Thread by @adnanahusain

First instalment of a fool's errand: a weekly tweet/tweet thread summary of 28 pages of Marx's Capital for #GoodMorningMarx, read 4 pages a day, that we can call #WeeklyMarx. Bk 1, Part 1, Chp 1, sec 1-2, partial 3 (pgs. 125-153, tr. Fowkes):

Definitions: a commodity, a thing that satisfies human needs whether physical or imagined/desired, whether an object of consumption or as a means of production (of other commodities). In physical form has quantity and qualities, many properties that are discovered historically.

More fundamentally, for Marx's theory, commodities, through which wealth appears in capitalist societies, have a use value and exchange value. The use value is realized in use or consumption. In capitalism societies it is also material bearer of an exchange value in proportion

to other commodities, the use values of one exchanged for use values of others. p.127 putting commodities in exchange value relation to one another implies their equality to a third thing, an abstraction from the use values and specific qualities. One property remains in the

exchange value of commodities: that they are products of labor and express human labor in the abstract. Exchange value is the form of the appearance of value which is based on the quantity of socially necessary and useful labor time in its production. How does he define labor?

Labour is the necessary expenditure of physical effort through which is mediated the metabolism between human and nature. This simple labor power, which varies historically, is the unit measured in time for calculating necessary social labour that "congeals" in the commodity

materially. He suggests that we can assume that complex (skilled) labor can be reduced and abstracted as an intensification or multiplication of simple labor. Next we get linen and coat as examples of the relative and equivalent forms of the commodity in an exchange

relationship that will allow Marx to explore how money works. He promises in section 3 that the mystery of money will immediately disappear when we understand the forms of the commodity exchange. Next week I will try to summarize the first parts of section 3 since it relates

better to the discussion of the commodity fetish and money. I am already behind in the summary--an auspicious beginning! So many interesting issues in just the first few pages--I hope #GoodMorningMarx participants organize a reading group to discuss, my summary is not enough!

Feel free to share if this is helpful. Others can improve my summary and/or fill in the elements I have skipped. David Harvey's lectures very helpful as a companion to the reading (davidharvey.org/reading-capita…), but there are many other great resources. Onward, comrades!