Shagufta Kaur Bhangu

Course Instructor
[email protected]
Division of Labour in Capitalism
● Karl Marx, Labour in Capitalism
○ Labour is distinctly an economic phenomena- as a commodity and as a capacity (production),
signaling a divorce between the person (labourer) and his capacity to produce (labour power)
such that items produced are not owned by the producer (alienation of labour).
○ Labour power operates alongside Means of production and is supported by Means of
Subsistence.
○ In Capitalism, labour power leads to production of commodities (use value) and surplus value
and thus lies at the heart of Capital accumulation.

● The Division of Labour makes a central contribution to the organisation and perpetuation of
capitalist modes of production. Marx traces the roles Division of Labour performs in Chapter 13,
‘Cooperation’ and Chapter 14, ‘Division of Labour and Manufacture’ (p. 227-260)
Division of Labour in Capitalism
Part 4: Production of Relative Surplus Value

Chapter 12- The Concept of Relative Surplus Value

● The rate of surplus value and the length of the working day depend on the magnitude of
prolongation- how long the labourer can keep working. Even if labour time is constant, the working
day (in terms of how much can be produced is variable).
● If labour time becomes fixed (eg. 12 hrs in which 10 hrs is the necessary labour and 2 hrs are
producing surplus value) then how can surplus value still be produced/maximised?
● This can be brought about by DIVISION OF LABOUR- “an alteration, not in the length of the
working day, but in its division into necessary labour time and surplus labour-time” (p. 220)
● This alteration is a revolutionising of “conditions of production, i.e., his mode of production, and
the labour-process itself… the technical and social conditions of the process” (p. 221)
Division of Labour in Capitalism
Chapter 12- The Concept of Relative Surplus Value

● Increased/Prolonged Working Day- Absolute Surplus Value

● Curtailment of necessary labour-time- Relative Surplus Value
● What are the modes of producing relative surplus value?

Chapter 13- Cooperation (Division of Labour under Capitalism)

● Employment of large number of labourers with labour process being carried out on an extensive
scale yielding large quantities.
○ Fixing minimum ‘efficiency’
○ Organisation of work: material conditions of labour are common to all workers (concentration
of ‘means of production’)
○ Scale (cost of workspace, equipment- cost of constant capital falls)
● Average- erases individuality, also balances difference- power of ‘collective work.’
Division of Labour in Capitalism
Chapter 13- Cooperation

● Splitting up of work and collectivisation (cooperation)

● Collective power of masses vs. sum of individual parts (similar to Adam Smith’s observations)
● Body of workers- hands and eyes over a larger area (“omnipresent,” p. 229) allowing “various parts
of work progress simultaneously” (p. 229).
● Workers never rewarded for their collective power- so collectivisation isn’t recognised nor
encouraged. Instead, each enters an individual contract with capitalist.
● Differentiation in the workforce- delegation of supervision, establishment of line of command.
● Leadership based on availability of capital (control of means of production), never/rarely shared.
● Antagonism built into the relationship between capitalist & workers.
● Produced under material conditions provided by capital, the production of surplus by the collective
is seen as a “productive power that is immanent in capital.” (p. 232)
Division of Labour in Capitalism
Chapter 14- Division of Labour and Manufacture

● From Handicrafts to Manufacture: prevalent characteristic form of capitalist production from mid
16th to late 18th centuries (1770s).
● Commodities become social products. Two forms of work organisation in Manufacturing:
○ Multiple labourers, different work (skills), same/different workshop. Eg. manufacturing
carriages, watches
○ Multiple labourers, same work, same workshop. Eg. manufacturing pins - ELEMENTARY
● Re-distribution of work, units/acts broken down- such that “a productive mechanism whose parts
are human beings… [L]abourer… converts his whole body into the automatic, specialised
implement of that operation.” (p. 238)
○ Specialisation in one industry- losing expertise of ‘handicraft.’ eg. locksmith, tailor
○ Disconnection and isolation of acts of labour. (perfection, specialisation, efficiency. Revisit:
Adam Smith)
Division of Labour in Capitalism
Chapter 14- Division of Labour and Manufacture

● Labourer & his Implements- increased differentiation and specialisation. Labourers are
incorporated.
● In the two forms, nature of cooperation and division of labour differs:
○ “Combination of scattered handicrafts, lessens the space by which various phases of
production are separated from each other… time taken is shortened” (p. 241) - simple
cooperation
○ Phases of development are made simultaneous- “greater quantum of finished commodities in
a given time. This simultaneity is due to the general co-operative form of the process as a
whole.” (p. 241)- “fractional work,” “partial process” -- introduces continuity, intensity
uniformity, regularity. Production process also limits each form of labouring activity and
desired number of labourers introducing an organic relation among the labourers- sameness,
exchangeable. (Rf. Durkheim’s organic solidarity)
Division of Labour in Capitalism
Chapter 14- Division of Labour and Manufacture

● Since collective labour is differentiated, “Manufacture, therefore, develops a hierarchy of

labour-powers, to which there corresponds a scale of wages.” (p. 244)- skilled/unskilled
● “In Manufacture, the turning out of a given quantum of product in a given time is a technical law of
the process of production itself” (p. 242)

DIVISION OF LABOUR IN MANUFACTURE, DIVISION OF LABOUR IN SOCIETY (Rf. Engels)

● Communities find different means of production and subsistence, and their products are different.
Eg. tribes- This calls forth mutual exchange of products and gradual conversion into commodities.
● Exchange brings the already different into relation, introducing inter-dependence, formations of the
social (Durkheim).
● Division of labour in manufacture demands division of labour to have occurred in society. Eg.
physical division, territorial division.
Division of Labour in Capitalism
Chapter 14- Division of Labour and Manufacture

● Division of Labour between society & workshop differs in form and degree. The bond between
independent labourers changes. In the first, each one produces a ‘commodity’ and means of
production are dispersed (p. 246) In the latter, each brings labour-power and means of production
are concentrated in the hands of the capitalist.
● In Society- independent commodity producers interact based on mutual interests and different
groups are brought in equilibrium by demand and supply forces of different roles in society. This
leads to an unchanging, perpetuating society but one striving towards balance between labouring
tasks which are required and the fulfillment of such tasks. In the workshop, an undisputed authority
of the capitalist exists over men and this form of power is a specific creation of capitalist mode of
production. Eg. caste in India
● “Manufacture carries the social separations of division of labour much further, and also, by its
peculiar division, attacks the individual at the very roots of his life… ” (p. 250)
Division of Labour in Capitalism
Chapter 14- Division of Labour and Manufacture

CAPITALIST CHARACTER OF MANUFACTURE

● “Manufacture carries the social separations of division of labour much further, and also, by its
peculiar division, attacks the individual at the very roots of his life… ” (p. 250)
● Intellectual vs. Menial Labour: G. Garnier, Adam Smith’s French translator on Adam Smith’s
suggestion that education should be offered as a public good:
“This division of labour, like every other, is an effect of past, and a cause of future progress...ought the
government work in opposition to this division of labour, and to hinder its natural course? Ought it to
expend a part of the public money in the attempt to confound and blend together two classes of labour,
which are striving after division and separation?”

● With capitalism, DoL has shifted from an emphasis on quality, use-value to quantity, exchange
value.
● Yet, the workshop, a product of division of Labour in Manufacture, produced MACHINES-
Conclusion
● Plan for Next Class: After looking at various conceptions of division of labour and its relationship
with social formations, we will shift our focus to everyday worlds of labour under capitalism. In the
next lecture, we will look at the spatial and temporal organisation of work under capitalism through
Karl Marx’s ‘The Working Day’ and EP Thompson’s ‘Time, Work-Discipline and Industrial
Capitalism.’

● Question: In 300 words, contrast the varying conceptions of Division of Labour that Engels, Smith,
Durkheim, Weber and Marx present. Please email your responses with “Submission for EoL” in the
subject line at [email protected]