Workers' Liberty

Creche available. Email awl[++at++]workersliberty.org or phone 020 7207 3997 to book a place.

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The aim of the day school is to introduce comrades to some of the key categories in Capital. These help us to understand how capitalism works and show the continued relevance of the book. The intention is for comrades to use the school as a springboard for reading (or re-reading) Capital.

Download the reading here.

There will be three participatory workshop sessions around the following groups of discussion points.

A) Unlocking the nature of capitalism

1) What does Marx mean by:

• commodities

• use-value
• value
• exchange-value
• abstract labour, or average social labour?

2) We grow up, in a capitalist society, thinking that pretty much all
goods and services, as a matter of course, have a number (price)
attached to them, and that most relations between people in everyday
life (working, getting what you need to live) are regulated by those
numbers. Marx reckons this is "fetishism". What does he mean, and is he
right?
3) Why does Marx start Capital with commodities?

B) Explaining how workers are exploited

1) What drives the circuit C-M-C? What drives the circuit M-C-M'?
2) What is the difference between labour and labour-power?
3) Where does surplus value come from?

C) The relevance of Capital today: the environment

1) Does nature have intrinsic value?
2) How does Marx conceive of the relationship between nature and society?
3) How can humanity live within ecological limits?