This pamphlet was Marx’s contribution to a discussion on trade union activity that took place at a meeting of the General Council of the International Working Men’s Association in April, 1865.
Weston, a follower of Robert Owen and an advocate of co-operatives as the way out for the working class, argued that wage increases not only did not benefit the workers immediately concerned but also harmed workers in other sections of industry by causing a rise in prices.
That “wage increases only cause prices to rise” is still a familiar viewpoint. In the first five chapters of this pamphlet (published in 1898 from some notes found among Engels’ papers) Marx easily demolishes the arguments of “Citizen Weston”. This part of the pamphlet is now mainly of academic interest since most of Weston’s points were so crude that they are rarely heard today. From chapter VI on, however, Marx sets out in simple form his Labour Theory of Value; explains the source of rent, interest and profit and outlines both the usefulness and the limitations of trade union action.
This pamphlet was Marx’s contribution to a discussion on trade union activity that took place at a meeting of the General Council of the International Working Men’s Association in April, 1865.
Weston, a follower of Robert Owen and an advocate of co-operatives as the way out for the working class, argued that wage increases not only did not benefit the workers immediately concerned but also harmed workers in other sections of industry by causing a rise in prices.
That “wage increases only cause prices to rise” is still a familiar viewpoint. In the first five chapters of this pamphlet (published in 1898 from some notes found among Engels’ papers) Marx easily demolishes the arguments of “Citizen Weston”. This part of the pamphlet is now mainly of academic interest since most of Weston’s points were so crude that they are rarely heard today. From chapter VI on, however, Marx sets out in simple form his Labour Theory of Value; explains the source of rent, interest and profit and outlines both the usefulness and the limitations of trade union action.