GO-OPERATION AND WAGES.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 35, 3 November 1911, Page 17

GO-OPERATION AND WAGES.

Dear Worker, —In his article on "Cooperation : Is it worth Avhile ?" ' 'Dogmatist" uses figures to show that by receiA'ing a diA'idend of 10 per cent, on their purchases the Avorkers would then, at a most reasonable estimate, receive but one-sixtieth of their total product. But would the workers thereby be eA'en one-sixtieth better off ? Decidedly not. The only thing the AA'orker has to sell is his labor-power; that is, his poweir to do labor. This laborpower of his is a commodity, and as it cannot exist apart from the laborer, the laborer is himself a commodity to be bought and sold in. the market (in this case, the labor market), like boots, clothes, hemp, bones, wheat, or any other commodity. And the value of labor power and also its price (Avages), like all other commodities, is determined by its cost of production, which is the average amount of labor time sofV" 1 * -j__.ccssary to produce it. Do not fo-. iffie AA'orker is a commodity, and Co- . -,\aontly has a price. OAving to th '-Saav of supply and demand, tlie PR. ; _"• of a commodity may temporarily i _ • ■ "jbove its value, or it may tempora: 1. fall beloAv it, but in tlie-mass the of all commodities gravitate toward a common cent.re and that is their value, the cost of production. What, then, is the value of labor power? Just the value of the means of subsistence, food, clothing, shelter, etc., necessary to produce an efficient Avagc-slave. Its price (wages) can neA r er permanently rise above the value of those ne cess .tie?. The supply _t labo-'-pbAver is greater than_ the demand, due to labor - saving machinery and other modern methods, and the tendency is for its price (AA r ages) to fall beloAv its value. The Avorkers are consequently striving by various means to maintain its value. If the AA'orkers, by means of thrift, temperance, co-op. stores and the like, can reduce the cost of producing and maintaining labor-power, by, say -5s a AA'eek, the price of labor-power (wages) must fall by a corresponding amount, owing to the competition among the AA'orkers for jobs, and the employing class alone reaps all the benefits of their thrift, self-denial and enterprise, Acts of Parliament and Arbitration Courts not.vithstanding. PalliatiA'es of any kind cannot do the Avorkers any permanent good so long as the capitalists oAvn the tools of production. It is an economic fallacy encouraged by their masters for the workers to think that they are robbed by the high cost of living, rents, etc. They are robbed at the one place alone: the point of production)—in the pay envelope and noAA'heire else. Workers, Avhcn you ar. asked to support any reform or palliatire, ask yours el acs : If, after Aye get this reform, will I still be a commodity forced to sell myself in the market for wages? If so, have nothing to do with it, for your wages can, neA'er rise aboA'e the subsistence level. Instead, concentrate your efforts for the abolition) of the Avages system. Read the books by Marx, Engels, Kautskv, Study Socialism so. that you may obtain control of the industries, and so own your own jobs. There is no other aa'ay out. Socialism is your only hope. —Yours, etc., Grey town. MARXIAN.