THE RULE OF VALUE AND THE COMMUNIST ALTERNATIVE: A RESPONSE TO PETER HUDIS' MARX'S CONCEPT OF THE ALTERNATIVE TO CAPITALISM

Abstract

This new st udy by Peter Hudis is based on a thorough and compelling reading of nearly all of Marx’s work. It centres on a theme that many have seen as a distinct one subordinate to economic analysis, history, class struggle, politics, etc. The singular merit of Hudis’s argument is that it shows that Marx was primarily a thinker of time, and thus of historical transition, so that the theory of post-capitalist society goes to the very heart of Marx’s work as a thinking of capitalism as a transitory social form. Moreover, Hudis’ analysis shows the deep coherence of Marx’s analyses of proposed alternatives and that Marx’s own view is rooted his account of the fundamental structure of capital as the production of value. The text proceeds chronologically with four chapters—the young Marx, the drafts of Capital (including Grundrisse), Capital, and the late writings— bracketed by an introduction and conclusion. The chronology shows the emergence of Marx’s mature theory of value as expressed in the first volume of Capital, its use for evaluating proposals for post-capitalist socio-economic structure, and its relevance for assessing the record of Marxism in enacting that alternative. It is an excelle nt interpretation of Marx, both philosophically and politically, and deserves to be widely read. Hudis reconstructs the a rgument of the first chapters of Capital, Vol. 1 through the distinction between exchange-value and value, showing that Marx’s previous work did not make this distinction. Beginning from the commodity, Marx shows that the comparability of commodity prices depends upon a common quality that constitutes their measure. This measure is in labour, but not labour in its concrete use. It is labour solely in its abstract form—the undifferentiated labour time of any human individual whatsoever. Commodities are exchanged as equals if the abstract labour expended on them is equal. However, this is not the actual labour expended, not even as measured by time, since that would make products produced by less efficient labour more expensive.