Commodities and Exchange

This post is sent in advance for Monday 31 March 2008.

This week’s instalment of our revision programme on Karl Marx’s Capital Volume 1 is a composite of part of the first chapter, on Commodities, and the whole of the short second chapter, on Exchange. See the first item, linked below.

This is as “classic” as it gets. This is Marx laying down the foundations for the great work to come. It includes Section 4 of Chapter 1, on “The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret thereof.”

Just to show how fresh Marx’s ideas still are, the second item is an extract from William Blum’s “Anti-Empire Report” (an e-mail newsletter that often gets published in full on Counterpunch). Bill Blum has compiled some short, sharp, and witty points that relate directly to Karl Marx’s ideas, yet are entirely located the USA of today, where Blum lives. It can serve as a good companion-piece to Marx’s Chapters 1 and 2 of Capital, Volume 1.

Click on these links:

Reprise 02, Capital V1, C1 and 2, Commodities and Exchange, 1867 (11930 words)

USA, democracy or economy? William Blum, Anti-Empire Report (1578 words)

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