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Marx on automated industry

1/8/2014

7 Comments

 
Posted January 13, 2014

     Marx viewed capitalism as a more extreme form of domination than feudalism.  In his view, in destroying work as craft and reducing workers to a specialized function, capitalism had eliminated creative expression in work, a component of life that, in his view, is fundamental to human essence.  Capitalism, in Marx’s view, was a system in which workers were alienated from the process of production, which was imposed upon the worker as an alien force.  

     On the other hand, the great strength of capitalism, for Marx, was its extremely high productive efficiency.  Constantly seeking more efficient forms of production, capitalist industries as they mature increasingly utilize machines, substituting human workers.  This process of automation is made possible not only by technological development, but also by the nature of human work during the capitalist stage.  For the highly-specialist capitalist division of labor reduces human labor to a simple repetitive task, which is exactly the kind of task that machines can be designed to do, since they are tasks that do not require human creativity.  Thus, for Marx, the industrial factory inexorably evolves toward automated industry. 

      Marx viewed automated industry as a new mode of production that would constitute the material foundation for a fifth stage in human history, that of socialism.  Marx had a long-range view of automation from the vantage point of the worker.  He saw it as establishing conditions for a society in which human beings would be freed from work in its conventional form.  Instead of laboring as a slave, serf, or appendage to a machine, human beings would now have the work of designing and maintaining machines, a form of work that is much more versatile and requires education and creativity.  In addition, since machines work with high efficiency, human societies would be able to produce their needs with less labor time.  So not only would work be more versatile, but also labor time would be reduced.  This would make it possible for human beings to engage in a variety of activities above and beyond work, such as gardening, crafting their own furniture, or studying literature.  Thus Marx viewed automation as establishing the foundation for a society characterized by the efficient satisfaction of human needs, by creative work, and by the reduction of labor time.  

     As automation emerges, the working and capitalist classes would have different and opposed interests.  Whereas the working class would have an interest in the full realization of the emancipatory implications of automation, the capitalist class would have an interest in the maximization of production in order to maximize profit.  The capitalist class thus would be driven toward what Marcuse later called the production of “false needs,” which functions as the ideological foundation of the consumer society (Marcuse 1964).  Driven by the pursuit of profit as an end in itself (Weber 1958), the capitalist seeks to maximize production and to psychologically manipulate workers to purchase consumer goods that do not qualitatively enhance human life.

      From the working class point of view, however, the truly emancipatory implications of automation can be grasped.  So the transformation from capitalism to socialism requires political action by the working class, in order that it can establish structures necessary for the transition to socialism.  Just as the merchant class during feudalism could discern its long-range interests in the full realization of factory production, the working class must discern its interest in the full emancipatory implications of automated industry.   And just as the merchant class became a revolutionary bourgeoisie, the working class must become a revolutionary class that acts politically to establish a new type of society on a foundation of automated industry.


References

Bottomore, T.B., Ed.  1964.  Karl Marx: Early Writings.  New York: McGraw-Hill.

Marcuse, Herbert.  1964.  One-Dimensional Man.  Boston:  Beacon Press. 

Marx, Karl.  1963.  The Poverty of Philosophy.  New York: International Publishers.

__________.  1967.  Capital, Vol. I.  New York: International Publishers.

__________.  1970.  A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy.  New York: International Publishers.

__________.  1973.  Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy.  New York: Random House, Vintage Books.

Marx, Karl, and Frederick Engels.  1948.  The Communist Manifesto.  New York: International Publishers. 

__________.  1965.  The German Ideology.  London:  Lawrence & Wishart. 

Weber, Max.  1958.  The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.  New York:  Charles Scribner’s Sons.


Key words: Third World, revolution, colonialism, neocolonialism, imperialism, democracy, national liberation, sovereignty, self-determination, socialism, Marx, Marxism, Leninism, Cuba, Latin America, world-system, world-economy, development, underdevelopment, colonial, neocolonial, blog Third World perspective, automation, automated industry
7 Comments
David Taubmann link
6/4/2016 12:16:15 pm

SUPER EXCELLENT ARTICLE!!

Eventhough I was searching about the need of some deflation of market prices in the transition to a fully automatized society, I found VERY useful information in your article and what surprises me is how CONCISE and FULLY helpful is this article to understand our times, specially your last two paragraphs!

I would like to know if you have something to conclude about the markets movements in this social transition...

Thanks in advance, do you have a personal blog or something to follow you?

Reply
Charles McKelvey
6/14/2016 05:56:38 am

Dear David,

Thank you for your comment, which inspired me to look again at “Marx on automated industry” and to write a new post, “Marx on automated industry revisited,” dated June 14, 2016.

Best wishes,

Charles McKelvey

Reply
Arthur Schopenhauer lol link
7/8/2016 02:35:06 am

I've developed an interest in Karl Marx' ideology and own a copy of his manifesto, but haven't come across much thought of automated labour and redistribution of the produce, are there any works specifically on that?
Also, as I'm scheduled to be an undergrad freshman in a year (going into g12 atm) are there any specific courses or universities you can recommend for Marxian economics?(Canada) what would I be able to do further on in economics with a Marxian mindset? (Research, developing new economic models on paper?)

Reply
Charles McKelvey
7/13/2016 06:05:26 am

Dear Arthur,

Thank you very much for your comment and for reading my blog. My writing on Marx’s concept of automated industry as the material foundation of socialist society drew primarily from The German Ideology, Part One, which Marx and Engels wrote in 1846. Although not immediately published when it was written, I view The German Ideology as the clearest and fullest expression of the Marx’s interpretation of human history.

I do not know of any university in Canada where you could study Marxist economics, although I imagine that there are isolated professors here and there offering such a course. The UK might have more possibilities for departments with a Marxist orientation, but in general, Marxists in the countries of the North have a tendency to Eurocentrism. For the Third World Marxist-Leninist perspective, liberated from Eurocentric assumptions, I would recommend study in Cuba, either at the undergraduate level, or later, for an M.A. degree. You would have to learn Spanish first, if you do not speak it. It would not be easy, but it would be doable, and it’s what I recommend for any young man or woman who wants to understand the contradictions of the capitalist world-economy and the socialist alternative.

Best wishes, and do not hesitate to write further.

Charles McKelvey

Reply
THEO POULAKIS
1/7/2018 11:03:43 pm

Thanks Charles

Could you supply me with your next article titled
“ Marks on automated industry revisited “
as I disagree with your view that the working class must become revoutonary class sting politically to establish socialist system .
My view is that the industrial machine will have to convince the bankers and Goverments of the world to fund the working classes for the purpose of continued consumption .
Continued deflation and low interest rates as a consequence of advanced technology and secure trade routes will ensure that the printing of money will not inflate our way out of excessive debt .
Thus either the banks and goverments of the world will fund consumption as debt becomes the norm or excessive destruction and thus the need
to re build will occur . Leading to the end of the deflationary period and also need of human labor once again to assist in the rebuild period ...,

Sadly I see second view the most probable as I have no faith in the military industrial complex that will influence the mass destruct option .

Reply
Charles McKelvey
1/12/2018 10:00:00 am

Dear Theo, Thank you very much for your comment. The view that I present in the post, that the working class will become a politically active revolutionary class leading a transition to socialism, is not my view. It is that of Marx. In rereading the post, I see that I did not make this clear. I was caught upon in being faithful to Marx. My own view is that socialism and Marxism have evolved since the time of Marx, such that we can see today that the neocolonized peoples of the earth constitute a revolutionary subject that is seeking to construct, in theory and in practice, a must just, democratic, and sustainable world-system. On this theme, see various posts in the category Marxism-Leninism and in the category Third World.

“Marx and automated industry revisited” was posted on June 14, 2016, and it can be found in the category Marx.


Reply
prof premraj pushpakaran
3/22/2018 03:42:44 am

prof premraj pushpakaran writes -- 2018 marks the 200th birth year of Karl Heinrich Marx!!!

Reply



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    Author: Charles McKelvey

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