What is not meant by fetish: ww

The table as use-value and as commodity As a use-value, a table is simply a table: as a material object, it can be used for various purposes (to eat or write on, as firewood, etc.). As a commodity, the table becomes «mysterious» … … as soon as it emerges as a commodity, it changes into a thing which transcends sensuousness. It not only stands with its feet on the ground, but, in relation to all other commodities, it stands on its head … (p. 163)

The enigma of the commodity form Whence, then, arises the enigmatic character of the product of labour, as soon as it assumes the form of a commodity? Clearly, it arises from this form itself. (p. 164)

The solution of the enigma... The mysterious character of the commodity-form consists therefore simply in the fact that the commodity reflects the social characteristics of mens own labour as […] the socio-natural properties of these things. (pp. 164–65)

Private independent producers I assume pants will sell well. I hope that there will not be too many tables on the market. I suspect there is a great need for chairs. I am speculating that the market needs tables. I bet I can sell all of my pants.

The total labour of society The private producers A, B, C, D, and E produce the products a, b, c, d, e, which are to be exchanged on the market as commodities. e and d are not exchanged. The labour expended on them is not part of the total labour of society. a, b and c are exchanged. The labour expended upon them becomes part of the total labour of society, and has the character of abstract labour. The total labour of society A a B b E e d D c C Exchange on the market

Social relations between things – material relations between people

Agency and consciousness … by equating their different products to each other in exchange as values, they equate their different kinds of labour as human labour. They do this without being aware of it. (pp. 166–67)

Reification and naturalization The chair has a value: always and everywhere. =

Examples of naturalization That which is only valid for this particular form of production appears «to those caught up in the relations of commodity production» (p. 167) as natural, trans-historical and final: In every societyOnly in commodity production > > > Product of labour Relations between people Concrete useful labour Commodity Relations between things Abstract human labour

… Things that control them …

Association of free men What do we need? Lets get it organized! And how much? Who can and wants to do something?

Critique of political economy I As regards value in general, classical political economy in fact nowhere distinguishes […] between labour as it appears in the value of a product, and the same labour as it appears in the products use-value. (p. 173, footnote 33)

Critique of political economy II Political economy has indeed analysed value and its magnitude, however incompletely, and has uncovered the content concealed within these forms. But it has never once asked the question why this content has assumed that particular form … (pp. 173–74)