Wage, Labor, and Capital

By Karl Marx – 1847 - 1849 

Edited by Frederick Engels 1891

Reviewed by Steve Halpern

At a certain point in the lives of all workers, we go to employers and apply for a job. Karl Marx thought about this question in 1847, and wrote about the relationship between workers and employers. Why do workers apply for jobs? Why do employers hire workers? How do employers view the workers under their employ? Where do employers get the money to pay workers?

Our History 

Before we begin to answer these questions, we need to look at a bit of history. In the past, there was slavery. In those days, there were people who sold human beings for a price. Once this price was paid, the slave was the property of the slave owner. The slave then needed to fulfill the tasks of the owner for the rest of his or her life. 

Then, there was the system of feudalism, where peasants worked on the manor of the lord. Peasants gave most of their produce to the lord, but had the right to keep a portion of that produce to sustain themselves. Unlike the slave, the peasant had the right to work a plot of land, and could not be sold to another lord. 

The slavery of the United States did not reflect the norms of feudalism, but was similar to the slave empires of Greece and Rome. There, slaves could be sold to other slave owners. However, late in the Roman Empire, the law was changed to prohibit slave families from being separated. In the slave system in this country, slave owners routinely sold family members and split them apart.

So, here we see one difference between feudalism and slavery. In feudalism the peasant produced their own subsistence. In slavery the slaves had no resources and depended on the owner for their subsistence.  

The capitalist reality

Now we can talk about what happens in capitalism. First, we can say that all of the commodities of the world, without exception, are produced by the workers of the world. I will call this the international working class. So, if the working class produces everything of value, why do workers need to apply for employment?

Marx argued that workers apply for jobs “to secure the necessary means of life.” The problem here is that while workers produce all wealth, in the capitalist system, the working class doesn’t have, “the necessary means of life.” This is why we apply for jobs.

Understanding this reality, we can also say that employers are completely dependent on the fact that workers don’t have the means to sustain ourselves. If we had the resources to sustain ourselves, we might not apply for employment. If we did choose to work a job and the employer said something we didn’t like, we could quit on the spot.

So, here we see why we go to work every day. Employers are no longer allowed to use instruments of torture to coerce workers, as was the case in slavery. Instead, employers understand that we need to do things their way, or we can hit the highway. Hitting the highway means that we might not have the means to sustain ourselves. This is the capitalist method of coercion.  

When we begin to see this relationship, we see how there is no real equality between capitalists and workers. Because of this lack of equality, capitalists view workers as mere commodities. 

When we turn a car left, it goes left. When we turn a car right, it goes right. Capitalists expect that workers will do as we are told, just as any commodity is used by its owner. In slavery times, the slave was the property of the owner for their entire lives. Capitalists have control over workers for eight or more hours per day.

The myth and the reality

Clearly, in the United States, there is a Constitution that contains the Bill of Rights. Among those rights are the right to freedom of speech. However, workers understand that employers have the power to fire employees who attempt to organize a union. Employers will not say that organizing a union is the grounds for termination. They merely hunt for some kind of infraction that will enable the employer to have a legal excuse for firing the union organizer. 

So, thinking about this relationship, we might notice a few things. Students routinely celebrate when they receive degrees. Workers might have a party when they learn they have been hired for a new job. These achievements signify that someone might begin to have a bit more independence. They might have a job that doesn’t seem to be as oppressive as those jobs that don’t require university degrees. 

However, Marx argued that for the worker, “life begins where this activity ceases.” In other words, because workers have no control over our environment where we work, our only reason for working is that paycheck. Only when we leave work, do we begin to do all those things we want to do. 

However, while workers routinely spend about one-third of the day working for an employer, there are political pundits who argue that many of these same workers are “apathetic.” The basis for this seemingly absurd charge is that many workers do not vote in the elections. 

The facts are that while workers produce all wealth, few if any pro-capitalist candidates argue that we deserve the lifetime right to health care, education, housing, food, transportation, communication, or exposure to cultural activities. However, the working class of the world has done literally all the work required to provide for all those goods and services. 

I see this charge of “apathy” by those pundits to be particularly offensive. Many of my coworkers routinely volunteered to work long hours of overtime. Today, many workers work two or even three jobs. They do this, because workers only receive a small part of the wealth our class produces.

So, now we come to the question: Where do employers get the money they pay workers? Initially, Karl Marx argued that workers sell their labor. Then, Marx modified this position and argued that workers sell “labor power” to capitalists. Frederick Engels modified Marx’s pamphlet to reflect this change in Marx’s thinking.

When we say that workers sell our labor, then there is an implication that because of the sale of this labor, capitalists are entitled to derive a profit. Marx argued that when workers sell “labor power” they are actually giving the capitalist a completed commodity, where the owners do nothing to produce that commodity. 

Marx refined this observation arguing that employers view workers as “variable capital,” as opposed to machinery that he called “constant capital.” The capitalist needs to pay the entire cost of the machine. However, capitalists only use labor for as long as they need that labor. Then, jobs are eliminated. Today, we have seen millions of jobs eliminated during the pandemic. So, while those workers might have thought they had jobs, all jobs under capitalism can be called “variable.” 

Marx called the capital employers received, “surplus capital.” We can also say that interest payments made to banks, and payments made to insurance companies and advertising agencies also reflect “surplus capital.” All these payments add absolutely no value to commodities. Yet, constant capital and variable capital are requirements in the production of literally all commodities. Understanding all of this, Marx concludes:

“The essence of a class which possesses nothing but the ability to work is a necessary presupposition of capital.

“It is only the domination of past, accumulated, materialized labor over immediate living labor that stamps the accumulated labor with capital.”

Here Marx identified the essence of capitalism. While workers produce all wealth, capitalists take that wealth and leave workers with, “nothing but the ability to work.” Then, they convert their “domination of the past” into the money they use to pay workers, and gouge out their super-profits. 

Workers struggle because human needs are more important than profits

Now, let’s think about what the word “war” means. Why in the world did the United States go to war against the people of Vietnam? Marx argued that the capitalist system needs to dominate economies in order to convert labor into capital. In order to do this, they create an environment where our only power is our “ability to work.” 

Strikes and revolutions erupt because workers and farmers feel that our interests are more important than being dominated by forces that are only interested in accumulating capital. This is why Vladimir Ilyich Lenin argued that “Imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism.”   

So, now you might be thinking that the way Marx explained our reality is completely different from the values we are all raised with. While Marx’s ideas might sound implausible, those ideas give us a clear explanation of the gross inequality we see in this country and the world today.

While the government argues that we live in a “democracy,” capitalists are driven to create an environment where the working class only will have, “the means to live” if we dedicate our lives to their drive to maximize profits. 

Understanding this reality, we can also consider that a different kind of political economic system could begin to solve some of the most horrendous problems we face. A worker’s government could organize society in a way where we don’t need to contribute to profits for corporations, interest to banks, or payments to insurance and advertising companies. 

Without the need to pay for all those unnecessary services, we could guarantee everyone the absolute lifetime right to food, clothing, housing, health care, education, transportation, communication, as well as exposure to culture. There would be absolutely no reason for workers in one country to go to war against workers in another country. We wouldn’t go to work so we might have “the means to live.” We would begin to work to improve the standard of living for the entire working class of the world. 

Clearly, establishing that kind of government will be a monumental task. However, when we explore the question of what does it mean to work for a living, we can begin to see the road to a rational future. 

Giants – The Global Power Elite

By Peter Phillips

A review by Steve Halpern

Recently the world watched while a racist mob invaded the capital with the aim of decertifying a Presidential election. Many looked at this event in disbelief thinking: How did this happen? 

Then, there are the 389 of the most powerful managers of the capitalist system. Clearly a few of them might have scratched their heads about this event. However, given the role of these people in the world, we might say that, for them, this was just another day at the office. Reading Peter Phillips book titled, “The Global Power Elite,” we might understand why those who have the real power might have been relatively unfazed by the attack on the capitol.

One of the reasons why many people were interested in the attack on the capitol has to do with the fact that this involved elected officials. President Donald Trump consistently made the completely unsupported claim that he won the election, “by a landslide.” Then, there are the Democratic Party politicians who attempted to get him impeached, even after he left office.

However, for the 389 individuals who have immense power, and dedicate themselves to supporting the interests of the most affluent people in the world, they look at the attack on the capitol from a different perspective. These are power brokers from all over the world, who have attended elite universities, and have talked to one another at international conferences. 

They are well aware of the fact that the world capitalist economy is in a steep downturn. They are well aware of the fact that factories that used to be located in this country, are now located in nations where wages are between one and ten dollars per day. As a result, they know that today about 80% of the population of the world lives on ten dollars per day or less. They also know that this reality is a direct result of the policies they have been advancing throughout their lifetimes.

Understanding these facts, many of the 389 people mentioned supported Donald Trump. Trump managed to deflect the legitimate anger of millions of people away from the most affluent people in the world. Trump blamed the closure of numerous factories and the deteriorating standard of living on the Democrats. 

After he was elected President Trump continued to blame the Democrats, while he used his office to continue to enrich the affluent. He did this using the absurd argument that he was creating jobs. 

In fact, tens of millions of jobs had been created over several decades. Millions of jobs were also eliminated during those same years. The new jobs usually have lower pay, and replaced the higher paying jobs that left the country. The wealth that created all of those jobs came from the labor of the working class all over the world. The capitalists who are represented by the 389 defenders of their system produce absolutely no wealth.

While many capitalists supported Trump, most opposed the attack on the capitol. Certainly, this was not because they are opposed to overthrowing elected governments.

We know from history, that the government of this country supported the overthrow of elected governments in Iran, the Congo, Chile and other countries. However, in those nations, the elected governments made the argument that the interests of the people were more important than capitalist interests. That point of view is completely unacceptable to the power brokers of capitalism.

On the other hand, Joe Biden has proven himself over a long career to be an ardent supporter of the most affluent families in the world. So, given Biden’s long history, capitalists didn’t see a good reason to push him aside. Instead, they allowed Donald Trump to retire to his estate in Florida, until they might need him again. 

So, at this point, we might begin the discussion about who are those 389 people who represent what Phillips argues is the “Transnational Capitalist Class.” 

The Transnational Capitalist Class

Over 100 years ago, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, a central leader of the Russian Revolution, wrote his pamphlet Imperialism – The highest stage of capitalism. In this pamphlet Lenin argued that imperialism is the economic and political domination of nations by the ruling powers of more powerful nations. Lenin went on to argue that this wasn’t happening because of a mistake in judgement. No, Lenin gave the evidence that imperialism is a necessary consequence, or the “highest stage” of capitalism.

Lenin also observed that while there are many small companies or corporations in capitalism, the system is dominated by large corporations. We can see this in the fact that we purchase homes using financing from banks, automobiles from large auto corporations, food in supermarkets, and clothing in department stores. Restaurants oftentimes are the small owner operated establishments. Then, there is McDonalds and Burger King.   

Lenin also observed that these large corporations are a part of international cartels. One cartel Lenin pointed to was based on sugar, and those cartels were beginning to dominate the world.

Peter Phillips calls the new capitalists and their money managers the “Transnational Capitalist Class.” According to Phillips, there are about 2,047 billionaires in the world. In 2017 they owned $7.3 trillion. Phillips also identified 17 asset management firms that control investments of $41 trillion in the world. There are 199 board members of those firms, and these people use their influence to control economies and governments throughout the world. The huge transnational corporations rely on these transnational investment companies for their financing. Those investment corporations also rely on investments from each other, allowing for mutual profitability. 

While most of these people don’t have the assets of the billionaires, their decisions concerning where to invest vast amounts of money qualify them as real power brokers. Phillips named the names of these money managers. He also claims that many of these board members know one another and have common social, educational, and political interests.

One of these money managers is James (Jamie) Diamond, who is the President and CEO of JPMorgan Chase. In 2016 Diamond’s assets were valued at $1.3 billion. His salary from JPMorgan Chase was $27.5 million. 

JPMorgan is a very old bank that has been profiting from its investments all over the world for a long time. The bank supported the Italian invasion of Ethiopia under Mussolini, as well as the Japanese invasion of China. 

Back in 1933, JPMorgan opposed the Glass-Steagall Act that put some minor regulations on banks during the depression. James Diamond worked to get Glass-Steagall overturned. 

During the housing market collapse of 2008, JPMorgan Chase made money by betting against the market. At the same time, the bank was making money by selling housing investment securities. It was these kinds of activities that caused the government to fine JPMorgan Chase several times. 

The government under President Barrack Obama responded to the 2008 economic collapse with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. James Diamond was apparently outraged at the very idea that the government would get in the way of the corporate drive to maximize profits. So, after Diamond expressed his opposition to Dodd-Frank, President Obama stopped inviting he to dinner parties. Before this disagreement, Diamond was viewed as “Obama’s favorite banker.”

In 2012, the Huffington Post asked Diamond, why he was such a consistent defender of Wall Street. This is how he answered the question. “This is not the Soviet Union.  .  . This is the United States of America.  .  .  Guess what.  .  . It’s a free f—ing country.” Apparently, James Diamond believes that the word freedom means a total and unconditional commitment to support for the corporate drive to maximize profits.         

Another of these money managers who caught my eye was Amy Gutmann, who is the President of the University of Pennsylvania and the Director of the Vanguard Group. As we might imagine, Ms. Gutmann has quite a resume. This includes the National Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences, Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, World Economic Forum, Advisor: Secretary General of the United Nations, as well as other supposedly prestigious positions. 

Gutmann’s salary from the University of Pennsylvania is $3.5 million, and from Vanguard she receives a salary of $236,000. She has degrees from Radcliff, London School of Economics, and Harvard. We might also consider that only 30% of the 199 money managers in this group are women. 

The University of Pennsylvania is located in Philadelphia, the poorest of the large cities in the nation. One of the least affluent sections of the city is in the predominantly African American neighborhood of West Philly. On the other hand, the U of P is in the supposedly prestigious Ivy League with a tuition of $57,770. I’ve called this gross disparity as the U of P being an island of privilege in a sea of poverty. Apparently, Ms. Gutmann doesn’t see anything unethical about that relationship.

As I mentioned, Peter Phillips argues that 80% of the population of the world lives on ten dollars per day or less. Close to 800 million people do not have enough food to eat, with hundreds of millions lacking in direct access to water or electricity.

Phillips also argues that if there would be a 25% tax on the assets of the most affluent one percent of the population, hunger in the world could be permanently eliminated. Yet, money managers like Gutmann argue that while there are vast resources that could be used to eliminate poverty, investment funds need to be used to maximize profits. Apparently, the education and experience of these money managers taught them to view this state of affairs as ethical. 

Think Tanks

These seventeen investment banks don’t merely rely on their own information for their investment strategies. There are also international so-called groups that make investments and issue reports on the best ways of defending the free flow of capital. Two of these groups are the Trilateral Commission and the Group of 30 (G30). 

While we all go to work and try to make a living, the Trilateral Commission and the Group of 30 issue reports that are guides for where the investment banks park vast amounts of money.

Every year in Davos, Switzerland thousands meet to listen to reports. Davos is in an isolated location about 5,000 feet above sea level. This apparently, is to deter protesters from picketing the meeting. 

Corporations spend $5,000 for each of the five representatives that they send to this meeting. One of the five must be a woman. So, while corporations routinely pay women less for their work all over the world, they want to make sure that women are not totally excluded from these highly exclusive meetings. 

Another annual meeting many people from this group attend is the International Monetary Conference. Their 2013 meeting was held in Shanghai, China. One of the attendees at this meeting was Han Zheng, who is a Member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China. Zheng was one of several Chinese power brokers who attended this meeting.

China has been a center for capitalist investment for decades. While the Chinese Communist Party claims to be Marxist in its orientation, the actions of the party tell another story. First, there were the disastrous policies of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Deng Xiaoping spent several years in a reeducation camp because of his opposition to those policies. Then, after the death of Mao Zedong, Deng became the central leader of the C.C.P. and encouraged huge capitalist investment.

One reason why capitalists invested in China had to do with the fact that they wanted to stop paying relatively higher wages to workers in developed nations. Another reason was because China had a revolution that cut them off from imperialist exploitation. This meant that the Chinese government was able to make huge investments in infrastructures like railroads and highways. 

The massive investments in China enabled hundreds of millions of people to see their lives improved in many ways. However, today a huge Chinese working class toils long hours producing commodities for nations all over the world. The Uighurs of China are a nationality that has experienced horrendous discrimination because of policies of the government that calls itself communist.

These are some of the reasons why the Chinese now have a seat at the table where international capitalist financial investments are discussed. This also explains why there are about 819 billionaires living in China today.

The military support for the drive to maximize profits

Apparently, the hundreds of billions of dollars the United States government spends on the military isn’t enough to support corporate interests. Corporations spend about $200 billion more to protect their interests all over the world. So, there are several private military contractors who hire people to go to war to protect the wealth of the billionaires of the world. Today, many of the soldiers supporting the invading armies in Iraq and Afghanistan are being paid by private contractors. 

Two of those contractors are Blackwater (part of the Constellis Holdings) and G4S. G4S also runs prisons throughout the world.

Today, the governments of Russia and China also have huge armed forces. The governments of both those countries have worked with the international capitalist interests. However, because those governments are not directly controlled by capitalist interests, the armed forces they control are not seen as acceptable to many of the power brokers of the world.  

The corporations that control what we see and hear from the capitalist media 

In order for the United States government to organize a war against another nation, they must first go on a war drive. The facts are that the U.S. government hasn’t declared war against another nation since World War II. So, the President needs to have some public support for murdering people in other nations. This is one of the reasons why these public relations firms are necessary. 

The annual revenue of the media in the world is about $2.1 trillion. The share of that money in the United States is $632 billion. Of that money, the revenue for the Philadelphia based Comcast Corporation is $80 billion. 

I happened be in a demonstration in front of Comcast’s headquarters demanding that this multi-billion-dollar corporation pay for internet access for students who have not been going to school because of the pandemic. Comcast CEO Brian L. Roberts has an annual salary of about $28.6 million and his personal assets are about $1.8 billion.

The other smaller media outlets include: Disney, Time Warner, 21 Century Fox, Bertelsmann, Viacom and CBS. These huge corporations control most of the information we get from the airwaves. 

Then, there are the public relations corporations. One of those is PR organizations is the Rendon Group. The Rendon group worked to support the U.S. wars against both Panama and Iraq.

Then, there is Hill & Knowlton Strategies. The Kuwaiti government hired Hill & Knowlton to support the war against Iraq. We might recall a young woman by the name of Nayirah who claimed, “Iraqi soldiers come into the (Kuwaiti) hospital with guns. They took the babies out of the incubators, and left the children to die on the floors.” This entire statement was choreographed by the White House and Hill & Knowlton. Hundreds of thousands of the Iraqi people died as a result of the U.S. invasion of their country.  

Conclusion

According to Congressman David Jolly, Congresspeople need to raise about $18,000 every day in order to have enough money to run for office. Congressman Rick Nolan of Minnesota views himself as a “mid-level telemarketer dialing for dollars.” 

This means that these so-called representatives spend about thirty hours every week on the telephone begging for this money. The law prohibits government officials to make these phone calls from their offices in the Capitol. So, they go to call centers to beg for the money.

We might consider that heroin or crack addicts don’t need $18,000 per day to support their habits. We might also consider who these government officials are talking to. Those people might very well be connected to the 389 power brokers mentioned in Peter Phillips book. 

Everyone raised in this country is instilled with the idea that there is, “liberty and justice for all.” The educational system and the media also argue that we live in a “democracy.” However, when we begin to understand that there are 389 power brokers who have real control of the capitalist economies of the world, we might draw another conclusion. 

The word plutocracy means a government that supports the interests of the affluent. The facts presented in Peter Phillips book underscore the idea that we live in a plutocracy and not a democracy. 

Phillips wrote about what he calls the Transnational Capitalist Class. We can say that this class, represented by the 389, is ultimately interested in their international interests. They have made their indifference to the needs of the workers who produce all their wealth crystal clear. 

In my opinion, working people need to view ourselves as a Transnational or International Working Class. While the 389 support capitalist interests in the world, we need to support the interests of the working class of the world.

This was the idea Karl Marx and Frederick Engels wrote about in their 1848 Manifesto of the Communist Party. While many things have changed since that time, the idea of, “Workers of the world unite,” has never been more relevant.  

Today, about seven people have the same accumulated wealth as half the world’s population. This is one reason why 80% of the population of the world lives on ten dollars per day or less. We might imagine what it would mean if the wealth of the billionaires was used to provide for the needs of working people all over the world.

Poverty would be no more. Everyone would have the means to live a rewarding life. The environment could begin to recover. Discrimination would be no more, and we could move toward a place where there will be unconditional liberation for everyone. When we look at the world from this point of view, there can be only one conclusion. We need a completely new kind of government that makes human needs and not corporate profits the fundamental priority.

Community Control and the Pandemic

By Steve Halpern

 

The other morning, I opened up our Philadelphia Inquirer to see the lead story. This was about a report that claimed to look at why the Philly police department tear gassed peaceful protesters this past June. I happened to attend one of the peaceful demonstrations that was teargassed. I headed for home before the police teargassed the demonstrators.

 

Apparently, with all the problems Philadelphia is experiencing, the city paid Ballard Spahr LLP and AT-RISK International Inc. to conduct this make-believe investigation. What was the conclusion of this study?

 

According to the Inquirer, the report argues that, “the city’s actions through early June as the most aggressive Philadelphia response to civil unrest since the 1985 MOVE bombing.

 

The police initially argued that they needed to use teargas on Rout 676 because of the aggressive behavior of the demonstrators. That was until the New York Times released a video that was clear evidence of absolutely no aggression by the demonstrators.

 

Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw responded to these charges with the statement that during those demonstrations the police were, “woefully understaffed.”

 

Well, I attended one of the demonstrations that the city teargassed after I left for home. Before the demonstration, Mayor Jim Kenney made a statement hoping that this action would be peaceful. Given what happened on the following day, we know that the police were preparing to mobilize to harass a peaceful demonstration.

 

At Broad and Vine Streets on May 30, I witnessed a line of bicycle police separating one peaceful section of the demonstration from another section of the peaceful demonstration. Then, I witnessed a phalanx of about fifty SWAT team members marching in formation dressed in black, armed with clubs. They marched towards the peaceful demo and appeared to have the intention to cut right through.

 

Later in the day, the police arrested a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer while her press credentials were clearly visible. The police handcuffed her and kept her on a bus for two hours.

 

Since people in power felt they were “woefully understaffed” to provoke peaceful protesters, the National Guard came to Philadelphia armed with semi-automatic rifles, as well as armored vehicles.

 

After I returned home that day, I learned from reports on the television that the police were mobilizing in cities throughout the country to harass peaceful demonstrators. While the police had no reason to use teargas, the demonstrators had a legitimate right to be enraged by the murder of George Floyd, and many others by the police. After all, the salaries of the police are paid for by taxpayers who were being teargassed.

 

What is the history?

 

In order to place this story in context, we might quote from the founding document of this country, The Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

 

So, the fact that police murdered thousands of citizens, and teargassed peaceful demonstrators appears to be a contradiction of that sentence. However, there is more.

 

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers died during the Civil War to end the horrendous system of chattel slavery. After the Civil War, the government amended the Constitution to include all men who lived here. The Fourteenth Amendment argued that everyone is supposed to have “equal protection under the laws.”

 

Every day, teachers ask millions of students in this country to stand up, place their hands on their hearts, and recite the Pledge of Allegiance that argues how, in this country, there is “liberty and justice for all.” Perhaps murdering and teargassing civilians might be judged as contradictions to those words.

 

The facts are, that in spite of those words, the history of this country has gone from chattel slavery, to Jim Crow, segregation, to the mass incarceration we see today. So, after all the studies, legislative initiatives, and even an African American President, routine racist discrimination continues with respect to education, employment, housing, health care, as well as the enforcement of the law.

 

One strategy that has not been used was the one proposed by Malcolm X who argued for Black people to take control of their own communities. I saw a glimmer of what that would mean later in this same day.

 

Getting my COVID-19 vaccine

 

Because of the pandemic, we are all looking for ways of getting vaccinated. My wife, Judi contacted the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium. We both registered with their service and had our first Moderna Vaccine.  

 

We got our vaccine at the Deliverance Evangelical Church that is located in the African American community of North Philadelphia. This happens to be former sight of the home of the Philadelphia Phillies, Connie Mack Stadium.

 

From what I could tell, all of the people working at vaccinating hundreds of people were African American. Everything went smoothly and all the workers were courteous. In fact, vaccinations at this sight appeared to be better organized than in other areas of the city. Given all the tasks that needed to be completed in order to organize these vaccinations, this effort appeared to be highly successful.

 

So, the question to be asked is: How are these two stories related? Why is it that the police have been known to murder and teargas civilians, but when Black people are in charge, everything runs relatively smoothly?

 

The German Ideology by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels

 

Currently, I’ve been reading the book The German Ideology by Marx and Engels. How in the world could this book be relevant to what is happening in Philadelphia today?

 

Marx and Engels studied philosophy in Germany. In this book, they reported that the philosophers of their day developed their ideas totally divorced from the reality they viewed every day. However, those philosophies were about looking for ways of rationalizing that reality, and not about changing it.

 

So, we see a similar problem when the Pledge of Allegiance argues that there is “liberty and justice for all,” while the police murder and teargas civilians.

 

However, Marx and Engels liked to look at the root cause of the problems of workers. They argued that throughout history there were ruling powers, and then there were the people who produced wealth. There were slaves and owners of slaves. There were peasants, craft workers and lords. Today, in the capitalist system, there are workers and employers.

 

So, when the framers of the Declaration of Independence argued that “all men are created equal” and that we are supposed to have certain “inalienable rights,” they weren’t thinking about what it means to work for a living. As we know, employers have a way of advancing a, do it their way or hit the highway, style of democracy.

 

Because of the nature of capitalism, employers are always obsessed with cutting costs. This leads to their drive to discriminate against African Americans, women, immigrants, as well as Native Americans. They do this while arguing that they are vehemently opposed to discrimination. As Marx and Engels argued, there is the idea, and then there is the reality.

 

Malcolm X understood the words of the abolitionist Martin Robinson Delaney who argued:

 

“A people, to be free, must necessarily be their own rulers: that is, each individual must, in himself, embody the essential ingredient—so to speak—of the sovereign principal which composes the true basis of liberty.”   So, when we look at the actions of the government and their police, against the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, community control appears to be a clear alternative to the madness we see every day.

 

We might also consider a few more facts. The states of Pennsylvania and Ohio have populations that are similar to the population of Cuba. The cities of New York and Los Angeles have populations that are less than Cuba. In all those locations there have been over 10,000 COVID-19 deaths. In Cuba, the number of COVID-19 deaths has been 180. While the Black and Latino communities in this country have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, Cuba is 100% Latino and about 40% Black. Why is there such a stark difference between the United States and Cuba with respect to the pandemic?

 

Cuban expenditures on health care are a tiny fraction of the money spent on health care in this country. In fact, the United States leads the world in the most money spent on health care per person. However, Cuba has three times more doctors, per capita as this country. Cuba has also been training students to become doctors, free of charge, from all over the world.

 

Literally every Cuban has been visited by a health care worker, at least once, during the pandemic. Cuban scientists have developed treatments and vaccines to battle the pandemic. Cuban doctors have also travelled the world to treat COVID-19 patients. Thinking about this stark contrast in health care between Cuba and this country, I believe that the words of Martin Robinson Delaney become even more profound. “A people, to be free, must necessarily be their own rulers” 

The Attack on the Capitol and the Business of Capitalism

By Steve Halpern

A few days ago, the world viewed supporters of President Donald Trump invade the Capitol and overwhelm the security guards in the building. Clearly, over the past four years, we have seen Trump say and do many things that appear to be outrageous. However, Trump’s support for this racist mob has caused many of his most ardent supporters to abandon him. So, the question Marvin Gaye asked in his famous song has never been more relevant. What’s going on?

While I read the newspapers every day, I’ve found that the media’s view of the world is extremely jaded. When we look at their view of the attack on the capitol, all news outlets appear to be in basic agreement. 

This is their explanation of the event. A racist mob that supported the President’s attempt to decertify the election stormed the Capitol. About 147 Congresspeople also supported Trump’s effort to “Stop the steal” of the election. All of this was about the idea that the President of the United States has serious problems, and next week he will no longer be the commander and chief. 

Well, this point of view also has some serious problems. Throughout the world, many elected governments have been overthrown. Francisco Franco didn’t like the Spanish government. German fascists supported his war to overthrow the elected Spanish government. In Iran mobs supported by the United States government overthrew the government of Mohammed Mossadegh. In the Congo, mobs overthrew the elected government of Patrice Lumumba. In Chile, the military overthrew the elected government of Salvador Allende. In Venezuela, mobs attempted to overthrow the elected governments, of both Hugo Chavez and Nicolás Maduro.

We might also think about a quotation by former President Dwight Eisenhower on the war against Vietnam. Eisenhower argued that if there had been a national election in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh would have won that election by a margin of 90%. As we know, the puppet regime the United States government installed did not allow that election to take place. As a result, millions of people died in a war aimed at preventing the Vietnamese people from deciding their own fate. 

So, attempts to overthrow elected governments aren’t new in the world. The question is, why would mobs want to overthrow governments that won majorities in elections? A better question to be asked is: Why would people who have immense wealth organize to overthrow elected governments. One would think that they might be satisfied with the opulent lifestyles they’ve grown accustomed to. In order to answer that question, I believe we need to take a look at how the system known as capitalism works.

The reality of capitalism

In Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels’ 1848 Manifesto of the Communist Party, they argued that in the capitalist system, the government is a “support committee” of the bourgeoisie. Today, the bourgeoisie consists of some of the most affluent people in the world. These are the people who’s enormous wealth is totally dependent on the labor of workers in literally every country. 

So, here we see a problem the news media rarely if ever mentions. While the working class of the world produces all wealth, a tiny minority has control over the wealth we produce.

In their manifesto, Marx and Engels identified a basic problem of capitalism. Before capitalism came into being, when there was an overabundance of goods, those were the good times and the people celebrated. However, with capitalism Marx and Engels argued that there is a disease in capitalism known as overproduction. So, when there are more commodities on the market than people will buy, capitalists have been known to close down factories. This creates the contradiction that one source of scarcity for workers is the overproduction of the system.

Why would overproduction create an economic crisis? Because of the nature of capitalism, the people who control the means of production need to be obsessed with two tasks. They need to sell more and more commodities, and the need to cut costs. So, when workers in this country organized unions that forced employers to give up significant concessions, capitalists invested huge amounts of money to move their factories to other countries. In those countries, wages range between one and ten dollars per day.  

The response of capitalists to the pandemic has put a spotlight in this insanity. For a very long time, the resources have been available to eliminate poverty in the world. Yet, when the pandemic struck, corporations laid off tens of millions of workers. As a result, today there might be about twenty-million apartment dwellers who could be evicted from their homes because they don’t have the money to pay rent.

The government responded to this state of affairs by giving corporations trillions of dollars. As a result, some of the most affluent people in the world became even richer. This happened while hospitals lacked in protective equipment and ventilators. This happened while about fifty-million people in this country don’t have enough food to eat. 

Capitalists and government officials expected workers to accept this madness quietly. However, something happened that they didn’t expect. 

A police officer murdered George Floyd by placing he knee on Floyd’s neck for over eight minutes. Before the murder of George Floyd, the police had murdered thousands of Black people. However, as they say, the times are a-changing.

In the past, tens of millions of people took advantage of the so-called “American Dream.” They endured the humiliation of what it means to work for a living, but managed to get homes in the suburbs, as well as cars, and college education for their children. While tens of millions took advantage of this economic climate, the majority experienced a stagnating or deteriorating standard of living.

This has all changed. Today, young people are experiencing astronomical educational, housing, and health care expenses. Most young people see the future as uncertain. Then, there was the pandemic.

Back in 1967, I was fourteen years old, and lived in Newark, New Jersey. The Black people who lived in Newark and hundreds of other cities endured routine police brutality. Then, in the years 1966 through 1968 Black communities throughout the country erupted in open rebellion. In Newark, the governor ordered the National Guard to attack the Black community. As a result, the National Guard murdered about twenty-one people in the city.

So, many young people in this country started to think for themselves. They looked at their lives and the world around them. They see that the future is precarious. They see that racist discrimination is routine and has been institutionalized in this country. Many feel that they no longer had a good reason to sit back and allow this madness to continue, while they remained quiet. So, millions of young people demonstrated in the streets demanding justice for George Floyd, Breanna Taylor and many others who had been murdered by the police.

The capitalists respond

The people who have power in this country were challenged by the entirety of these events. While they need the economy to continually grow, the massive numbers of layoffs caused the economy to shrink. The enormous financial aid packages of the government failed to reverse the crisis in the economy. Many corporations have gone out of business. Others are only in business because of government assistance, and are now labelled as the walking dead, or “zombie corporations.” 

Some capitalists supported Joseph Biden for President. Others supported Donald Trump. Many of those who have power opposed Trump’s argument that the election was fraudulent. However, as I said, about 147 congresspeople supported Trump’s effort to decertify the election. 

We might consider that congresspeople and senators routinely talk on telephones for hours every day asking for money for their campaigns. Clearly, most of those phone calls are not to working people. No, politicians routinely ask capitalists for support, and some of those capitalists support Donald Trump.

Anyone who has been following the news knows that many of Donald Trump’s statements are bold-faced lies. Aside from arguing that the election was fraudulent, Trump has argued that immigrants bring crime to this country and have taken jobs away from workers who were born here. 

Back in 1989, Trump called for the execution for five Black teenagers in New York City. After having served up to seven years in prison, the Central Park Five were declared not guilty. They eventually received about $40 million for being wrongfully incarcerated. Yet, Donald Trump continues to argue that they are guilty. 

However, when we look at the reality of capitalism, we see that dishonesty in the government is routine. My opinion is that politicians are paid considerable amounts of money to routinely lie. 

What would it mean to tell the truth? That would mean that politicians would argue that we all need to spend out entire lives working alienating jobs, so a tiny minority can maximize profits on their investments. Telling the truth would mean that all the wars since the Civil War were about were about defending the immense wealth of the most affluent people in the world. We can see this hypocrisy clearly in the policies of former President Barack Obama.

Imagine for a moment, that a politician adopted a policy that meant that you would never see your parents or children ever again. Certainly, few if any people would support that politician. 

Now, think about the fact that no one has control over where we are born. Yet, President Obama separated thousands of parents from their children because their parents were immigrants, and the children were born here. It is possible that those parents might never be able to see their children again.

Now, think about what it would mean to be hungry, not just once and a while, but every day. Think about what it would mean if your children were crying because they don’t have enough food. Think about what it would mean for millions of people in this country who don’t have proper access to health care. According to the Department of Agriculture, there are about fifty million people in this country who don’t have enough nutritious food to eat. Certainly, these people find it challenging to access the health care system.

President Obama signed his Affordable Health Care Act. This act required those fifty million hungry people to come up with about $1,500 to pay for health care. However, even before Obama adopted this plan, health care expenditures for every person in this country were significantly more than in any other nation in the world. Much of that $1,500 dollars went to the pharmaceutical and insurance companies. 

In my opinion, asking hungry people to give up $1,500 is not something they might view as “affordable.” To make his policies clear beyond a shadow of a doubt, President Obama cut the food stamps program by $8.7 billion. While he cut aid to hungry people, President Obama doled out trillions of dollars to corporations in his so-called quantitative easing plan.

We also might consider, that for all of his efforts, President Obama was awarded the Nobel Prize.

The attack on the capitol

So, when media pundits like Trudy Rubin argue that the Congresspeople who supported President Trump’s effort to decertify the election are “brain dead” we also might consider who is making that statement. While President Trump’s dishonesty is out in the open, the routine dishonesty of pro-capitalist politicians is routine.  

The late capitalist Sheldon Adelson was an ardent supporter of Donald Trump. Before his death Adelson contributed $75 million to a political action committee supporting Trump’s reelection.

In Philadelphia, Comcast is the largest corporation and Brian Roberts is the CEO. Roberts cut all funding to the 147 Congresspeople who supported Trump’s efforts to decertify the election. While Roberts normally supports the Democrats, capitalists oftentimes finance the campaigns of opposing candidates. Clearly, they continue to gouge out profits no matter who is in office.

James Baldwin understood where the attitudes of racist mobs come from. In his book The Price of the Ticket he argued:

“A mob cannot afford to doubt: that the Jews killed Christ or that 'n—words' want to rape their sisters or that anyone who fails to make it in the land of the free and the home of the brave deserves to be wretched.  But these ideas do not come from the mob.  They come from the state, which creates and manipulates the mob.  The idea of black persons as property, for example, does not come from the mob.  It is not a spontaneous idea.  It does not come from the people, who knew better, who thought nothing of intermarriage until they were penalized for it: this idea comes from the architects of the American States.  These architects decided that the concept of Property was more important––more real––than the possibilities of the human being.”

We can also see a similar reality with respect to the massive support Adolph Hitler received from German capitalists. This has been documented in Daniel Guerin’s Fascism and Big Business, and in William Manchester’s Arms of Krupp. While we don’[t have that kind of fascist movement in this country today, we see similar forces at work. 

Today we are experiencing a political and economic crisis. The many examples I’ve used in this blog point to the fact that capitalists will not hesitate to support politicians who operate outside the borders of the law.

Donald Trump argued that he wants to, “Make America Great Again.” As Vladimir Ilyich Lenin once argued, the capitalist state is a “special instrument of repression.” There was a time in the history of this country when the Jim Crow laws legalized the discrimination against African Americans. Malcolm X talked about how that repression also existed outside the Jim Crow states with the following words: “Stop talking about the South. If you’re south of Canada, you’re in the South.” 

Capitalist governments use this repression to extract the enormous wealth workers create. They then support the system that gives this wealth to the most affluent people in the world. As many people already know, Trump’s statement about “Making America Great Again” is absurd.

However, when we look at history, we see how history rarely goes backward, and when it does, this becomes a disaster. The Nazis openly acknowledged that they wanted to go back to the times when, in effect, royal families ruled in the feudal system. In those times, the decisions of feudal monarchs were the law. As we have seen, when the fascists had absolute power, their crimes were significantly worse than the most diabolical feudal monarchs.  

As of this writing, the Congress has impeached Donald Trump for a second time. The aftermath of the attack on the capitol demonstrates that the ruling powers in this country are unwilling to overthrow the elected government in this country. However, when we look at the world, we see that there are times when ruling powers will not hesitate to push aside elected governments.

The economic and political crisis in this country will continue. Because of this reality, it is entirely possible that the next four years will be even worse than the last four. However, while there hasn’t been a mass movement of the working class in over fifty years, that doesn’t mean the working class will continue to be relatively quiescent. 

The attack on the capitol gives us an idea of the racist forces that will organize to take power. The working class has a tremendous potential to prevent that from happening. When we look at the history of struggle of the working class in the world, we see that we indeed have the potential to transform the world into a place where human needs are seen as more important than profits.