Labour exploited

SURPLUS value says Karl Marx is the measure of the exploitation of labour in the capitalistic system. Marx was a keen student of US history and so was probably familiar with the writings and speeches of Abraham Lincoln.

Witness this from Lincoln: “No good thing has been or can be enjoyed by us without having first cost labour. And in as much as most good things are produced by labour, it follows that all such things of right belong to those whose labour has produced them. But it has so happened in all ages of the world, that some have laboured and others have without labour enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits.

“This is wrong and should not continue. To secure to each labourer the whole product of his labour or as nearly as possible is a worthy object of any good government.”

He too was on to the fact that labour does the work and that in having to share with capital, it is, in a sense being robbed.

The talk about partnership between the government, business and labour is utopian – a dream never to be realised. John P Naidoo Durban