What is `skilled labor'?
Mike Italie made some very good points in the "Discussion
with Our Readers" column in the Feb. 15, 1999, Militant. But he
didn't explain, to any great extent, how Marxists define
"skilled labor."
I think it helps to know whether or not there really is such a thing as "skilled labor," or whether it's all just illusions and hype. Marx explained, in Capital, that skill is related to education and training. His comments on this topic are located in several places in Volume I of the book.
But I have always found Engels's explanation of skill in Anti- Duhring very accessible for workers interested in the subject-and it is also worth pointing out that Lenin referred to Anti-Duhring as the "handbook of every class-conscious worker."
In that book (Part 2, Chap. 6), Engels explains, "but not all labor is a mere expenditure of simple labor power; very many sorts of labor involve the use of capabilities or knowledge acquired with the expenditure of greater or lesser effort, time and money."
In capitalist society, the time and money workers spend acquiring this knowledge generally results in a higher wage. (Although, as Mike's column rightly explained, the bulk of the differences in wages between different groups of workers come about as a result of other mechanisms, especially those stemming from the efforts of the bosses to divide the working class into groups that compete against each other.)
But, regarding the costs of training, in a society managed by and for the working people, Engels says, "these costs are borne by society, and to it therefore belong the fruits, the greater values produced by compound labor. The worker himself has no claim to extra pay."
Jim Miller
Seattle, Washington
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