The expansion of use value
You may ask what the above quote has to do with the UN Climate Summit. Actually, quite a lot. In fact, one manifestation of the productive relations of capitalism turning into fetters is precisely global warming and climate change brought about by capitalist development itself. Chris Williams, a physicist and climate activist makes this very point in his 2010 book “Ecology and Socialism”:
“Marx wrote of once-productive social relations becoming a fetter to the further development of society’s productive powers. Here Marx was not arguing for unending expansion of production, for which he is commonly criticized. It is capitalism that expands production for its own sake, driven by the competitive pursuit of profit—the expansion of exchange value. Marx was arguing that outmoded social forms stand in the way of the further development of society’s powers to answer people’s real needs—the expansion of use value.
”Williams continues: “Nothing illustrates Marx’s point better than the incapacity of capitalist social relations to address the issue of fossil fuels.”
Therefore, the above observation of Marx helps to place the recent UN Climate Summit into its historical context. It also sheds light on the tasks to be taken up by the growing environmental movement that mobilized in a massive march of more than 400,000 the day before the summit.