ABSTRACT

Classical Marxists agree with this multi-centric organizational (MCO) critique of the free market world view, but for the Marxists the pre-eminent analytical grouping is class. Marxists are even more dismissive of the ability of free market economics, or what Marx called “vulgar economics,” to represent reality. From the Marxist perspective the market is simply an exchange mechanism through which the ruling capitalist class imposes its will on the working class. Marxists have an even bleaker view of the value-determining process in capitalism, because they believe that the workers will almost never get the full value of their contribution to production. Marxists agree with the MCO analysis that money is not a benign, neutral facilitator. From the Marxist point of view the MCO model incorporates neither the systematic analysis of worker exploitation by the capitalist ruling class, nor the surplus value circulation that is inherent to the Marxian model.