#2: VALUE (Ch. 1) by Reading Capital With Comrades published on 2021-04-26T04:14:01Z Our second episode covers the first chapter on “commodities,” where Marx begins laying the conceptual building blocks for his investigation. We cover use-value, exchange-value, and value, the two-fold character of labor and its correspondence with different forms of value, and the fetishism of commodities. Throughout, we emphasize the social relations embedded in commodities (relations that, in turn, commodity exchange helps proliferate), as well as how the reality of these relations differ markedly from bourgeois notions of independence, autonomy, and individual choice. In the last part of the episode, we spend time on the first brief sketch of communism Marx gives at the end of the chapter. Contact us with questions or feedback at ReadingCapital@LiberationSchool.org Genre News & Politics Comment by Emilio Gonzalez I don't understand shit. it's waaaaaay too abstract for my tiny brain to grasp. 2023-03-30T14:04:43Z Comment by Alex Welsh Marx never states that abstract labour is created because capitalist machines deskill workers. Abstract labor forms the value substance of commodities in any commodity producing society. Note his reference to Aristotle's discovery of the value-form 2022-02-01T08:55:08Z Comment by Alex Welsh Abstract labor is the substance of value and means homogeneous, human labour in the abstract. Take away the concrete form of labor and we are left with undifferentiated human labour which forms the substance of Value 2022-02-01T08:42:11Z Comment by Alex Welsh This is a fine intro to capital. However, the host made a mistake by defining Value as socially necessary labor-time (SNLT). SNLT is the magnitude or measure of value. To properly define value you would say that it is abstract labour measured in SNLT 2022-02-01T08:39:02Z Comment by Zhuangzi_12 Are there things sold on the market today that are technically not commodities? Things with no utility (use value?) like a "pet rock" but was still sold for exchange. Is "social" use-value different from use-value? 2021-12-12T03:34:35Z Comment by User 402608039 I am very surprised that Marx never called it the Labor Theory of Value 2021-08-19T22:58:00Z