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6. How the value of a commodity is determined

Woman-pays-for-fresh-produce-at-local-farmers-market(This educational material has been prepared as part of the course “The Political Economy of Capitalism”)

6. How the value of a commodity is determined.

We have established that the exchange value of a commodity is its ability to be exchanged for other commodities in a certain quantitative proportion. Let us suppose that a known quantity of a commodity, 20 kg of grain, is exchanged for a certain quantity of another commodity, 10 m of canvas. Naturally, the question arises: why exactly for 10, and not for 15 or for 5 m? What are the proportions of exchange based on? Continue reading

12. The law of value

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(This educational material has been prepared as part of the course “The Political Economy of Capitalism”)

12. The Law of Value.

The law of value is the economic law of commodity production. Like any economic law, it is objective and does not depend on the will and consciousness of people. According to the law of value, the production and exchange of goods is carried out according to the socially necessary labor input. Continue reading

16. How surplus value is created

China-Coal-Energy-Coal-Mining(This educational material has been prepared as part of the course “The Political Economy of Capitalism”)

16. How surplus value is created.

So, the sale and purchase has been accomplished: the worker “voluntarily”, of their own free will, has sold their labor power, the capitalist has bought this commodity at the labour market in order to obtain surplus value in the process of consuming it. Continue reading

Test your knowledge: Lesson 1 “Dialectical Materialism as the Worldview of the Working Class”

“Non-partyism is a bourgeois idea. Partyism is a socialist idea” (Lenin. Socialist Party and Non-Party Revolutionaryism. Collected works, 5th ed., vol. 12, p. 138).

The questions are designed in such a way that the first sentence of each question expresses the assignment, and the subsequent sentences specify it and are at the same time an approximate plan for answering the question. Questions written in italics and enclosed in parentheses are supplemental. Continue reading

Materialism and idealism

angry-godMaterialism and Idealism are opposite ways of understanding every issue.

Materialism and idealism are not two abstract theories about the nature of the world, of little concern to ordinary people engaged in practical activities. They are opposite ways of understanding every issue, and consequently they express different approaches to these issues in practice and lead to very different conclusions from practical activity. Continue reading

Dialectical Materialism – the Worldview of the Working Class

tunnel-mining-worker-wallpaper-previewLesson 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

Exploring the global crisis blamed on the fake “pandemic”

BN-NX304_424482_H_20160506103847First 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

About the legal side of universal “quarantine”

iHaving met passive resistance from working people against “quarantine” and house arrest up until now, the fascists threaten us with emergency measures, i.e. implementing “the state of emergency” in big cities and in the whole country. Obviously, such regimen will allow the fascists to carry on the behest of the Tsar’s general Trepov who famously said “Do not spare bullets!”

Of course, it’s best to fight the fascist emergency with our own proletarian emergency, we have to respond to the fascist white terror by implementing red terror. But we’re not quite there yet. Continue reading