5 pages, double-spaced, Times New Roman, Microsoft Word Document, Name and Student Number in Header.

Question: What is Marx’s theory of class conflict in capitalist production? To answer this question, briefly review Marx’s theory of surplus value and its origin in the exploitation of labor power. Then, discuss the nature of class conflict over absolute and relative surplus value. What do these terms mean and how does the working class contest such methods of extracting surplus value? Look at Marx’s analysis of the struggle over the working day, and on deskilling and collective resistance in the chapter on “Cooperation.” Finally, how does Marx ‘concretize’ his analysis of class conflict in production, or show how history has proven his theory correct? Are these dynamics of capitalist production still operative today?

Assignments must use quotations and references (page numbers). For example, Marx says that every commodity is a “use-value” (126). Or, according to Marx, capitalists are “at home in vulgar economics” (298).

Do not use other sources. Show me that you have read Capital, and write about it directly, in your own words, and using a few short quotations per paragraph.