LABOUR-POWER ONCE MORE

 LABOUR-POWER ONCE MORE

Labour-Power Once More

PREFACE

This was my first attempt at getting one of my articles published. It failed. The referees and editors at Radical Philosophy rejected it. It was lost for many years. Then, in 2011, while sorting out some papers from old box files not looked at in decades, I came across it. Indeed, there were three copies of the article – at various stages in the writing process! One copy seemed more advanced than others as it rectified problems and issues thrown up by the other two copies. However, it was not the final copy: there were notes in the margins regarding changes to be made.

Thus, what we have here is a reconstruction of this third copy that includes the changes as suggested by the marginal comments. I do not expect to find the final copy, but then I did not expect to find these three drafts 20 years after the article disappeared! It definitely won’t emerge on some old floppy disk: the article was originally written on an Amstrad PCW 9512 dedicated word processor, with floppy disks smaller than the standard floppy disks, and a daisywheel printer. These disks, along with my Amstrad PCW 9512 went to Newham’s Jenkins Lane Reuse and Recycling Centre 20 odd years ago. You can still buy the Amstrad PCW 9512, with daisy-wheel printer, on e-Bay though!

I have decided to present this paper here as it has some material, especially on the subjective aspect of labour-power, that does not appear elsewhere in my work. In addition, for me it was a transitional article between Rikowski (1990) and my later work on labour-power (Rikowski, 2000, 2002 and 2024). I hope readers find it useful.

You can see ‘Labour-Power Once More’ at ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/414016573_Labour-Power_Once_More and at Academia: https://www.academia.edu/173605281/Labour_Power_Once_More

Labour-Power-Points

 

LABOUR-POWER-POINTS

This is a paper I presented at the recent Historical Materialism London Conference, SOAS, 2024.

Abstract:

Following a brief outline of labour-power through Marx, Ciccarelli (2021) and my own work, it is argued that the fragmentation of Marxist work on labour-power undermines what is critical for its understanding in contemporary society: the notion that labour-power is a ‘unity of the diverse’ (Marx). In Marxist theory and empirical work today, labour-power as ‘unity’, as a unified social force within humans, is sacrificed to its ‘diversity’. The result is theorisations and empirical research that split the study of labour-power into seemingly competing projects; either as arguments regarding whether the key focus should be on the social production of labour-power through education and training, or the social reproduction of labour-power through the family and domestic labour. This paper argues that labour–power is better viewed through its various diversities that constitute its unity. Each of these diversities is a spectral (but real) point in analysis of labour-power, but its unity blends the pinpointing analysis of its diversities. These labour-power diversities are social forms of its social re/production that are manifested in and through various institutions in capitalist society. In this light, the following diversities of labour-power and their institutional forms can be viewed directly through the work of Marx: the social production of labour-power (e.g. in education and training); its social reproduction 1 (e.g. through the family and domestic labour); social reproduction 2 (e.g. through state pensions, unemployment benefits); maintenance of labourers 1 (e.g. through consumption, food); maintenance of labourers 2 (e.g. through health, and mental health services). These labour-power diversities constitute a web of social forms shaping labour-power in contemporary capitalism. The paper ends by exploring some recent empirical examples illustrating how moving between the spectral points of labour–power and its diversities solidifies their unity in analysis.         

The paper is now available at:

Academia: https://www.academia.edu/124791066/Labour_Power_Points

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/384971765_LABOUR-POWER-POINTS

Glenn Rikowski