FROM A COMMUNIST

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 475, 3 October 1928, Page 8

FROM A COMMUNIST

Sir,— To a world which gives much exercise t£> a sense of humour, The Sun adds its fair quota. The competition, “If I Were Prime Minister,” has induced amateur politicians to give vent to some weird and wonderful opinions. Thus Mr. J. E. Green, in The Sun of September 27: “Coming to Capital and Labour, I would use every effort to expose the diabolical fallacies of that arch-enemy of Labour, Karl Marx. Labour is indispensable to Capital as Capital is to Labour. One is the complement of the other. . . . Employers and employees must be taught that they are functions of one body, and as the hands work in obedience to the brain, so there must be harmony ... of the body politic.” Now, as one who has devoted some little attention to the works of Marx, I am interested to hear that Marx taught that Labour can do without Capital—that is, using the terra “Capital” in its orthodox sense as meaning the direct and indirect means of production and distribution. What I, in my ignorance, had thought was, that Marx had demonstrated that Capital (Continued In noxt column.)

in this sense is created by Labour and that Labour's problem is to obtain control of it and use it for social welfare instead of for private profit. in other words. Labour cannot dispense with Capital but it can easily dispense with Capitalists. As for the analogy (borrowed from Herbert Spencer) between society and an organism, it ie based on a false premise. Capital that ambiguous term—is identified with “brain” and “organising ability.” But the whole trend of modern economic development lies in the divoro, of ownership of capital from its control. The “rentier” or coupon holder, the “absentee owner” of Veblen, owns the capital, while a salaried manager controls it. Hoes Mr. Green beliefs that Miss Bertha Krupp is essentia! to the manufacture of agricultural implements ? Nor must we overlook the fact that W'htle the “organiser” and the owner of capital are sometimes united in the one person, the unity is artificial. Ws cannot do without the one but we can do without the other. Furthermore much organisation under capitalist economy is entirely unproductive. S. W. SCOTT. Hon. sec., Auckland group Communist Party of NZ