The Fragile Juggernaut

Harry Cleaver is Associate Professor, Emeritus, at the Department of Economics, University of Texas at Austin and author of Reading Capital Politically (AK Press/Anti-Thesis, 1979 and 2000), Rupturing the Dialectic: The Struggle Against Work, Money, and Financialization (AK Press, 2017) and 33 Lessons on Capital: Reading Marx Politically (Pluto Press, 2019).

Foreword

Preface



1 Introduction

 1 Work, the Vulnerable Heart of Capitalism

 2 “Class” and Class Struggle

 3 Capitalism, the Fragile Juggernaut

 4 What Constitutes a Crisis?



2 Marx & Engels’ Studies of Crisies, 1843−1895

 1 The Early Studies: 1842−1852

  1.1 Paris and Manchester

  1.2 Brussels

  1.3 Paris

  1.4 Cologne

  1.5 London

 2 Years of Theory, 1857−1867

  2.1 From Notes to Weighty Tomes

  2.2 The First International (1864–1876)

 3 After Capital, 1867−1895

  3.1 A New Terrain of Struggle: Electoral Politics

  3.2 Continuing Conflicts within the First International

  3.3 War and the Paris Commune

  3.4 Revisions and Translations

  3.5 Working Class Parties and Debates

  3.6 Marx: Critique of the Gotha Program

  3.7 Engels: Anti-Dühring

  3.8 Engels: Socialism: Utopian & Scientific

  3.9 Engels: the Dialectics of Nature

  3.10 Periodical Crisis Becomes Permanent Stagnation?

  3.11 The Second International

  3.12 Engels: Sources and Circulation of Crises



3 Marx’s Theory of Accumulation

 1 A “Labor” Theory of Value?

 2 The Material Circuits of Accumulation

 3 Three Observations

 4 Omnipresent Conflict; Omnipresent Struggle

 5 Conditions of Reproduction

 6 Accumulation in Terms of “Value”

  6.1 The Substance of Value

  6.2 The Measure of Value

  6.3 The Form of Value



4 The Possibilities of Crisis

 1 Markets & Crisis

 2 And in Capitalism Per Se

 3 Possibilities of Crisis in the First Stage of the Circuit: Investment

  3.1 Possible Crises in Gathering Enough Money, M

  3.2 Possible Crises in Hiring in the Labor Market, L – P

  3.3 Possible Crises of Hiring in the Labor Market, M – LP

  3.4 Possible Crises for Buyers of the Means of Production, M – MP

 4 Possibilities of Crisis in the Second Stage of the Circuit: Production

  4.1 Possible Crises with Labor-Power, LP in … P …

  4.2 Possible Crises in Means of Production, MP in … P …

  4.3 Possible Crises Caused by a Rising Organic Composition of Capital

  4.4 Possible Crises Due to a Tendency for the Rate of Profit to Fall

 5 Possibilities of Crisis in the Third Stage of the Circuit: Sales

  5.1 Possible Crises in Selling Slaves, C(LP) – M′

  5.2 Possible Crises in Selling C(MS)’ or C(MP)’

  5.3 Credit, Debt, and Commercial Crisis

  5.4 Summarizing



5 Predispositions to Crisis

 1 Predispositions in the First Stage of the Circuit: Investment

  1.1 Forces Limiting Access to Money for Investment, M

  1.2 Forces Interfering with the Supply of Labor-Power, LP

  1.3 Forces Causing a Shortage in the Supply of the Means of Production, MP

 2 Predispositions in the Second Stage: Production

  2.1 Predispositions to Breakdowns in Labor-Power, LP

  2.2 Predispositions to Breakdowns in the Means of Production, MP

  2.3 Predispositions to Increasing the Organic Composition of Capital

  2.4 Predispositions to a Falling Rate of Profit Tendency and Its Crises

 3 Predispositions in the Third Stage of the Circuit: Sales

  3.1 Predispositions to Crises in Selling Slaves, C(LP) – M′

  3.2 Predisposition to Crises in Markets for C(MS)’ or C(MP)’

  3.3 Predispositions to Credit Crises

 4 The Circulation of Breakdown

  4.1 Quantitative and Qualitative Change

  4.2 Circulation of Crisis within Individual Circuits

  4.3 Circulation of Crisis among Interconnected Circuits

 5 Linkages among Tendencies



6 Offsetting Strategies and Their Contradictions

 1 Force

 2 Laws: Writing and Enforcing

 3 Ideology: Ideas, Institutions and Behavior

 4 Strategic Ideas

 5 Apologetic Ideas

 6 Structural Changes

 7 Offsets in the First Stage of the Circuit: Investment

  7.1 Getting Enough Money

  7.2 Fixing the Supply of Labor-Power

  7.3 Offsetting Crises in Buying the Means of Production, M – MP

 8 Offsets in the Second Stage of the Circuit: Production, … P …

  8.1 Countering Breakdowns in Labor-Power

  8.2 Countering Breakdowns in the Means of Production

  8.3 Offsets to Crises Due to Rising Organic Composition of Capital

  8.4 Offsets to the Falling Rate of Profit Tendency

 9 Offsets in the Third Stage of the Circuit: Sales

  9.1 Dealing with Crises in Selling Slaves, C(LP) – M′

  9.2 Dealing with Crises in Selling C(MS)’ or C(MP)’

  9.3 Dealing with Crises in Selling the Means of Production, C(MP)’ – M′

  9.4 Countering Credit and Commercial Crises

 10 Offsets to the Circulation of Breakdown

  10.1 Dealing with Qualitative Change

  10.2 Blunting Circulation within Individual Circuits

  10.3 Blunting Circulation among Interconnected Circuits



7 Crises as Solutions to the Contradictions of Accumulation

 1 In the First Stage of the Circuit: LP – M/M – LP

 2 In the Second Stage of the Circuit: …P…

 3 In the Third Stage of the Circuit: C′ – M′



8 Crisis and Revolution

 1 Revolution: Another Amoebic Term

 2 “Revolution” as Used by Marx and Engels



Appendix 1: Note to Polish Readers (2016)

Appendix 2: Annotated Bibliography of Marx and Engels’ Writings on Crisis

Index