Did Marx Fetishize Labor?. Issue 2 (2nd April 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Düzenli, Faruk Eray
• Is Part Of: Rethinking Marxism. Volume 28:Issue 2(2016)
• Page Start: 204
• Page End: 219
• Publication Date: 2016-04-02
• Subjects: Capital -- Fetishism -- Labor -- Karl Marx -- Value; Communism -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 335.4305
• DOI: 10.1080/08935696.2016.1158970
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0893-5696

Abstract

Abstract : Labor is often construed as the universal ontological ground of social life, the differentia specifica of human beings in most, but not all, Marxian accounts. But such a rendition fetishizes labor: a quality that arises as an effect of a network of relations (self-realizing productive activity, or the creator of all that exists) is conceived as the inherent, natural, and essential characteristic of an element of this network (labor). Despite occasional "slips, " Marx carefully avoids this fetishistic inversion: consequently, neither the creator of use-values nor the producer of values should be read as labor's innate or essential attribute. Rather, labor acquires these characteristics within Marx's discourse, rendering class relations visible.