Good work so far, crew. We are about a quarter of the way through Volume 1 and about 10% of the way through the whole thing. Having said that, we’re also about 10% of the way through 2024, so don’t get too comfortable, keep pedalling.
Having set up the idea of surplus-labour as the source of profit, Marx looked at how this plays out in practice, how it affects people’s lives.
I think we have a minimum of 8 people reading; it could even be 12 or 13.
Let’s use this shared activity as an excuse to also build camaraderie by thinking out loud in the comments.
The overall plan is to read Volumes 1, 2, and 3 in one year. (Volume IV, often published under the title Theories of Surplus Value, will not be included in this particular reading club, but comrades are encouraged to do other solo and collaborative reading.) This bookclub will repeat yearly. The three volumes in a year works out to about 6½ pages a day for a year, 46⅔ pages a week.
I’ll post the readings at the start of each week and @mention anybody interested. Let me know if you want to be added or removed.
Just joining us? It’ll take you about 10½ hours to catch up to where the group is.
Archives: Week 1 – Week 2 – Week 3 – Week 4 – Week 5
Week 6, Feb 5-11, we are reading Volume 1, Chapter 10 Sections 4, 5, 6, and 7.
In other words, read from the heading ‘4. Day Work and Night Work. The Shift System’ to the end of the chapter
Discuss the week’s reading in the comments.
Use any translation/edition you like. Marxists.org has the Moore and Aveling translation in various file formats including epub and PDF: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/
Ben Fowkes translation, PDF: http://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=9C4A100BD61BB2DB9BE26773E4DBC5D
AernaLingus says: I noticed that the linked copy of the Fowkes translation doesn’t have bookmarks, so I took the liberty of adding them myself. You can either download my version with the bookmarks added, or if you’re a bit paranoid (can’t blame ya) and don’t mind some light command line work you can use the same simple script that I did with my formatted plaintext bookmarks to take the PDF from libgen and add the bookmarks yourself.
Audiobook of Ben Fowkes translation, American accent, male, links are to alternative invidious instances: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9
Resources
(These are not expected reading, these are here to help you if you so choose)
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Harvey’s guide to reading it: https://www.davidharvey.org/media/Intro_A_Companion_to_Marxs_Capital.pdf
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A University of Warwick guide to reading it: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/postgraduate/masters/modules/worldlitworldsystems/hotr.marxs_capital.untilp72.pdf
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Reading Capital with Comrades: A Liberation School podcast series - https://www.liberationschool.org/reading-capital-with-comrades-podcast/
I dunno if this is fitting for the bookclub or elsewhere, but like besides getting depressed, it was hard not getting mad at this chapter. A lot of the stuff just like reminded me of my mom and her workplace, that I still feel like worked her to death last year. Since like like at the end of 2022, I still remember my mom calling me while in pain, about how she needed help. Since like her workplace made her do something that like really hurt her physically. because that damned place like, had a lot of regulation violations that were never enforced. and I remember my mom constantly talking about it a lot and everything. along with her being like short staffed and other things.
but like literally thanks to that workplace she ended up hardly being able to move much at all. and she had to quit. and then she had to worry about her health insurance and eventually being out of it. and then she tried to get disability but was denied and just…
and just. I dunno. I know this chapter was generally about the working day, but still like, while maybe some things have changed, it hasn’t changed in many other aspects. and it’s hard to not get angry.
Definitely agree. Marx doesn’t let his mask of academic impassivity slip often, but when it does (particularly common in these history-focused chapters) it becomes very clear that he’s very angry too.
It’s an infuriating read, am I’m glad Marx blasts all the whining that factory owners do when they receive even the most modest push-back. How the bakers are treated is particularly outrageous; reading between the lines, I assume they’re not being paid while they’re forced to sleep at the bakehouse.
This is where the comparison of capitalists to vampires is not even a metaphor. They give no consideration to the health or lives of their workers, and are literally devouring their life force to transform it into capital.