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Transition
GianniCollu

1.
Thestartingpointforthecritiqueoftheexistingsocietyofcapitalhastobetherestatementofthe
conceptsofformalandrealdominationasthehistoricalphasesofcapitalistdevelopment.Allother
periodizations of the process of the autonomization of value, such as competitive, monopoly, state
monopoly, bureaucratic etc. capitalism, leave the field of the theory of the proletariat, that is, the
critique of political economy, to begin with the vocabulary of the practice of sociademocracy or
Leninistideology,codifiedbyStalinism.
Allthisphraseologywithwhichonepretendstoexplainnewphenomenareallyonlymystifiesthe
passage of value to its complete autonomy, that is, the objectification of the abstract quantity in
processintheconcretecommunity.
Capital, as a social mode of production, accomplishes its real domination when it succeeds in
replacing all the preexisting social and natural presuppositions with its own particular forms of
organizationwhichmediatethesubmissionofthewholeofphysicalandsociallifetoitsrealneeds
ofvalorization.TheessenceoftheGemeinschaftofcapitalisorganization.
Politics,asaninstrumentformediatingthedespotismandcapital,disappearsinthephaseofthereal
domination of capital. After having been fully used in the period of formal domination, it can be
disposed of when capital, as total being, comes to organize rigidly the life and experience of its
subordinates. The state, as the rigid and authoritarian manager of the expansion of the equivalent
forms in social relation (Urtext), becomes an elastic instrument in the business sphere.
Consequently,thestate,ordirectly,politics,arelessthaneverthesubjectoftheeconomyandso
bosses of capital. Today, more than ever, capital finds its own real strength in the inertia of the
processwhichproducesandreproducesitsspecificneedsofvalorizationashumanneedsingeneral.
(ThedefeatoftheMay68movementinFrancewastheclearestmanifestationofthisoccultpower
ofcapital.)
Theeconomyreducespolitics(theoldartoforganizing)toapureandsimpleepiphenomenonofits
ownrealprocess.Itletsitsurviveasthemuseumofhorrorssuchasparliamentwithallitsfarces,or
elseintherancorousundergrowthofthesmallextraparliamentaryrackets,whichareallidentical
regardingtheirformalorinformalorganization,butcompeteobscenelywiththeirstrategicchatter.
The destiny of the other instruments of mediation or of ideology seems to be the same. They still
enjoyedacertainapparentautonomy(philosophy,art,etc.)duringtheperiodofformaldomination,
assurvivalsofthepreviousepochs.Allapparentdistinctionbetweenideologyandthesocialmodeof
productionisdestroyedand,...today,valuethathasachievedautonomyisitsownideology.
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Just as the passage from absolute to relative surplusvalue has, capital (its movement constantly
tending to total expropriation) has divided all the social and technical connections of the work
processthatexistedbeforehandinorderthentoreunifythemasintellectualpowersofcapitalsown
valorizationsotoday,inthepassageofcapitaltoanoverallsocialpower,aidinginthedisintegration
oftheentiresocialfabricandallitsmentalconnectionswiththepastandtheirrecompositionina
delerious unity, organized by the ever accelerating cycles of the metamorphoses of capital,
everything is reduced to degraded ingredients of the extraordinary synthesis of value that is self
valorizing.
The real domination of capital therefore means that not only the tempo of life and the mental
capacity of the proletariat are expropriated, but that circulation time now prevails over production
time(onaspatiallevel).Thesocietyofcapitalcreatesanunproductivepopulationonalargescale,
i.e.itcreatesitsownlifeinfunctionofitsownneed:tofixthemtheninthesphereofcirculation
andthemetamorphosesofaccumulatedsurplusvalue.
The cycle closes with an identity: all mens time is socially necessary time for creation and
circulationrealizationofsurplusvalue.Everythingcanbemeasuredbythehandsofaclock.
Timeiseverything,manisnothingheis,atthemost,timescarcase
Marx,ThePovertyofPhilosophy

Theabstractquantityinprocess(value)constitutesitselfasthesocialmodeofproductionandoflife
(materialcommunity).
Thetheoriesoftheworkersmovementhavegraspedthissocialprocessmerelytomystifyit.Togive
justoneexample:absolutesubordinationofthestateanditsinsertionasaparticularmomentofthe
valorizationprocessbecomestheexactopposite,thatis,astatecapitalism,socapitalcanbecome
notasocialmodeofproductionandoflife,butabureaucratic,democraticetc.modeofmanagement.
Once they have arrived at this point of view, they have to make the revolution no longer the
overthrowofoneexistenceandtheaffirmationofanother,butapolico[politico?]statistprocess
withtheorganizationofitasthekeyproblemor,more,thepanaceathatresolveseverything.Here
againthedegradedconceptionoftherevolutionnolongerasaworldrelationofpowerbetweenthe
proletariatandcapital,butimmediatelyasaquestionofformsormodelsoforganizationthe
passageisveryshort.
Onecannototherwiseexplainthepreponderanceofthecategoriesmentionedaboveintheworkers
movement(state,bureaucraticcapitalismetc.),whichmerelybrackettherealbeingofcapitalsoasto
affirmthecentralityofoneofitsepiphenomenatheorizedasthesupremephase,lastphaseetc.
Onthecontrary,onemustremainonthegroundofthecritiqueofpoliticaleconomy(thecritiqueof
theexistenceofcapitalandtheaffirmationofcommunism)tounderstandthetotalityofsociallifein
theperiodofitsreductiontoameansoftheprocessofdevelopmentoftheautonomizedproductive
forces.
The society of capital, in fact, appears superficially to be divided into fields that are apparently
opposedandthusgivesrisetotheseparatedescriptionsofthem(sociology,economics,psychology
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etc.).Theexistenceofallthesefieldsofresearchonlyexplainsinmystifyingtheunifiedabsolute
valuecreated reality, the modern sacrum, characteristic of a process which goes from the
decomposition of a preexisting organic reality to the fixation of diverse elements which are then
recomposedandputintouseonlybythegrowingsocialinertia,createdbytheopaqueanddespotic
movementoftheproductiveforces,forceswhichgrowoutofthemselvesandwhichnecessitatethe
representationofthetruemovementofcohesionofthewholesocialtotality.
Thatiswhyallcriticaltheorywishingtofounditselfonraisinguponeorothersectorendsup
reducingitselftohavingneithersubjectnorobject.
Nosubjecttotheextentthatvalueasanabstractobjectinamaterialbeing(Grundrisse)avoidsall
immediatedetermination.Onemustsayaboutthisimperceptibilityoftherealtendenciesofcapitalin
theepochofitsabsolutedomination,thatthemostobviousanddazzlingmanifestationsoffetishism
and mystification of the social relations created by its development is afforded us by the concept
accepted by all the innovating theories, critical or apologetic, of industrial society and its
appendix:consumersociety.
This concept, an expression of a mystification perpetrated by capital in social relations, becomes
possibleinsofarasthevalorization(thusthelifeneedsofcapital)increasinglydominatesthelabour
process. Marx defined the labour process as the organic exchange between man and nature,
purposefulactivityturnedtothecreationofusevalues.
Capitaltendstopresentitsowngeneralneedsasexclusivelyandimmediatelyidenticaltothoseof
humanity to the extent that it creates an increasing identity between these two processes. In fact,
giventherealdominationofitsownexistence,thismystificationseemstobebasedrationallyonthe
movementwhensociability,conviviality,customs,language,desires,orneeds,inaword,thesocial
being of humans, have become nothing other than the valorization requirement of capital, internal
componentsofitsownenlargedreproduction.
Ifcapitaldominateseverythingtothepointofbeingabletoidentifyitselfwiththesocialbeing,it
seems,onthisbasis,todisappear.
This is the most graling fetishism ever produced by exchange value in the history of its own
autonomization. A neutral category can arise from this, like that of industrial society. Thus all
possibledistinctionbetweenabstractlabourwhichvalorizescapital(theproletariat)orwhichenables
thetotalexistenceofitsbeing(themiddleclasses)andusefulhumanactivityasitunfoldedinpre
capitalistepochscandisappear(andinfactdoesdisappear).

2.
Itwaspreviouslystatedthatcapitalcansucceedinpresentingitselfasarationalsystem,oratleast
asinescapable.Itisnecessarytoseehowitattemptstoslowdownorfixtherevoltoftheproletariat
initsimmediacy,thisbeingwhichalwaysconstitutesitspotentialnegation.
Giventheminoritynatureoftheproletariatincapitalsmetropoles,capitalworksbyisolatingitand
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circumscribingitinaghettowheretheproletarianviolenceforms.
One must state that the proletariats existence, when it manifests itself as a class occurs in an
immediatelydestructivedimension,thepositivenegationofthematerialcommunityandallformsor
organization.Itisthustheconcreteaffirmationofcommunismandtherealizationoftheory.
Wecanseethiscommunityofnonpreestablishedactionintheactionsoftheblackproletariatofthe
USA. It was constituted on the basis of the vital need for overcoming and celebration and the
immediate consciousness of the identity of objectives: the unification, in a word, of the real class
movement.
WethereforesupporttheproductionofthoseconditionswhichMarx,atthetimeoftheformationof
theIWMA,hadalreadygatheredascrucialmomentsintheformationoftheworldcommunistparty,
thenecessaryhistoricalproductofthecontradictionsofthesocietyofcapital.
The most important moment in the manifestation of communism in practice is constituted by the
overcomingofdemocracy,thatis,bytheproletariatsrefusal,whenitraisesitsownmaterialneedsto
thehighestlevel,toacceptanydivisionbetweendecisionandaction,thusthedivisionbetweenbeing
andthoughtonwhich,inthepast,wasbuiltthepossibilityofcreatingapoliticalleadershipbased
on the mechanism of direct or indirect democracy (sovietscouncils or democratic centralism) or,
moregenerally,onwhichthemechanismofdemocraticdespoticrepresentationisfoundedwithinthe
oldartoforganizingsociety: politic. Ifreal domination is only the practicalmaterialrealizationof
the religious presuppositions of alienation, the revolution can only begin with the realization of
philosophyinthesenseoftheendtoallseparation,whichistheundistortedessenceofallthatthe
revolutionaffirmed,startingfromthemetropolesofthemostdevelopedcapitalism.
ThisisalsothecaseinEurope:theMay68movementinFrance,oranyofthegreatactionsofthe
Italian proletariat in the North or South in 69. Here the hurried attempt by the most varied to
organizeseemeddoomedtofailure,characteristicallyaswiththeUSA,aftereveryrevoltofsome
importance.Thereasonisverysimple,theseracketswanttoleadpoliticallywhatreallyisnothing
butthecompletenegationoftheirbeingandideology.Thisiintheorganizationformofthegang
ononehand,andpoliticsontheother.
The thorough study for the externalization of the capital relation in the form of interestbearing
capitalandtheconsequentdevelopmentoffictitiouscapital,hasassuchtobetakenupagainatthe
basisofthesocialfabric:hencethemanagementbodiesinthefactoryandstate,orpoliticians,
haveincreasinglyassumedtheformofgangrackets.
In such a general statement, one can only note that, with the constitution of capital as a material
being and thus as social community, the traditional person of the capitalist (bourgeois) has totally
vanishedandthateverypartialhumancommunityisconditionedbythemodeofexistenceofthe
materialcommunity.Thismodeofexistenceisduetothefactthatcapitalcanvalorizeitself,soexist,
and develop its essence only if part of it, which also participates in the general movement of
autonomization, relates as a partial movement to the social whole and places itself constantly in
comparison with the general equivalent, i.e. capital itself. It needs this comparison (competition
emulation)asfarasitexistsonlytodifferentiate.
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Onallthisarisesasocialfabricbasedonthecompetitionofrivalorganizations(rackets).
Now the various groupescules are nothing other than gangs that compete, they only have in
common the divination of the misery of the proletariat, their general equivalent. Just as the
democrates have made the word people (demos) a sacred thing, you have made sacred the word
proletariat(Marx).

3.
Theperceptionthatitsfunctionisquantitativelyincreasinglyirrelevantintheprocessofthetotal
lifeofcapitalcantodaymaketheproletariatconscious,inanimmediatemanner,oftheuselessness
ofitswageslaveryanddestroythechainsbindingittocapital.
Itcanadvanceitsownnegation(alreadyoperatingunderthereignofcapital,butinamystifiedform
with the generalization of wage labour) in all social reality. Its disappearance is the definite
disappearanceofclasses.
Theseparationfromcapitalimpliesthattheproletariatconstituteitselfinapartypersonifyingits
selfnegation, implying the formation of the Gemeinwesen which will dominate the autonomized
wholeandwillmakeitworkforthesatisfactionofhumanneeds.
Thetheoryoftheparty/theoryoftheproletariatcannotbetakenfromthesocalledpoliticaltexts
of Marx and Engels alone, such as the Manifesto, the IWMA resolutions etc., because these texts
considertheproletariatespeciallyinitsimmediaterealityandenvisageabovealltheformalpartyof
thatperiodasanexistentfact.
The proletariat still had to generalize its existence over all society, push for the development of
capitaland,ifittookpowerandconstituteditselfastherulingclass(1871,1905,1917),itstillhadto
fulfiltaskswhich,withthecounterrevolution,werelaterassumedandcompletedbycapital.
Today only the party in its historical meaning is possible (cf. Marx to Freiligrath, 1860). Every
formalpartyisonlyanorganizationrapidlyreabsorbedintheformoftheracket.Itisthesamewith
allgroups,structuredornot,thatwishtoworkforthereformationofthepartyorforthecreationof
councils.
Thehistoricalpartycanonlyberealizedbytheglobalmovementoftheproletariatconstitutingitself
as class, thus making the reunification of the human species possible, a possibility ever since the
timeoftheIWMA.
One can only understand such a movement by the study of Marxs works (Capital, Grundrisse)
whereheprofoundlydefinedandcriticizedcapitalasamodeofproductionandlife.Itisfromthis
thatonecanintegrallyexplainwhattheproletariatisanditsdevelopmentinrelationtothebeingof
capital.
All other explanations of the formation of the party, such as that founded on the theory of
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consciousnessbroughtfromoutside,restontheimplicitnegationoftheproposition:theproletariat
willrealizethetheory:andisthusmaintainingthecounterrevolution.

AdditionalnotestoTransition
Capitalsubsumestheworkingclassinitselfasproductivelabourbymeansofadoublemovement:

1.
On one hand, the capitalized worker, i.e. by imposing the selfconsciousness of the worker
consideringhimselfascapitalthathastobefruitful,labourhastobeanactivitywithaviewtoprofit
alone. This phenomenon currently manifests itself as the anthropomorphosis of capital, that is, as
Marxstated,capitalitselfbecomesman,thenitsdominationbecomesnotmerelynatural:
Theadvanceofcapitalistproductiondevelopsaworkingclasswhichbyeducation,traditionandhabitlooks
upontherequirementsofthatmodeofproductionasselfevidentnaturallaws.Theorganizationofthecapitalist
process of production, once it is fully developed, breaks down all resistance. The constant generation of a
relativesurpluspopulationkeepsthelawofsupplyanddemandoflabour,andthereforewages,withinnarrow
limitswhichcorrespondtocapitalsvalorizationrequirements.Thesilentcompulsionofeconomicrelationssets
thesealonthedominationofthecapitalistovertheworker.
Marx,CapitalVol.I,Harmondsworth1976,p.899,

but also humanized and, through this last generalization of its being, seems to vanish. When this
happenscapitalbecomestheapologistforwhatwasitsmainenemy:labour.
Underformaldomination,productivelabourincarnatedinthepersonoftheworkerexistspartlyas
the essential domination of the life of capital, partly as its possible negation. This ambiguity was
presentintheverybeingoftheworker.
Totheextentthatcapitalaffirmsitselfasatotalbeing,itsucceedsinresolvingthisambiguity,thus
creatinganinternaldivisionintheproletariatitselfwhichissplitintopartswhichappearimmediately
asheterogeneous.Ononehandanevermoreimportantpartoftheremainsofproductivelabouris
subsumedasthestablesubject of valorization,specified as qualifiedactivity atlevels whichare
hierarchicallydifferent,butunifiedasintellectualpowersofautonomizedvalue,ontheotherhand
thereistheradicalexpulsionofthoseproletariansfromtheproductioncentre.Theiractivityhasan
apparently insignificant result from the aspect of overall valorization, thus constituting something
completely skillless and interchangable. The remains of the classical being of the proletariat
thusbecomesstrictlydividedandcounterposedandthequantityofsurplusvaluecreatedceasesto
determinethedegreeofestrangementintheconfrontationsofcapitals.
Onthesociallevel,thisworkofsplittinganddestructioniscompletedbytheejectionofagrowing
mass of the proletariat, which is potentially productive, from production properly speaking, in
harmony with the irresistible tendency for capital to reduce the incidence of labour producing
surplusvalue to the whole life span (all this is based on what was the tremendous defeat of the
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proletariatinthepassagefromformaltorealdominationofcapitalin191445).
Sowhatsomestupidlydefineasthesubproletariatisonlytheabsoluteproletariat,theproductof
thefinalandinsurmountablecontradictionofvalueinprocess:thatofvalorizationdevalorization.
Theirstruggleisthefirstaffirmationofcommunismasanimmediateneed.
(IntheUSA,wherethisprocessisnowcomplete,thesplitbetweenproductiveworkersascapitals
subject and the proletariat estranged both within and from production, is immediately seen as it is
broughtoutinethnicandnationalfactorsandhasthuscompletedtheprocessbegunwiththenon
constitutionastheclassoftheAmericanproletariataftertheCivilwar.)
Theexaltationoftheworkerbecomescapitalsapologiatherabidangeragainsttheproletarians
whoincreasinglyrefusethelawofexchangeofworksurvival.

2.
Ontheotherhand,withthegeneralizationofwagelabour(labournecessaryforcapital),evenifitis
nonproductive,withtheconsequentformationofnewlayersofworkers,thereisthegeneralization
ofthetypeoffictitiousactivitywhichtendstomaintainandprotectcapitalsdominationoversociety.
Thereisthusawidespreadprocessofthecreationofproletarianizedlife,withoutautonomy,andalso
therelativenumericaldiminutionoftheclassicalproletariat.
Put another way, today there is a huge class of wage labourers in which the proletariat, in its old
sense, has become a minority. The whole world is ruled by labour reduced to pure abstraction
(Grundrisse),and,accordingtotheofficialideology,hewhodoesnotworkisnotaman.Works
content is unimportant. It appears as a means of oppression and repression with the goal of
conserving contemporary society, i.e. capitals process. The inertia of the life form allows the
penetrationofthewholefieldofconsciousnessandthrowingtheindividualintotheviciousand
infamouscycleofwork(toearn)tolivelivetowork(toearn).
Sonowthesocietyofcapitaldoesnotdominateinthenameofvalue,butinthenameoflabour.
Paradoxically,thisistheachievementoftheRicardiansocialistsdemand,thatofProudhonandall
thosewhosawtheemancipationofhumansasthetriumphoflabour(classicalcouncilistideology,
thewholeLeninistandTrotskyistpathology).
This was certainly not the aim of the critique of the political economy, whatever R. Rubel, for
examplemaythinkwhenhesays:Theendofthefirstbookistheconclusionofthewholeofthe
EconomywhereMarxdidnothidethesubjectivetendency:thetriumphoflabourovercapital.
Onthecontrary,Marxonlydealtwiththetriumphoftherevolution.Labourinfactmeantthenthe
revolutionandproductivelabourtheothersideofcapital.
Thusonecanonlyspeakoftheproletariatstriumphtotheextentthatonealsostatesthatthisisnot
itsrealizationasproletarians,butitsnegation.
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We may now aid in the domination of the proletariat in its mystified form (as productive labour),
after the split in its traditional being. It is a mystification for it is the immediate being of the
proletariatwhichdominatesandcontinuescapital:addinganewvaluetoanold,labourconserves
andeternizescapital(Grundrisse).ForMarx,theaffirmationoftheproletariatcouldonlybethatof
itsmediatebeing,theclassforitself,theclasstendingtotakepossessionofthesocialeconomic
processtoaidcommunistdevelopment.
Thankstofascism, capital has attained its real domination, where it dominatesundertheaspectof
labour.Fascismwasthenecessarymovementtodestroytheproletariatspowerasthepossibilityof
negationtomakeproductivelabourtriumphasthesubjectoftheprojectofcapitalslife.Hencethe
exaltationoftheworkerbyfascistsfromHitlertoGeorgeWallace.
Theresultofthetotalmovementofcapitalistheproductionoftheuniversalclass,ahugeproletariat,
aproletariatinthesenseofallhumanswhohavenoreservesandnoreallife,butwhosenormal
existence is a squalid reflection and imitation of the very powerful inorganic forms through which
autonomized value manifests itself. It is a universal class because it forms the overwhelming
majorityandbecauseitisunabletomakepartialdemandsanymorethatconformwithitsownbeing,
butcanonlyaffirmtherealhumancommunity.ItistheuniversalclassMarxandEngelswroteabout
inTheGermanIdeology, which capital does everything to impede and in its unification, opposing
employed to unemployed, coloured proletarians outside and inside the metropoles to national
workers(inbothcasesoneseesthefunctionofracismasarealproductofcapitalsdomination),new
layers of workers to old workers and finally preventing the students, who do not have a definite
socialposition,fromleavingtheghettoofideologyinallitsforms.
Itisnotamatterofproclaimingagainstallthistheunitedfrontofallworkersasthatwouldleadto
thedrowningoftheimmediatelyrevolutionaryminority,formedbythosepeoplewhoareradically
estrangedinandbytheproductionprocessandwhoimmediatelyaffirmcommunism,intheseaof
thosewhodonothaveanimmediateinterest in overcoming society. Presently it is only through
theconflictbetweenthesetwoelementsthatthelattercanbebroughtontothefieldofstruggleofthe
former.Itisduringandafterthisstrugglethattherecanreallybetheproduction(ionization)ofthe
consciousnessofthefinalrevolutionaryphase.
The refusal of work, wage labour, a means of oppression, mode of capitalization of men and
equalizationofcapital,isthefundamentalelementoftheunificationoftheuniversalclass.Itisno
longeraquestionofreconstructingtheoldproletarianclass,thatwouldbetowishforregression,the
returntoanowpassedstage.ItwouldbelikewishingtostopwhatMarxconsideredasthegreatest
possibilitycreatedbythe19thcenturycapital:thedisappearanceoftheproletariat.InthissenseThe
RighttobeLazythatLafarguewroteaboutasarefutationoftherighttoworkisthefirstessential
moment of the demand for a liberated human activity which starts when it understands the whole
wealthofthehumanpast.
Intheperiodofformaldomination,therevolutionmanifesteditselfinsidesocietyinthestruggleof
labour inside capital. Today it manifests itself, and ever more clearly so, outside and against
society.Itisthereforethestruggleagainstcapitalandlabourastwoaspectsofthesamereality,that
is,theproletariathastostruggleagainstitsownapparentdominationsoastobeabletonegateitself
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as a class, thus definitely destroying itself as a class and so too capital. The universal class in as
muchasitassertsitselfcanonlydisappear.Itcanonlyaffirmitselfastheregenerationofthehuman
being. There will not be other groups outside it as there is no further need for a lower phase of
socialism to realize as the dictatorship of the proletariat will be limited to the period needed
simplytodestroytheinertpowerofcapitalandallitsmanifestations:thepowerofthephantasmsof
thematerialcommunityoverthedesiresofmen.

Invariance,SerieIn.8(1969)andlater,AntologiadiInvariance(Naples1971)
Transcribed from Origin and function of the party form 1962: Essays by Jacques Camatte and
GianniCollu,DavidBrown,London1977.

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