Basic Workings of Capitalism. A Must watch for Working People.

Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired
GED/HEO

Great short explanation of how capitalism, or the capitalist system of production works, by Richard Wolff. It is this very basic reality that is the reason Marx is so demonized in capitalist society. He is attacked by the media that the capitalist class owns, by the various institutions, religious hierarchies, universities, the courts and so on, that prop up the system and participate in the lie that it is fair and equitable and those that prosper most do so because they work harder or are smarter. The poor, they say, will get their reward in heaven. A most important institution for the capitalist class is a political party that propagates this set up, makes the laws and so on. In the US they have two such parties, Democrats and Republicans, we, as of this writing anyway, have not one.

Once we see the world as it actually is, once we tear away the veil of deception, we understand why we are facing the ongoing crises we are. Why there is hunger, sickness, never ending war and insecurity.The surplus, or profit, is the goal and capitalism cannot survive without this process that impoverishes the worker and destroys the environment. It cannot be made nice.

For the worker we are alienated from the product of our life activity, from the product of our labor; we don't posses it. In this short example, we can see that the system is exploitative, it "rips us off" as we say. If we accept this explanation above, and for me as a worker it corresponds to objective reality. And I think that this is how we must judge whether something is true or not, if it corresponds to objective reality. Then we can see that there is an explanation for why societies can't develop. Why in some countries, including our own, there is no health care of note, no public health services, like sewer systems or clean drinking water. Capitalism cannot provide these and so people die. Wars are the product of the competition between global capitalists for that surplus. It's that simple.

It's nothing to do with Satan, abstract arguments about good and evil. Nothing to do with character flaws, or lack of morality or faith.

But like the addict that denies they are addicts because to accept that they are means they feel compelled to do something about it, the worker sees that it will mean serious conflict between the producer of the surplus and the owner of it  and we know the capitalist class will resist, will use violence and the state and its security forces to maintain the status quo, history shows us that and we experience it in the workplace and on picket lines.

The formation of unions improved our lot to a degree but the war between the class of capitalists and the class of workers will never end until we, the producers of that surplus, take possession of it collectively and take possession of the labor process out of which it arises.

We have the social power and numbers to do that and the capitalists know this which is why they use all means under their control to divide workers, to set us against each other and so on.

The class struggle is not some lefty slogan, it is the natural result of a system of production and historically capitalism isn't the first, but we can make it the last.