Slides for week one of economics for activists. Core text, Mary Mellor, The Future of Money (London: Pluto Press, 2010)

1. Economics for Activists
Week One -
Introduction
F2 Building, New Fatima,
Rialto
12 June 2013

12. Week One – Introduction
Week Two – What is Money? – (Future of Money, Chapter One)
Week Three – The Privatisation of Money – (Future of Money, Chapter
Two)
Week Four – Financialisation and Debt – (Future of Money, Chapter Three)
Week Five – Credit and Capitalism – (Future of Money, Chapter Four)
Week Six – Conclusion and discussion

13. Breviari d’Amour (Breviary of Love)
by
Matfré Ermengau of Bézier
c.1288CE
Franciscan friar

20. Money is a complex phenomenon whose
economic functioning relies on social trust and
public authority.

21. Money is a complex phenomenon whose
economic functioning relies on social trust and
public authority.
The exposure of the reliance of the private
financial sector on the state has brought the
financial system into full view and opens it up
for analysis. The opportunity must be taken to
challenge the private control of finance and ask
whether such an important aspect of human
society should be owned by, and serve, the
interests of capitalism.

22. Money is a complex phenomenon whose
economic functioning relies on social trust and
public authority.
The exposure of the reliance of the private
financial sector on the state has brought the
financial system into full view and opens it up
for analysis. The opportunity must be taken to
challenge the private control of finance and ask
whether such an important aspect of human
society should be owned by, and serve, the
interests of capitalism.
The money system needs to be reclaimed from
the profit-driven market economy and socially
administered for the benefit of society as a
whole as a public resource.

23. Money is a complex phenomenon whose
economic functioning relies on social trust and
public authority.
The exposure of the reliance of the private
financial sector on the state has brought the
financial system into full view and opens it up
for analysis. The opportunity must be taken to
challenge the private control of finance and ask
whether such an important aspect of human
society should be owned by, and serve, the
interests of capitalism.
The money system needs to be reclaimed from
the profit-driven market economy and socially
administered for the benefit of society as a
whole as a public resource.
The capitalist market is not created to meet
needs, it is created to make profits.

24. Money is more helpfully seen not as a „thing‟ but as a
social form.

25. Money is more helpfully seen not as a „thing‟ but as a
social form.
„Sound money‟ is a product of society, not of nature.

26. Money is more helpfully seen not as a „thing‟ but as a
social form.
„Sound money‟ is a product of society, not of nature.
When we say people trust in money we mean that they
are trusting in the organisations, society and authorities
that create and circulate it, other people, traders, the
banks and the state.

27. Money is more helpfully seen not as a „thing‟ but as a
social form.
„Sound money‟ is a product of society, not of nature.
When we say people trust in money we mean that they
are trusting in the organisations, society and authorities
that create and circulate it, other people, traders, the
banks and the state.
Money, whatever its form, is a social construction, not a
natural form.

28. Money is more helpfully seen not as a „thing‟ but as a
social form.
„Sound money‟ is a product of society, not of nature.
When we say people trust in money we mean that they
are trusting in the organisations, society and authorities
that create and circulate it, other people, traders, the
banks and the state.
Money, whatever its form, is a social construction, not a
natural form.
It has not inherent value but it has vast social and
political power. (p.11)

40. Capitalism is first and foremost a historical social system.
What distinguishes the historical social system we are calling historical
capitalism is that in this historical system capital came to be used (invested)
in a very special way. It came to be used with the primary objective or intent
of self-expansion.

41. “Marx, for example, emphasizes that all of these forms of capital – merchants‟
capital, money capital and rent on land – had an historical existence which
stretches back well before the advent of industrial capital in the modern sense.
We therefore have to consider an historical process of transformation in
which these separate and independently powerful forms of capital became integrated
into a purely capitalist mode of production.

42. “Marx, for example, emphasizes that all of these forms of capital – merchants‟
capital, money capital and rent on land – had an historical existence which
stretches back well before the advent of industrial capital in the modern sense.
We therefore have to consider an historical process of transformation in
which these separate and independently powerful forms of capital became integrated
into a purely capitalist mode of production.
These different forms of capital had to be rendered subservient to a circulation
process dominated by the production of surplus value by wage labour.

43. “Marx, for example, emphasizes that all of these forms of capital – merchants‟
capital, money capital and rent on land – had an historical existence which
stretches back well before the advent of industrial capital in the modern sense.
We therefore have to consider an historical process of transformation in
which these separate and independently powerful forms of capital became integrated
into a purely capitalist mode of production.
These different forms of capital had to be rendered subservient to a circulation
process dominated by the production of surplus value by wage labour.
The form and manner of this historical process must therefore be a focus of
attention.”
David Harvey, Limits to Capital (London: Verso, 2006), 73.

49. The purpose of capitalism is self-expansion – capital begets capital – and it does so by monetizing
social value and human labour. This is a circuit of transformation.

50. The purpose of capitalism is self-expansion – capital begets capital – and it does so by monetizing
social value and human labour. This is a circuit of transformation.
“Historical capitalism involved therefore the widespread commodification of processes – not
merely exchange processes, but production processes, distribution processes, and investment
processes – that had previously been conducted other than via a „market‟. And, in the course of
seeking to accumulate more and more capital, capitalists have sought to commodify more and
more of these social processes in all spheres of economic life.”
Immanuel Wallerstein, Historical Capitalism (London: Verso, 2011), 15.

51. The argument of this book is that as money is such a critical force in the circulation of goods
and services and therefore provisioning, it is vital to question how money is issued and
circulated, owned and controlled. From this perspective money is more than just a reflection
of value in the „real‟ economy. (p.22)
The so-called „real economy‟ – (the economy of capitalist production and exchange) – is in
reality an economy determined by capitalism and by patriarchy. Outside its boundaries lie
the natural world and the un-monetised labour and needs of women, children and the poor,
as well as non-monetised subsistence economies.

52. The argument of this book is that as money is such a critical force in the circulation of goods
and services and therefore provisioning, it is vital to question how money is issued and
circulated, owned and controlled. From this perspective money is more than just a reflection
of value in the „real‟ economy. (p.22)
The so-called „real economy‟ – (the economy of capitalist production and exchange) – is in
reality an economy determined by capitalism and by patriarchy. Outside its boundaries lie
the natural world and the un-monetised labour and needs of women, children and the poor,
as well as non-monetised subsistence economies.
It is not a neutral „economic‟ choice to give something a monetary value, it is in essence a
social and political choice that dominant groups and classes have imposed. (p.23)