Labour-Power-Points

This is a paper by Glenn Rikowski which he gave at the Historical Materialism London Conference, SOAS, 2024. Following a brief outline of labour-power through Marx, Ciccarelli (2021) and Rikowski's own work, it is argued that the fragmentation of Marxist work on labour-power undermines what is critical for its understanding in contemporary society: the notion that labour-power is a ‘unity of the diverse’ (Marx). In Marxist theory and empirical work today, labour-power as ‘unity’, as a unified social force within humans, is sacrificed to its ‘diversity’. The result is theorisations and empirical research that split the study of labour-power into seemingly competing projects; either as arguments regarding whether the key focus should be on the social production of labour-power through education and training, or the social reproduction of labour-power through the family and domestic labour. This paper argues that labour–power is better viewed through its various diversities that constitute its unity. Each of these diversities is a spectral (but real) point in analysis of labour-power, but its unity blends the pinpointing analysis of its diversities. These labour-power diversities are social forms of its social re/production that are manifested in and through various institutions in capitalist society. In this light, the following diversities of labour-power and their institutional forms can be viewed directly through the work of Marx: the social production of labour-power (e.g. in education and training); its social reproduction 1 (e.g. through the family and domestic labour); social reproduction 2 (e.g. through state pensions, unemployment benefits); maintenance of labourers 1 (e.g. through consumption, food); maintenance of labourers 2 (e.g. through health, and mental health services). These labour-power diversities constitute a web of social forms shaping labour-power in contemporary capitalism. The paper ends by exploring some recent empirical examples illustrating how moving between the spectral points of labour–power and its diversities solidifies their unity in analysis.