Wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have to spend all our time working for bosses who
really just don't give a damn about us beyond our ability to make them profits?
If we could instead spend our lives doing things that actually mattered to us?
If we, In other words, lived under communism.
Well, that’s the dream, and we will get there, sooner or later.
But socialism isn’t just going to happen because we think it’s this nice, fanciful
idea.
Rather, socialism’s going to happen because there are conflicts within the capitalist
mode of production itself that necessitate a progression beyond its limitations.
But what is this internal conflict that necessitates socialism?
Hell, what is a mode of production?
Well, today we’re going to take a look at the answer to this, which should hopefully
reveal why communism is truly inevitable.
Welcome to Socialism 101: a series designed to help educate people with no prior knowledge
on the basics of socialism and communism from an explicitly Marxist-Leninist and Marxist-Leninist-Maoist
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Now, we often hear the term “Capitalist Mode of Production”, and we may think it’s
just a fancier way of saying “capitalism”.
But if we prod and poke this term just a little bit more, we’ll see that it, in and of itself,
reveals the unsustainable nature of this system.
So, let’s do just that.
Get those notepads ready.
At its most basic form, “Mode of Production” simply means “the way things are produced”,
such as the necessities of life, like food, housing, clothing, medical equipment, Nintendos,
etc.
“Modes of Production” within any given society are comprised of two key aspects;
(1) the Productive Forces, and (2) the Relations of Production.
Have you written that down?
No?
You’re going to regret that later.
The first key aspect of the Mode of Production, the Productive Forces, is comprised of Labour
Power and the Means of Production.
Now, Labour Power isn’t just work, but the capacity or ability to do work.
To better understand this, think about the time you’re at work, versus when you’re
actually doing work.
If you work for an hourly wage, then you’re selling your labour power to your boss.
Every hour, you’re selling your capacity to do work – it usually doesn’t matter
whether you work harder or you do less actual work, you’re likely still going to get the
same hourly wage.
This is because you’re not selling your labour directly, you’re selling your labour
power (which, when you check the notes you’re definitely taking down, you’ll remember
is your capacity or ability to do work) – and this causes a conflict between you and your
boss because you’re going to want to do as little work as possible, making it a better
deal for you, while they’re going to want you to do as much as possible within that
timeframe, making it a better, more profitable deal for them.
Now, the “Means of Production” refers to everything that’s required to produce,
including instruments of production (like the tools, machinery and buildings in which
we carry out our work) as well as subjects of production (which includes natural materials
like iron ore, and also materials that have been filtered through previous labour, like
that previous iron ore in its extracted form, which we call “raw materials”).
So, when you hear extremely based people saying “seize the means of production”, that’s
a call for workers to take control of all that good stuff: the tools, the factories,
the raw materials, etc. and use them for the common good, rather than to further line the
pockets of wealthy private capitalists who do none of the actual work.
You still with me?
I know there’s a lot of terminology, but I promise it’s going to be worth it.
Okay, so now that we’ve talked a little bit about the Productive Forces, let’s look
at the second key aspect of Modes of Production: the “Relations of Production”.
We can easily understand this by simply asking “How do we relate to the process of production?
Are we workers in a business, generating profit for someone else?
Or, Are we the owners of that business who do little more than simply hoover up the profits
that workers generate?”
Under the capitalist mode of production, the relations of production separate society primarily
into two classes: based workers (the proletariat) and cringe capitalists (the bourgeoisie).
We either relate to production as workers, or we relate to production as owners – more
specifically, owners of the means of production.
Now, there are various sub-classes (or strata) among these two groups, as well as some other
classes that we’ll get into in a later video dedicated specifically to “class”.
But for now, we’ll focus on the two main classes of capitalism: the proletariat, and
the bourgeoisie.
Rather than being a system that benefits everyone equally, the relations of production that
we see in capitalism are set up so as to primarily benefit the capitalist to the detriment of
the worker.
Make no mistake; the capitalist’s gain is the worker’s loss.
The profit they’re making, is the wealth you’re creating.
Never forget that.
Now, we’ll talk more about the exact process through which the exploitation of labour takes
place in a later video about the Labour Theory of Value.
But it should already be starting to become clear that there’s a definite conflict between
the productive forces on one hand and the relations of production on the other; between
the interests of labour and the interests of capital; between the working-class proletariat
and the capitalist bourgeoisie.
This conflict must be resolved.
It’s not going away.
And, in fact, we see that this conflict is intensifying as technology develops.
With automation, countless jobs are gonna disappear.
This development of the productive forces will make the current relations of production
(upon which capitalism relies) completely untenable, with wealth and resources concentrating
into fewer and fewer capitalist hands, leaving us (the masses) out of work and unable to
access life’s necessities.
And, as nobody will have any money, this in turn is going to mean that the capitalists
won’t be able to sell their products to anyone.
So, now we’re beginning to see how unstable and ultimately self-destructive this system
is, …and we’re just scratching the surface.
We’re going to talk a lot more about how capitalism sows the seeds of its own destruction
in upcoming videos.
But don’t worry – it won’t all be doom and gloom.
We’ll also talk about how we can solve these problems.
I’ll give you a hint: class struggle – lots and lots of class struggle.
Today we’ve looked at the meaning of Mode of Production, including its two key components:
The Productive Forces and the Relations of Production.
We’ve looked at how Labour Power and the Means of Production constitute the Productive
Forces, and the way in which Based Workers and Cringe Capitalists embody the Relations
of Production under capitalism.
Most importantly, we’ve looked at how the conflict between the productive forces and
the relations of production forms the economic basis for social revolution, inevitably propelling
us from capitalism to socialism, and thus making our utopian dreams a concrete material
reality.
Next time: the difference between Personal and Private Property.
Get those toothbrushes ready!
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Comrade Romano, Jason, Michaela Schmid, Mammarius Hex, Ryan Hodgson, Donal O Coisdealbha, Gabriel
Bailey, lepanneän (leh-PAH-neigh-uhn), Hugh Jass, the rjienrlwey condition, Jess, Ian
McShea, Libertarian Stalinist, Dan Hunter, soup, Pontus, Colm Walsh, Hagen Michels, Evan
Crossland, “..”, Boricua Guerilla, Roja and Daniel Hamilton.
I wouldn’t be able to make these videos without yous and I certainly wouldn’t be
able to pay my bills.
Cheers, everyone.
Slán go Fóill.