The Marxian Argument against Co-operation
Though it is not possible to crystallize the Marxian doctrines with absolute precision of language into a few lines of print, they may be stated in simple words, with tolerable accuracy, as follows:
“Production is the process of applying labour-force to raw material, and the exchange or market value of the commodity which is the product is created by the labour-force expended by the labourer in working. That value, which solely results from the labour so expended, is measured by the time occupied by the labourer upon the production of the newly-created commodity in question. The labourer is paid by his employer a wage which represents the ‘exchange value’ of his ‘labour-force.’ But the employer has obtained the ‘use-value’ of the labour-force, and disposes of the newly-created product in the market at a selling price which, after making allowance for the costs of production before and after the application of labour-force, is higher than the wage paid to the labourer. The excess is ‘surplus value.’ This surplus value in primitive industry is appropriated wholly by the employer, but in industry more highly developed is apportioned out among the different classes of capitalists in the shape of ground rent, interest, manufacturers’ profits, and commercial profit.”
In the doctrines of Marx there are three fundamental propositions: the first, that money is the primary form of capital; the second, that the value of a commodity is measured by the amount of labour expended upon it; the third, that the capitalist buys the use-value of a day’s labour in exchange for its market value, pocketing the surplus value, which is the difference. As long as we allow these theories to remain victorious, industry to-day is merely a process by which the capitalist constitutes himself the conduit-pipe to the sale-room for the workman’s labour, and as the latter passes through his hands filches for himself the “surplus value.”
Some Workshop Applications
As I write I have beside me a mass of leaflets, pamphlets and writings, which came into my possession during my recent industrial work, all reeking with this pernicious Marxianism. Some extracts from the Red Catechism, handed to me by way of argument in a shipyard, will give an idea of the doctrines:
These are only a few quotations, the list could be amplified enormously.
The Marxian Fallacy of the Origin of Capital
The Marxian proposition that money is the first form of capital is a discordant and disruptive delusion. Marx declared that all capital was derived from the profits obtained by paying labour less than the value it created. On this hypothesis the capitalist assists in no way in the business of production. He is in the position of reaping what he has not sown. He is a bandit who holds up to ransom the whole world of workmen. He lets labourers off with their lives, that is to say, with wages just sufficient for their subsistence and the reproduction of their species, thus securing the maintenance of a supply of labour, on condition that the labourers hand over to him practically the entire value of their labour. As long as such doctrines are taught to the young worker and are accepted by the old, of what good is it to prate about co-operation? It is about as sensible to advocate co-operation between a host and its parasite, between a vampire and its prey, between a highway robber and his victim. Yet that is the vain task on which so many eminent persons are now wasting their eloquence.