The Working Day

Tony Phillips will introduce a discussion on
‘The Working Day’.
Tuesday 23rd February
6pm
Room 2.80 F-WB
Waterloo Campus, KCL

“Capital is dead labour, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks.”

“…in the history of capitalist production, the determination of what is a working-day, presents itself as the result of a struggle, a struggle between collective capital, i.e., the class of capitalists, and collective labour, i.e., the working-class”

N.B. We will be reading chapters 10 in preparation for this discussion.

Apologies

Apologies to those looking to download the seminar on Climate Change. The seminar was unfortunately posted by the group against the wishes of Jonathan Neale and Gareth Dale. Jonathan's contribution was a work in progress for a piece he is writing for the International Socialism Journal and he would rather people read this upcoming work as his contribution than refer to the seminar. Respecting these wishes we have taken the recording down from the blog.

KCL Reading Capital

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Jonathan and Gareth's previous works are available at:

Gareth's article from International Socialism 116, available online: http://www.isj.org.uk/?id=369

Jonathan's recent articles on Copenhagen (http://www.swp.org.uk/23/12/2009/copenhagen-betrayal-jonathan-neale and http://www.swp.org.uk/23/12/2009/copenhagen-new-movement-jonathan-neale)

Jonathan's book is available from Bookmarks for the reduced price of £10: http://www.bookmarksbookshop.co.uk/cgi/store/bookmark.cgi?review=new&isbn=9781905192373&cart_id=9137614.28572

Valorization and the Labour Process

Jonny Jones, deputy-editor of International Socialism Journal, and Adam Fabry of the Reading Capital group will introduce a discussion on

‘Valorization and the Labour Process: Surplus Value, Constant Capital & Variable Capital’.

Tuesday February 9th
6pm
F-WB 2.80 Waterloo Campus KCL

"A spider conducts operations that resemble those of a weaver, and a bee puts to shame many an architect in the construction of her cells. But what distinguishes the worst architect from the best of bees is this, that the architect raises his structure in imagination before he erects it in reality. At the end of every labour-process, we get a result that already existed in the imagination of the labourer at its commencement."

"That part of capital then, which is represented by the means of production, by the raw material, auxiliary material and the instruments of labour does not, in the process of production, undergo any quantitative alteration of value. I therefore call it the constant part of capital, or, more shortly, constant capital.

On the other hand, that part of capital, represented by labour-power, does, in the process of production, undergo an alteration of value. It both reproduces the equivalent of its own value, and also produces an excess, a surplus-value, which may itself vary, may be more or less according to circumstances. This part of capital is continually being transformed from a constant into a variable magnitude. I therefore call it the variable part of capital, or, shortly, variable capital. The same elements of capital which, from the point of view of the labour-process, present themselves respectively as the objective and subjective factors, as means of production and labour-power, present themselves, from the point of view of the process of creating surplus-value, as constant and variable capital."

N.B. We will be reading Chapters 7-9 in preparation for this discussion.