Good work so far, crew. We are about a quarter of the way through Volume 1 and about 10% of the way through the whole thing. Having said that, we're also about 10% of the way through 2024, so don't get too comfortable, keep pedalling.
Having set up the idea of surplus-labour as the source of profit, Marx looked at how this plays out in practice, how it affects people's lives.
I think we have a minimum of 8 people reading; it could even be 12 or 13.
Let's use this shared activity as an excuse to also build camaraderie by thinking out loud in the comments.
The overall plan is to read Volumes 1, 2, and 3 in one year. (Volume IV, often published under the title Theories of Surplus Value, will not be included in this particular reading club, but comrades are encouraged to do other solo and collaborative reading.) This bookclub will repeat yearly. The three volumes in a year works out to about 6½ pages a day for a year, 46⅔ pages a week.
I'll post the readings at the start of each week and @mention anybody interested. Let me know if you want to be added or removed.
Just joining us? It'll take you about 10½ hours to catch up to where the group is.
Archives: Week 1 – Week 2 – Week 3 – Week 4 – Week 5
Week 6, Feb 5-11, we are reading Volume 1, Chapter 10 Sections 4, 5, 6, and 7.
In other words, read from the heading '4. Day Work and Night Work. The Shift System' to the end of the chapter
Discuss the week's reading in the comments.
Use any translation/edition you like. Marxists.org has the Moore and Aveling translation in various file formats including epub and PDF: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/
Ben Fowkes translation, PDF: http://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=9C4A100BD61BB2DB9BE26773E4DBC5D
AernaLingus says: I noticed that the linked copy of the Fowkes translation doesn't have bookmarks, so I took the liberty of adding them myself. You can either download my version with the bookmarks added, or if you're a bit paranoid (can't blame ya) and don't mind some light command line work you can use the same simple script that I did with my formatted plaintext bookmarks to take the PDF from libgen and add the bookmarks yourself.
Audiobook of Ben Fowkes translation, American accent, male, links are to alternative invidious instances: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9
Resources
(These are not expected reading, these are here to help you if you so choose)
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Harvey's guide to reading it: https://www.davidharvey.org/media/Intro_A_Companion_to_Marxs_Capital.pdf
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A University of Warwick guide to reading it: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/postgraduate/masters/modules/worldlitworldsystems/hotr.marxs_capital.untilp72.pdf
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Reading Capital with Comrades: A Liberation School podcast series - https://www.liberationschool.org/reading-capital-with-comrades-podcast/
I just finished section 4 and it never really occurred to me how way back then, children were being forced to work in the night. I know way back when I was in school when this stuff was talked about, it was very limited. mainly just only talking about like kids in coal mines and not much else. This chapter is really depressing. Also seeing Marx cite a footnote and talk about health effects of night shift works reminded me of when I did night shift work, and like reading about modern day medicine stuff about health effects of night shift work
Yeah things were really bad during the Industrial Revolution and also Marx’s time. (They’re still bad, but they used to be, too)
I was also sad reading the end of chapter 9 about the last hour stuff; how the English businessmen called children lazy for wanting to work less — despite English workers working longer than neighboring countries! Including children! All this in horrendous conditions such as a cotton mill, where the air is so thick with cotton dust that it’s painful to breathe.
These chapters could give the wrong idea that exploitation is something that only happens in 19th century factories. Someone should do an updated edition with modern-day services workers, modern factories, delivery drivers.
The improvements are largely caused by the labour movement, and the reforms capitalist goverments made out of fear of communist revolution in the 20th century.
Marx talks as though Monday-Saturday was the working week, whereas most places now have a 2-day weekend (1½ days in my country)
Can't a lot of these abuses and exploitation still be seen in countries dealing with imperialism?
Yes, exploitation by foreign capital is often a larger problem for labor than direct exploitation in a single workshop or industry.
Anti-imperialism has, historically, been the major driving force for communist revolutions.
An update would be good, maybe using an Amazon warehouse or something. I’m sure there are insiders who could provide the data.
As imperialism develops, it grows more necessary to include exploitation of foreign labor in any discussion of improved working conditions in the imperial countries. The West has largely financialized/deindustrialized and won for itself better living and working conditions at the expense of foreign labor. Retirement in the US, as 401(k), turns workers into petty bourgeois in proportion to the size of their portfolio.