§ 11 Capital

“In capitalist society, machinery and factory buildings take the form of capital. But do machinery and buildings always take the form of capital? Certainly not. If the whole of society were a cooperative commonwealth producing everything for itself, then neither machinery nor raw materials would be capital, seeing that they would not be means for the creation of profit for a small group of rich persons. That is to say, machinery, for example, only becomes capital when it is the private property of the capitalist class, when it serves the purpose of exploiting wage labour, when it serves to produce surplus value.”

Bukharin is introducing the communist system here. Communism requires a cooperative commonwealth that is self sufficient. Under this cooperative I wonder if there would be any need for currency. My initial inclination is that it would not need an internal currency.

I am still unsure of Bukharin’s views on private property. Clearly it is bad if it is held by capitalists. But can there be private property ownership within the cooperative commonwealth? Or is private property only prohibited in the means of production? Surely each individual within the commonwealth should own their own clothes or is this also communal property?

“In production, the aim of the capitalist is not to provide goods for his own use, but to produce commodities for the market, for sale.”

Bukharin returns to this theme. He draws distinction between goods and commodities. Goods made for personal use appear to be acceptable whereas commodities are not.

“At first the capitalist went to market as a buyer. Now he has to go there as a seller.”

If a buyer can become the seller then the wage earner can become the factory owner. How did the capitalist make the transition from buyer to seller?

Bukharin’s biggest problem with capitalism is profit. “But the quantity of money which the capitalist receives differs from the quantity which he originally paid out, inasmuch as it is greater by the whole amount of the surplus value.”

Bukharin appears to make the argument that the serf or the slave of antiquity were better off than the wage laborers of his time.

“Let us consider, for example, a landowner when serfdom prevailed, or a slave-owner in classical antiquity. They lived on the backs of their serfs and slaves. But all which the workers produced, the landowners and slaveowners ate, drank, and wore - either themselves, or else their servants and their numerous hangers-on. At that time there was very little commodity production. There was no market.”

“The larger the profit, the better. Hence the mad hunt for profit on the part of the capitalist class. This greed knows no limits. It is the pivot, the prime motive, of capitalist production.”

This reminds me of a quote from John Adams where he says something to the effect of how the constitution will only work for a moral society. Capitalism does allow for greed and self interest and in an immoral society that combination would know no limits. However even then the capitalist would have to be producing something the consumer wanted otherwise there would be no market.
§ 12 The capitalist state

“As we have seen, capitalist society is based upon the exploitation of labour. A small minority owns everything; the working masses own nothing. The capitalists command. The workers obey. The capitalists exploit. The workers are exploited. The very essence of capitalist society is found in this merciless and ever-increasing exploitation.”

If one of the tenets of communism is that private property will be abolished wouldn’t the working masses still own nothing? Capitalism led to the Industrial Revolution which has pulled billions of people out of poverty. Bukharin wants the works to feel like victims whose only recourse is violent revolution against their oppressors.

“Why has this instrument been able to continue in operation so long? For what reason do the workers tolerate such a state of affairs?
This question is by no means easy to answer at first sight. Speaking generally there are two reasons for it: in the first place, because the capitalist class is well organized and powerful; secondly, because the bourgeoisie frequently controls the brains of the working class.”

Or it could be that living conditions for the working class continued to improve. Russia was a feudal system with serfdom until the 1860s. People were not free to move off the land without consent of the owner. By 1917 there was a greater degree of autonomy although it was still an autocratic regime. In developed countries the revolution never occurred because the workers could achieve their demands without the need of revolution.

“Thus the capitalist State is a union of the master class, formed to safeguard exploitation. The interests of capital and nothing but the interests of capital - here we have the guiding star towards which are directed all the activities of this robber band.”

If the master class is manipulating the economy for profit is it truly a capitalistic system.

“It is perfectly true that the bourgeois authority occasionally passes laws and regulations useful to the working class. They are, however, passed in the interest of the bourgeoisie.”
The oppressors can never do anything virtuous. Every act must be done in their own self interest. They would prefer a world of slavery compared to one with a free working class. The issue here appears to be one of power not economics. We will do anything to maintain power and if that means making laws favorable to the working class then we will do so.
“and let us consider the hospitals… Because illness and epidemics sometimes spread all through the town, and if such a thing should happen the bourgeoisie, too, would suffer. In this matter, therefore, the bourgeois State and its urban instruments are simply pursuing bourgeois interests.”
It seems like a cynical view that hospitals only were developed to help the rich.

“Against the working class, the State can employ measures of two different kinds, brute force and spiritual subjugation. These constitute the most important instruments of the capitalist State.”
Bukharin has now expressed his disdain for religion. Rather than viewing it as something that can uplift people he sees it as a chain.

“The State prison servicesettles accounts quite as effectively as does the executioner of the bourgeois State. Its shafts are directed, not against the rich, but against the poor.”

This seems accurate. If you are poor you are far more likely to end up in prison. Although I wouldn’t compare a prison term to execution.

“Among the means of spiritual subjugation at the disposal of the capitalist State, three deserve especial mention: the State school; the State church; and the State, or State-supported, press.”

It is interesting that communist regime in the Soviet Union had a state press, a state school, and a state religion. It looks like the Soviet Union also had to rely on spiritual subjugation.

“Consequently, they must not merely be whipped or shot when they attempt to bite, but they must be trained and tamed, just as wild beasts in a menagerie are trained by beast-tamers. Similarly, the capitalist State maintains specialists to stupefy and subdue the proletariat; it maintains bourgeois teachers and professors, the clergy, bourgeois authors and journalists.”

Does knowledge stupefy and subdue people? The more access the proletariat gets to teachers, professors, clergy, authors, or journalists the more freedom of thought and action they should have. It was access to knowledge that would have brought Bukharin and others to their Marxist beliefs. It is also the censorship and authoritarian nature of the Czarist regime that stifled other ideas and promoted the Marxist cause. If the regime had been more free it is doubtful Marxism would have been as successful as it was in Russia.

“The capitalist State stands on guard, and takes good care that there shall be no uprising of the wage slaves.”

In a fully functioning capitalist society I don’t think the workers consider themselves slaves and I don’t think there is any fear of uprisings.
§ 13 Fundamental contraictions of the capitalist system

“This struggle assumes various forms: it begins with the competition between two factory owners; it ends in the world war, wherein the capitalist States wrestle with one another for the world market. This signifies, not merely that the parts of capitalist society interfere with one another's working, but that there is a direct conflict between the constituent parts.“

This argument would hold more weight if war wasn’t a constant throughout the history of the world. Was Alexander the Great a capitalist? Was Caesar a capitalist? Long before Capitalism great powers fought.