Class, Productive and Unproductive Labour - Journal of Alternative ...

Class, Productive and Unproductive Labour: Divisions in the Global Working Class?Table 1:Types of labour and the source of the valuecompensating labour powerType of LabourCapitalistically EmployedProduction LabourHouseholdLabour/Subsistence LabourPetty Commodity ProducersCirculation LabourSocial Maintenance LabourSource of ValueReproduces its own valuethrough “necessary labourtime” then produces surplusvalueReproduces its own value, asno commodities areproduced, cannot producesurplus valueNot capitalistically employedand thus cannot producesurplus value, mayreproduce or exceed ownlabour power value withproductCompensated out of surplusvalue extracted fromproduction sphereCompensated out of surplusvalue extracted fromproduction sphereTo conclude this analysis is to say that all non-productivelabour as well as capital accumulation is made possiblethrough the productive labour that takes place in the sphereof production, and the exploitation of productive labourers.This position carries a number of important conclusions.Firstly, the productivity of labourers in the productive sphereis underrepresented by the SNA as within the prices that arecredited as the result of non-production labour is hiddenvalue from the productive sectors. In terms of nationalaccounting, the macro implication of this is that countries38