Précis - Capital - Karl Marx

“Capital” – Karl Marx – The Craft Reader  - 2009

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“The Factory Operatives should keep in whole-some remembrance the fact that theirs is really a low species of skilled labour; and that there is none which is more easily acquired, or of its quality more aptly remunerated, or which by a short training of the least expert can m be more quickly, as well as abundantly, acquired… The master’s machinery really plays a far more important part in the business of production that the labour and the skill of the operative, which six months’ education can teach, and a common labourer can earn.” (Adamson. G, p.76) 

Marx’s critique emphasises the dehumanising impact of the rise of machines in factories, where he asserts “In handicrafts and manufacture, the workman makes use of a tool, in the factory, the machine makes use of him” (Adamson. G, p.69). This encapsulates Marx’s view on the alienating effects of industrialisation and the mechanisation of labour. 

Marx contends that machinery, intended to increase productivity, ultimately serves to exploit the labourer by extending the working day solely for the capitalist’s benefit, while at the detriment of the labourer. He delves into the transformation of tools into machines and distinguishes between them, stating that to define a machine it must involve a motive power separate from a human, while a tool itself relies on human effort. 

Examining the evolution of machinery, Marx identifies three components: the motor mechanism, the transmitting mechanism and the working machine. The latter, originating from the development of handicraft tools, signifies the starting point of the Industrial Revolution, and the decline of the division of labour for workmen over machines. As tools become mechanised, a machine replaces the mere implement, drastically altering the dynamics of production, and therefore the need for skilled human labourers. Thus, the capitalist seeks efficiency and industry, while the consumer seeks cheaper and more convenient produce. 

Marx scrutinises the transition from manual tools to machines and illustrates how the machine appropriates tasks once performed by skilled craftsmen. The loss of human control over production is palpable as machines become the driving force, enabling one motive mechanism to operate multiple machines simultaneously, vastly exceeding any capabilities of thousands of workers at any one time. 

The text further differentiates between simple cooperation, where similar machines work individually, and a complex system of machinery involving a chain of machines in a continuous, organised recess, giving little room for error. Marx observes that this evolution of machinery, which unabashedly incorporates the labour of women and children, intensifies the capitalist exploitation, further confiscating the workman’s own time. 

The factory system replaces the organised groups of workers seen in manufacture with a division between machine operators and attendants, the latter of whom were usually children. The machine dominates physically, requiring workers to adapt from childhood to maintain a continuous workflow. While machinery reduces production costs, it subjects the worker to complete dependence on the factory and capitalist. 

Marx refers to Dr. Ure’s description of the automatic factory as a “vast automaton’ (Adamson, G. pg. 74) which underlines the subordination of the worker to a self-regulated, mechanical force. The skill of the workman is transferred to the machine, leaving him intellectually caged and removed from the liberation of movement achieved through labour, thus leading to a tendency to equalise and reduce all types of work performed by machine operatives to a similarly primitive, and stationary position. 

In the factory, machinery marks a departure from the traditional division of labour, with life-long specialisation in handling tools giving way to serving machines. This transformation renders the worker a mere living appendage to a lifeless mechanism. 

Factory work, exhausting the nervous system, deprives labour of interest, and the machine, instead of freeing the labourer from work, intensifies the torture. Marx concludes that it is the instruments of labour that employ a worker in the factory system, highlighting the technical and palpable reality of the inversion of power between labour and capital. The factory system institutes a disciplined hierarchy, dividing workers into operatives and overseers, akin to an industrial army. 

In summarising Marx’s perspective, it is evident that he sees the advent of machinery in factories as a profound shift in the relationship between the worker and the means of production, leading to increased exploitation and a loss of autonomy for the labourer. 

In the contemporary era, Marx’s critique resonates across a multitude of professions. Technological progress and AI are relegating workers to simpler roles, making middle management, or ‘overseer’ positions redundant. The trend suggests a future dominated by operatives, labouring under the control of capitalism, driven to consume and perpetuate the reliance on mechanisation.  

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References: 

1. Adamson, G., 2009, Craft Reader, London, Bloomsbury Press 

1. Adamson, G., 2009, Craft Reader, London, Bloomsbury Press 

1. Adamson, G., 2009, Craft Reader, London, Bloomsbury Press 

Bibliography: 

Adamson G., Craft Reader, 2009, London, Bloomsbury Press