The Radical Left Movement

THE LABOR THEORY OF VALUE

What is value? What is the universal thing that decides how much something costs. Well, we know that the value of something can only be determined at the moment of exchange. For example, if you trade 20 yards of linen for one coat, you know that the value of 20 yards of linen is equal to the value of one coat. But what decides this? To find the answer, we must find the single property that all commodities have in common.

Modern capitalists will argue that the use value has a role in the exchange value, and ultimately the value. They say that supply and demand governs the economy, and that there would be no demand without use value. Well, think of it this way: $100 of lead is the same value as $100 of gold, yet the use value of the gold is much higher than the lead. So naturally, the use value is different in all commodities, and therefore cannot be used as a universal determinate of value.

So what exactly is the one property that all commodities have in common? That is: human labor. All commodities have labor put into them. The reason why one ounce of gold has more value than one ounce of lead is because it takes much more effort to produce one ounce of gold (it is much rarer than lead). Gold is also prettier to look at than lead, and therefore one could argue that it is the use value that makes gold so valuable. However, labor—in a way—determines use value as well, since labor done to produce an object with no use value is useless labor, and thus the labor has no value.

Let’s take commodity A. Let’s say it took x amount of useful labor to produce this product, and therefore the product’s value is x amount of labor-hours. Now, if commodity B takes twice as long—2x labor-hours—then the exchange value of commodity B will be twice that of commodity A, and at the moment of exchange, commodity B = 2 commodity A.

Similarly, if commodity B takes half as long to create as commodity A, then at the moment of exchange, ½ commodity A =  commodity B, or commodity A = 2 commodity B.

So, now we know that labor ultimately decides value, and that the value is not determined until the moment of exchange. But before any exchanges are made, the value of all commodities is unknown. Thus, at the moment of the first exchange, that exchange will be the basis for all other values, and hence, money is created.

At the time of Marx, gold was the commodity whose exchange determined the value of all other commodities. However, in our system today, paper money is used in stead, which is no longer a representation of a specific amount of gold, but it is still valuable, since it represents workers’ labor.

Now, in the working world, there are two properties related to labor: labor-power, and the labor itself. Labor power is the ability to work, such as having muscles and brains. Labor is the act of working. Now, in capitalism, profit is achieved when workers perform more labor than is necessary to pay for the cost of their labor power. For example, let’s say the materials for a certain commodity cost $10, and then the workers perform an amount of labor equal to $50. The owner of whatever business just made 500% profit because the workers labored 500% longer than is necessary to equal the cost of producing the product.

This is where the exploitation happens. All business owners want to make money, right? And the only way to do this is to make profit, right? And the only way to make profit is by making your workers labor more than is necessary. Do you see the connection here? Under capitalism, the only way to achieve “The American Dream” is by forcing others below you to work harder and longer than what is needed, hence the exploitation.

Now, here’s a possible solution. In today’s society, the biggest goal is to make your prices extremely low without losing profits, and the conservative, near-sighted way to achieve this is by paying your workers less than their fair share. However, if companies spent the time and money to improve conditions for their workers, making the work easier and more efficient, the time needed to produce commodities would go down, and hence the cost of your products would go down, and people would buy them. However, this may result in an overstock as products were produced too quickly, but an easy solution would be to decrease the workday, and thus making things even better for your workers. The result would be a very successful business where everyone would want to work. The ideal thing would be to have a communist system, but we’ll talk about that later.

CRITICISM

Capitalists would like to think that the LTV couldn’t explain certain things, such as paper money. They say that according to the LTV, all values of commodities must be based on some other commodity, something which paper money isn’t and nor does it represent a commodity as it once did. However, paper money actually is more direct, as it represents an amount of labor, and can still express the value of something under the LTV. For example, when someone is given money in exchange for labor, that gives the money a value equal to the labor that the worker performed.

Secondly, capitalists claim that the LTV can’t explain things such as vacations, sightseeing, nature walks, and other natural things that had no labor put into them. Well, the LTV doesn’t deny that supply and demand exist, and Marx recognized that nature provides us with many use values, which can be given a value based on the demand for the use value. It’s also hard to call these things “commodities” since you are not exchanging money for a physical thing, just an experience, so it is possible that this particular argument against the LTV is invalid.

The biggest misunderstanding among capitalists about the LTV is that it denies supply and demand. It does not, and it still recognizes that it is a factor in the exchange. However, even supply and demand can be tied into labor, since labor put into producing something that will have no demand is useless labor, and therefore has no value.

THE BOURGEOIS MONOPOLY

Whoever controls the capital and henceforth the means of production controls the economy. Since everything costs money, only the rich , who are the minority, can control the means of production, and thus, the rest of the society must sell their labor to the rich capitalists, only to be exploited so that the rich can become richer. Therefore, the very few control and oppress the majority, and despite what your history teachers may say, the majority can NEVER rule under capitalism. The goal of communism is to eliminate this class struggle, so that true democracy can take place.

SOLUTION

1. Abolition of property.

Property is theft. You are taught that you should not steal, since you are taking something that isn’t yours. Just the act of taking something as your own is taking something that isn’t yours, and looking back at the Native Americans, they knew this. Most Native American tribes had no notion of private property, and the idea did not make sense to them. Taking something that you did not create as your own is completely unethical, and under communism, everyone owns everything.

This is not to say that privacy is not respected. A possible system is a kind of rent, but the money would not go to any one person (and that includes the government). The rent money would go to EVERYONE.

2. Strengthening workers’ unions

Many believe that the union is the natural form of workers’ revolution. After gradually strengthening unions, eventually there would be no “bosses” and the workers would control the means of production.

3. Abolition of the State

The biggest problem with the Soviet Union was that the revolutionary party did not overthrow the system, but they merely took it over. Perhaps Lenin would have done great things, but he did not live to carry them out, and Stalin created a fierce dictatorship, something that contradicts communism itself. The state should not be allowed to exist. It should be overthrown completely, and then the resulting system should be left up to the proletariats themselves.

These are the most important factors of a communist revolution, and this system has worked most wonderfully in Chiapas, Mexico, where the Zapatistas have overthrown capitalism in 32 cities. There is no oppressive government, such as was the case in the Soviet Union, and the people have set up a direct democracy based on the principles of communism.

Don’t think that communism is just a dream, because it can and has worked.

FAILURES OF THE RADICAL LEFT MOVEMENT

We must learn from our mistakes.

The Bolshevik revolution is largely considered to have become a bourgeois revolution, especially during Stalin’s regime. The problem is that the state received a party change; it wasn’t overthrown as it should have been.

The revolution in Cuba could have been successful. In the hands of Che Guevara, it may have succeeded, but Fidel Castro is the main reason it didn’t. Che himself was not pleased with the outcome, and he made a list of his biggest mistakes before he died.

Mao had some good ideas. He believed in free speech among other things, but he too created a fierce regime of fear and oppression. Again, the state wasn’t abolished as it should have been.

Vietnam is the same sad story. Once cannot really consider these cases true communism, as the dictatorships that arose defeat the purpose of communism itself.

CONCLUSION

Communism is indeed possible, but it is something that must be placed in the right hands. Many have claimed to be communist to gain support and to use it as an excuse to gain power. If there is to be a revolution, it must be carried out by true believers in the cause.