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

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. 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."

Reproduction of the Relations of Production

Far more interesting and problematic is the reproduction of the relations of production. This reproduction is ensured by

1. providing the continued reproduction of the workplace (i.e., turning out sufficient new babies to man positions within The Regime (see Binary Gender)
2. "giving labour power the material means with which to reproduce itself: by wages."
3. reproduction of skills (through education)
4. reproduction of submission " 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"

"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."

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."

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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.

Footnotes

References