Abstract
For the Young Marx, who remains dear to some of us, there was not one subject — but two. Whatever the shortcomings of his early conceptions, capitalism for him was clearly characterized by two sides and their relations. The relations of capitalism contained within them the relations of capitalism as capital, the same relations as wage-labour and the mutual relations of these two to one another.
Owing to this alien mediator — instead of man himself being the mediator for man — man regards his will, his activity and his relation to other men as a power independent of him and them. His slavery, therefore, reaches a peak.
Marx (1844b: 212)
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© 2003 Michael A. Lebowitz
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Lebowitz, M.A. (2003). The Political Economy of Wage-Labour. In: Beyond Capital. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403943729_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403943729_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-96430-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4039-4372-9
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