robbo203
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If you take his assumptions, theories and concepts without critical examination, you’ll fail to see the weaknesses of his ‘argument’.
I can assure you that’s exactly what I am not doing – taking his assumptions etc without critical examination. I am particularly concerned with his argument about unproductive labour and exploitation and already have noted a number of inconsistences if not downright contradictions in what he has to say. If people here want to look at the argument go to the link below. I suggest focus on Part 2 – Global Value Transfer and Stratified Labour Today” – which gets to the heart of the argument. Much of the rest is just sociologising.
It is evidently a key book in the so called anti-imperialist milieu and in some respects deeply hostile to the outlook of revolutionary socialism. It is a worth a read for that very reason.
https://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/books/Economics/DividedWorldDividedClass_ZakCope.pdf
LBird I am simply using Marx’s definition of productive workers as follows without making any assumptions
From volume I of Capital: ‘That labourer alone is productive, who produces surplus value for the capitalist, and who thus works for the self expansion of capital…Hence the notion of a productive labourer implies not merely a relation between work and useful effect, between labourer and product of labour, but also a specific, social relation of product, a relation that has sprung up historically and stamps the labourer as the direct means of creating surplus-value”
I understand the point you are making about the inherent difficulty of “objectively” measuring surplus value. You cannot measure abstract labour in the way that you can concrete labour with a stop watch. It is a constantly shifting industrial average which only reveals itself, so to speak, in aposteriori fashion in the exchange ratios of commodities – their prices – in the long run
Cope’s argument is that GDP based figures, which are measurable, conceal or obscure the value transfers that are happening through global spatial economy and that differential productivity rates between groups of workers in different parts of the world are thoroughly misleading precisely they are couched in terms of value added to GDP. Yes, we can infer from pure theory that workers in more capital intensive industries are more productive (and hence more highly paid) than in labour intensive industries and that there will be a redistribution of surplus value from the latter to the former via the tendency for profit rates to equalise. But how exactly one is supposed to measure all this I cannot see. Yet his argument depends on being able to measure this “value transfer” from the global south to global north which he says cannot be done using GDP data
Isn’t this another expression of the Leninist “aristocracy of labour” where those in the developed world are bribed by imperialism to hold a complacent view about Third World exploitation.
Yes but Lenin’s labour aristocracy theory did not deny that workers in the developed capitalist countries were exploited. Cope’s theory on the other hand does and on the grounds that workers there are the net recipients of value rather than creators of value
I am still trying to figure out Cope’s reasoning for this. He claims for example that through the mechanism of unequal exchange when ” goods enter into imperialist-country markets, their prices are multiplied several fold, sometimes by as much as 1,000%.” On the face of it that seems to suggest that workers the “imperialist-country markets” will need substantially higher incomes to afford these products anyway by comparison with the “oppressed countiries” – to use Leninspeak – where they are available at a fraction of the price.
Another example, I guess, of Britain “taking back control” in the wake of the Huawei decision. LOL
Talking of pets there is another aspect to consider
With cats you do notice the effect. One of the places I work at here in Spain managing the land and tending to the gardens had a few cats. One of these in particular was a pretty efficient killing machine (the others were just too fat and pampered to be up to the job). Freddy the cat (named after Freddy Scissorhands for obvious reasons) despatched birds, rats, lizards and geckos on an almost daily basis, sometimes devouring them whole, other times just biting off their heads. Ironically, poor Freddy. lovable character though he was in other ways, succumbed to disease which the vet reckoned was passed on to him by the very wildlife he killed. He turned blind and was put down. But I cant help noticing the return of wildlife and in particular birdsong since his passing
Another fallout from the Brexit saga – problems between Spain and the UK over Gibraltar. I noticed on Spanish telly yesterday that on the news there were interviews with Spanish people living in London express concern about their future status in the UK
Also this
https://www.ccn.com/israeli-analyst-one-coronavirus-conspiracy-theory-less-crazy-than-you-think/
But the above seems to be dismissed as conspiracy theory according to this
https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-51271037
It seems from this that the coronavirus was actually patented way back in 2003/4. I am not quire sure what to make of this. Does this mean the virus was simply identified or developed under lab conditions? If the latter then the implications are (potentially) alarming
Thoughts?
Excellent idea BD. But why not have an electronic message display board that changes messages every hour or so, Something big and bold and highly visible. Or even a large scale screen able to display images
The Coronoavirus phenomenon as seen through prism of capitalist geopolitics
This too I think will not develop into a Spanish Flu (note how we do blame foreigners) which killed millions upon millions.
Talking of which the first suspected case of coronavirus has just been identified here in Granada, Spain – a Chinese tourist
Perhaps this matter needs to be referred to the GenSec and posted on SPINTCOM. I agree – prompt and transparent communication is vital
We have just had 3 requests from twitter users for the three-month free trial subscription, presumably as a result of the offer being mentioned there.
What can be done to encourage more members to engage in this sort of activity not just on twitter but the social media in general. Things like placing adverts or inserts in newspapers and journals are excellent and need to be done but I am more concerned about addressing the very low level of activity of among members themselves
How do we encourage them to become more active via the social media when all the evidence suggests this is the most productive thing they can do to contribute to the growth of the WSM.
This is something I believe the Party seriously needs to address – and soon
What’s wrong with electricity grids, national and international? They are a sign of how production is inter-related and part of the material basis for a worldwide socialist society. We will still need them in socialism. Small is not particularly beautiful. It is just small.
Nothing wrong with electricity grids per se – provided they are buried underground! Of course under capitalism the cost factor militates against this but capitalist cost benefit analysis always understates the cost of externalities.
For example in the part of the world I live in overhead pylons can result in devastating bushfires through sparking. For that reason very wide strips have to be cleared around them and access roads created (in the Alpujarras alone about 80 hectares of woodland would have to be cleared and regularly strimmed but many existing strips are growing back because of the cost of maintenance Wildlife and in particular raptors are electrocuted – tens of thousands of them in Spain.
But the biggest impact is visual. Sorry but I think these giant pylons are grotesque monstrosities that destroy the beauty of places (my William Morris tendency is coming out here) never mind the consequences for the tourist industry. I would sincerely hope a socialist society would embark on a vast programme of decommissioning all pylons – at least those over a certain size – and burying the cables underground where they last much longer when not exposed to the elements, preferably alongside major roads to allow for easy access
I believe in some parts of Europe underground cabling is becoming much more common despite the greater initial costs. Holland I believe is leading the way but even here in Spain sections of the grid are buried underground. Damn good thing too
Talking of China and coal, it has been interesting to learn that China is financing a big coal-fired power station in Morocco. I learnt about this because last year news surfaced of a major infrastructure project to be carried out by the Spanish electrical company REE to create an absolutely huge electrical grid or highway which wull cut through the beautiful Alpujarras and Lecrin valleys south of Granada where I work and live , en route northwards to link up with other pasts of the national grid. Some of the pylons – nearly 100m high in some cases – would have a devastating visual impact on the whole area which is heavily dependent on tourism. Understandably the locals were enraged and the protestors have managed to stall the project for the time being (but for how long is anyone’s guess)
Corresponding with a local researcher , I discovered that this project is tied up with a much larger scheme promoted by the European Union – to create a much more integrated energy grid in the Iberian peninsula. Spain has huge potential for renewables – wind turbines can be found dotting the landscape in many parts of Andalucía and there are significant solar farms inland. The network in France which is sometimes subject to outages is reliant to some extent on Spanish energy. So while Spain sells surpluses to France , Spanish people have to pay some of the highest electricity prices in Europe.
Anyway, the connection with Morocco is that apparently there is going to be an underwater cable from Morocco feeding electricity into the Spanish grid. “Dirty energy” from Morocco will be topped with “clean energy” from renewables along the Mediterranean coastline and then the planned electrical highway will veer inland somewhere in Granada province I gather and head northwards ultimately towards France.
Come the day they start harvesting solar power on a massive scale in the Sahara desert, I imagine this particular electrical highway will become ever more strategically significant not just for Spain but for much of Europe and the environmental sensibilities of the locals will stand no chance against the power of big money
