In response to Angela:
It would have been clearer if I had said that the contradiction
between private ownership and social production was the central
contradiction "under the form that class rule takes in capitalism -
namely the exploitation of a working class that sells its
labout-power and a ruling class that monopolizes ownership of the
means of production".
Marx's analysis of the joint-stock company outlines one way in which
this contradiction develops under capitalism, i.e. that the 'strictly
private' form of share ownership conceals a collective reality of
corporate ownership. The more recent development of institutional
shareholding by pension funds etc. takes this a step further,
especially since so many us have, willy-nilly, become 'capitalists'
at several removes because part of our pension contributions are
invested in shares. But as Hilferding argued in "Finance Capital",
what the JSC is really about is big capitalists swallowing up small
ones, who become passive 'savers', and who are ripped off by the
active founders and by big shareholders who have the insider
knowledge required to grab a disproportionate share of the total
realised surplus. In addition, the joint-stock company, despite its
really collective character, has the apparent form of a legal
individual, able to own property, sign contracts, etc., just like a
'real individual'. So long as the dynamic of accumulation is worked
out through the process of competition, however, Marx's central
contradiction remains unchanged.
I'm afraid someoe else will have to deal with Angela's query about
the links between work, citizenship and race....
Hugo Radice
Division of Industrial and Labour Studies,
Leeds University Business School,
University of Leeds,
Leeds LS2 9JT, UK.
tel: 44-113-233-4507; fax 44-113-233-2640
email: [log in to unmask]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|