Surplus Labour - Surplus Labour and Exploitation

Surplus Labour and Exploitation

Exploitation occurs when those appropriating surplus labour — whether in the form of surplus-value, surplus product or direct surplus labour — are different than those performing surplus labour. Just as there are attempts to force more work out of the workers, there are also attempts at resistance to exploitation, e.g. strike action, union campaigns, living wage campaigns, go-slows, refusal to perform tasks not contracted for, threatening to leave employment for another job if that is a real possibility, etc. Critical variables in determining the total surplus labour performed are:

  • the length of the working day (and week): in other words, the total amount of time worked over a regular period
  • the intensity of work
  • the productiveness of the work (which also depends on the technologies used)
  • the subsistence level for workers
  • the position of strength or weakness of employers and employees
  • the level of unemployment and job vacancies.

In Capital, Volume I, Marx portrays the battle over work-time as the fulcrum of class conflict in capitalism, which can involve complex trade-offs between time and money. However, contrary to many Marxists, Marx never believed that exploitation at the point of production was the only kind of exploitation that exists.

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