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REDFLAG.ORG.AU PUBLICATION OF SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE 14 JUNE 2021 | REDFLAG

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Marx saw human series of transformations until it is broken down be similarly clear if the process of exchange of
into nutrients to be absorbed into our cells, along goods within the community broke down, and
labour as a kind of with waste to be excreted and so on. the health of one section of the population be-
Marx applied the idea of metabolism not only gan to suffer as a result.
process of metabolism to the role of labour in shaping the natural world. With the emergence of class society, when a
As well as the metabolic interaction between minority of the population came to live off the
in which the raw human society and nature, there is a metabolism surplus produced by others, the link between the
within society itself. So in the Grundrisse he writes
natural basis of human society and the lives of
materials of nature are that the circulation and exchange of commodities those who made the important decisions became
within capitalism can also be understood as a
more tenuous.
As Marx sees it, however, it’s only with the
worked up into forms kind of metabolism. “Insofar as the process of emergence of capitalism from the seventeenth
exchange transfers commodities from hands in
that are useful for which they are non-use-values to hands in which century onwards that the link is severed com-
pletely. Even the wealthiest of feudal lords still
they are use-values, it is a process of social metab-
human beings. olism”, he wrote. had some connection to the land. Their power was
The circulation of the products of labour with-
bound with a particular estate. As Marx himself
in a society can be understood by analogy with the put it in a note, “There still exists [under feudal-
circulation of blood within the human body. In a ism] the semblance of a more intimate connection
tion and exchange of nutrients, waste and so on healthy body, the blood transports oxygen, nutri- between the proprietor and the land than that of
in the human body and other living things. But ents and so on to where they are needed—keeping mere material wealth. The estate is individualised
it was also, from the 1850s onwards, increasingly the body functioning at full capacity. So too in a with its lord: it has his rank, is baronial or ducal
taken up by those, like Marx, trying to understand healthy society, the exchange of products should with him, has his privileges, his jurisdiction, his
the functioning of society. function to ensure that everyone is able to live a political position etc. It appears as the inorganic
It’s easy to see how the idea of metabolism, or decent life. body of its lord”.
“material exchange”, can be applied in this con- What, then, is the metabolic rift? In the If the feudal lord failed to manage the land
text. Marx saw human labour as a kind of process simplest terms, it is a breakdown in the healthy sustainably, if he logged all the forests, poisoned
of metabolism in which the raw materials of na- functioning of the metabolic process human so- the waterways and so on, he would undermine
ture are worked up into forms that are useful for ciety depends on, in both its external aspect—the not only the source of his material wealth, but his
human beings. In Capital, Marx described human exchange of material between human society and identity and being as a lord.
labour as: nature—and its internal aspect—the circulation The alienation of the land—its reduction to the
“... first of all, a process between man and of material within society. status of property that can be bought and sold—is
nature, a process by which man, through his own In pre-class societies, the material exchange what for Marx constitutes the foundation stone of
actions, mediates, regulates and controls the that occurs via our labour on the natural world the capitalist system. The wealth and power of the
metabolism between himself and nature. He con- happened in such a way that the two ends of the capitalist class doesn’t depend on their possession
fronts the materials of nature as a force of nature. process—nature and the useful things we produce of this or that particular piece of property, but
He sets in motion the natural forces that belong to from it—were related in a more or less direct rather on their control over capital. Capital can
his own body, his arms, legs, head and hands, in and transparent way. The raw materials required include physical property, such as farmland, ma-
order to appropriate the materials of nature in a for the production of basic necessities like food, chinery, factories, offices and so on, but it is by its
form adapted to his own needs.” shelter and so on were mostly sourced from the very nature fluid and transferable. If a capitalist
Human labour acts on nature in a way that’s immediate vicinity of settlements. buys up some land and then destroys it, they can
analogous with the action of the human body In this context, it would be very obvious simply take the profits they’ve made from it and
on the food that we eat. For instance, just like a if the metabolism had broken down in some move their money elsewhere.
tree that is transformed into a wooden shack, so, way—say by an area of land being eroded due At the same time as it completely severs any
for example, an apple that we eat goes through a to the excessive clearing of trees. And it would semblance of connection with the land among