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Marxist Theory of Economic Crisis

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Marxist Theory of Economic Crisis marxisc theory oP economic crisis pat; vont-nonaia The object of this article is to present the THE LABOUR THEORY OF VALUE main aspects of the marxist theory of crisis in capitalist economies, and to give an acc­ In any society where goods are produced, ount of some of the various ways in which not for direct use but to be exchanged, there bourgeois economists have attempted to must be a means by which commodities of deal with capitalism’s contradictions and different kinds can be compared and ex­ crises. In particular, the failure of Keynes­ changed with each other. For Marx, this ian policies will be examined, and the elem­ means of comparison was the labour-time ents of the newest weapon of the capitalist taken to produce a given commodity. This state, capitalist economic planning, will constitutes the value of a given commodity be presented. The latter involves political in comparison with other commodities. and social policies, as well as economic ones; This exchange value, however, may have in particular, the attempt to dampen down no necessary relation to its usefulness or the trade union movement through product­ use value; a pot or tool may be far more ivity deals, workers’ participation and the useful than an intricate piece of jewellery, like. It is therefore vital for revolutionaries but the latter may have involved more to understand why these policies are being labour-time in its production and so may introduced, how they are intended to work, have a far greater exchange value. Thus, and how they can be resisted. Marx’s economic analysis locates value in the actual process of production, not in the process of circulation or exchange, and his analysis of capitalism focuses on the dynamics of capitalist production. Pat Vort-Ronald is a post-graduate CAPITALIST PRODUCTION: research student at the University MARX’S THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS of Adelaide. In order to examine the dynamics of 6 AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW— MARCH/APRIL 1974 capitalist production itself and to show capital invested in the means of production, how profit and exploitation arise in the which Marx calls constant capital, to rise, in production process itself, Marx assumed relation to the capital used to pay the wages that commodities were exchanged (bought of productive workers, which Marx calls and sold) at their real value, discounting variable capital. Variable capital alone prod­ profit which might be made by selling uces new values since it is the labour power of above value. Marx also approached capit­ productive workers which produces surplus- alist production in a particular country as value. The relation of the mass of the means a whole, rather than just examining indiv­ of production, and the mass of labour nec­ idual capitalist enterprises. Hence, in his essary for the means of production to func­ analysis, he uses concepts such as total soc­ tion, Marx called the technical composition ial capital and total profit. of capital. Similarly, the “structural tendencies” When this relation is expressed in value which Marx saw arising from capitalist prod­ terms, Marx calls it the organic composition uction, for example, the tendency of the of capital. A rising organic composition of rate of profit to fall, or the counter-tendency capital means that constant capital is rising for the rate of exploitation to rise, refer to in relation to variable capital, i.e. that a a capitalist economy overall, and cannot be smaller proportion of capital is producing measured directly at any particular time. surplus value in relation to total social Often they show themselves indirectly, capital. Thus, the tendency of the organic e.g. a falling rate of profit may be shown by composition of capital to rise means that a movement of capital from one country there is a tendency for the rate of profit to another where the rate of profit is higher. to fall. However, there are other structural or long-term tendencies which can offset the THE DYNAMICS OF CAPITALIST tendency for the rate of profit to fall. The PRODUCTION development of more sophisticated means of production increases the productivity of In the capitalist mode of production, the labour, and so tends to push up the rate of direct producers are workers who do not own profit. Other ways in which the tendency the means of production. The latter are owned of the rate of profit to fall can be offset are by the capitalist class. In order to live, workers through depressing wages below their val­ must sell their labour-power to the capitalist. ue, or through foreign trade, which can In return, they receive a wage which is suffic­ involve both the export of capital to places ient for them to subsist and reproduce them­ of greater profitability, and the use of selves at a minimum standard in a particular favourable terms of trade (for both exports society. (1) However, their labour actually and imports) which enable capitalists to produces commodities of greater value for sell goods above, or buy goods below, their the capitalist than the wage they receive. The real value. difference between the value of labour-power However, most of the counter-tendencies and the exchange-value it produces for the have definite economic, not to say, political, capitalist, which Marx calls surplus-value, is limits, e.g. labour-power cannot be infinitely the source of capitalist profit, which allows exploited by extending the working day, nor them to add to and expand the means of prod­ can wages be reduced substantially without uction. The aim of capitalist production is the strong workers’ opposition. creation of more and more exchange values, The tendency for the organic composition so that profit may increase and capital be ex­ to rise, however, does not have those kinds panded. of limitations. In the long run, it tends to The technological precondition of capital­ show itself over the counter-tendencies, un­ ist production was the development of means less ways are found of keeping the other of production (steam-powered machinery etc.) tendencies in the ascendancy. A falling rate which increased the productivity of labour, of profit need not show itself in the actual i.e. reduced the labour-time necessary for the mass of profit, since the mass may increase production of a given commodity. Because even if the rate is decreasing. Thus it can the overall purpose of capitalist production show itself indirectly, through the flight of is profit, or more surplus-value, there is al­ capital from places where the organic comp­ ways an impetus to increase the productivity osition is high, to places where the rate of of labour, and hence the rate of exploitation, profit is greater. through the introduction of more and more The tendency for the rate of profit to sophisticated means of production. Hence, fall gives added impetus to the expansion in industries in which commodities are prod­ and accumulation of capital, since a falling uced, there is an overall tendency for the rate of profit can be offset tc some extent 7 J by an absolute increase in the amount of social capital, then accumulation can proceed profit. However, if the productivity of one more. And this is precisely what capit­ labour is not increasing enough to offset alist crisis does, hence its ‘regulating’ role. the rising organic composition of capital, Stagnation, or a sudden halt in the acc­ further accumulation may reach a point umulation process, means that the exchange at which there is simply insufficient surplus- value or price of capital is depreciated, al­ value being produced in relation to total though its actual use-value is the same. This social capital. When this occurs, it means means that the same quantity of use-value, that, from the point of view of profitability, of means of production, before the crisis, the existing capital is “simultaneously too repesents a smaller exchange-value of means small and too large: it is too large in relat­ of production after the crisis. However, nei­ ion to the existing surplus-value and it is ther the rate of surplus-value nor the mass not large enough to overcome the dearth of surplus-value are affected, as they relate of surplus-value.” (2) It is the contradict­ to the unaltered use-value of capital and ion between the tendency of the rate of hence to its unaltered productive capacity. profit to fall and the impetus to accumulate Hence, the potential rate of profit has which leads to the periodic cycles of booms now increased because the same amount and depressions or recessions in capitalist of surplus-value relates to a lower total production capital. Yaffe explains how this increase in the rate of profit allows capital to be re­ THE ROLE OF CRISIS structured, so that poductionand accum­ ulation can be resumed: When capital accumulation reaches the point where there is insufficient surplus- “The increase in the rate of profit value being produced in relation to total soc­ only holds true once the expansionary ial capital, production is accelerated in an process has begun again and represents effort to produce relatively more surplus- a redistribution of profits(or potential value, Le. to compensate for the declining pofits) in favour of those capitalists rate of profit by increasing the mass of pro­ who have managed to buy up capital fit. This results in the overproduction of com­ ‘cheaply’; modities (particularly production goods or “Secondly, with the centralisation what Marx calls Department I commodities) and restructuring of capital that takes which is the beginning of the depression or place in the crisis through competition, crisis period after the “boom” of accelerated only the more productive capitals sur­ production and accumulation.
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