Marx’s Capital, Vol. II – A Short Course on the Circulation of Capital

An 8-session study group

In Volume I of Capital, Marx analyzes the processes of capitalist production and accumulation and identifies the real sources of wealth: nature and the labor performed by working people. In Volume II, The Process of Circulation of Capital, he addresses the next big question: How can the reproduction of society as a whole take place, if there is no conscious social planning that ensures that all needs are met, in the necessary proportions, such that life can persist and the capitalist relations of production be sustained? In this eight-session study group, we will discover some answers, but we will also learn of new contradictions and sources of crisis inherent to capitalist society. Marx ‘s analysis in Volume II lays the groundwork for his system-wide summation in Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole.

We welcome all who have a basic knowledge of Volume I of Capital to this study group. Participants will read selections on their own each week and meet for clarifying discussions, guided by Fred Murphy and other experienced students of Marx from the MEP. For certain key and/or difficult sections, we will do a line-by-line reading in class.

Fred Murphy will facilitate this group. Fred has led several Capital study groups and numerous others on ecosocialism, science and technology, the history of capitalism, and Latin American politics at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research.