Intellectuals vs. activism / labor theory of value

[Gordon Fitch]

> >...
> >Note that Marx's argument, which rests on the principle of  value creation 
> >- he who creates value should own and control it; workers are sole 
> >creators of value under capitalism, ergo: workers should own and control 
> >all output of capitalist production -

Justin Schwartz:
> I have written another paper explaining why this is a misunderstanding of 
> Marx: What's Wrong with Exploitation, Nous 1995.

I was recently involved in a discussion of the labor theory
of value in which one of my interlocutors asserted that it
was used in a purely normative manner, i.e. as above, the
wokers _ought_ to _own_ the means of production because it
is created by their labor.  This seems like a very Lockean
argument to me, what with the oughtings and the ownings,
and I'm surprised to see it in the work of the father of
Communism, even with a big C.  What does a Communist care
about such bourgeois values and relations?  I had had the idea
that the exploitation of labor's power to create value led 
(theoretically) to the crisis of overproduction.  But I'm no
scholar of Marx, and I would mildly appreciate the efforts
of anyone who wanted to go to the trouble to set me straight
on this matter.


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