Instruments of Labor

Also known as “means of labor”. All material means and material conditions used to change or affect the object of labor in the labor-process. Laborers exploit the mechanical, physical and chemical properties of these articles, using them as a means of exerting their power to change or affect the object of labor according to their own ends in order to produce products appropriate to man’s needs. The range of the instruments of labor is wide. The first and most important among the instruments of labor are the instruments of production, especially the mechanical instruments of production. In order to emphasize the important role played by this part of the instruments of labor in labor production, Marx had figuratively called them bone and muscles of production, and said that they offer much more decided characteristics of a given epoch of production, and sometimes also called them as “genuine material instruments”. They are the determining factor among the instruments of labor. The next are those which, like pipes, tubs, jars, etc., serve only to hold the materials for labor, which Marx called the vascular system of production. In addition, in a wider sense, the instruments of labor also include all the material conditions necessary in the process of labor in addition to objects of labor, such as workshops, roads, bridges, canals and so on. Although they do not enter directly into the process, without them it is either impossible for it to take place at all, or possible only to a partial extent. Once more we find earth to be an instrument of this sort, for it furnishes a field of employment for the activity of the laborer.

The fabrication and use of the instruments of labor is a feature of the human labor-process. No sooner does labor undergo the least development, than it requires instruments which are themselves prepared by labor. With the accumulation of man’s experience in production and the increase in the level of science and technology, the structure of the instruments of labor becomes more and more complicated and its scope expands day by day. The transformation of natural science from a general productive force of society in the form of knowledge to an immediate productive force is first of all a materialization into the instruments of labor through invention and creation, especially into the instruments of production. In the use of the instruments of labor, mankind has gone through various periods marked by stone, bronze, iron and the system of machine, and is currently entering an epoch marked by the use of atomic energy, electronic computers and the development of space science and technology. The development of the instruments of labor is a result of the development of the productive forces of society. It not only marks the level of the development of the productive forces of society, but also reflects the nature of the relations of production of society. From the simple stone axe and stone knife, people necessarily associated with the gentile constitution where the productive forces were extremely low and thus did not know what classes and exploitation were, while the replacement of manual iron tools by machines marked the transition from the feudal epoch to the capitalist system. Marx pointed out that “it is not the articles made, but how they are made, and by what instruments, that enables us to distinguish different economic epochs. Instruments of labor not only supply a standard of the degree of development to which human labor has attained, but they are also indicators of the social conditions under which that labor is carried on.”

After the development of the instruments of labor entered the machine age, the scope of men’s use of natural forces was greatly expanded, and the status and part played by science and technology in social production became increasingly important. New technical equipment and new arts and crafts need to be created on the basis of theoretical science and large-scale scientific experiments. Moreover, laborers can master and manipulate these instruments of labor only on the basis of learning advanced science and technology. “The implements of labor, in the form of machinery, necessitate the substitution of natural forces for human force, and the conscious application of science, instead of rule of thumb.” Socialist countries, in order to achieve national prosperity and independence, must improve the scientific and cultural level of the entire nation and create a strong scientific and technological army, which is an immediate requirement and urgent task posed by the national economic development itself.