Steven said, “While we were usually lumped in with Autonomist Marxism, in fact our work was always very critical, sometimes ferociously so, of work like Toni Negri's that abandoned the labor theory of value.”
How exactly did Negri abandon the LTV? After Negri’s careful reading of the Grundrisse in “Marx beyond Marx,” the LTV served as the foundation for the “refusal of work” strategy. Essentially Negri’s premise was that working class activity proceeds capitalist reformism to the extent that direct labor immediately dictates the terrain of the class struggle (in a local/national framework). Refusal of labor was a strategy that argued for workers to withdraw the use value of their labor from exchange with capital under the slightly naive assumption that trapping capital in its fixed form could block circulation and lead to an organic simulation in the fall of the rate of profit. Naive as it may have been the assumptions of the theory presuppose an intimate reading of the LTV so I’m simply confused about this specific line of attack against Negri. Unless the attack is centered on the post Savage Anomaly, Empire era Negri which I would no longer consider Autonomous Marxist. Spinoza provided French Post-structuralist with a way out of continental philosophy with the rejection of Hegel, Heidegger and Husserl. Unfortunately it didn’t provide a pathway beyond the structuralism of the market economy. I’m still not sure if the rejection of dialectical philosophy by Negri was more of an abandonment, a revisionism, or a defeatism. The Italian movement exemplified by the years of lead that culminated in the historic compromise, (i.e the elevation of the state conspiring with fascism over the alliance with the PCI, and the Christian Democrats) profoundly affected Negri. After prison Spinoza gave Negri a language to continue his State philosophy, reconnect his own Christian and working class roots, and apologize for the activism of his youth. Despite this movement away from the working class movement and towards academic philosophy, Im not convinced that Negri ever abandoned the Labor Theory of Value. Finally, the labor theory of value is not an inherently Marxist term so it’s unclear how any Marxist can abandon the LTV. Adam Smith and David Ricardo are the classical voices associated with the establishment of the Labor theory of Value. Marxism is a critique of the labor theory of value that demonstrates how alienation and exploitation underpin the fundamental relationship between Value, Price and Profit. Maybe I’m being too critical but I’m unfamiliar with the Midnight group so perhaps more information would bring clarity to this issue and how the group compares or contrast with other theories of Marxism. Ben -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#42426): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/42426 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/120214562/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
