By Michael Barker (Reprinted with permission) Abstract People power is the dynamic driver of social history, with history merely being the documented response of elite power-brokers to popular demands for justice. Recognizing the latent power and desire of normal people to overthrow their oppressive rulers, more far sighted elites have long recognized the need to [...]
By One Struggle “That country is poor.” Translation: Your country had bountiful natural resources until we beat the hell out of you and stole everything. “Their government is incompetent. They are unable to govern themselves.” Translation: We invaded you, killed a bunch of you and set the rest at each other’s throats, and installed a dictator who’s helping us steal everything. [...]
By Brian Stetten When on Earth are we going to wake up and begin questioning the very nature of our economic and political systems? In June of last year, Conservative Member of Parliament Cecil Parkinson on BBC made the surreal statement, “The capitalists are destroying capitalism.” He stated this with a certain amount of surprise, [...]
Meanwhile, another way that the capitalists add value to their products is through the externalization of costs. Basically, they’re not paying the full production costs for the commodities. Pollution from the production process is discharged into the environment. The numerous and serious consequences of this, never mind the cleanup which never happens, are not paid [...]
The next part of the cycle is production. The defining features of capitalism are right here at the point of production, with the exploitation of labor and the production of surplus value. I’m going to come back to that in a few days, to describe that process in more detail. […]
There are many ways that imperialists accomplish the expropriation of land, including overt war, and more subtle means like grain dumping to destroy subsistence farmers. This theft accomplishes a few things in favor of capital. The conqueror can use that land and extract whatever is in it and on it. And as the people are [...]
By Jan Makandal In Bangladesh, Haiti, Brazil, China, the U.S. and everywhere, workers are demanding wages that allow them to feed, house, clothe, and educate themselves and their families. Some on the Left argue that wage struggles are inherently reformist. The reality is that they can be either reformist or democratic (the latter as an [...]