'The Fetishism of Commodities' & 'Turnover Time & Fixed and Circulating Capital'

1) Vol. I - Next Session: 'The Fetishism of Commodities'

The Volume I group continues this week (note later start time) with a discussion on 'The Fetishism of Commodities', introduced by Socialist Review Books Editor, Jack Farmer:

Wednesday 1st December
*** 7.30pm ***
Room S-1.08
Strand Building
King's College London
"A commodity is therefore a mysterious thing, simply because in it the social character of men’s labour appears to them as an objective character stamped upon the product of that labour; because the relation of the producers to the sum total of their own labour is presented to them as a social relation, existing not between themselves, but between the products of their labour..."

"...This I call the Fetishism which attaches itself to the products of labour, so soon as they are produced as commodities, and which is therefore inseparable from the production of commodities."

N.B. We will be reading Vol.I, Chapter 1, Section 4 for this meeting.

Facebook event at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=112044228861591
(The first meeting on 'Commodities and Values' can be downloaded here:http://rapidshare.com/files/430908198/KCLReadingCapital_RobJacksonVolI_November_10_2010.mp3)

- - -

2) Vol.II - Next Session: 'Turnover Time & Fixed and Circulating Capital'

The discussion from our last meeting on 'Times & Costs of Circulation' is available here: http://rapidshare.com/files/432540457/KCLReadingCapital_22_Nov_2010.mp3

Our next session will be discussing chapters 7-8 on 'Turnover Time & Fixed and Circulating Capital':

Monday 6th December
6pm
Room S-3.18
Strand Building
King's College London

"From the point of view of the capitalist, the time of turnover of his capital is the time for which he must advance his capital in order to create surplus-value with it and receive it back in its original shape."
"[The] portion of the capital-value fixed in the instrument of labour circulates as well as any other. We have seen in general that all capital-value is constantly in circulation, and that in this sense all capital is circulating capital. But the circulation of the portion of capital which we are now studying is peculiar. In the first place it does not circulate in its use-form, but it is merely its value that circulates, and this takes place gradually, piecemeal, in proportion as it passes from it to the product, which circulates as a commodity. During the entire period of its functioning, a part of its value always remain fixed in it, independently of the commodities which it helps to produce. It is this peculiarity which gives to this portion of constant capital the form of fixed capital. All the other material parts of capital advanced in the process of production form by way of contrast the circulating, or fluid, capital."

N.B. We will be reading Vol.II Chapters 7-8 for this meeting.
Facebook event at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=173865585976269

- - -

3) Upcoming Events:

London Seminar on Contemporary Marxist Theory:

15th December, 5pm King's College London, Strand Campus, K.3.11 Raked Lecture Theatre
Peter D. Thomas (Brunel University) Contours of Contemporary Western Marxism

Next sessions & previous recordings

1) Vol. I - Next Session: 'The Fetishism of Commodities'

The Volume I group began last week with a discussion on 'Commodities and Values', (which can be downloaded here: http://rapidshare.com/files/430908198/KCLReadingCapital_RobJacksonVolI_November_10_2010.mp3).

Our sessions on Volume I will be every 3 weeks. The next (1st Dec) will be a discussion on 'The Fetishism of Commodities', introduced by former KCL student, Jack Farmer:

Wednesday 1st December
6.30pm
Room tbc
Strand Building
King's College London
'A commodity is therefore a mysterious thing, simply because in it the social character of men’s labour appears to them as an objective character stamped upon the product of that labour; because the relation of the producers to the sum total of their own labour is presented to them as a social relation, existing not between themselves, but between the products of their labour...'

'...This I call the Fetishism which attaches itself to the products of labour, so soon as they are produced as commodities, and which is therefore inseparable from the production of commodities.'

N.B. We will be reading Vol.I, Chapter 1, Section 4 for this meeting.

Facebook event at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=112044228861591

- -
2) Vol.II - Next Session: 'Time & Costs of Circulation'

The introduction and discussion from our last meeting on 'Circuits of Capital' is available here: http://rapidshare.com/files/429870086/KCLReadingCapital_JonnyJones_November_8_2010.mp3.

As the material was quite lengthy we will be doing a further session discussing chapters 1-4 as well as reading and discussing the 'Time & Costs of Circulation':

Monday 22nd November
6pm
Room S-3.18
Strand Building
King's College London

"We have seen that the movement of capital through the sphere of production and the two phases of the sphere of circulation takes place in a series of periods of time. The duration of its sojourn in the sphere of production is its time of production, that of its stay in the sphere of circulation its time of circulation. The total time during which it describes its circuit is therefore equal to the sum of its time of production and its time of circulation."

N.B. We will be re-capping Vol.II, Chapters 1-4, and reading Chapters 5-6 for this meeting.

Facebook event at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=117738471623262

Volume I Group begins:

Have you been thinking, 'Well, Volume II sounds very interesting, but I haven't read Volume I yet'? Now is your chance to do something about it. The Capital Volume I reading group begins next week with a discussion on 'Commodities and Values', (assuming London's Universities haven't been shut down by the UCU/NUS demo earlier that day! - http://www.demo2010.org/)


Wednesday 10th November
6.30pm
Room S-1.08
Strand Building
King's College London


'The wealth of those societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails, presents itself as “an immense accumulation of commodities,” its unit being a single commodity. Our investigation must therefore begin with the analysis of a commodity'

N.B. We will be reading Vol.I, Chapter 1, Sections 1-3 for this meeting.

Facebook event at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=126093377447424