On the Economy of a Society Freed from Domination – Foundational Principles of Communist Production and Distribution
Good day,
We are very happy to announce our first event on January 6, 2022, in Berlin.
In the near future, we plan to organize a series of reading groups, lectures, discussion evenings, and workshops to make the idea of labour-time accounting better known. We believe that the theory of labour-time accounting, first elaborated in detail by the Group of International Communists (GIK) in the 1920s, contains a great deal of potential for an anti-authoritarian and non-centralist communism.
Our first guest will be Felix Klopotek. In his recent book “Rätekommunismus”, he dedicates an entire chapter to the GIK’s main work, “Grundprinzipien kommunistischer Produktion und Verteilung” (Basic Principles of Communist Production and Distribution). Here is his announcement text for the event:
The text “Grundprinzipien kommunistischer Produktion und Verteilung”, first published in 1930, has actually disappointed almost every reader so far: contrary to what the title seems to promise, it neither paints a utopia nor explains council rule, nor is it directly about production itself. It is worth reading the title carefully: it deals with basic principles, that is, with the way labour is expended and how this labour is recorded. In other words, it is about accounting. The text links to the moments of rationality within the production process that exist even – and especially – under capitalist conditions. For capital, too, at the level of the enterprise, is keenly interested in recording working time precisely: control over working time is at the same time control over exploitation. The Grundprinzipien take as their starting point the labour power that has itself gained control over working time. Thus, the analysis turns out to be a militant programmatic text of council communism – even though it doesn’t look like one at first glance.
Felix Klopotek will present the central ideas of this text, situate them in the historical context of a then very lively debate about socialization, and relate them to current discussions on communist utopias and self-management.
Recently published by Klopotek: “Rätekommunismus – Theorie – Geschichte” (Schmetterling Verlag, 2021)
Thursday, January 6, 2022
Start: 7 p.m.
Corona restriction: 2G+
Museum des Kapitalismus
Köpenicker Str. 172
10997 Berlin
http://www.museumdeskapitalismus.de/
https://arbeitszeitrechnung.org/