Monday, May 29, 2023
When theory grips masses it becomes a social material force , a political material force
When theory grips the working class masses , it matters politically .
"The weapon of criticism cannot, of course, replace criticism of the weapon, material force must be overthrown by material force; but theory also becomes a material force as soon as it has gripped the masses. Theory is capable of gripping the masses as soon as it demonstrates ad hominem, and it demonstrates ad hominem as soon as it becomes radical. To be radical is to grasp the root of the matter. But, for man, the root is man himself. The evident proof of the radicalism of German theory, and hence of its practical energy, is that is proceeds from a resolute positive abolition of religion. The criticism of religion ends with the teaching that man is the highest essence for man – hence, with the categoric imperative to overthrow all relations in which man is a debased, enslaved, abandoned, despicable essence, relations which cannot be better described than by the cry of a Frenchman when it was planned to introduce a tax on dogs: Poor dogs! They want to treat you as human beings!"
"The weapon of criticism cannot, of course, replace criticism of the weapon, material force must be overthrown by material force; but theory also becomes a material force as soon as it has gripped the masses. Theory is capable of gripping the masses as soon as it demonstrates ad hominem, and it demonstrates ad hominem as soon as it becomes radical. To be radical is to grasp the root of the matter. But, for man, the root is man himself. The evident proof of the radicalism of German theory, and hence of its practical energy, is that is proceeds from a resolute positive abolition of religion. The criticism of religion ends with the teaching that man is the highest essence for man – hence, with the categoric imperative to overthrow all relations in which man is a debased, enslaved, abandoned, despicable essence, relations which cannot be better described than by the cry of a Frenchman when it was planned to introduce a tax on dogs: Poor dogs! They want to treat you as human beings!"
Ms. Mitchell joined the Communist Party in 1946, when she was just 16, and over her long career worked at the intersection of issues that have come to define the left’s agenda for the last 50 years, including feminism, civil rights, police violence, economic inequality and anticolonialism.
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Charlene Mitchell, 92, Dies; First Black Woman To Run for President
Charlene Mitchell led a long and multi-faceted political career, including first Black woman to run for President, leader of the movement against racial and political repression, advocate for democracy, socialism and internationalism.
December 23, 2022 Clay Risen NEW YORK TIMES
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Charlene Mitchell, who as the Communist Party’s presidential nominee in 1968 became the first Black woman to run for the White House, died on Dec. 14 in Manhattan. She was 92.
Her death, in a nursing home, was confirmed by her son, Steven Mitchell.
Ms. Mitchell joined the Communist Party in 1946, when she was just 16, and over her long career worked at the intersection of issues that have come to define the left’s agenda for the last 50 years, including feminism, civil rights, police violence, economic inequality and anticolonialism.
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Her rise in the party leadership came at a moment of crisis. The Communists had been decimated by the repressive tactics of the McCarthy era, then by the exodus of members disaffected by the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. By the late 1950s it counted barely 10,000 members, down from its height of about 75,000 in 1947.
To find new recruits, the party drew on its roots in radical civil rights activism to appeal to a new generation of Black leaders. Ms. Mitchell joined the party’s national committee in 1958; she was its youngest member ever.
In the 1960s, she founded an all-Black chapter in Los Angeles called the Che-Lumumba Club, which quickly became one of the most active in the country. The club’s choice of namesakes, the Argentine Marxist Che Guevara and the Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba, pointed to Ms. Mitchell’s abiding insistence that the American left had to be rooted in an international matrix of freedom struggles.;
She traveled widely, meeting fellow leftists in Europe, South America and Africa, and she was among the first Americans to highlight the plight of Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. By 1968 she was one of the best-known and most widely respected American Communist leaders.
“I don’t know of anything that Charlene was involved in where she was not the leader,” Mildred Williamson, who met Ms. Mitchell at a 1973 anti-apartheid conference in Chicago, said in a phone interview.
Ms. Mitchell became the Communist Party's presidential nominee when she was just 38. At its convention in Manhattan, she accepted the nomination below a banner that read “Black and White Unite to Fight Racism — Poverty — War!”
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“We plan to put an open-occupancy sign on the White House lawn,” she declared and, taking a swipe at the pet project of the first lady, Lady Bird Johnson, added, “We propose to put a woman in that house to beautify not only our highways but to beautify ourselves.”
Her run for office came four years before the New York congresswoman Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman to seek the nomination for president from a major party.
Though she and her running mate, Michael Zagarell, appeared on just four state ballots and received just over 1,000 votes, her candidacy put a new face on the Communist Party at a time when the student-led New Left was gaining ground in left-wing politics and some party members had grown disillusioned with its uncritical support of the Soviet Union.
In contrast to the student movement, which was largely male, middle-class and white, she offered a vision of the left that was rooted in the experience of working-class women of color. Among her acolytes was an assistant professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, named Angela Davis.
After Dr. Davis was arrested in 1970 for providing weapons used in the killing of a Marin County judge, Ms. Mitchell led her defense committee.
Dr. Davis was acquitted in 1972, and Ms. Mitchell used the experience to create the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, a group that, in its focus on police brutality and the legal system, foreshadowed later racial justice movements.
“Black Lives Matter and modern Black feminism stand on the shoulders of Charlene Mitchell,” Erik S. McDuffie, a professor of African American studies at the University of Illinois, said in a phone interview.
Among Ms. Mitchell’s many successful campaigns was the acquittal of Joan Little, a North Carolina inmate accused of murdering a prison guard who had sexually assaulted her. She also lobbied on behalf of the Wilmington 10, a group of nine Black men and one woman, also in North Carolina, who were convicted of arson and conspiracy in 1971 and later exonerated.
“I don’t think I have ever known someone as consistent in her values, as collective in her outlook on life, as firm in her trajectory as a freedom fighter,” Dr. Davis said at a 2009 event honoring Ms. Mitchell.
Charlene Alexander was born on June 8, 1930, in Cincinnati. Her parents were part of the Great Migration of Black Southerners who moved north in the first part of the 20th century — her father, Charles, came from Georgia and her mother, Naomi (Taylor) Alexander, from Tennessee.
Her marriages to Bill Mitchell and Michael Welch both ended in divorce. Along with her son, she is survived by two brothers, Deacon Alexander and Mike Wolfson.
When she was 9, Charlene, her parents and her seven siblings moved to Chicago, where her father worked as a Pullman porter and a hod carrier. He was also active in the labor movement and served as a precinct captain for Representative William L. Dawson, one of the few Black members of Congress.
The family settled in Cabrini Homes, a mixed-race public-housing development on Chicago’s Near North Side, which was a center of left-wing politics. When she was 13, Charlene joined the local branch of American Youth for Democracy, the youth branch of the Communist Party.
By the early 1940s she was already an activist, helping to lead a protest against a nearby theater, the Windsor, that required Black patrons to sit in the balcony. Black and white students, attending a matinee, simply switched places one day, and the theater dropped its segregation policy soon after.
Ms. Mitchell studied briefly at Herzl Junior College in Chicago (now Malcolm X College). She moved to Los Angeles in the early 1950s and to New York City in 1968.
Although Ms. Mitchell remained a committed socialist, she drifted from the Communist Party in the 1980s, especially after the death of Henry Winston, its most prominent Black leader, in 1986. The party, she came to believe, was becoming too focused on class issues at the expense of fighting racial and other injustices.
“I am not suggesting that all of a sudden there was racism in the party, or that some people were mean, or anything like that,” she said in a 1993 interview. “You had a situation where attention to certain questions that African American comrades felt were important was downgraded.”
After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ms. Mitchell joined more than 100 other party members in calling for the party to reject Leninism and take a more democratic socialist path. In retaliation, the party’s longtime general secretary, Gus Hall, froze them out of subsequent national committee meetings.
Ms. Mitchell later left the party to help found the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, which sought to rebuild the left along more pluralistic lines.
But she remained committed to the values of the far left, and of communism as she understood it.
“The country’s rulers want to keep Black and white working people apart,” she said in a 1968 campaign speech. “The Communist Party is dedicated to the idea that — whatever the difficulties — they must be brought together, or neither can advance.”
Clay Risen is an obituaries reporter for The Times. Previously, he was a senior editor on the Politics desk and a deputy op-ed editor on the Opinion desk. He is the author, most recently, of “Bourbon: The Story of Kentucky Whiskey.” @risenc
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Charlene Mitchell Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism Communist Party USA Angela Davis
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The inside story of Russia-Iran-India connectivity
The G7 is stupefied by the dynamic progress of the multipolar order embodied by the Russian-led INSTC and the Chinese-led BRI, with Iran's strategic port of Chabahar now poised to play a transformative role.
by Pepe Escobar
https://thecradle.co (May 23 2023)
https://media.thecradle.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/iran-russia-trading-1.jpg
Photo Credit: The Cradle
Make no mistake about what the G7's Hiroshima Communique {1} is all about.
The setting: a city in neo-colony Japan nuclear-bombed 78 years ago by the United States, for which it made no excuses.
The message: the G7, actually G9 (augmented by two unelected Eurocrats) declares war - hybrid and otherwise - against BRICS+, which has 25 nations on its waiting list and counting.
The G7's key strategic objective is the defeat of Russia, followed by the subjugation of China. For the G7/G9, these - real - powers are the main "global threats" to "freedom and democracy".
The corollary is that the Global South must toe the line - or else. Call it a remix of the early 2000s "You're either with us or against us".
Meanwhile, in the real world - that of productive economies - the dogs of war bark while the New Silk Road caravans keep marching on.
The key New Silk Roads of emerging multipolarity are China's ambitious, multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Russia-Iran-India International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC). They have evolved in parallel and may sometimes overlap. What is clear is the G7/G9 will go to the ends of the earth to undermine them.
https://media.thecradle.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Map-of-INSTC.png
Map of INSTC (Photo Credit: The Cradle)
All about Chabahar
The recent $1.6 billion deal between Iran and Russia to build the 162-kilometer-long Rasht-Astara railway is an INSTC game-changer. Iran's Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mehrdad Bazpash and Russia's Minister of Transport Vialy Saveliev signed the deal in Tehran, in front of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and with Russian President Vladimir Putin attending via video conference.
Call it the marriage of Iran's "Look East" with Russia's "pivot to the East". Both are now official policies.
Rasht is close to the Caspian Sea. Astara is on the border with Azerbaijan. Connecting them will be part of a Russia-Iran-Azerbaijan deal on railway and cargo transportation - solidifying the INSTC as a key connectivity corridor between South Asia and Northern Europe.
The multimodal INSTC advances via three main routes: the Western route links Russia-Azerbaijan-Iran-India; the Middle or Trans-Caspian route links Russia-Iran-India; and the Eastern one links Russia-Central Asia-Iran-India.
The Eastern route features the immensely strategic port of Chabahar in southeast Iran, in the volatile Sistan-Balochistan province. That's the only Iranian port with direct access to the Indian Ocean.
In 2016, Iran, India, and an Afghanistan still under US occupation signed a tripartite deal in which Chabahar miraculously escaped unilateral US "maximum pressure" sanctions. That was a stepping stone in configuring Chabahar as the privileged gateway for Indian products to enter Afghanistan, and then further on down the road, toward Central Asia.
Russia, Iran, and India signed a formal INSTC deal in May 2022, detailing a multimodal network - ship, rail, road - which proceeds via the previously mentioned three axes: Western, Middle or Trans-Caspian, and Eastern. The Russian port of Astrakhan, by the Caspian Sea, is crucial on all three.
The Eastern route connects eastern and central Russia, through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, to the southern part of Iran as well as India and the Arab lands on the southern edge of the Persian Gulf. Dozens of trains are already plying the overland route from Russia to India via Turkmenistan and Iran.
The problem is that in the past few years, New Delhi, for several complex reasons, seemed to be asleep at the wheel. And that led Tehran to become much more interested in Russian and Chinese involvement to develop two strategic ports in the Chabahar Free Trade Industrial Zone: Shahid Beheshti and Shahid Zalantari.
China makes its move
Chabahar is a tough nut to crack. Iran has invested heavily to turn it into an inescapable regional transit hub. India, in thesis, from the beginning regarded Chabahar as a key plank of its "Diamond Necklace" strategy, counterpunching the Chinese "String of Pearls" {2}, which are ports linked by the BRI across the Indian Ocean.
https://media.thecradle.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/BRI-2.0-1980x1148.png
Photo Credit: The Cradle
Chabahar also performs the role of counterpoint to Pakistan's Gwadar Port {3} in the Arabian Sea, the jewel in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) crown.
From Tehran's point of view, what is needed - fast - is the completion of its eastern railway network, 628 kilometers of tracks from Chabahar to Zahedan. In optimum terms, that might be finished by March 2024 as part of the Mashhad-Sharkhs railway axis connecting Iran's southeast to its northeast on the border with Turkmenistan.
For the moment, INSTC cargo travels to South Asia from Iran's Bandar Abbas Port in the Strait of Hormuz - a long 680 kilometers away from Chabahar. So for all practical purposes, Chabahar will make transit from India to Afghanistan, Central Asia, and southern Russia shorter, cheaper, and faster.
But once again, things stalled because India did not come up with the expected financial arrangements. That ended up generating some misgivings in Tehran - especially when watching the massive Chinese investments in Gwadar.
So it's no wonder Iran decisively moved to attract China as a major investor, which has become part of their increasingly sprawling strategic partnership. So we may end up with Chabahar also becoming part of China's BRI, on top of its starring role in the INSTC.
Russia, for its part, is now facing the Ukraine stalemate, relentless Western sanctions hysteria, and serious trade restrictions to Eastern Europe. All that while Moscow consistently expands its trade with New Delhi.
So it is no wonder Moscow is now much more attentive to the INSTC. Last December, a key deal was clinched between Russian Railways and the national companies in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran, and the Russians came up with a 20 percent discount for import-export containers going through the Russia-Kazakh border.
What matters most for Russia is that Chabahar operating at full speed reduces the cost of transporting goods from India by 20 percent. The Iranians fully understood the game and started to heavily promote the Chabahar Free Trade-Industrial Zone to attract Russian investment. And that culminated in the Rasht-Astara deal.
The Zangezur spoiler
China's BRI, for its part, plays a parallel game. Beijing is heavily investing in the East-West transit route - also known as the Middle Corridor {4}.
This BRI corridor goes from Xinjiang to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, and then across the Caspian to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkiye, and further on to Eastern Europe - a total of 7,000 kilometers, with a cargo journey of maximum 15 days.
BRI's emphasis is to bet on multiple corridors East-to-West to fight possible new western-dictated disruptions of supply chains. China-Central Asia transit to Europe bypassing Russia and Iran is one of the top bets. The BRI corridor through Russia, because of Nato's proxy war in Ukraine, is on hold for the moment. And the Chinese are testing all options to bypass the Maritime Silk Road through Malacca.
Turkiye, with the serious possibility of its longtime President Recep Tayyip being re-elected this weekend, has also made its play.
The Baku-Tblisi-Kars railway, opened in 2018, was a key plank in Ankara's masterplan to configure itself as an inescapable hub of container freight between China and Europe.
In parallel, China invested in building a railway from Kars to Edirne on the European side of the Bosphorus while Turkiye went for a $3.8 billion upgrade of the port of Mersin and $1.2 billion for the port of Izmir. By 2034, Beijing expects this corridor to be the central plank of what it describes as the Iron Silk Road {5}.
A certified spanner in the INSTC works is competition from the so-called Zangezur Corridor - from Azerbaijan to Turkiye via Armenia; this corridor is actually privileged by EU and British oligarchy and came to light during the 2020 armistice in Nagorno-Karabakh.
https://media.thecradle.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Azerbaijan-Armenia-conflict-1980x1199.png
Map of Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict zones (Photo Credit: The Cradle)
London identifies Baku as a privileged partner and is keen to dictate terms to Yerevan: accept a sort of peace treaty as soon as possible, and renounce any designs on Karabakh.
The Zangezur Corridor {6} would be the prime geopolitical and geoeconomic Western play linking EU logistical hubs with Transcaucasia and Central Asia. What if Armenia is thrown under the bus? After all, Armenia is a member of the Russian-led Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), which the collective West is dying to undermine.
Fasten your seat belts: a geoeconomic New Great Game centered on the INTSC is just about to start. Links:
{1} https://www.g7hiroshima.go.jp/en/documents/
{2} https://thecradle.co/article-view/3738/string-of-pearls-yemen-could-be-the-arab-hub-of-the-maritime-silk-road
{3} https://thecradle.co/article-view/19049/the-saudi-iran-rivalry-stumbles-into-pakistan
{4} https://thecradle.co/article-view/19949/eurasias-middle-corridor-an-atlanticist-frenzy-to-stifle-europe-asia-integration
{5} https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Belt-and-Road/Pandemic-turns-Iron-Silk-Road-into-China-Europe-trade-artery
{6} https://thecradle.co/article-view/2383/the-iran-azerbaijan-standoff-is-a-contest-for-the-regions-transportation-corridors
_____ Pepe Escobar is a columnist at The Cradle, editor-at-large at Asia Times and an independent geopolitical analyst focused on Eurasia. Since the mid-1980s he has lived and worked as a foreign correspondent in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, Singapore, and Bangkok. He is the author of countless books; his latest one is Raging Twenties (2021). The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle. https://thecradle.co/article-view/25155/the-inside-story-of-russia-iran-india-connectivity https://billtotten.wpcomstaging.com/ https://www.ashisuto.co.jp/ --- To unsubscribe:
Here Marx says philosophy serves history , as academic disciplines
"It is, therefore, the task of history, once the other-world of truth has vanished, to establish the truth of this world. It is the immediate task of philosophy, which is in the service of history, to unmask self-estrangement in its unholy forms once the holy form of human self-estrangement has been unmasked. Thus, the criticism of Heaven turns into the criticism of Earth, the criticism of religion into the criticism of law, and the criticism of theology into the criticism of politics."
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm
"The modern ancien régime is rather only the comedian of a world order whose true heroes are dead. History is thorough and goes through many phases when carrying an old form to the grave. The last phases of a world-historical form is its comedy. The gods of Greece, already tragically wounded to death in Aeschylus’s tragedy Prometheus Bound, had to re-die a comic death in Lucian’s Dialogues. Why this course of history? So that humanity should part with its past cheerfully. This cheerful historical destiny is what we vindicate for the political authorities of Germany."
"The weapon of criticism cannot, of course, replace criticism of the weapon, material force must be overthrown by material force; but theory also becomes a material force as soon as it has gripped the masses. Theory is capable of gripping the masses as soon as it demonstrates ad hominem, and it demonstrates ad hominem as soon as it becomes radical. To be radical is to grasp the root of the matter. But, for man, the root is man himself. The evident proof of the radicalism of German theory, and hence of its practical energy, is that is proceeds from a resolute positive abolition of religion. The criticism of religion ends with the teaching that man is the highest essence for man – hence, with the categoric imperative to overthrow all relations in which man is a debased, enslaved, abandoned, despicable essence, relations which cannot be better described than by the cry of a Frenchman when it was planned to introduce a tax on dogs: Poor dogs! They want to treat you as human beings!"
"In the present struggle it saw only the critical struggle of philosophy against the German world; it did not give a thought to the fact that philosophy up to the present itself belongs to this world and is its completion, although an ideal one. Critical towards its counterpart, it was uncritical towards itself when, proceeding from the premises of philosophy, it either stopped at the results given by philosophy or passed off demands and results from somewhere else as immediate demands and results of philosophy – although these, provided they are justified, can be obtained only by the negation of philosophy up to the present, of philosophy as such. We reserve ourselves the right to a more detailed description of this section: It thought it could make philosophy a reality without abolishing [aufzuheben] it."
Charles Brown : In _Ludwig Feuerbach_ Engels carries out a negation of philosophy
"Where, then, is the positive possibility of a German emancipation? Answer: In the formulation of a class with radical chains, a class of civil society which is not a class of civil society, an estate which is the dissolution of all estates, a sphere which has a universal character by its universal suffering and claims no particular right because no particular wrong, but wrong generally, is perpetuated against it; which can invoke no historical, but only human, title; which does not stand in any one-sided antithesis to the consequences but in all-round antithesis to the premises of German statehood; a sphere, finally, which cannot emancipate itself without emancipating itself from all other spheres of society and thereby emancipating all other spheres of society, which, in a word, is the complete loss of man and hence can win itself only through the complete re-winning of man. This dissolution of society as a particular estate is the proletariat. The proletariat is beginning to appear in Germany as a result of the rising industrial movement. For, it is not the naturally arising poor but the artificially impoverished, not the human masses mechanically oppressed by the gravity of society, but the masses resulting from the drastic dissolution of society, mainly of the middle estate, that form the proletariat, although, as is easily understood, the naturally arising poor and the Christian-Germanic serfs gradually join its ranks.
By heralding the dissolution of the hereto existing world order, the proletariat merely proclaims the secret of its own existence, for it is the factual dissolution of that world order. By demanding the negation of private property, the proletariat merely raises to the rank of a principle of society what society has raised to the rank of its principle, what is already incorporated in it as the negative result of society without its own participation. The proletarian then finds himself possessing the same right in regard to the world which is coming into being as the German king in regard to the world which has come into being when he calls the people his people, as he calls the horse his horse. By declaring the people his private property, the king merely proclaims that the owner of property is king. As philosophy finds its material weapon in the proletariat, so the proletariat finds its spiritual weapon in philosophy. And once the lightning of thought has squarely struck this ingenuous soil of the people, the emancipation of the Germans into men will be accomplished.
Let us sum up the result: The only liberation of Germany which is practically possible is liberation from the point of view of that theory which declares man to be the supreme being for man. Germany can emancipate itself from the Middle Ages only if it emancipates itself at the same time from the partial victories over the Middle Ages. In Germany, no form of bondage can be broken without breaking all forms of bondage. Germany, which is renowned for its thoroughness, cannot make a revolution unless it is a thorough one. The emancipation of the German is the emancipation of man. The head of this emancipation is philosophy, its heart the proletariat. Philosophy cannot realize itself without the transcendence [Aufhebung] of the proletariat, and the proletariat cannot transcend itself without the realization [Verwirklichung] of philosophy.
When all the inner conditions are met, the day of the German resurrection will be heralded by the crowing of the cock of Gaul. "
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm
"The modern ancien régime is rather only the comedian of a world order whose true heroes are dead. History is thorough and goes through many phases when carrying an old form to the grave. The last phases of a world-historical form is its comedy. The gods of Greece, already tragically wounded to death in Aeschylus’s tragedy Prometheus Bound, had to re-die a comic death in Lucian’s Dialogues. Why this course of history? So that humanity should part with its past cheerfully. This cheerful historical destiny is what we vindicate for the political authorities of Germany."
"The weapon of criticism cannot, of course, replace criticism of the weapon, material force must be overthrown by material force; but theory also becomes a material force as soon as it has gripped the masses. Theory is capable of gripping the masses as soon as it demonstrates ad hominem, and it demonstrates ad hominem as soon as it becomes radical. To be radical is to grasp the root of the matter. But, for man, the root is man himself. The evident proof of the radicalism of German theory, and hence of its practical energy, is that is proceeds from a resolute positive abolition of religion. The criticism of religion ends with the teaching that man is the highest essence for man – hence, with the categoric imperative to overthrow all relations in which man is a debased, enslaved, abandoned, despicable essence, relations which cannot be better described than by the cry of a Frenchman when it was planned to introduce a tax on dogs: Poor dogs! They want to treat you as human beings!"
"In the present struggle it saw only the critical struggle of philosophy against the German world; it did not give a thought to the fact that philosophy up to the present itself belongs to this world and is its completion, although an ideal one. Critical towards its counterpart, it was uncritical towards itself when, proceeding from the premises of philosophy, it either stopped at the results given by philosophy or passed off demands and results from somewhere else as immediate demands and results of philosophy – although these, provided they are justified, can be obtained only by the negation of philosophy up to the present, of philosophy as such. We reserve ourselves the right to a more detailed description of this section: It thought it could make philosophy a reality without abolishing [aufzuheben] it."
Charles Brown : In _Ludwig Feuerbach_ Engels carries out a negation of philosophy
"Where, then, is the positive possibility of a German emancipation? Answer: In the formulation of a class with radical chains, a class of civil society which is not a class of civil society, an estate which is the dissolution of all estates, a sphere which has a universal character by its universal suffering and claims no particular right because no particular wrong, but wrong generally, is perpetuated against it; which can invoke no historical, but only human, title; which does not stand in any one-sided antithesis to the consequences but in all-round antithesis to the premises of German statehood; a sphere, finally, which cannot emancipate itself without emancipating itself from all other spheres of society and thereby emancipating all other spheres of society, which, in a word, is the complete loss of man and hence can win itself only through the complete re-winning of man. This dissolution of society as a particular estate is the proletariat. The proletariat is beginning to appear in Germany as a result of the rising industrial movement. For, it is not the naturally arising poor but the artificially impoverished, not the human masses mechanically oppressed by the gravity of society, but the masses resulting from the drastic dissolution of society, mainly of the middle estate, that form the proletariat, although, as is easily understood, the naturally arising poor and the Christian-Germanic serfs gradually join its ranks.
By heralding the dissolution of the hereto existing world order, the proletariat merely proclaims the secret of its own existence, for it is the factual dissolution of that world order. By demanding the negation of private property, the proletariat merely raises to the rank of a principle of society what society has raised to the rank of its principle, what is already incorporated in it as the negative result of society without its own participation. The proletarian then finds himself possessing the same right in regard to the world which is coming into being as the German king in regard to the world which has come into being when he calls the people his people, as he calls the horse his horse. By declaring the people his private property, the king merely proclaims that the owner of property is king. As philosophy finds its material weapon in the proletariat, so the proletariat finds its spiritual weapon in philosophy. And once the lightning of thought has squarely struck this ingenuous soil of the people, the emancipation of the Germans into men will be accomplished.
Let us sum up the result: The only liberation of Germany which is practically possible is liberation from the point of view of that theory which declares man to be the supreme being for man. Germany can emancipate itself from the Middle Ages only if it emancipates itself at the same time from the partial victories over the Middle Ages. In Germany, no form of bondage can be broken without breaking all forms of bondage. Germany, which is renowned for its thoroughness, cannot make a revolution unless it is a thorough one. The emancipation of the German is the emancipation of man. The head of this emancipation is philosophy, its heart the proletariat. Philosophy cannot realize itself without the transcendence [Aufhebung] of the proletariat, and the proletariat cannot transcend itself without the realization [Verwirklichung] of philosophy.
When all the inner conditions are met, the day of the German resurrection will be heralded by the crowing of the cock of Gaul. "
British Cycling excludes trans-identified males from competitive female cycling
Sex Matters The Sex Matters logo
26th May 2023
British Cycling excludes trans-identified males from competitive female cycling
The ‘Female’ category will remain in place for those whose sex was assigned female at birth and transgender men who are yet to begin hormone therapy.
In April 2022, British Cycling made global news when it revoked eligibility for Emily Bridges, a Welsh trans-identified male cyclist, who was poised to make his debut in the female category. This would have been in a major-track cycling event, against one of Britain’s most decorated cyclists, Dame Laura Kenny. Emergency meetings with the international cycling federation, Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), identified that Bridges, although meeting the then-current British Cycling regulations for testosterone suppression, had not completed sufficient performance testing to fulfil UCI regulations for eligibility.
In response to a behind-the-scenes, but not exactly secret, revolt by female cyclists, British Cycling suspended its transgender policy and barred Bridges from competing in the female category, subject to further testing.
Today British Cycling has released a revised policy for the regulation of transgender athletes in cycling events, to be instituted at the end of the current competitive season.
The updated policy recognises that male development and sex matter in sport. British Cycling now mandates that all competitive cycling events at all ability levels – that is, all events that are timed, ranking or record-making – will be classified into ‘Open’ and ‘Female’ categories. In recreational cycling events, British Cycling recommends inclusion of trans-identified males into female categories via self-identification of gender identity.
British Cycling policy on competitive events:
“Those whose sex was assigned male at birth will be eligible to compete in the ‘Open’ category. The ‘Female’ category will remain in place for those whose sex was assigned female at birth and transgender men who are yet to begin hormone therapy.”
Sex Matters welcomes this new policy, which protects the core sporting value of fairness for competitive female cycling. The proposal to introduce an ‘Open’ category to replace and rename the male category means that there is an inclusive category, with no need to declare one’s “gender identity”, for anyone who wants to race in it. Trans-identified males are not excluded from competitive cycling in any way. The Female/Open categorisation is a simple and straightforward solution that delivers both fairness and inclusion.
At a global level, cycling has been a strong advocate of testosterone suppression as a way to allow the inclusion of trans-identified males in the female category. In contrast, other sports such as swimming and triathlon have already recognised that this approach is discredited. Sex Matters’ response to a British Cycling consultation highlighted the flaws with this approach.
Sex Matters board member Emma Hilton says:
“The gap between male and female cycling performance, across all cycling disciplines and assessed by race times and power metrics, is large. Cycling is, in all forms, from BMX racing to the Tour de France, a sex-affected sport, and testosterone suppression does not remove or render negligible the male athletic advantage acquired during male development. Sex matters in cycling.”
Jon Pike is a senior lecturer in philosophy at the Open University and a member of the Sex Matters advisory group. He adds:
“This policy from British Cycling is the first big crack in the cycling world. British Cycling has also, sensibly, ignored the incoherent International Olympic Committee ‘Framework’. Credit is due to British Cycling for looking at the science, and listening to female cyclists.”
Cathy Devine is a sports policy researcher and also a member of the Sex Matters advisory group. She has fought for female athlete voices to be heard in this debate. She is “delighted that British Cycling has decided to uphold equal opportunities for our female riders”.
However, Sex Matters is disappointed that British Cycling’s new policy does not argue for fairness for female cyclists at the recreational level, where the regulations will be inclusion via gender self-identification. Cycling is a mass-participation sport, and there are plenty of non-competitive opportunities for trans-identified males to get on their bikes. But is unfairness for recreational females now an acceptable compromise for sports federations wrestling with this question? We say it is not.
Mara Yamauchi is an Olympic marathon runner and member of the Sex Matters advisory group. Leaning on her experience of a very long road to marathon success, she is a vocal supporter of fairness in grassroots sport and in the developmental pathway from recreational to elite level.
“I applaud British Cycling for adopting female and open categories in competition,” she says. “But it is disappointing that it has chosen self-ID at the recreational level. It breaks the development pathway from beginner to elite. Where does British Cycling think Britain’s elite female cyclists of the future will begin their journey?”
At Sex Matters, we remain concerned about recreational cycling like the Breeze initiative for women to get back in the saddle and enjoy some non-judgmental female camaraderie. Advertised as women-only, and with smiling pictures of female cyclists in countryside locations, Breeze rides will remain inclusive of trans-identified males, although this is not evident on the Breeze website. With an unaccompanied age threshold of 16 years old, BC has left unaddressed a clear safeguarding risk for women and girls, who may believe they are joining a female-only cycling group that in fact admits males – who may not only join, but may also be the only other rider or instructor on a given ride.
British Cycling should either insist that Breeze rides exclude all males, however they identify, or at the very least ensure that women and girls have all the information they need to make an informed choice and state clearly and publicly that Breeze rides may be mixed-sex.
This victory for British female cycling is to be celebrated, and we commend British Cycling for its commitment to female athletes. But the global picture is still bleak. Internationally, UCI policy permits trans-identified males to compete in female categories under conditions of testosterone suppression, allowing novice males like Austin Killips in the United States to sweep to victory in female UCI events and force female cyclists like Hannah Arensman to abandon their beloved sport. In response to the shocking number of trans-identified males now entering female cycling (Twitter user @i_heart__bikes has compiled a list), UCI has flipped hastily between stubborn defence of its policy to the promise of a new one in August 2023.
As Jon Pike and Cathy Devine note:
“We now need UCI to follow suit and mandate dedicated female categories for female riders worldwide. And both UCI and the International Olympic Committee will need to reflect on why they got this so wrong for female athletes for so long.”
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Sunday, May 28, 2023
A new survey shows that American workers’ mental health is plummeting.
The Conference Board, a New York City-based business think-tank, polled over 1,100 workers. Around 34% of workers reported their mental health levels were lower than six months ago, according to the study.
The problem: workers feel overwhelmed and unable to take a break. According to the study, 37% said their level of engagement is lower than six months ago. Yet, it also showed that employees are working harder than ever. For instance, "48% with declining mental health say they work 50+ hours per week," and 69% also "say they are applying more effort than is expected at their job occasionally or consistently compared to six months ago."
The implications: companies may have to offer more flexible work arrangements, including work-free vacation time off and hybrid work, to help improve their workers’ well-being.
"Over time, they are seeing their self-reported levels of mental health decline, their level of engagement declined, their connection to mission and purpose of the organization declined," said Rebecca Ray, the executive vice president of Human Capital at The Conference Board.
Ray said companies need to provide their employees with a healthy work environment to get the best out of them.
"You don't get engagement if people don't feel as though they belong there, where they're treated with respect where they have a fair deal," Ray said.
The study also reports that workers feel less able to communicate with their managers about their mental health challenges. Roughly 38% feel uncomfortable talking to their managers about their mental health, double the number one year ago. Instead of explicitly asking for time off to address their mental health issues, according to the study, 13% of workers took "unofficial mental health days," 19% used sick days and 18% simply kept working in spite of their struggles.
Some workers just power through the stress. (Getty Images)
Some workers just power through the stress. (Getty Images)
Fortunately, the report outlines several courses of action to improve workers' mental health. For instance, around 47% of study participants say that training managers to promote a healthy work-life balance would help. Also, 55% of the study participants asserted that more "no work" personal days would alleviate their distress. Another 52% said a flexible/hybrid work schedule would also help.
"People are demanding flexibility, they're demanding the opportunity to put their lives together in a way that makes sense for them, so that they can preserve their mental health," Ray said. "And companies that get that and can figure out how to do it well, are going to be well positioned to be able to attract and retain higher quality candidates."
Nick Bloom, the William Eberle Professor of Economics at Stanford University, said that hybrid work improves mental health.
"You have a couple of days a week to avoid the stress of travel and commuting, and get some time in a more relaxed home setting. But you still get three days a week in a social setting with work colleagues," said Bloom, who was not involved with The Conference Board study.
In the report, Ray emphasized the importance of workers getting a chance to "truly disconnect and reset." Ray said "no work PTO," is becoming increasingly popular. She pointed out that time off could level the playing field for marginalized groups including disabled people.
"There are going to be some people for whom flexibility is the only way they can think of to manage their personal professional lives, they may have, you know, obligations to family or, you know, a variety of things," Ray said. "And it's just simply not possible. You have some people that need time for regular medical treatments. That’s really hard if everyone has to be in the office all the time, or on some kind of a rigid schedule."
Ray added that more PTO could also retain such women and minority workers.
"We've worked so hard to bring them into the organization and hopefully they bring them through the leadership pipeline, and to start to really reflect society. And when you make some of these kinds of rules, they disproportionately impacting certain groups," she said. "And so we don't want to lose the progress we've made in helping people see that there's a future for them at X company."
-
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I read this a while after I'd interrupted my listening to CPUSA school webinar:Marx Ec part 1.
I welcomed the presentation, but stopped listening because I was dissatisfied with his definition of Surplus Value.
As you know, I think it's important to grasp SV as the difference between the Socially Necessary Labor Time (SNLT) a worker adds and the Socially Necessary Labor Time of other workers in the goods and services she(or he) consumes to reproduce her(or his) labor power.
When I try to convey SV to others, I often substituted WALT (World Average Labor Time) for SNLT. and CommonWealth for SV. I think my words are accurate synonyms for what Marx was trying to convey to 19th century workers.
I say "goods and services" rather than commodities, because as political reforms socialize basic services like health and education, the labor time required to produce good health and good education cannot be delivered if "put on a business basis", if quality is measured by quantitative increases in return on investment,
Peggy
On May 28, 2023, at 10:09 AM, Charles Brown (via marxism-thaxis Mailing List) wrote:
Sent from my iPhone
Begin forwarded message:
From: Charles Brown
Date: May 28, 2023 at 10:04:45 AM EDT
To: marxism-thaxis@lists.riseup.net, a-list@lists.riseup.net
Subject: However, applicable in the US in 2023 is Lenin's direction in _What is to be done ?_ to focus the Working Class's _political_ as opposed to _economic_ struggle , his critique of Economism or Trade Unionism pure and simple . In the US historical context political struggle is ultimately electoral with mass protest aimed at influencing elections .
http://take10charles.blogspot.com/2015/03/as-far-as-republicans-capitalist-party.html
"But capitalist production begets, with the inexorability of a law of Nature, its own negation." This law of Nature asserts itself through "the revolt of the working class" , in the US an objective law working through a working class without working class CONSCIOUSNESS , and even with ANTI-SOCIALIST /Communist consciousness because of the brainwashing of the Cold War. Thus, Communists cannot inject working class and socialist consciousness as Lenin proposed for the Bolsheviks in _What is to be done ?
So what is to be done in Our concrete situation , Comrades ? smiles Bueno , applicable in the US in 2023 is Lenin's direction in _What is to be done ?_ to focus on the Working Class's _political_ as opposed to _economic_ struggle , his critique of Economism or Trade Unionism pure and simple . In the US historical context political struggle is ultimately electoral with strikes and mass protest aimed at influencing elections .
NOT ONLY THAT ! therefore the main class struggle work , historical materialist practice in the US in the concrete situation Imperialism in its post-Soviet but rising Socialist China phase is that boring , liberraal," petit bourgeois" , blase , blase campaigning for Democratic Party votes everyday some kinda way like tens of millions of working class lives depend on it .
So what is to be done in Our concrete situation , Comrades ? smiles Bueno , applicable in the US in 2023 is Lenin's direction in _What is to be done ?_ to focus on the Working Class's _political_ as opposed to _economic_ struggle , his critique of Economism or Trade Unionism pure and simple . In the US historical context political struggle is ultimately electoral with strikes and mass protest aimed at influencing elections .
NOT ONLY THAT ! therefore the main class struggle work , historical materialist practice in the US in the concrete situation Imperialism in its post-Soviet but rising Socialist China phase is that boring , liberraal," petit bourgeois" , blase , blase campaigning for Democratic Party votes everyday some kinda way like tens of millions of working class lives depend on it .
"But capitalist production begets, with the inexorability of a law of Nature, its own negation." This law of Nature asserts itself threw "the revolt of the working class" , in the US an objective law working through a working class without working class CONSCIOUSNESS , and even with ANTI-SOCIALIST /Communist consciousness because of the brainwashing of the Cold War. Thus, Communists cannot inject working class and socialist consciousness as Lenin proposed for the Bolsheviks in _What is to be done ?_ However, applicable in the US in 2023 is Lenin's direction in _What is to be done ?_ to focus the Working Class's _political_ as opposed to _economic_ struggle , his critique of Economism or Trade Unionism pure and simple . In the US historical context political struggle is ultimately electoral with mass protest aimed at influencing elections .
http://take10charles.blogspot.com/2015/03/as-far-as-republicans-capitalist-party.html
As far as Republicans , the Capitalist Party ,are concerned , what they like about crashing the economy is that one capitalist always kills many other capitalists, especially when the economy is crashed. There are lots of capitals to be bought up cheap in Depression. Plus , high unemployment puts downward pressure on wages . The bourgeoisie love Depression; when the going gets tough, the tough get going. So, Republican government/state policies are designed to crash the economy on the heads of the Working Masses , the 99% and shovel government/state money to the 1%, the Bourgeoisie , on behalf of the Bourgeoisie in the class struggle against the 99%.
". Along with the constantly diminishing number of the magnates of capital, who usurp and monopolise all advantages of this process of transformation, grows the mass of misery, oppression, slavery, degradation, exploitation; but with this too grows the revolt ( and POLITICAL REFORM STRUGGLES, REFORMS OF THE STATE POWER LAWS) -Charles Brown) of the working class, a class always increasing in numbers, and disciplined, united, organised by the very mechanism of the process of capitalist production itself. "
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch32.htm
The US Working class has waged many POLITICAL struggles through and inside the Democratic Party in the last 90 years or so. It has won some and lost some. Reform is a constant struggle .
"But capitalist production begets, with the inexorability of a law of Nature, its own negation." This law of Nature asserts itself threw "the revolt of the working class" , in the US an objective law working through a working class without working class CONSCIOUSNESS , and even with ANTI-SOCIALIST /Communist consciousness because of the brainwashing of the Cold War.
Thus, Communists cannot inject working class and socialist consciousness as Lenin proposed for the Bolsheviks in _What is to be done ?_
However, applicable in the US in 2023 is Lenin's direction in _What is to be done ?_ to focus the Working Class's _political_ as opposed to _economic_ struggle , his critique of Economism or Trade Unionism pure and simple . In the US historical context political struggle is ultimately electoral with mass protest aimed at influencing elections .
At first in the revolt of the working class in the US has been accumulation of moderate reforms that must be constantly defended from the Republican Party . This reform accumulation is the movement , the motion of working struggle itself , not some invention of would be "revolutionaries " or Utopians
http://take10charles.blogspot.com/2022/06/httptake10charles_20.html
Friday, June 17, 2022 Monopoloization process: One capitalist always "kills" many other capitalists Media monopoloization,
http://take10charles.blogspot.com/2014/11/monopoloization-process-one-capitalist_14.html
Monopoloization process: One capitalist always "kills" many other capitalists Media monopoloization, for example:
Labor Power: "who was the genius that signed the telecommunications act of 1996, hmmm?"
take10charles.blogspot.com|By cb LikeLike · · Share Beverly Brown and Gail Seaton Humbert like this.
Dan Cordtz Not that I don't agree with the basic point, but I need to see a list ... 2 hrs · Like
Charles Brown google has it I'm sure 2 hrs · Like
Charles Brown http://en.wikipedia.org/.../Media_cross-ownership_in_the... See "big six" in this wikipedia item, Dan Cordtz
Media cross-ownership in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Media cross-ownership is the ownership of multiple...
en.wikipedia.org 2 hrs · Like ·
Charles Brown Owners of American media The "Big Six" The Big Six[1] Media Outlets Revenues (2009)...See More 2 hrs · Like · 1
Dan Cordtz Actually it's the newspapers and magazines that puzzle me most. 2 hrs · Like
Charles Brown http://en.wikipedia.org/.../Concentration_of_media_ownership
Concentration of media ownership - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Concentration of media ownership (also known as media consolidation or media convergence) is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media.[1] Contemporary research demonstrates increasing levels of consolidation, with many media indus… en.wikipedia.org 2 hrs · Like · Remove Preview
Charles Brown Concentration of media ownership (also known as media consolidation or media convergence) is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media.[1] Contemporary research demonstrates increasin...See More 2 hrs · Like
Charles Brown http://www.freepress.net/ownership/chart
Who Owns the Media? Massive corporations dominate the U.S. media landscape. Through a history of mergers and...
freepress.net|By Free Press 2 hrs · Like · Remove Preview Charles Brown Print MEDIA Overview...See More 2 hrs · Like · 1
Charles Brown http://www.marxists.org/.../works/1916/imp-hsc/ch01.htm "alf a century ago, when Marx was writing Capital, free competition appeared to the overwhelming majority of economists to be a “natural law”. Official science tried, by a conspiracy of silence, t...See More
I. CONCENTRATION OF PRODUCTION AND MONOPOLIES The enormous growth of industry and the remarkably rapid concentration of production in ever-larger enterprises are one of the most characteristic features of capitalism. Modern production censuses give most complete and most exact data on this process.
' marxists.org|By V.I. Lenin 1 hr · Edited · Like · 1 · Remove Preview Charles Brown "One capitalist always kills many", Dan Cordtz. Capitalism in the real economy has a historical and inherent tendency to monopoly , analogously to the game Monopoly .
25 mins · Edited · Like Charles Brown As soon as this process of transformation has sufficiently decomposed the old society from top to bottom, as soon as the labourers are turned into proletarians, their means of labour into capital, as soon as the capitalist mode of production stands on ...See More
Economic Manuscripts: Capital Vol. I - Chapter Thirty Two Capital Vol. I : Chapter Thirty-Two (Historical Tendency of Capitalist Accumulation)
marxists.org|By Karl Marx 26 mins · Like · Remove Preview
Dan Cordtz But I don't see THIS happening: "but with this too grows the revolt of the working class, a class always increasing in numbers, and disciplined, united, organized by the very mechanism of the process of capitalist production itself." 21 mins · Like
Charles Brown Open your eyes (smiles) : Compared to 1867 , the working class, the numbers of wage-laborers is ten times bigger or more. The working class is the 99%. The vast majority of the population are working class. Just by population growth the working class gets bigger and bigger .It has happened quite a bit since 1867. The revolt aspect is happening most concentratedly in South America right now. It happens in the whole history of the trade union movement for decades, two centuries in all the capitalist countries. The revolt aspect rose to revolution in Russia in 1917; and then China, Then the Russian revolutionary changes forced the capitalists in the capitalist countries, US, Britain, France, etc. to grant many socialist reforms even still within capitalist relations of production. There is a lot of socialism within capitalism already because of that, socialized medicine, socialized municipal public works, much of government enterprises period.There is a back and forth, or a struggle, CLASS STRUGGLE, victories and defeats for each side; and of course the bourgeoisie have stolen back some reforms , and attacked the trade union movement. The class struggle is a true contest. 8 mins · Edited · Like
Charles Brown The factory system is what Marx refers to as "the capitalist production itself" organizing the workers. The division of labor in factories is highly organized. There has been a radical restructuring of the industrial and factory system due to the revolution in science and technology producing the digital revolution in communications and transportation; allowing a big scattering of the points of production that were concentrated in the past.
10 mins · Like Dan Cordtz In the US, at least, I no longer see anything like the Solidarity that I witnessed in the 1950's in Detroit. And of course real manufacturing no longer makes up as large a share of employment. It appears to me that we are going in the wrong direction to overthrow capitalism. But I have been wrong before. 8 mins · Like
Charles Brown As I say it ebbs and flows, and in the US and Michigan , the trade unions are in retreat. But what you witnessed in Detroit in the 1950's was proof positive of the process Marx predicts in what you quote. It was a concrete historical high point of the rising working class, but the path to world revolution is a zig-zag, not a straight line. 5 mins · Like
Charles Brown Manufacturing points of production have been scattered and moved from the concentration points of the last period. There are concentrations in China , Brazil, Mexico, India where they were not before. There is ebb and flow of concentrations; old ones deconcentrate and new ones concentrate. It is a dynamic process with the pattern Marx notes continually arising in new conentrations. 2 mins · Like
Charles Brown Another way to see it theoretically, Dan Cordtz, is that eventually somebody wins all that competition, like in Monopoly. It's logical that free competition eventually leads to a few winners of the competition. Look at all the automobile companies that finally became the Big Three. I know the Japanese companies later competed , but that doesn't contradict the demonstration of the monopolization process that occurred before the Japanese companies entered the market.
http://graphicwitness.org/contemp/marx60.htm
Graphic Witness home page Hugo Gellert: Karl Marx' 'Capital' in Lithographs
page 60. HISTORICAL TENDENCY OF CAPITALIST ACCUMULATION HISTORICAL TENDENCY OF CAPITALIST ACCUMULATION
Capitalist production is marked from the outset by two specific traits:
(1) It produces its products as commodities. The fact that it produces commodities does not distinguish it from other modes of production. Its peculiar mark is that the prevailing and determining character of its products is that of being commodities.
This implies, in the first place, that the laborer himself acts in the role of a seller of commodities, as a free wage worker, so that wage labor is the typical character of labor. In viewing the foregoing analyses, it is not necessary to demonstrate again that the relation between wage labor and capital determines the entire character of the ode of production. The principal agents of this mode of production itself, the capitalist and the wage worker, are to that extent merely personifications of capital and wage labor. They are definite social characters, assigned to individuals by the process of social production. They are products of these definite social conditions of production. . . .
(2) The other specific mark of the capitalist mode of production is the production of surplus value as the direct aim and determining incentive of production. Capital produces essentially capital, and does so only to the extent that it produces surplus value. We have seen . . . that a mode of production peculiar to the capitalist period is founded upon this. This is a special form in the development of the productive powers of labor, in such a way that these powers appear as self dependent powers of capital lording it over labor and standing in direct opposition to the laborer's own development. . . .
. . . To the extent that the labor process is a simple process between man and nature, its simple elements remain the same in all social forms of development. But every definite historical form of this process develops more and more its material foundations and social forms. Whenever a certain maturity is reached, one definite social form is discarded and displaced by a higher one.
The time for the coming of such a crisis is announced by the depth and breadth of the contradictions and antagonisms, which separate the conditions of distribution, and with them the definite historical form of the corresponding conditions of production, from the productive forces, the productivity, and development of their agencies. A conflict then arises between the material development of production and its social form.
. . .Capitalist monopoly becomes a fetter upon the method of production which has flourished with it and under it. The centralization of the means of production and the socialization of labor reach a point where they prove incompatible with their capitalist husk. This bursts asunder. The knell of capitalist private property sounds. The expropriators are expropriated.
The transformation of scattered private property based upon individual labor into capitalist property is, of course, a far more protracted process, a far more violent and difficult process, than the transformation of capitalist private property (already, in actual fact, based upon a social method of production) into social property. In the former case we are concerned with the expropriation of the mass of the people by a few usurpers; in the latter case we are concerned with the expropriation of a few usurpers by the mass of the people.
("The progress of industry, which the bourgeoisie involuntarily and passively promotes, substitutes for the isolation of the workers by mutual competition, their revolutionary unification by association. Thus the development of large-scale industry cuts from under the feet of the bourgeoisie the ground upon which capitalism controls production and appropriates the products of labor. Before all, therefore, the bourgeoisie produces its own gravediggers. Its downfall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable. . . .
"Among all the classes that confront the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is really revolutionary. Other classes decay and perish with the rise of large-scale industry, but the proletariate is the most characteristic product of that industry. The lower middle class -- small manufacturers, small traders, handicraftsmen, peasant proprietors -- one and all fight the bourgeoisie in the hope of safe-guarding their existence as sections of the middle class. . . . They are reactionary, for they are trying to make the wheels of history turn backwards." -- Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, London, 1848.) cb at 6:33 AM Share
As far as Republicans , the Capitalist Party ,are concerned , what they like about crashing the economy is that one capitalist always kills many other capitalists, especially when the economy is crashed. There are lots of capitals to be bought up cheap in Depression. Plus , high unemployment puts downward pressure on wages . The bourgeoisie love Depression; when the going gets tough, the tough get going. So, Republican government/state policies are designed to crash the economy on the heads of the Working Masses , the 99% and shovel government/state money to the 1%, the Bourgeoisie , on behalf of the Bourgeoisie in the class struggle against the 99%.
". Along with the constantly diminishing number of the magnates of capital, who usurp and monopolise all advantages of this process of transformation, grows the mass of misery, oppression, slavery, degradation, exploitation; but with this too grows the revolt ( and POLITICAL REFORM STRUGGLES, REFORMS OF THE STATE POWER LAWS) -Charles Brown) of the working class, a class always increasing in numbers, and disciplined, united, organised by the very mechanism of the process of capitalist production itself. "
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch32.htm
The US Working class has waged many POLITICAL struggles through and inside the Democratic Party in the last 90 years or so. It has won some and lost some. Reform is a constant struggle .
"But capitalist production begets, with the inexorability of a law of Nature, its own negation." This law of Nature asserts itself threw "the revolt of the working class" , in the US an objective law working through a working class without working class CONSCIOUSNESS , and even with ANTI-SOCIALIST /Communist consciousness because of the brainwashing of the Cold War.
Thus, Communists cannot inject working class and socialist consciousness as Lenin proposed for the Bolsheviks in _What is to be done ?_
However, applicable in the US in 2023 is Lenin's direction in _What is to be done ?_ to focus the Working Class's _political_ as opposed to _economic_ struggle , his critique of Economism or Trade Unionism pure and simple . In the US historical context political struggle is ultimately electoral with mass protest aimed at influencing elections .
At first in the revolt of the working class in the US has been accumulation of moderate reforms that must be constantly defended from the Republican Party . This reform accumulation is the movement , the motion of working struggle itself , not some invention of would be "revolutionaries " or Utopians
http://take10charles.blogspot.com/2022/06/httptake10charles_20.html
Friday, June 17, 2022 Monopoloization process: One capitalist always "kills" many other capitalists Media monopoloization,
http://take10charles.blogspot.com/2014/11/monopoloization-process-one-capitalist_14.html
Monopoloization process: One capitalist always "kills" many other capitalists Media monopoloization, for example:
Labor Power: "who was the genius that signed the telecommunications act of 1996, hmmm?"
take10charles.blogspot.com|By cb LikeLike · · Share Beverly Brown and Gail Seaton Humbert like this.
Dan Cordtz Not that I don't agree with the basic point, but I need to see a list ... 2 hrs · Like
Charles Brown google has it I'm sure 2 hrs · Like
Charles Brown http://en.wikipedia.org/.../Media_cross-ownership_in_the... See "big six" in this wikipedia item, Dan Cordtz
Media cross-ownership in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Media cross-ownership is the ownership of multiple...
en.wikipedia.org 2 hrs · Like ·
Charles Brown Owners of American media The "Big Six" The Big Six[1] Media Outlets Revenues (2009)...See More 2 hrs · Like · 1
Dan Cordtz Actually it's the newspapers and magazines that puzzle me most. 2 hrs · Like
Charles Brown http://en.wikipedia.org/.../Concentration_of_media_ownership
Concentration of media ownership - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Concentration of media ownership (also known as media consolidation or media convergence) is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media.[1] Contemporary research demonstrates increasing levels of consolidation, with many media indus… en.wikipedia.org 2 hrs · Like · Remove Preview
Charles Brown Concentration of media ownership (also known as media consolidation or media convergence) is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media.[1] Contemporary research demonstrates increasin...See More 2 hrs · Like
Charles Brown http://www.freepress.net/ownership/chart
Who Owns the Media? Massive corporations dominate the U.S. media landscape. Through a history of mergers and...
freepress.net|By Free Press 2 hrs · Like · Remove Preview Charles Brown Print MEDIA Overview...See More 2 hrs · Like · 1
Charles Brown http://www.marxists.org/.../works/1916/imp-hsc/ch01.htm "alf a century ago, when Marx was writing Capital, free competition appeared to the overwhelming majority of economists to be a “natural law”. Official science tried, by a conspiracy of silence, t...See More
I. CONCENTRATION OF PRODUCTION AND MONOPOLIES The enormous growth of industry and the remarkably rapid concentration of production in ever-larger enterprises are one of the most characteristic features of capitalism. Modern production censuses give most complete and most exact data on this process.
' marxists.org|By V.I. Lenin 1 hr · Edited · Like · 1 · Remove Preview Charles Brown "One capitalist always kills many", Dan Cordtz. Capitalism in the real economy has a historical and inherent tendency to monopoly , analogously to the game Monopoly .
25 mins · Edited · Like Charles Brown As soon as this process of transformation has sufficiently decomposed the old society from top to bottom, as soon as the labourers are turned into proletarians, their means of labour into capital, as soon as the capitalist mode of production stands on ...See More
Economic Manuscripts: Capital Vol. I - Chapter Thirty Two Capital Vol. I : Chapter Thirty-Two (Historical Tendency of Capitalist Accumulation)
marxists.org|By Karl Marx 26 mins · Like · Remove Preview
Dan Cordtz But I don't see THIS happening: "but with this too grows the revolt of the working class, a class always increasing in numbers, and disciplined, united, organized by the very mechanism of the process of capitalist production itself." 21 mins · Like
Charles Brown Open your eyes (smiles) : Compared to 1867 , the working class, the numbers of wage-laborers is ten times bigger or more. The working class is the 99%. The vast majority of the population are working class. Just by population growth the working class gets bigger and bigger .It has happened quite a bit since 1867. The revolt aspect is happening most concentratedly in South America right now. It happens in the whole history of the trade union movement for decades, two centuries in all the capitalist countries. The revolt aspect rose to revolution in Russia in 1917; and then China, Then the Russian revolutionary changes forced the capitalists in the capitalist countries, US, Britain, France, etc. to grant many socialist reforms even still within capitalist relations of production. There is a lot of socialism within capitalism already because of that, socialized medicine, socialized municipal public works, much of government enterprises period.There is a back and forth, or a struggle, CLASS STRUGGLE, victories and defeats for each side; and of course the bourgeoisie have stolen back some reforms , and attacked the trade union movement. The class struggle is a true contest. 8 mins · Edited · Like
Charles Brown The factory system is what Marx refers to as "the capitalist production itself" organizing the workers. The division of labor in factories is highly organized. There has been a radical restructuring of the industrial and factory system due to the revolution in science and technology producing the digital revolution in communications and transportation; allowing a big scattering of the points of production that were concentrated in the past.
10 mins · Like Dan Cordtz In the US, at least, I no longer see anything like the Solidarity that I witnessed in the 1950's in Detroit. And of course real manufacturing no longer makes up as large a share of employment. It appears to me that we are going in the wrong direction to overthrow capitalism. But I have been wrong before. 8 mins · Like
Charles Brown As I say it ebbs and flows, and in the US and Michigan , the trade unions are in retreat. But what you witnessed in Detroit in the 1950's was proof positive of the process Marx predicts in what you quote. It was a concrete historical high point of the rising working class, but the path to world revolution is a zig-zag, not a straight line. 5 mins · Like
Charles Brown Manufacturing points of production have been scattered and moved from the concentration points of the last period. There are concentrations in China , Brazil, Mexico, India where they were not before. There is ebb and flow of concentrations; old ones deconcentrate and new ones concentrate. It is a dynamic process with the pattern Marx notes continually arising in new conentrations. 2 mins · Like
Charles Brown Another way to see it theoretically, Dan Cordtz, is that eventually somebody wins all that competition, like in Monopoly. It's logical that free competition eventually leads to a few winners of the competition. Look at all the automobile companies that finally became the Big Three. I know the Japanese companies later competed , but that doesn't contradict the demonstration of the monopolization process that occurred before the Japanese companies entered the market.
http://graphicwitness.org/contemp/marx60.htm
Graphic Witness home page Hugo Gellert: Karl Marx' 'Capital' in Lithographs
page 60. HISTORICAL TENDENCY OF CAPITALIST ACCUMULATION HISTORICAL TENDENCY OF CAPITALIST ACCUMULATION
Capitalist production is marked from the outset by two specific traits:
(1) It produces its products as commodities. The fact that it produces commodities does not distinguish it from other modes of production. Its peculiar mark is that the prevailing and determining character of its products is that of being commodities.
This implies, in the first place, that the laborer himself acts in the role of a seller of commodities, as a free wage worker, so that wage labor is the typical character of labor. In viewing the foregoing analyses, it is not necessary to demonstrate again that the relation between wage labor and capital determines the entire character of the ode of production. The principal agents of this mode of production itself, the capitalist and the wage worker, are to that extent merely personifications of capital and wage labor. They are definite social characters, assigned to individuals by the process of social production. They are products of these definite social conditions of production. . . .
(2) The other specific mark of the capitalist mode of production is the production of surplus value as the direct aim and determining incentive of production. Capital produces essentially capital, and does so only to the extent that it produces surplus value. We have seen . . . that a mode of production peculiar to the capitalist period is founded upon this. This is a special form in the development of the productive powers of labor, in such a way that these powers appear as self dependent powers of capital lording it over labor and standing in direct opposition to the laborer's own development. . . .
. . . To the extent that the labor process is a simple process between man and nature, its simple elements remain the same in all social forms of development. But every definite historical form of this process develops more and more its material foundations and social forms. Whenever a certain maturity is reached, one definite social form is discarded and displaced by a higher one.
The time for the coming of such a crisis is announced by the depth and breadth of the contradictions and antagonisms, which separate the conditions of distribution, and with them the definite historical form of the corresponding conditions of production, from the productive forces, the productivity, and development of their agencies. A conflict then arises between the material development of production and its social form.
. . .Capitalist monopoly becomes a fetter upon the method of production which has flourished with it and under it. The centralization of the means of production and the socialization of labor reach a point where they prove incompatible with their capitalist husk. This bursts asunder. The knell of capitalist private property sounds. The expropriators are expropriated.
The transformation of scattered private property based upon individual labor into capitalist property is, of course, a far more protracted process, a far more violent and difficult process, than the transformation of capitalist private property (already, in actual fact, based upon a social method of production) into social property. In the former case we are concerned with the expropriation of the mass of the people by a few usurpers; in the latter case we are concerned with the expropriation of a few usurpers by the mass of the people.
("The progress of industry, which the bourgeoisie involuntarily and passively promotes, substitutes for the isolation of the workers by mutual competition, their revolutionary unification by association. Thus the development of large-scale industry cuts from under the feet of the bourgeoisie the ground upon which capitalism controls production and appropriates the products of labor. Before all, therefore, the bourgeoisie produces its own gravediggers. Its downfall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable. . . .
"Among all the classes that confront the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is really revolutionary. Other classes decay and perish with the rise of large-scale industry, but the proletariate is the most characteristic product of that industry. The lower middle class -- small manufacturers, small traders, handicraftsmen, peasant proprietors -- one and all fight the bourgeoisie in the hope of safe-guarding their existence as sections of the middle class. . . . They are reactionary, for they are trying to make the wheels of history turn backwards." -- Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, London, 1848.) cb at 6:33 AM Share
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