The Concept of Labor in Capital
150 Years of Capital, Ten Years of the Marx Autumn School
The Concept of Labor in Capital
This year, we will devote ourselves to the first volume of Marx’s Capital, a book whose 150th anniversary will be in the autumn of 2017. In reading the first volume, we will concentrate on the concept of labor. It has dominated both Marx’s Capital and the history of Marxism like no other: in the form of the great social democratic, socialist and communist mass parties and organizations, of the labor and trade union movements, but also of the socialist worker states. In theory as in practice, they all formulated their politics literally in the name of labor.
There was, however, also a more subterranean current, which made reference mainly to Marx’s critique of labor, as well as to the abolition and superation of capitalist wage labor and of the working class. This critical characterization of labor became particularly influential in the course of the new readings of Capital undertaken around 1968. However, this critique was also directed at Capital itself: it was argued that Marx had focused too strongly on the industrial proletariat and on production while paying too little attention to the significance of other areas of social reproduction – everyday culture, ideology, gender relations and so on. Our soirees will therefore be devoted, first, to the new readings of Capital, then to the critiques formulated and finally to the significance of reproduction and the relationship between biological reproduction and economic crisis. Finally, on Sunday, we will consider the making and the reception history of Capital, as well as the current state of international research into Marx.
Please notice that all evening events will be translated into English and that we offer also an English group for the workshops. If you want to join the work-shops, please register under mail@top-berlin.net, Please say in that email that you want to join the English group so that we send you the English version of the reader which will be read. For the final day it is not sure yet if we will have a translation into English. Please note that there will be also an exhibition during these days.
(Program can be found on the right).
Konferenz
Program
Thursday, 26 October 2017, 19:00, Kunstquartier Bethanien, Mariannenplatz, 10997 Berlin
The New Readings of Capital That Emerged Around 1968
Featuring Hans Georg Backhaus, Sergio Bologna, Prof. Alain Badiou (unconfirmed)
The opening soiree will see the speakers present new readings of Capital that developed in the run-up to the long year 1968. Whence the need for a new and different reading of Capital? What criticisms of the Marxist tradition were formulated? And what was the relationship between these readings, the political situation in various countries and the new beginning that was 1968?
Hans Georg Backhaus (Frankfurt on the Main) will present the form-analytical and value-theoretical reading in West Germany.
Prof. Alain Badiou (unconfirmed, Paris) will present the structuralist reading of Capital in France.
Sergio Bologna (Padua) will present Italian workerism’s reading of Capital.
Languages: German and French, with simultaneous interpretation into German.
The Concept of Labor in Capital – Opening Event and Workshops
Friday, 27 October 2017, 13:30 to 18:00, Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Franz-Mehring-Platz 1, 10243 Berlin
13:30–14:00: registration
14:00–15:30: reception and opening event with Christian Frings, Dr. Ehrenfried Galander, Renate Mohl and Dr. Nadja Rakowitz: »The Concept of Labor in Capital«
15:30–16:00: break
16:00–18:00: first round of workshops
Friday, 27 October 2017, 19:00, Kunstquartier Bethanien, Mariannenplatz 2, 10997 Berlin
Cultural Studies, Feminism and Postcolonial-Studies: Critiques of Marxism
with Prof. María Do Mar Castro Varela, Prof. Nikita Dhawan, Prof. Angela McRobbie
The speakers will present the interventions, confrontations and internal critiques that followed, during the 1970s and 1980s, the new engagement with Marx that had occurred during the 1960s. Cultural Studies, feminism and the postcolonial critique all address specific »blind spots« not only of Marxism, but also of Marx himself.
What exactly did the need for a break with the Marxism of the day, but also for its renewal, consist in? What were the decisive conflicts and debates? What political struggles and movements were associated with this?
Prof. María Do Mar Castro Varela will present the feminist intervention.
Prof. Nikita Dhawan will present the postcolonial critique.
Prof. Angela McRobbie will present the Cultural Studies approach.
Languages: German and English, with simultaneous interpretation into German
Friday, 27 October 2017, 23:59, :// about Blank
Fundraising party with Techno-Newcomer_innen, Househeld_innen, Trash-Allstars and an arsenal of spirituous beverages
://about blank, Markgrafendamm 24
Admission price: participants of the Autumn School receive a three-euro discount
Saturday, 28 October 2017, Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Franz-Mehring-Platz 1, 10243 Berlin
10:00–12:30: second round of workshops
12:30–14:00: lunch break
14:00–17:30: third round of workshops
Saturday, 28 October 2017, 19:00, Kunstquartier Bethanien, Mariannenplatz 2, 10997 Berlin
Our Non-Reproductive Future. Biotechnology, Demography and the Economy of Biological and Social Reproduction
With Prof. Melinda Cooper
Children, women, immigrants, elderly, ill or incarcerated persons seem to constitute, by comparison to the productive working class, a »surplus« of unproductive, underemployed and vagrant potential workers. On the one hand, this »surplus« is constantly reproduced through capitalist wage labor; on the other hand, it performs part of the labor of social reproduction without being part of a regular wage relation. And yet this »surplus« is naturalized, in the public discussion on demographic developments, in the concept of »overpopulation«, such that economic reproduction appears as biological reproduction. As a result of this biologizing approach, we observe, in the western part of the world, laments over declining birth rates, for which native women are supposedly to blame. On the other hand, it is considered a strain and and an excessive demand on the native population when immigrants enter these countries.
Yet the factors shaping birth rates and demographic developments also lie within the »nature« of the capitalist economy and its global structure. They are to be sought, for instance, in the displacement of biological reproduction to the sphere of informal reproductive workers in the service sector (surrogate motherhood, the marketing of ovocytes, nannies and new domestic workers).
In her lecture, Prof. Melinda Cooper will explore the relationship between economic and biological reproduction both with the aid of Marx and in opposition to him.
Facilitator: Felicita Reuschling
Sunday, 29 October 2017, 10:00–17:00, Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Franz-Mehring-Platz 1, 10243 Berlin
Capital: On Its Genesis and Reception History
With, among others,Dr. Roberto Fineschi (Siena), Prof. Rolf Hecker (Berlin), Prof. Michael Krätke (Lancaster), Prof. Thomas Kuczynski (Berlin), Paula Rauhala (Tampere), Dr. Ljudmila Vasina (Moskau)
Capital remained uncompleted notwithstanding the fact that Marx worked on it throughout his life. The work was created in the context of major social upheaval, in particular industrialization and the first organizational efforts of the proletariat. Thus Marx remained, throughout his life, a searcher, a scholar, but also a utopian. The large number of studies, analyses and drafts Marx produced in preparation for Capital demonstrate both the dynamic development of capitalism and its proneness to crisis.
The concept of labor discussed in the workshops is closely related to those of the mode of production and the historical subjects acting within it. Marx analyzes the mode of production that is based on the capital-labor relation and demonstrates its historical transience.
Another focus will be on showing how the reception of Capital developed, what issues debates turned on and how the various editions of and introductions to Capital shaped these debates.
The inputs will be in German.
10:00–10:45: reception and introduction with Prof. Rolf Hecker (Berlin)
11:00–11:30: Prof. Thomas Kuczynski (Berlin): On the Concept of the Mode of Production in Marx: Its Centrality, Ambiguity and Differentiation
11:30–12:00: Dr. Roberto Fineschi (Siena): Forms and Guises: On the Theory of Historical Subjects in Marx’s Capital
12:00–13:00: discussion
13:00–14:00: lunch break
14:00–14:30: Prof. Michael Krätke (Lancaster): Introductions to Capital – How Good or How Bad Were Our Predecessors? (Using the Examples of Bauer, Bogdanov, Renner and others)
14:30–15:00: discussion
15:00–15:15: break
15:15–15:45: Paula Rauhala, MA (Tampere): 100 Years of Capital – Studies of Capital in the Divided Germany of 1967 and 50 Years Later
15:45–16:15: Dr. Ljudmila Vasina (Moscow): The Russian Reception History of Capital in Retrospect, 1867 to 2017
16:15–17:00: discussion and conclusion
exhibition:
The Kids Want Communism. On the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia
»The Kids Want Communism« concludes an exhibition series marking the hundredth anniversary of the October Revolution. This anniversary should not only be an occasion for us to reflect on the form and the consequences of actually existing socialism, but also an invitation to shed light on what almost happened, what did not happen, what could or should have happened and what might still happen. More than any other, the concept of »communism« expresses the antithesis of a reality that promotes and celebrates exploitation and inequality. Wherever capitalism presents itself, it always brings communism with it, as one way in which capitalism might be radically negated. But communism does not content itself with describing relations of power and the division of society into classes; it also offers an additional axis – one that sees us becoming the future. This axis runs parallel to us at every moment, and it is guided by the principle that being-together takes precedence over being, every form of being: biological, political, psychological, familial, social and so on.
An exhibition curated by Joshua Simon, MoBY-Museums of Bat Yam/Israel, and sponsored by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, the Exhibition Fund for Communal Galleries, the Fund for the Remuneration of Exhibitions and artis contemporary
Artists:
Bini Adamczak | New Barbizon: Olga Kundina, Zoya Cherkassky, Natalia Zurabova, Asya Lukin | Diego Castro | Nir Harel | Micah Hesse | Jacob Koesten | Hila Laviv und Dana Yoeli | Ohad Meromi | Olaf Nicolai | FAMU Prague: Nosratollah Karimi, Nabil Maleh, Piyasiri Gunaratna and Krishma (Krishna) Viswanath | Praxis School | Nicole Wermers | Noa Yafe
Opening: 8 September, from 19:00
Reception:
Clara Herrmann, municipal city councilor for culture and further education
Dr. Florian Weis, executive board member of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung
Tsafrir Cohen, director of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung’s office in Israel
Joshua Simon, curator of the exhibition, MoBY-Museums of Bat Yam/Israel
Guided tour and artists’ talk:
Saturday, 9 September 2017, 16:00
Joshua Simon in conversation with the artists of the exhibition
Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien
Mariannenplatz 2
10997 Berlin
