Plan for a Lecture in a Course on “Fundamentals of Political Economy”

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LECTURE IV[edit source]

1. The essence of the capitalist mode of production as compared with the other modes of production historically preceding it.

2. Similarity in the existence of class oppression and distinction in the forms and conditions of the class struggle.

3. The worker’s struggle against the capitalist over working hours. Conditions for the sale of the commodity “labour-power”. The production of absolute and relative surplus-value.

4. “Normal” conditions for the consumption of the commodity “labour-power” are determined by the worker’s struggle against the capitalist.

5. The strike struggle, trade unions and factory legislation in the history of the struggle for shorter working hours.

6. Some results of the half-century of modern history (19th–20th enturies) in the struggle for shorter working hours. Kautsky’s “summary”.[1] Insignificance of “social progress”.

  1. Data on the limitation of working hours in various countries are given in the works of Karl Kautsky, Marx’s ökonomische Lehren (The Economic Doctrine of Marx) and Der Arbeiter-shutzgezetzgebung und der Achtstundentag (Legislative Labour Protection and the 8-hour Working Day). p. 232