"On this point I will only say further that Owen's 'labour-money', for instance, is no more 'money' than a theatre ticket is. Owen presupposes directly socialised labour, a form of production diametrically opposed to the production of commodities. The certificate of labour is merely evidence of the part taken by the individual in the common labour, and of his claim to a certain portion of the common product which has been set aside for consumption." (2)
Leichter in his observations also proposes this "labour-money" as the basis for distribution. He writes:
"In reality the social plan proposed by Bourguin, as also that presented here, are both based on the concept of a distribution of goods in kind relative to the labour expended by each individual. Labour money is only a particular form for determining the share in the national product selected for specifically economic reasons." (3)
Although these observations of Leichter's appear to be quite faultless, there lurks nevertheless a poisonous adder in the grass, and this becomes apparent when he writes about "distribution in relation to the labour performed by each individual". Production is indeed organised on the basis of the average social hour of labour, but according to him distribution proceeds on the basis of quite different principles. In reality the producers shall have allocated to them products in exchange for their labour-power on the basis of norms which have absolutely nothing to do with any system of labour-time accounting. On the contrary, it is the social statistician and the subsistence physiologist who should determine the quantity and quality of life necessities which the human individual needs for the maintenance of life, and it is they who "fix a definite number of labour-hours which correspond approximately to the minimum necessary for existence" (page 64). It is by this means that the "standard scientifically estimated and balanced ration of life necessities" (page 64) is determined. This minimum ration, reflecting a physiological subsistence norm, then becomes the basis for payment. What possible connection is there between this and the system of labour-time accounting in production? (4)
The answer, of course, is that this minimum is intended for unskilled workers, whereas the "wage" of the "trained" and "skilled" workers is fixed at a somewhat higher rate by means of negotiated agreements. These collective agreements determine the basic wage, whilst "the socialist factory manager .. fixes the payment received by the separate workers" (page 64), according to their various capabilities.
It is clear that the producers can never feel that their factory is a part of their very selves when such contradictions exist between them. For that reason they can never bear the responsibility for the production process, something which Leichter knows full well. For this reason, in his conception it is not the producers themselves who exercise responsibility, not the works organisation as a productive whole, but it is the director. Leichter writes: "The director of the factory, however appointed, bears the sole responsibility for it; he can be summarily dismissed, just like a capitalist factory manager who fails to live up to the demands placed upon him. Should he then be unemployed, he receives the minimum income guaranteed by society, or else he is employed in an appropriately inferior, and for that reason lower paid, position. In this way it is possible to maintain standards of 'individual initiative' and a sense of responsibility - qualities which also affect personal self-interest - amongst the capitalist factory managers and directors, and so to place them at the disposal of the socialist economy" (page 101). All that is quite explicit. Leichter's conception is that the threat of relegation to a subsistence minimum based upon physiological or "minimum living standard" norms should hang over the heads of the producers like the sword of Damocles.
Thus we see that in this case also the organisational structure of production is determined by the foundations on which distribution stands. The workers have come into irreconcilable contradiction with the factory administration, and all this has happened because the workers have failed to ensure that their relation to the social product is determined by the labour which they contribute.
Let us now turn our attention to the prices of products as Leichter conceives them. Although we would have expected that in this case at least the social average production time would have been valid as the determinative basis for the prices of products, we find that in fact this is by no means the case. In this matter Leichter is extremely vague, but nevertheless it is clearly apparent that the products make their way into social exchange with a higher price attached to them. He speaks, for instance, of a profit increment, but shows that it is his intention that this should accrue, not to the factory, but to the general social fund - the equivalent in Leichter's scheme to a capitalist "treasury" or "exchequer". It is from this profit increment that the general fund makes available the means for the enlargement of the productive base of the industrial establishments. This fund therefore reveals itself to be an accumulation fund. We will return shortly to the question of this accumulation fund, but would first like to make it clear that, with Leichter also, production time finds no expression in the "price" of products. The truth then emerges - namely, that the "central management and administration of the productive system" in fact fixes the prices. In short, they conduct a price policy, in order amongst other things to obtain the means for accumulation. The central administration, which exercises the right of disposal over the product, thus has the power in its hands to exploit the producers as they see fit. Because of the lack of an exact relationship of the producer to the product, because of a presence of a "price policy", capitalist-type wage relations remain in force.
As is well known, marxist political economy defines three categories of wages in capitalist production: 1. the nominal wage; 2. the real or actual wage; 3. the relative wage.
The NOMINAL WAGE is the money price of labour-power. Under that type of communism based upon the statistically derived physiological or "minimum living standard" subsistence minimum, this is to be understood as the equivalent number of labour-hours which the worker receives as payment for the actual number of labour-hours, for instance 40, worked.
The REAL OR ACTUAL WAGE is equivalent to the quantity of products which can be realised in exchange for the nominal wage. Although the nominal wage may remain constant, the actual wage will be higher if the prices of products fall whilst it will fall if those prices rise. With Leichter, the central administration persues a "price policy" which as a matter of course is assumed to be in the interests of the producers. But this does not in any way alter the fact that it is that authority which in reality determines the actual wage, in spite of any and all "collective agreements" reached, since these relate only to the nominal wage. Over all this the producer has no power whatsoever, because the right of control over the price policy is reserved for the gentlemen of the "Statistical Bureau".
The RELATIVE WAGE is defined by the relationship of the real wage to the gross capitalist profit. Thus it is possible that the real wage remains constant whilst the relative wage falls on account of a rise in the gross mass of profits realised. Here Leichter places the main emphasis upon the "rationalisation" of industrial establishments. This has its source in the striving after higher productivity, the creation of a continuously increasing surplus product with the same labour-power - in other words, the average social labour-time necessary for the production of commodities falls continuously. With Leichter, the objective relationship of the producer to the product is not determined in the production process itself. He is only capable of conceiving only of a kind of intelligent labour machine which is nourished on the basis of a statistically derived physiological or "minimum standard living" subsistence minimum, a machine which, in spite of the increase in the mass of products which its labour has created, nevertheless needs to receive no extra calories or other input of life necessities whatsoever. Or, alternatively, perhaps the labour machines do after all receive some part of the increased wealth, but even if this is so, it is in spite of the fact that not the slightest guarantee is given of this ever actually happening. The essential point here is that, under a system of labour-time computation, the owner-controllers of the production system, the workers themselves, exercise a complete right of disposal over the increased mass of products produced.
Thus it can be demonstrated that the category of social average labour-time is meaningless if it does not simultaneously function as the foundation of distribution. If the relationship of the producers to their product is directly anchored in the products themselves, then no leeway exists for a "price policy", and the fruits of each and every improvement in the productive system accrue directly and automatically to all consumers without any need for anyone to "decree" this administratively. The fact that, with Leichter, the three capitalist wage categories can be shown to exist proves that his production plan, just like capitalism itself, also rests upon exploitation.
1. "...; it may be paper, aluminium or any other stuff".
RETURN TO MAIN / CONTENTS PAGE
References
Or, indeed, a plastic computer control card ! return to text?
2. K. Marx: Capital, Vol I; Penguin Books; Footnote to Chapter III, pp.188-9. return to text?
3. O Leichter: Die Wirtschaftsrechnung in der sozialistischen Gesellschaft, p. 75. return to text?
4. Paragraph ending: What possible connection is there between this and the system of labour-time accounting in production?
Yet a further essential function of the labour certificate (or its computerised equivalent) is here revealed: that of ensuring that distribution for personal consumption takes place according to the same equal scale for each category of producer, and that, likewise, the benefits of rising labour productivity are passed onto each such category equally. As Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution clearly shows, it is by means of a system in which the conditions of distribution are determined by the conditions of production, and by such a system alone, that this aim can pertain as a natural and organic element of the entire economic process. The sole instrumentality through which this can be achieved is the wholly objective and impartial unit of distribution for purposes of individual consumption represented by the Average Social Hour of Labour. return to text?
Get your own Free Home Page