Mode of Reproduction

The Mode of Reproduction is the particular way a particular Regime of Accumulation chooses to reproduce the 1) Means of Production (i.e., the productive forces of society, 2) Labour-Power, and 3) the existing Relations of Production (i.e., the workforce and their compliant servitude).

Regime of Accumulation

Components of the Regime > Mode of Accumulation, Mode of Production, Mode of Reproduction

Relations of the Regime > Relations of Accumulation

Mechanisms of Reproduction

Mechanisms of Reproduction > State Apparatus, The State, Toxic Socialization

Syncretic Terms

Regime of Accumulation > Mode of Exploitation, Old World, The Machine, The Matrix, The Wheel

Related LP Terms

Mode of Reproduction >

Non-LP Related Terms

Mode of Reproduction >

Notes

Reproduction of the Means of Production

The reproduction of the means of production is straightforward. Raw materials are continually extracted, machinery is maintained and where necessary replaced, finances or organized to ensure the ongoing ability to finance the reproduction.

"As Marx said, every child knows that a social formation which did not reproduce the conditions of production at the same time as it produced would not last a year.[2] The ultimate condition of production is therefore the reproduction of the conditions of production. This may be ‘simple’ (reproducing exactly the previous conditions of production) or ‘on an extended scale’ (expanding them). Let us ignore this last distinction for the moment."

Reproduction of Labour-Power

How is the reproduction of labour power ensured?

1. " by giving labour power the material means with which to reproduce itself: by wages. "
2. by ensuring the reproduction of the skills needed function within the productive forces.
3. providing the continued reproduction of the workplace (i.e., turning out sufficient new babies to man positions within The Regime (see Binary Gender)
4. by learning "the ‘rules’ of good behaviour, i.e. the attitude that should be observed by every agent in the division of labour, according to the job he is ‘destined’ for: rules of morality, civic and professional conscience, which actually means rules of respect for the socio-technical division of labour and ultimately the rules of the order established by class domination. They also learn to ‘speak proper French’, to ‘handle’ the workers correctly, i.e. actually (for the future capitalists and their servants) to ‘order them about’ properly, i.e. (ideally) to ‘speak to them’ in the right way, etc."

"The reproduction of labour power thus reveals as its sine qua non not only the reproduction of its ‘skills’ but also the reproduction of its subjection to the ruling ideology or of the ‘practice’ of that ideology, with the proviso that it is not enough to say ‘not only but also’, for it is clear that it is in the forms and under the forms of ideological subjection that provision is made for the reproduction of the skills of labour power."

Reproduction of the Relations of Production

Far more interesting and problematic is the reproduction of the relations of production. This reproduction is ensured by the "legal-political and ideological superstructure."

"...it is secured by the exercise of State power in the State Apparatuses, on the one hand the (Repressive) State Apparatus, on the other theIdeological State Apparatuses."

What I have just said must also be taken into account, and it can be assembled in the form of the following three features:

1. All the State Apparatuses function both by repression and by ideology, with the difference that the (Repressive) State Apparatus functions massively and predominantly by repression, whereas the Ideological State Apparatuses function massively and predominantly by ideology.

2. Whereas the (Repressive) State Apparatus constitutes an organized whole whose different parts are centralized beneath a commanding unity, that of the politics of class struggle applied by the political representatives of the ruling classes in possession of State power, the Ideological State Apparatuses are multiple, distinct, ‘relatively autonomous’ and capable of providing an objective field to contradictions which express, in forms which may be limited or extreme, the effects of the clashes between the capitalist class struggle and the proletarian class struggle, as well as their subordinate forms.

3. Whereas the unity of the (Repressive) State Apparatus is secured by its unified and centralized organization under the leadership of the representatives of the classes in power executing the politics of the class struggle of the classes in power,the unity of the different Ideological State Apparatuses is secured, usually in contradictory forms, by the ruling ideology, the ideology of the ruling class

Quotes

"It follows that, in order to exist, every social formation must reproduce the conditions of its production at the same time as it produces, and in order to be able to produce."

--

To put this more scientifically, I shall say that the reproduction of labour power requires not only a reproduction of its skills, but also, at the same time, a reproduction of its submission to the rules of the established order, i.e. a reproduction of submission to the ruling ideology for the workers, and a reproduction of the ability to manipulate the ruling ideology correctly for the agents of exploitation and repression, so that they, too, will provide for the domination of the ruling class ‘in words’.

In other words, the school (but also other State institutions like the Church, or other apparatuses like the Army) teaches ‘know-how’, but in forms which ensure subjection to the ruling ideology or the mastery of its ‘practice’. All the agents of production, exploitation and repression, not to speak of the ‘professionals of ideology’ (Marx), must in one way or another be ‘steeped’ in this ideology in order to perform their tasks ‘conscientiously’ – the tasks of the exploited (the proletarians), of the exploiters (the capitalists), of the exploiters’ auxiliaries (the managers), or of the high priests of the ruling ideology (its ‘functionaries’), etc.

The reproduction of labour power thus reveals as its sine qua non not only the reproduction of its ‘skills’ but also the reproduction of its subjection to the ruling ideology or the mastery of its ‘practice.’ of that ideology, with the proviso that it is not enough to say ‘not only but also’, for it is clear that it is in the forms and under the forms of ideological subjection that provision is made for the reproduction of the skills of labour power.

Citation and Legal

Treat the SpiritWiki as an open-access online monograph or structured textbook. You may freely use information in the SpiritWiki; however, attribution, citation, and/or direct linking are ethically required.

Footnotes

References