On  May 21st, The ‘Laboratory for Social Critique’ at La Sapienza University in Rome organised a conference on value theory around the book edited by Luciano Vasopollo to which many TSSI scholars had contributed.

The Sraffian view at that time held sway not only in much of academia but in the descendants of the Communist Party, at one time Europe’s largest mass Communist Party and a huge influence in Italian society and government, which had fallen apart in consequence of the tormented disputes induced by Eurocommunism. Our guests sought to intervene in this debate by arranging for an engagement on the consistency and relevance of Marx’s theory. This was successful, in that it was attended by leading Italian, American and British participants including key scholars from the TSSI side and from the post-Sraffian side. It was however less successful than the other engagements such as that hosted by Zarembka’s Research in Political Economy., in that – as had become the case in the IWGVT  mini-c0nferences – the participants on the post-Sraffian side did not engage with the TSSI but merely re-iterated their ‘standard view’.

Engagement with TSSI from the post-Sraffian school effectively ceased at this point – essentially, because the post-Sraffians had no response to TSSI other than to ignore it, and because their own line of enquiry had ceased to shed any useful light on world events.

Participants were asked to address four questions:

1. Has Marx’s transformation procedure been proven inconsistent?
2. Is Bortkiewictz’s interpretation of Marx’s value theory Marx’s own theory?
3. Is it true that simultaneous valuation leads necessarily to an interpretation of exploitation purely in physical terms? If this is true, is this valuation compatible with Marx’s theory of exploitation in terms of surplus labour?
4. Has Marx’s theory of the tendential fall in the profit rate been disproved?

Below, I reproduce the original invitation and schedule, which includes the list of participants. Separately, I post the most significant individual contributions. At this stage I am only posting the TSSI contributions purely for reasons of time and capacity. These may be obtained from PROTEO’s record of the debate. If time permits, I will add them here later.

The Laboratory for Social Critique

Introduces the book published in the series ‘Critical Knowledge’

AN OLD MYTH: THE TRANSFORMATION OF VALUES INTO PRICES IN MARX’S CAPITAL

edited by Luciano Vasapollo(Univ. Roma “La Sapienza”, Lab.Social Critique)

with essays by G. Carchedi, A. Freeman, P. Giussani, A. Kliman, A. Ramos

The presentation and discussion will be held on May, 21, 2002

at the ‘Centro Congressi’ of Rome University, La Sapienza, Via Salaria 113.

Morning Session (9:30 to 13:00) Chair: L. Vasapollo

9:30 Introduction by L. Vasapollo.

10:00 Interventions by the authors

12:00 The authors reply to the public’s questions.

Afternoon Session(14:30 to 18:00) Chair: L. Vasapollo

14:30 Round Table: THE TRANSFORMATION: SIMULTANEISM OR TEMPORALISM?. The Round Table will be opened by A. Kliman who will summarize the morning session.

15:00 Interventions by scholars and politicians:

1. Callari (Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, USA), M. De Angelis (Univ. East London), D. K Foley (Univ.New School, New York), G. Mazzetti (Univ. Calabria), G. Mongiovi (Univ. New York), F.Petri (Univ. Siena), E. Screpanti (Univ. Siena).

Sen. P. Di Siena (Vicepresid Ass.Rinnov. Sinistra), On. A Gianni  (Deputy. Partito di Rinnovazione Comunista), On. N.Nesi (President. Scientific Committee, Partito Comunista Italia), On. A.Tortorella (Pres. Assoziazione Rinnovazione. Sinistra), Senator. C. Salvi (President, Ass. Socialismo 2000).

17:30 Answers and concluding remarks by A. Freeman

18:00 Conclusions by L. Vasapollo

 LABORATORIO PER LA CRITICA SOCIALE

del Centro Studi Trasformazioni Economico-Sociali (CESTES-PROTEO)

Via dell’Aereoporto 129,00175 Roma

Tel. 067628275/6  Fax .067628233

e.mail: cestes@tin.it

The Conference is organized in such a way that the authors, together with the scholars and the politicians invited, will provide an answer to the following questions:

1. Has Marx’s transformation procedure been proven inconsistent?
2. Is Bortkiewictz’s interpretation of Marx’s value theory Marx’s own theory?
3. Is it true that simultaneous valuation leads necessarily to an interpretation of exploitation purely in physical terms? If this is true, is this valuation compatible with Marx’s theory of exploitation in terms of surplus labour?
4. Has Marx’s theory of the tendential fall in the profit rate been disproved?