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150 years of Karl Marx's Capital
O'Lincoln, Tom
http://redflag.org.au/node/5966Date Written: 2017-08-25 Publisher: RedFlag Year Published: 2017 Resource Type: Article On the 150th anniversary of the publication of Marx's Capital, Tom O'Lincoln explains why "the Bible of the working class" is about much more than economics. Abstract: - Excerpt: In a world plagued by abstraction, time spent in the workplace can be tragically barren. The things we would like to do on the job may be socially useful but for capitalism that's not the most important thing. For employers, the most important thing is making employees work enough hours to generate a pile of exchange value; for workers, it is putting in enough working hours to support us and our dependents. ... We buy things we don't need, because we feel naked without them. This can happen without us realising. A liberal writer like Clive Hamilton tends to blame such things on people's personal greed, but it's much better understood as stemming from their sense of helplessness in the face of social forces that dominate society. ... As an exploited class, the workers are victims. But as creators of value, they are also potentially powerful. By choking off the flow of profits they can bring the system to a halt; and more importantly, they can re-open industry on a new and democratic basis. The victims are also potential fighters, in a class war for liberation. Subject Headings |