New Left, Local Control, and Fascism

18
society. Thereafter, the possibility for the continued by the ratio S'/(C+V). Since "V" represents the
existence of mercantile capitalism came to depend material cost of producing a working class in terms of
largely on the rate at which the wealth of society (the current production as a whole, the capitalist cannot
available loot) was augmented by capitalist production, significantly underpay that class (from the standpoint
In this way, the permissible average rate of profit of prevailing productive technology)without reproduc-
• tended to conver_ge on the rate of profit determined by ing a working class either too physically debilitated or
the rate of social reproduction (S'/(C+V)) of the culturally deprived to carry on modern production...
emerging working class, except as he can dump sections of the class on a human
scrap-heap (e.g., Speer-Himmler-Krupp or Nixon-
Economy as a Whole Lindsay-Rockefeller) or cause other classes (e.g., peasants)
to bear the social costs of producing new work-
That is also to emphasize the absolutely indispensable ers. Similarly, within the bounds of looting nature (e.g.,
rigor demanded by Rosa Luxemburg. The relations of pollution of air, water, etc., oil monopolies), the necescapitalist
accumulation are by no means located in the sary current costs for "C" are a determined portion of
local point of production and employment, but in the existing useful production. So, as "C" and "V" are
relationship between capitalist accumulation as a whole thus approximately determined, and as technology and
and social reproduction as a whole- in the contra- the social-political system created by the capitalists
dictions between capitalist accumulation and the devel- themselves determines "D," the mass of "S' " left to
opment of the "productive forces" (Capital, Volume provide real payments for profit, debt-service and rent,
III). is delimited by the scale of production and the productivity
of the social-reproductive process. The general
Capitalist accumulation involves the capitalization of rate of capitalists' accumulation is asymptotically
part of the previously "earned" profit, debt-service bounded by the rate of social reproduction n thus, the
and rent taken by capitalists as new capital -- thus capitalist accumulation process is subject to a Law of
increasing the total mass of capital demanding new Value!
profit, and thereby increasing the absolute mass of
profit demanded by capitalists as a whole. However, Crises occur under capitalism because of the rising
this considered, once the boundary conditions of the productivity of labor-power! It is not a lack of workers'
late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were encoun- productivity that causes capitalist crises, but "the
tered by mercantile capitalist accumulation in Europe, irrepressible tendency of workers to become constantly
the mass of profit available to be taken by capitalists more productive." In short, the "wage-price spiral" is
tended to be bounded by the mass of "s' " created by simply hogwash!
capitalist production in terms of the labor - process (the
process of social reproduction of the working class). The reason lies in the nature of capital itself. When
Indeed, a large part of capitalist profit has always been the productivity of labor rises, all commodities are
obtained to this day from "primitive accumulation:" reduced in their socially-necessary cost n as we indithe
looting of nature ("ecology crisis") and looting of cated in the preceding section. Or, in other words, the
the proletariat (genocide, mass impoverishment, star- commodities produced yesterday have been deprecivation
of hundreds of millions of unemployed workers ated in value.
in the colonial sector). However, since this looting is
delimited by a relatively-fixed available mass of such This has little effect on what is called Circulating
loot to be taken, the rate of production of surplus value Capital the mass of capitalist investment in current
(S) is the absolute boundary for capitalist accumulation, labor and materials. However, as the ratio of Fixed
It is this fact which subjects capitalist accumulation to a Capital (plant and heavy equipment) to Circulating
Law of Value, a subjection which is singularly manifest Capital increases, the depreciation of old capital tends
as a tangible "fact" in recurring capitalist depressions to be greater than the increased profits resulting from
and wars. higher productivity. Thus, in any industrial economy in
which dead costs are capitalized on the basis of pre-
It is by no means a mere metaphor to assert that the vious rates of productivity, this problem must arise.
immediate empirical relationship between capitalist
accumulation and the Law of Value is never explicitly, Credit System
tangibly demonstrated except in periodic depressions.
The depression is not an accidental feature of capital- Now, because of the credit-monetary system under
ism, but is a most lawful feature. To understand a capitalism, some remarkable consequences ensue.
capitalist economy the analyst must interpret the econ- Through the credit-system, the capitalist is able to price
omy as a process connecting successive depressions, the aggregate mass of produced commodities at an
inflated price which covers both the actual value of
The Law of Value operates in the following elemen- current production and also his losses due to productary
way. The ability of the capitalist to obtain profit is tivity-caused depreciation of Fixed Capital. So, the total
bounded by the process of social reproduction, that is price of all commodities tends to exceed the money put