‘Beginners’ Study Course in Socialism and Marx’s Economics Part One: What You Sell to the Boss’ by Mary E. Marcy from The International Socialist Review. Vol. 11 No. 5. November, 1910.

(For several months the REVIEW has been receiving requests from all over the United States for a Course in Marxian Economics. Comrades have advised us that almost every local in the country has been adding new members during the campaign and that these locals desire to instruct the new recruits in the meaning of Socialism. in response to these letters from our friends, the REVIEW has decided to run a series of simple lessons in the economics of Karl Marx. The simplest wage-worker in the socialist party and the stupidest socialist college man or woman know more about economics than Theodore Roosevelt or the wisest Democrat in America. These men jumble definitions and terms in utter disregard to scientific thinking. The socialist economist alone defines his terms and stands for a definite aim and program. Socialism depends, for its strength, upon the intelligence of its membership, every one of whom is an active educator for the revolutionary movement.)

What You Sell to the Boss.

If you are a working man or woman, no matter what you do in the shop or factory, or mine, you know that there are two kinds of power used in the plant–human, or labor power, and steam, or water (or perhaps–gas explosion) power.

The owner of a new barrel mill in Indiana decided it would be cheaper to have some company furnish power to run his mill than to install a power plant himself, so he sent for the three representatives of the three power plants in that city.

The first man came from the company that offered to run the machines in the mill by steam power; the second came from a firm which wanted to sell him a gasoline engine to furnish the power by the explosions of gas, while the third came from a great water-power company. This man offered to supply power to run the mill machinery at a lower price than the others asked. Of course, he secured the contract.

By this time the mill owner was almost ready to have his plant opened. He had logs (or raw material) ready to start on; he had machinery and power to run that machinery. Only one thing more was needed to start the plant running and to produce staves and hoops for barrels. This was the commodity which you workers supply. It is human power, human labor-power.

One hundred years ago almost everything was produced by human labor-power, but gradually improved machinery has been invented that lessens the human toil needed to make things. Big machines, run by steam, or water-power, now do most of the heavy and difficult work. But the owner of the mine or factory or mill needs one other commodity to guide the machines, to tend the machines and feed them. He needs your labor-power.

The barrel manufacturer in Indiana said he needed “hands.” He meant hands to do things. He meant labor-power. So he put an advertisement in the paper reading “Men Wanted,” Of course he did not want to buy men outright, as folks used to buy chattel slaves. He hired some of you to work for him. He bought your human power (to work)–your labor power.

And you sold him your labor-power, just as a stockman sells horses or a baker sells bread. You went to the boss with something to sell. He was in the market to buy human labor-power, and if your price was low you probably got a job.

Some of us work many years before we realize that even we wage-workers have one commodity to sell. As long as we are able to work we try to find a buyer of our labor-power. We hunt for a job and the boss that goes with a job.

Men and women who have no other means of support have to sell their labor-power for wages in order to live.

A commodity is something that satisfies some human want; something produced by labor-power for sale or exchange. A dress made by a woman for herself is not a commodity. A dress made to be sold to somebody else is a commodity. It is not made for use, but for sale.

Sheep are commodities, as are shoes, houses, gloves, bread, steam-power and water-power, when sold by one man to another. And your strength to make things, your human laboring-power (or, as Marx says, your labor-power) is also a commodity when sold to an employer for wages.

Now you know that any man who is selling a commodity asks as high a price for it as he can. The little grocer who runs the small store near your home charges just as much as possible in selling butter to you. The coal dealers raise their prices whenever they can. And when you strike the boss for a job, you ask him as high a price for your labor-power as you think you can get.

High prices for labor-power is what wage-workers want. Low prices for labor-power is what your employer wants.

Are your interests identical?

What happens when there are ten men competing to sell their labor-power? Who gets the job?

What happens when there are several jobs and only one worker? Will he receive higher or lower wages? Will he get a good price for his labor-power?

When workingmen are scarce and manufacturers are forced to pay a high price for labor-power (high wages) in a certain locality, does the scarcity of workers last long? If not, why not?

When men are hunting jobs toward which cities do they go? Why?

Does supply and demand have anything to do with the price at which you are able to sell your labor-power?

Why is the steel trust putting up a fifty million dollar plant in China? Will they be able to make more profits manufacturing steel there than in America? Why? Why do Chinese workmen come to America to sell their labor-power?

Karl Marx talks much of commodities–their value and their price, and in order to understand his teachings, we must know first of all that we are sellers of a commodity called labor-power.

In the next lesson we shall take up the question of what determines the value of your labor-power and the value of all other commodities.

We suggest that students buy and study Capital, by Marx; 3 vols; cloth, $2.00 each.

Value, Price and Profit, by Marx, 10 cents.

These lessons are only an attempt to say, in the language of working men and women, the things Marx says in his own books.

Mary E Marcy (1877-1922) was a leader of the Socialist Party’s Left Wing and assistant editor of International Socialist Review for 14 years. She was among the most important exponents of Marx and Marxism in US history.

The International Socialist Review (ISR) was published monthly in Chicago from 1900 until 1918 by Charles H. Kerr and critically loyal to the Socialist Party of America. It is one of the essential publications in U.S. left history. During the editorship of A.M. Simons it was largely theoretical and moderate. In 1908, Charles H. Kerr took over as editor with strong influence from Mary E Marcy. The magazine became the foremost proponent of the SP’s left wing growing to tens of thousands of subscribers. It remained revolutionary in outlook and anti-militarist during World War One. It liberally used photographs and images, with news, theory, arts and organizing in its pages. It articles, reports and essays are an invaluable record of the U.S. class struggle and the development of Marxism in the decades before the Soviet experience. It was closed down in government repression in 1918.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v11n05-nov-1910-ISR-gog-Corn-OCR.pdf