(The material below was prepared as part of the course “The Political Economy of Capitalism”)
21. The wage of a hired worker.
Capitalist economists claim that a worker’s wage is the price of his or her labor. This way they want to prove that workers receive full remuneration for their labor and that no exploitation happens. Continue reading
Lesson 1: “Dialectical Materialism – the Worldview of the Working Class”.
Partisanship and Class Philosophy
Philosophy usually refers to our most general conception of the nature of the world and of humanity’s place and purpose in it, i.e., to our worldview.
Since all people have a worldview, it follows that all people also have their own philosophy, even if they have never learned to reason about it. Every person is influenced by certain philosophical views, even if he or she didn’t think them through and cannot formulate them clearly. Continue reading
A communist needs dialectical materialism in order to understand correctly what is going on. Having mastered dialectics, he or she will not allow themselves to be confused by their enemies and will easily rebuff them, exposing the falsity and reactionary nature of their ideology. Dialectical materialism is a merciless shining sword that crushes to pieces all the arguments of obscurantists, reactionaries, hypocrites and slanderers. No tricks or sophistry can resist this sword. Continue reading
First of all, let me quote a few words about the essence of crises in capitalism: “Capitalist crises are crises of overproduction. A crisis shows itself first of all in the fact that commodities cannot be sold, since they have been produced in quantities greater than can be bought by the main consumers—the mass of the people—whose purchasing power is confined under capitalist relations of production within extremely narrow limits. “Surplus” goods encumber the warehouses. The capitalists curtail production and dismiss workers. Hundreds and thousands of enterprises are closed down. Unemployment increases sharply. A great number of petty producers are ruined, in both town and country. The lack of outlet for the goods produced leads to disorganisation of trade. Credit connections are broken. The capitalists experience an acute shortage of money for payments. The exchanges crash-the prices of shares, bonds and other securities fall headlong. A wave of bankruptcies of industrial, commercial and banking concerns sweeps forward.” (K. Ostrovitianov, “Political Economy,” 1954). Continue reading
We are fundamentally unhappy with the society we live in. We want to change it.
But how?
By and large, we realize that what we have to do is get rid of all the negative aspects that frustrate us – the threat of unemployment, the growing numbers of working poor that are barely able to make ends meet, the sheer arbitrariness of employers who can easily throw out any hired worker whenever they please, the corruption of government, the helplessness of common people in capitalist courts, the police brutality, drug trafficking and prostitution, the progressing degradation of the masses, etc. Continue reading
For those of our comrades who have already recognized the need to study Marxism-Leninism, there is often a choice as to how exactly approach the study of Marxist theory.
There are several ways one can do that. Continue reading
