Taking Up the Challenge of Living Labour A ‘Backwards-Looking Reconstruction’ of Recent Italian Debates on Marx’s Theory of the Capitalist Mode of Production

  • Riccardo Bellofiore
  • Frieder Otto Wolf
Chapter
First Online:
Part of the Luxemburg International Studies in Political Economy book series (LISPE)

Abstract

This conviction of mine [i.e. that a reading of the history of Italian Marxisms should be given which is different from that underlying Cristina Corradi’s book (Corradi, Storia dei marxismi in Italia, 2005)] is based, indeed, on the very distinction between Marxists and Marxians, which I consider to be decisive. This distinction is not chronological, as if in the 1970s everybody was a Marxist, while after that, out of the blue, the Marxians arrived and were welcomed. The truth is that such an authentically Marxian thread has, in fact, existed, and is defined by some crucial aspects. First, by a return to Marx’s original problems, which had been buried by Marxism: those linked to the monetary constitution of surplus value and those referring to the re-linking of (new) value to (living) labour. And then, [second,] the absence [in Marx] of any separation between the ‘economic’ sides of these problems and those problems concerning their ‘philosophical’ and ‘sociological’ foundations. Finally, the attempt of taking up the enterprise of the critique of political economy again, in a non-dogmatic and non-repetitive way. This thread dates back, however, and has a long history throughout the twentieth century. In order to bring to light the traces of this development, it is necessary to read the history of the discussion on Marx in a very different way from that practised until now.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access

Bibliography

  1. Alcaro, M. (1977). Dellavolpismo e nuova sinistra. Bari: Dedalo.Google Scholar
  2. Arena, R., & Salvadori, N. (2004). Money, Credit, and the Role of the State. Essays in Honour of Augusto Graziani. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
  3. Arthur, C. J. (1986). Dialectics of Labour: Marx and His Relation to Hegel. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
  4. Bader, V., et al. (1975). Krise und Kapitalismus bei Marx. Frankfurt: EVA.Google Scholar
  5. Baran, P., & Sweezy, P. (1966). Monopoly Capital. An Essay on the American Economic and Social Order. New York/London: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar
  6. Bellanca, N. (1992). Marx secondo Croce. La teoria economica “comparativa” del capitalismo. Storia del pensiero economico, 24, 39–60.Google Scholar
  7. Bellofiore, R. (1980). Lavoro astratto, valore e prezzo di produzione. Studi economici, 12, 57–87.Google Scholar
  8. Bellofiore, R. (1982). L’operaismo italiano e la critica dell’economia politica. Unità Proletaria, (1–2), 100–112.Google Scholar
  9. Bellofiore, R. (1991). La passione della ragione. Scienza economica e teoria critica in Claudio Napoleoni. Milan: Unicopli.Google Scholar
  10. Bellofiore, R. (1993a). Per una teoria monetaria del valore-lavoro. La teoria marxiana tra radici ricardiane e nuove vie di ricerca. In G. Lunghini (Ed.), Valore e prezzi (pp. 63–117). Torino: Utet.Google Scholar
  11. Bellofiore, R. (1993b). Quale Napoleoni?. Il pensiero economico italiano, numero monografico: L’eredità di Claudio Napoleoni, (2), 99–135.Google Scholar
  12. Bellofiore, R. (1996a). Marx rivisitato: capitale, lavoro, sfruttamento. Trimestre, special issue: Il terzo libro del Capitale di Marx, (M. L. Guidi, Ed.), XXIX, (1–2), 29–86.Google Scholar
  13. Bellofiore, R. (1996b). Sraffa in Context. Research in Political Economy, numero monografico: The Sraffa Tradition, xv, 305–314.Google Scholar
  14. Bellofiore, R. (Ed.) (1998a). Marxian Economics: A Reappraisal, Vol. 1: Essays on Vol. III of Capital: Method, Value and Money. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
  15. Bellofiore, R. (Ed.) (1998b). Marxian Economics: A Reappraisal, Vol. 2: Essays on Vol. III of Capital: Profits, Prices and Dynamics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
  16. Bellofiore, R. (1999, May–April). Quanto vale il valore lavoro? La discussione italiana intorno a Marx: 1968–1976. Rivista di politica economica, 33–76.Google Scholar
  17. Bellofiore, R. (2001). Monetary Analyses in Sraffa’s Writings: A Comment on Panico. In T. Cozzi & R. Marchionatti (Eds.), Piero Sraffa’s Political Economy. A Centenary Estimate (pp. 362–376). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
  18. Bellofiore, R. (2005a). The Monetary Aspects of the Capitalist Process in the Marxian System: An Investigation from the Point of View of the Theory of the Monetary Circuit. In F. Moseley (Ed.), Marx’s Theory of Money: Modern Appraisals (pp. 124–139). Baskingstoke: Palgrave/Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. Bellofiore, R. (2005b, June 3–4). Teoria del valore, crisi generale e capitale monopolistico Napoleoni in dialogo con Sweezy. Contribution to the Annual Congress of the Associazione Italiana di Storia dell’Economia Politica (STOREP).Google Scholar
  20. Bellofiore, R. (Ed.). (2005c). Rosa Luxemburg and the Critique to Political Economy. Basingstoke: Routledge.Google Scholar
  21. Bellofiore, R. (Ed.). (2007). Da Marx a Marx? Un bilancio dei marxismi italiani del Novecento. Rome: Manifestolibri.Google Scholar
  22. Bellofiore, R. (2008). Sraffa After Marx, an Open Issue. In G. Chiodi & D. Leonardo Ditta (Eds.), Sraffa or an Alternative Economics (pp. 68–92). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  23. Bellofiore, R. (2015). Claudio Napoleoni e il Capitale monopolistico di Baran e Sweezy. Moneta e Credito, 68(269), 3–39.Google Scholar
  24. Bellofiore, R., & Fineschi, R. (Eds.). (2009). Re-reading Marx: New Perspectives After the Critical Edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
  25. Bellofiore, R., & Guidi, M. (1986). Portata e limiti della ripresa sraffiana dell’economia politica classica. Tra teoria e grande culturaeuropea: Piero Sraffa (Franco Angeli), pp. 93–128.Google Scholar
  26. Bellofiore, R., & Potier, J. P. (1998). Piero Sraffa: nuovi elementi sulla biografia e sulla ricezione di Produzione di merci in Italia. In N. Salvadori (Ed.), Omaggio a Piero Sraffa (1898–1983). Storia Teoria Documenti, Il pensiero economico italiano (No. 1, pp. 7–55).Google Scholar
  27. Bellofiore, R., & Realfonzo, R. (1997). Finance and the Labor Theory of Value. Toward a Macroeconomic Theory of Distribution from a Monetary Perspective. International Journal of Political Economy, Thematic Number on Marxian Theory: The Italian Debate, XXVII(2, Summer), 97–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  28. Bellofiore, R., Realfonzo, R., & Davanzanti, G. F. (2000). Marx Inside the Circuit. Discipline Device, Wage Bargaining and Unemployment in a Sequential Monetary Economy. Review of Political Economy, XII(4), 403–417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  29. Campbell, M., & Reuten, G. (2001). The Culmination of Capital. Essays on Volume Three of Marx’s Capital. Weisbaden: Springer.Google Scholar
  30. Colletti, L. (1968). Bernstein e il marxismo della Seconda Internazionale. Preface. In E. Bernstein (Ed.), I presupposti del socialismo e i compiti della sozialdemocracia (pp. vii–lxxxii). Bari: Laterza. (Republished in: Id. Ideologia e società, Rome-Bari: Laterza 1969, pp. 61–147; English translation in Colletti 1972, 45–108).Google Scholar
  31. Colletti, L. (2011) [1969]. Marxism and Hegel. London: Verso.Google Scholar
  32. Colletti, L. (1972). From Rousseau to Lenin: Studies in Ideology and Society. New York: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar
  33. Colletti, L. (1974). Intervista politico-filosofica, con un saggio su Marxismo e dialettica. Rome-Bari: Laterza.Google Scholar
  34. Colletti, L., & Napoleoni, C. (Eds.). (1970). Il futuro del capitalismo: crollo o sviluppo. Bari: Laterza.Google Scholar
  35. Corradi, C. (2005). Storia dei marxismi in Italia. Rome: Manifestolibri.Google Scholar
  36. della Volpe, G. (1957). Rousseau e Marx e altri saggi di critica materialistica. Rome: Editori Riuniti.Google Scholar
  37. della Volpe, G. (1979). Rousseau and Marx and Other Writings. Atlantic Highlands: Humanities Press.Google Scholar
  38. della Volpe, G. (1980) Logic as a Positive Science (J. Rothschild, Trans.). London: New Left Books.Google Scholar
  39. Duménil, G., & Lévy, D. (2013). The Crisis of Neoliberalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  40. Finelli, R. (1987). Astrazione e dialettica dal romanticismo al capitalismo. Rome: Bulzoni.Google Scholar
  41. Finelli, R. (2004). Un parricidio mancato. Hegel e il giovane Marx. Torino: Bollato Boringhieri.Google Scholar
  42. Finelli, R. (2014). Un parricidio compiuto. Il confronto finale di Marx con Hegel. Milan: Jaca Books.Google Scholar
  43. Fraser, J. (1977). Introduction to the Thought of Galvano Della Volpe. London: Lawrence and Wishart.Google Scholar
  44. Gattei, G. (1995). La teoria monetaria dalla produzione. Arezzo: Banca Popolare dell'Etruria e del Lazio—Studi e Ricerche.Google Scholar
  45. Gattei, G. (2003). The Monetary Theory of Production. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
  46. Gattei, G. (2007). ‘Il via crucis dei marxismi italiani’ in Bellofiore 2007.Google Scholar
  47. Graziani, A. (1983, July 27). Riabilitiamo la teoria del valore. l’Unità.Google Scholar
  48. Graziani. (1995). The Theory of the Monetary Circuit. In M. Musella & C. Panico (Eds.), The Money Supply in the Economic Process: A Post Keynesian Perspective (Vol. 60). Aldershot: Elgar Reference Collection, International Library of Critical Writings in Economics.Google Scholar
  49. Grossman, H. (1969). Marx, Classical Political Economy and the Problem of Dynamics. Frankfurt: EVA.Google Scholar
  50. Hecker, R. (2003). Die Entstehungs-, Überlieferungs- und Editionsgeschichte der ökonomischen Manuskripte und des “Kapital”. trend. online-zeitung. http://www.mxks.de/files/mew/Hecker.EntstehungsgeschDKapitals.t281203.html
  51. Keynes, J. M. (1930). Treatise on Money. The Pure Theory of Money and the Applied Theory of Money. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
  52. Keynes, J. M. (1936). The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.Google Scholar
  53. Krätke, M. (2017). Gibt es ein Marx-Engels-Problem? In Kritik der politischen Ökonomie heute (pp. 211–232). Hamburg: VSA.Google Scholar
  54. Lindner, U. (2013). Marx und die Philosophie. Wissenschaftlicher Realismus, ethischer Perfektionismus und kritische Sozialtheorie. Stuttgart: Schmetterling Verlag.Google Scholar
  55. Luxemburg, R. (1951) [1913]. The Accumulation of Capital. London: Routledge/Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
  56. Luxemburg, R. (1972) [1921]. The Accumulation of Capital—An Anti-Critique. In K. Tarbuck & A. Lane (Eds.), Rosa Luxemburg and Nikolai Bukharin: Imperialism and the Accumulation of Capital (pp. 45–50). London: Pengiun.Google Scholar
  57. Luxemburg, R. (2013) [1925]. Introduction to Political Economy. In The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg, Vol. I: Economic Writings (pp. 89–300). London: Verso.Google Scholar
  58. Marx, K. (1976). Capital. A Critique of Political Economy (Vol. 1). London: Penguin.Google Scholar
  59. Marx, K. (2006) [1857]. Introduction. In Karl Marx, Texts on Method (C. J. Arthur, Trans and Ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  60. Merker, N. (1975). Einleitung: Galvano della Volpe als Theoretiker des Marxismus. In Galvano della Volpe: Rousseau und Marx. Beiträge zur Dialektik geschichtlicher Strukturen (pp. 7–33). Darmstadt/Neuwied: Luchterhand.Google Scholar
  61. Messori, M. (1978). Sraffa e la critica dell’economiapolitica dopo Marx. Milan: Franco Angeli.Google Scholar
  62. Messori, M. (1984). Teoria del valore senza merce-moneta? Considerazioni preliminari sull’analisi monetaria di Marx. Quaderni di storia dell'economia politica, II(1–2), 185–232.Google Scholar
  63. Messori, M. (1986). Innovation et profit chez Marx, Schumpeter et Keynes. Cahiers d’économie politique, (10–11), 229–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  64. Moseley, F. (2016). Money and Totality. A Macro-Monetary Interpretation of Marx’s Logic in Capital and the End of the ‘Transformation Problem’. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
  65. Napoleoni, C. (1970a). Introduzione: “Su alcuni problemi del marxismo”. In P. Sweezy (Ed.), Teoria del sviluppo capitalistico. Torino: Boringhieri.Google Scholar
  66. Napoleoni, C. (1970b). Smith, Ricardo, Marx. Torino: Boringhieri.Google Scholar
  67. Napoleoni, C. (1972). Lezioni sul capitolo sesto inedito di Marx. Torino: Boringhieri.Google Scholar
  68. Napoleoni, C. (1976). Il Valore. Milan: ISEDI.Google Scholar
  69. Perri, S. (1996a). Sovrappiù, plusvalore e valore della forza-lavoro. In M. Guidi (Ed.), Il terzo libro del ‘Capitale” di K. Marx: 1894–1994 (= Trimestre, XXIX(1–2), 1996).Google Scholar
  70. Perri, S. (1996b). Marx rivisitato: capitale, lavoro, sfruttamento. Trimestre, XXIX(1–2), 29–86.Google Scholar
  71. Perri, S. (1998). Prodotto netto e sovrappiù. Da Smith al marxismo analitico e alla ‘New Interpretation’, Torino.Google Scholar
  72. Preti, D. (2002). Sraffa e il valore-lavoro in Produzione di merci a mezzo di merci. In G. Gatteli. (Ed.), Karl Marx e la trasformazione del pluslavoro in profitto (pp. 31–46). Rome: Mediaprint.Google Scholar
  73. Rubin, I. (1973) [1923]. Essays on Marx’s Theory of Value. Montreal: Black Rose Books.Google Scholar
  74. Salanti, A. (1990). La teoria del valore dopo Sraffa. Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Economiche e Commerciali, 37(8), 685–692.Google Scholar
  75. Samuelson, P., & M, F. (1966). The Pasinetti Paradox in Neoclassical and More General Models. The Review of Economic Studies, 33(4), 269–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  76. Sbardella, R. (2007). ‘Il doppio circolo di Hegel e la dissoluzione di Marx nell'idealismo’ in Bellofiore 2007.Google Scholar
  77. Schumpeter, J. (2000) [1947]. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
  78. Screpanti, E. (2001). The Fundamental Institutions of Capitalism. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  79. Sraffa, P. (1960). Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities: Prelude to a Critique of Economic Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
  80. Steedman, I. (1977). Marx after Sraffa. London: New Left Books.Google Scholar
  81. Turchetto, M. (2007). ‘I “due Marx” e l’althusserismo’ in Bellofiore 2007.Google Scholar
  82. Wolf, F. O. (2004). The “Limits of Dialectical Presentation” as a Key Category of Marx’s Theoretical Self-Reflection. Capitalism, Nature, Socialism, 15(3), 79–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© The Author(s) 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  • Riccardo Bellofiore
    • 1
  • Frieder Otto Wolf
    • 2
  1. 1.University of BergamoBergamoItaly
  2. 2.Institute of PhilosophyFree University of BerlinBerlinGermany

Personalised recommendations