Title | The natural wealth of the Soviet union and its exploitation |
Alternative Title | The natural wealth of the Soviet union and its exploitation: an address delivered before the extraordinary session of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet union held in Moscow, June 21 - 27, 1931 |
Creator (LCNAF) |
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Contributor (Local) |
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Publisher | Co-operative Publishing Society of Foreign Workers in the U.S.S.R. |
Place of Creation (TGN) |
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Date | 1932 |
Subject.Topical (LCSH) |
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Subject.Geographic (TGN) |
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Genre (AAT) |
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Language | English |
Type (DCMI) |
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Original Item Location | HC335.G82 1932 |
Original Item URL | http://library.uh.edu/record=b8304510~S5 |
Original Collection | Socialist and Communist Pamphlets |
Digital Collection | Socialist and Communist Pamphlets |
Digital Collection URL | http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/scpamp |
Repository | Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries |
Repository URL | http://libraries.uh.edu/branches/special-collections |
Use and Reproduction | In Copyright: This item is protected by copyright. Copyright to this resource is held by the creator or current rights holder, and the resource is provided here for educational purposes. It may not be reproduced or distributed in any format without permission of the copyright owner. Users assume full responsibility for any infringement of copyright or related rights. |
File Name | index.cpd |
Title | Image 8 |
Format (IMT) |
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File Name | uhlib_1800818_007.jpg |
Transcript | conception of "natural wealth" or "natural resources." Both the Commission and the present Council for the Study of the Productive Forces of the Country had been studying our natural resources. According to the Marxian point of view, the only correct one, the term "productive forces" denotes those forces which take part in the process of production. These forces are, first, the live force of the worker applied to the object of his labour, and the object itself of this labour, which, together with the tools of production, constitute the means of production. Labour is, in the first place, a process in which both Man and Nature participate, and in which Man of his own accord starts, regulates, and controls the material reactions between himself and Nature. He opposes himself to Nature as one of her own forces, setting in motion arms and legs, head and hands, the natural forces of his body, in order to appropriate Nature's productions in a form adapted to his own wants. By thus acting on the external world and changing it, he at the same time changes his own nature (Marx, Capital, Vol. I, Charles H. Kerr edition, page 197). In the process of labour, man adapts himself to external nature, yet he does so not passively, but actively, placing between himself and nature, if necessary, the tools of labour, the tools of production. An instrument of labour is a thing, or a complex of things, which the labourer interposes between himself and the subject of his labour, and which serves as the conductor of his activity (Ibid., page 199). Coal, ores, running water, etc., become forces of production when drawn into the process of production, when taking part in it and jointly with the live force of the worker equipped with the tools of production creating products of labour. The question arises, should those reserves of coal, or oil, or forest lands which take no part as yet in the earth or upon its surface, and which take no part as yet in the process of production, be considered forces of production? I believe such a designation would be wrong. They are merely natural substances, not yet 6 |