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Re: [ox-en] Primacy of Contract WAS Re: Primacy of State



hi per,

on 08-10-03 Per I. Mathisen wrote:
On Wed, 8 Oct 2003, Adam Moran wrote:

what about the capitalist mode of production ? the serf class are fed up
(fix and fertig ) with the landlords / guild masters, and get lured into
a better contract with merchant capital ... on the understanding that
they produce commodities, re-produce the capital invested and produce
profit for the capitalist ... the capitalist mode of production is born


Except that wasn't how capitalism was born. Capitalism was created (in
England) by laws that forced peasants off their land (enclosures),
prohibited them from hunting (game laws) and prohibited unemployment
(vagrancy and poor laws).

I. i do not doubt there were many laws passed by the feudal state that 'freed' labour from the land - this does not contradict my point

i think this 'freed' labour was one element of the birth of the capitalist mode of production - i am convinced that another was the availability of merchant capital - it complete's the deal ;) - that is the reason why i suggest that there is a Contract from day_1

further, i suggest, that the capitalist state exists solely to enforce and exploit this Contract - this is what states do in any society; they enforce the initial contract - this is why i submit that we should recognise that our 'new' mode of production ( for want of a suitable pseudonym ) is based on a successful human family and the state that is upon us is welcomed with open arms

i think a lot of people are reluctant to commit to taking what we've got to its logical limits because they fear it will just be like 'hamlet in modern dress' , and it is for this reason i am trying to drive the point home about how States come to be / unfold, and how they have Primacy over the Politics of that state; viz

-  Contract / State ... first
-  Politics ... second

(I recommend reading Karl Polanyi's excellent The Great
Transformation.)

thanks for the reference - i'll try and get a copy and we can swap notes - here's one for you

http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/politics.1.one.html

... i think it's a good place to start as one of the present activities of this list is contemplation of a new society


II.	

Except that wasn't how capitalism was born. Capitalism was created (in
England) by laws that forced peasants off their land (enclosures),
prohibited them from hunting (game laws) and prohibited unemployment
(vagrancy and poor laws).

(marx says somewhere, if i'm not mistaken, that he thought england could legislate it's way to communism - i think he may have meant it as a joke :)

i have witnessed the privatisation of much of the uk_state's assets - this has come in the form of many laws also and these laws have ,in there turn, restructured the workers of the uk state ... i'm sure that this privatisation thread has restructured workers world over - how many of us have to fill in our own tax returns or wonder what we are going to do for a pension ?

these privatisation laws are not intended to make us free to work together, with purpose, in groups of family composition - but they are designed by the existing state to exploit its Contract at a state level - these are the 'freedoms' which have been legislated - i'm sure there are other examples

--
adam





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