Jon Hochschartner: Towards a Marxist Animalism



Within Marxism, necessary labor is that work needed to reproduce the exploited’s labor power. In the human context, it’s the work slaves or proletarians perform to create the equivalent of their livelihood. All work over and above this is surplus labor, unremunerated toiling which creates profits for the slave master or capitalist. Domesticated animals also perform necessary and surplus labor for their owners. When an animal exploiter purchases a non-human, he is not only purchasing the animal herself, but a lifetime of her labor power, which is used to create commodities that include — among others — her offspring, her secretions, and her own flesh. Her necessary labor would be that required to create the equivalent of her food and shelter. Her surplus labor would be all that beyond this, which is used to enrich her owner.

Within Marxism, there are two different methods with which slave masters or capitalists can increase the surplus value their laborers produce. Absolute surplus value is obtained by increasing the overall amount of time laborers work in a particular period. For instance, a slavemaster or capitalist might increase the length of the working day or allow fewer days off a year. Meanwhile, relative surplus value is created by the lowering the amount of work dedicated to necessary labor in proportion to that dedicated to surplus labor. For instance, a slave master or capitalist might reduce what constitutes their laborers’ livelihood or increase their laborers’ productivity.

Domesticated animals’ surplus labor can also be divided into the generation of absolute and relative surplus value. For instance, when a carriage horse’s working day is increased from six to nine hours, absolute surplus value is produced for the animal exploiter. In contrast, relative surplus value is created when chickens’ productivity is increased through genetic manipulation and the introduction of growth drugs. Similarly, relative surplus value is produced by lowering the cost of chickens’ livelihood through intensive confinement.


I hope there are no theoretical errors here, besides the intentional subversion of classical Marxism’s anthropocentrism. But again, the intricacies of theory are not my strongest suit. I have no doubt others can radically expand, and where necessary, correct, this brief outline of a potential Marxist-animalist analysis. In this era of Occupy Wall Street, Kshama Sawant, and Fight for 15, I believe it will become increasingly relevant.

Jon Hochschartner

First published at Counterpunch.

2 thoughts on “Jon Hochschartner: Towards a Marxist Animalism

  1. I appreciate the former member of Renewal publishing this piece, even if some or all may not agree with it.

    Opening up dialogue includes hearing from those who may or may not be reading Marxist economics in a “superficial way” like some pompous blowhards on social media assert.

    I guess the revolution is only for those with high enough GRE scores? Egads.

  2. Pingback: Animals and Humans – do we exploit animals? | External Bulletin

Leave a Reply


You are commenting using your account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s