Beyond Capital: Marx's Political Economy of the Working Class

by Michael A. Lebowitz

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A completely reworked edition of his classic volume, Michael Lebowitz's Beyond Capital explores one of the great debates among Marx scholars, that of the implications of Marx's uncompleted works. Lebowitz focuses on the side of the workers, which, he argues, was not developed in Marx's Das Kapital and which was to be the subject of his intended book on wage-labor. Beyond Capital criticizes the one-sidedness of much of Marxist thought and argues that Marx's political economy of the working class and the way in which human beings produce themselves through their struggles are central for going beyond capital.

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Average Customer Review: 5 out of 5 stars

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant and devastating, 2006-05-11
Michael Lebowitz, Professor of Economics at Simon Fraser in Vancouver, has been able to do with this book what no theoretician has done in decades: he has actually added to Marx and the Marxist view of society, explaining what Marx left out of "Capital", and showing what the importance of the missing parts of Marxist theory is.

The crux of the book is this: "Capital", says Lebowitz, is essentially a one-sided book. It brilliantly explains the Marxist view of the political economy of capitalism, but only from the side of capital. This one-sided view of society has led to many errors and a constant problem with economism. Lebowitz, however, is able to show that what is missing is (among other things!) a view of capitalism from the vantage point of wage-labour.

This of itself is already quite groundbreaking. But the book goes on to explain the consequences of this (wilful) omission, and shows how viewing the capitalist society from the point of view of wage-labour allows us to solve or at least clarify many issues that have bothered Marxists for many decades. Among these are:

- What place the class struggle can have in the 'closed' system of capitalism;
- What the meaning is of the reproduction of the labourer by means of his wage;
- The theory of capitalist crises from the view of the wage-labourer;
- How the rising real wages of labourers in history since Marx in no way refutes Marxism, and how it is in fact compatible with the immiseration ("Verelendung");
- What the role of capital is in the problem of unpaid domestic labour on the part of wife and children in patriarchal family relations;
- Why (as reviewer Byars pointed out) socialism is not inevitable, and yet can be a more rational and productive system from the view of the wage-labourer;
- And why capitalism always tries to create new needs for wage-labourers, and at once always must fail to fulfil them.

Lebowitz has done a masterful job and the book is written in clear language, though a basic understanding of "Capital" and the Marxist view of political economy is certainly needed to understand the book. All who profess Marxism or are even slightly interested in Marx' views for economic or historical reasons must have this book on their shelf. For the value you get out of it, the price is a steal.

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