Automation
Won’t Save Capitalism
Almost daily
there are reports of production workers being displaced by robots and other
machines. How does automation affect the
political struggle between the bourgeoisie and proletariat and the basic contradiction
of capitalism: the contradiction between the private appropriation and
socialized production? Does this decline
in the output of workers relative to that of machines, with the distinct
possibility that the output of workers will eventually drop to nearly zero,
undermine the need or the possibility for revolution?
It
could be said that it really doesn’t matter that there is even complete
automation in one or a handful of imperialist countries, because there are
large numbers of
industrial production workers in the less developed countries and
the affairs of any one country or locality are mainly determined by world
conditions. But increasingly automation
is finding its way to less developed countries as well. In many instances production in the less
developed countries is already highly automated and this is increasing with
time. Eventually production in the
developing nations will be substantially if not thoroughly automated. And this will happen no matter which class
rules society. The effects will differ,
but automation will increase.
In
order to understand the impact of automation, first we have to back up quite
some time and examine the origins and nature of the nucleus of capitalism and
imperialism, which is commodity production.
To
live, humans must transform reality, and this includes producing things or
objects which allows them to exist. At a
certain stage in the evolution of human society this leads to a well defined
division of labor, particular individuals or groups produce particular
things. This brought about exchanging
products so that those who desire a product different from the one they produce
may secure them. Exchange takes place
both within groupings and between groupings.
Products always satisfy uses or have use value, but that isn’t always
their primary purpose.
The
purpose or goal of production and the exchange of products are of paramount
importance to the question of automation, society and revolution.
With
commodity production, the motor driving capitalism, the purpose of production
is to sell use value in order to achieve profits. When this happens, the product being sold is
called a commodity.
The
organizer of a commodity’s production spends whatever it costs to make
production of that commodity possible, but for each commodity created they are
paid above what it costs to make production of that commodity possible. What is paid to the organizer of production
for a commodity is the value of the average number of industry wide hours of
labor necessary required to create that kind of commodity.
For
each individual commodity of a certain type produced, for example, for each
individual car produced, the organizer of its production is not paid the value
of the specific number of hours required to produce that individual car, but
rather they are paid the value of the average industry wide number of hours of
labor necessary required to create that type of car. In
political economic lingo, the organizer is paid the value of the socially
necessary labor required to create that type of car.
The
profit made by the organizer of commodity production is the difference between
the value of the average socially necessary number of
labor hours required to create that kind of commodity, minus the value of what
the organizer spent to make production of the commodity possible.
While the
organizer of commodity production can make a profit from the production
process, the human worker that performs the labor required to create a
commodity is always being exploited, i.e. “ripped off”. To demonstrate this let us take a look at 1
week in the process of commodity production.
The value of the average number of hours necessary to sustain the worker
on the job referred to as the value of labor power. In the typical case, when a worker signs a
contract to work for the organizer of production for 1 week, the worker agrees
to be paid for the value of their labor power for 1 week. When the organizer of commodity production
sells the products the worker has created during that 1 week, the organizer is
paid the value of 1 weeks worth of the average
socially necessary labor required to create the kind of product the worker has
created. If the worker labors with the
average effort and skill of other workers creating the same product, the value
organizer realizes by selling the products the worker has created for 1 week is
equal to the actual value of the amount of labor the human worker has “worked
up” into that 1 week of products. The
problem for the worker is that the value of the labor they “work up” into the
products they create for 1 week, and which the organizer makes off with by
selling the products, is greater than the value of 1 week of labor power for
which the worker has agreed to be paid.
The difference between what is paid to the worker and what the organizer
of production by selling the products the worker creates is called surplus
value. The primary aim of every
organizer of commodity production is to accumulate profits in the form of
surplus value.
LABOR IS
TRANSFORMATION OF THINGS INTO NEW USE VALUES
Labor that
creates new use values, new products, transforms things that have existing use
value into new things that have a new use value. Labor which produces products makes a
transformation of things to create products so that they serve some purpose,
have a use, have some use value. Historically the amount of useful
transformations done to things has been measured in the labor or
transformations per hour by people.
Humans have been the chief transformers of things in the past, so it was
the number of hours of a human worker’s transformations that has traditionally
been used as a measure of a products worth.
Human workers are able to make useful transformations to things to make
products, but this is true for machines as well.
Traditionally
it has been said that only what is paid to sustain people for labor (what is
paid for human labor power) can grow or increase itself in the production process, that machines only pass on what’s paid for
them. One of the reasons for this was
that, in the past machines mainly played a secondary role to people in the
production process.
As
opposed to the nature of the majority of machines used during the Industrial
Revolution which simply transferred energy, or merely acted as tools in the
production process, many machines nowadays actually “craft” the products of
commodity production themselves.
Machines work, just like people’s labor or work, performs useful
transformations to things. And if a
machine performs more transformations than what it cost to pay for the machine
then the machine is creating profit.
Some machines not only pay for themselves, they do more work that what’s
paid for them.
Much
of the theory of political economy was initially conceived by Adam Smith and the
French Physiocrat school of political economics around
the time of the Industrial Revolution.
Thus the foundational theory of political economy made the essentially
proper assessment for that time that machines do not add value to raw materials. To a large extent Marx followed in the wake
of these beliefs. However it is clear
that in the extended volumes of Marx’s “Capital” called “Theories of Surplus
Value” that he was a hairs width away from making the leap to understanding
that machines themselves can create surplus value. Among other things, Marx repeatedly states
that workers had become appendages of machines in the production process. Despite that, Marx acknowledged that surplus
value continued to be generated in the commodity production process. New value in the production must be created
in some way and if it isn’t done by humans, it can only be the machines that
transform raw materials into new use values that are creating that new value.
The
rate of profit, that is the profit realized for the amount spent to organize
production, tends to fall with the increased use of machines. In the past this was assumed to happen
because only human labor was capable of creating surplus value. Given that machines are able to transform raw
materials into finished use values for sale, the decrease in the rate of profit
with the introduction of greater numbers of machines can only be due to the
fact that the cost per transformation by machines is less than the cost per
transformation by human workers. Machines
generally operate faster, more intensely and for a greater number of hours per
day than humans. Given this, for the
same costs, machines tend to produce more transformations per hour than humans. The same product crafted by
a machine will on average cost less than the same product crafted by a
human because for the same amount of transformations, those from the machine
cost less. Even though the rate of
profit falls when using machines, machines on the whole produce more value than
the value of their cost, so a profit may be made from their use in production.
The
useful transformations done to a product are expressed in the amount of the
product’s exchange value when the purpose of production is to exchange products
for profit; the useful transformations done to a thing beyond the preexisting
transformations paid for to make a product are expressed in the product’s
surplus value, which is included in its exchange value.
It
is only by exchanging their product for other use value of at least equal value,
preferably more, that the organizer of commodity production can realize the
wealth added by the production process.
Money is the most sought after use value in the exchange process. With money the organizer of production can
most easily exchange for any other use values whenever they desire to do
so. Money is the universal solvent. Although products are exchanged for their
exchange value in money to make profit under commodity production, exchanging
products has not always been, nor hopefully will it always be, for the purpose
of making a profit. Human beings have
actually lived much longer without commodity production and its exchange of
products for profit than we have lived with it.
Capitalism
makes commodity production dominant in society and with this as its fundamental
economic cell and motor, capitalism’s basic contradiction as a whole is between
the private character of appropriation and the socialized character of
production. Private character of production
means that the society’s rulers control use and dispense the wealth created by
society in ways which are against the interests of the world proletarian
struggle. Socialized production means
essentially that the tasks required to make a product are divided up, there is
a division of labor.
Appropriation
and control of the production of use values in capitalist countries are
intended to enrich a small elite. The aim of the rulers of a capitalist country
in controlling the production process is to make profits. If producing some use value is unprofitable
or doesn’t give a high enough profit for what’s invested, the capitalists of
these or any other capitalist country will not invest in making that use
value.
Commodity
production makes capitalism susceptible to the revolutionary political struggle
of the proletariat, because it drives the political and social contradictions
and crises of capitalism. The basic
contradiction of capitalism is that between the socialized, or highly cooperative
nature, of the production process versus the private and narrow appropriation
of the surplus value, the profit, of the production process. The basic contradiction of capitalism is a
larger reflection of commodity production’s basic contradiction,
that of exchanging use values for exchange value. Private appropriation tends to reflect
exchange value and socialized production tends to reflect use value.
There
will be a need , and more importantly a basis, for the
revolutionary struggle and process, even if machines are the primary creators
of commodities because the production process throughout society remains highly
cooperative while appropriation of the wealth is remains very private. And this possibility for revolution will be
felt as long as commodity production feeds the basic contradiction of
capitalism and the basic contradiction of capitalism itself continues to exist.
The
proletariat wages political struggle against the bourgeoisie in order to
abolish classes, class society and their present day foundation, commodity
production. These must be abolished
because they are the roots the proletariat’s exploitation and oppression and
the reason there is so much suffering in the world, including the “screaming
horrors of war.”
The
proletariat, where it is in power and has established a socialist society,
begins to abolish commodity production and resolve the contradiction between
the private appropriation of the capitalist and the socialized character of
production in that area, by working for the immediate and long range goals of
the world proletarian revolution.
Control and ownership of production is taken over by the revolutionary
proletariat, and products in the area under the sway of the proletariat are
exchanged increasingly for their use value as opposed to realizing a profit
from them. In a socialist society, the
revolutionary proletariat works to advance its ability to transform and develop
reality in order to benefit not a handful of profit hungry capitalists and
their minions, but rather to benefit the overwhelming majority of the popular
masses worldwide: workers, peasants, farmers, professionals and students. Production is oriented mainly toward making
use values which meet the requirements of the world struggle, whether that be where the revolutionary workers hold power or
elsewhere. And the revolutionary
proletariat sees to it that the benefits of socialism go first to the most
exploited and oppressed sections of society.
Unfortunately,
there is a possibility during socialism that capitalist roaders in the
proletariat’s vanguard party and in the socialist government will restore
capitalism. The former
While
human history spans millions of years and the existence of class society, of
which capitalism is its most recent form, goes back roughly 5 thousand years,
the scientific socialist movement is less than 200 years old. In that time, the scientific socialist
movement founded by Karl Marx and Frederich Engels has already had spectacular
successes, but it also has had major reversals and has not reached its goal of
eliminating class society along with all of its brutal exploitation and
oppression. Just as a baby falls as it
learns to walk, the socialist movement has risen and faltered, but the need and
impetus to reach its goal is being driven precisely by the social and political
consequences that result from the tension between socialized production and
private appropriation that commodity production generates as the principal
economic engine of capitalist society.
Working
to strengthen the role of use value until exchange value is abolished
throughout the world is one of the ways in which the proletariat in power in
socialist society transforms the purpose of production under their control to
benefit the world proletarian revolution.
One of the ways, because it is the overall social, economic and
primarily political effort of the proletariat in power which mainly benefits
the world proletariat struggle. Only by
the proletarian seizure of power throughout the world can commodity production
and the fundamental contradiction of capitalism can be totally eliminated. When these are eliminated, exploitative and
oppressive classes and class society won’t have a leg to stand on.
Upon
coming to power the proletariat may not be able to make immediate large scale
changes in the economic structure, but it intends to do so. To fulfill its intentions it must be working
concretely for the all-around, overreaching tasks and goals of the world
proletarian struggle, and this will enable changes to be made in the economy
controlled by the proletariat as swiftly as possible. As this is done, the economic resources
should be apportioned to provide for those on the lowest rung first, chiefly
considering the needs of the world struggle.
And this should continue throughout socialism and beyond.
As
worldwide commodity production wanes, the global struggle advances, and
people’s ideas and institutions reflect these developments,
the production process is brought increasingly under the control of society as
a whole. In dealing with economics this
way and working for the overall goals and tasks of the world proletarian
struggle, the proletariat eventually achieves its lofty historic mission to
liberate people from the vicissitudes of capitalism and commodity production
and is able to fully implement the motto inscribed across its banner: From each
according to their ability to each according to their need.
Capitalism
will always be driven by commodity production and wracked by the paroxysms of
its basic contradiction between private appropriation and socialized production
whether there are people or machines producing the commodities. Powerfully generating contradictions at the
very core of the capitalist system, no matter what changes occur in any
capitalist country of any kind, commodity production assures the possibility of
going forward into the future through proletarian revolution.
Tim
Redd
May
1986,
Revised May 2006.
© 1986-2006