Capitalists do have the above, but to put them to use efficiently enough to make a profit they need other people to work them. Workers are those who have none of the necessary premises, equipment, materials, or the money to acquire these things, that are needed to engage in production or exchange – to make a living on the market – and can trade only their ability to work (labour power).
It underlies the socialist understanding of the world’s economies and societies today the contradictions and antagonisms in social relations and the inherent instability and conflict arising from the fundamental division of the world into those who own capital and exploit others, and those who own little or nothing and are exploited namely, capitalists and workers. This revolutionary discovery by Karl Marx paved the way for a comprehensive explanation of the workings of the capitalist system – identifying exploitation, and therefore injustice, at its core. And of course the drive for profit is the beating heart of capitalism. Put simply, all profits come from the unpaid work of workers.
The time, thought and energy applied by workers in the production process – whose efforts are only partially compensated by the employer who keeps the output – is the ultimate source of profit (or surplus value) in a capitalist economy. Of all the things a capitalist can buy to build their business, only labour power adds value meaning the business can produce something worth more than the original cost of the components that went into the finished product. Without the labour power of workers, capitalists can’t make profits. Originally published in Socialist Alternative, the political journal of the Socialist Party (CWI in Ireland) Two hundred years since Karl Marx was born and 170 years since his most famous work, The Communist Manifesto, was published, Eddie McCabe looks at Marx’s theory of class struggle and assesses its relevance for today.
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