Socialism 201, Session 2

Date: Apr 02nd

Please join the Citywide Political Education Committee for the second meeting of Socialism 201 on Thursday, April 2nd, 7:00 – 8:30 pm, at the DSA office (14 Jefferson St).

This class meeting is open to everyone. There is no need to have attended the prior session. There is no “required” reading. We will examine the ideas set out in the recommended readings, and if you have time, we encourage you to read them to get more out of the class discussion. However, everyone is welcome, and regardless of your familiarity with the readings you will find the discussion useful and illuminating.

Our second session examines the nuts and bolts of Marx’s analysis of capitalism. Approaching Marx’s economic writings can feel daunting, given the length of Capital, Vol 1 (to say nothing of Vol 2 and 3!), and the unfamiliar terminology. Fortunately, Marx wrote several shorter pamphlets that present his analysis of capitalism in a more condensed and accessible way. We will read excerpts from “Wage Labour and Capital” that provide the skeleton key to Marx’s economic theory. We’ll cover concepts like value, the nature of the commodity, surplus value, exploitation, and the origin of profit. Participants will learn why Marx argues labor is the sole source of profit. We will discuss how the everyday world of prices and wages obscures and ‘inverts’ the actual character of the underlying class relations, and how this produces misrecognition of the real nature of the social world and our everyday lives.

Class readings:

“Wage Labour and Capital”

Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, and 9

See also the attached study guide.