthur

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Arthur 14-Dec-12 6 treats the abstract formula as having a separate existence from the concrete as the latter’s ‘truth’ such that the concrete is then simply a body for the logic then this inversion is mystical. But in the process of valorisation there is indeed an autonomous existence of the ideal insofar as the concrete labour-process carries a distinct set of abstract determinations that posit value. Here the abstract formula of production, namely ‘positing’, is in its very abstraction a reality. A real inversion has occurred; value-positing is the truth of the labour process and determines the latter as the effective carrier (Träger) of the valorisation process. As such the labour process is ‘subsumed’ under the valorisation process. 15 As thus subsumed labour is not regarded under its specific useful forms but it is reduced to an abstraction of itself. Thus, even though all real labour is particular in its action, here indifference towards the specific content of labour is not merely an abstraction made by the observer, it is also made by capital. When the process of valorisation is borne by the material production process, this labour process takes the abstract form of the pure activity of value positing. The Source of Value 15 See Arthur 2009b.
Arthur 14-Dec-12 7 The question is frequently raised as to whether abstract labour is predicated on exchange or production. In truth the answer to this presupposes the answer to the question where value is created. Following the value-form approach, pioneered by I. I. Rubin, it appears as if value is created in exchange. He therefore defined abstract labour as that part of total social labour equalised through the equation of the products of labour on the market. 16 It is clear then that it is the form of value which imposes such abstraction thus linking the category of abstract labour inseparably with money. 17 However, as Rubin stressed, if production is carried on for the sake of exchange of commodities value exists latently, so to speak, prior to its realisation in exchange. However, this verbal solution requires further concretisation. According to an orthodoxy descended from Engels exchange is first to be studied in the context of so-called simple commodity production (or at least in the context of consideration of production in general without regard to its specification as capitalist). 18 But this approach inevitably results in the naturalisation of production because social determinations seem to arise only within exchange and circulation. By contrast, if value is actual only in capitalist commodity production then production is carried on within the circuit of capital, thus itself is value-formed; hence abstract labour is also a determination of production insofar as it is subsumed under 16 Rubin 1994, p. 48.
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Page 3 and 4: Arthur 14-Dec-12 3 specific histori
Page 5: Arthur 14-Dec-12 5 the empirical em
Page 9 and 10: Arthur 14-Dec-12 9 But first I will
Page 11 and 12: Arthur 14-Dec-12 11 labour. But if
Page 13 and 14: Arthur 14-Dec-12 13 ground of valor
Page 15 and 16: Arthur 14-Dec-12 15 abstracted from
Page 17 and 18: Arthur 14-Dec-12 17 value, the livi
Page 19 and 20: Arthur 14-Dec-12 19 Also, it is nec
Page 21 and 22: Arthur 14-Dec-12 21 The concrete la
Page 23 and 24: Arthur 14-Dec-12 23 way, capital ma
Page 25 and 26: Arthur 14-Dec-12 25 could even spea
Page 27 and 28: Arthur 14-Dec-12 27 The naturalisti
Page 29 and 30: Arthur 14-Dec-12 29 commodities. On
Page 31 and 32: Arthur 14-Dec-12 31 its productive
Page 33 and 34: Arthur 14-Dec-12 33 Labour and Feti
Page 35 and 36: Arthur 14-Dec-12 35 as the commodit
Page 37 and 38: Arthur 14-Dec-12 37 We have argued
Page 39 and 40: Arthur 14-Dec-12 39 Arthur, Christo
Page 41 and 42: Arthur 14-Dec-12 41 Marx, Karl and
Page 43: Arthur 14-Dec-12 43 Concept abstrac

The Practical Truth of Abstract Labour - Chris Arthur

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