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An example:  Department 1 produces the means of production. In this case, spatulas. It is owned by Capitalist 1, who owns a kitchenware factory.  Department 2 produces the means of consumption. In this case, burgers. It is owned by Capitalist 2, the proprietor of a restaurant.  In case of simple reproduction, let's assume that these two businesses exclusively buy and sell each other's products and no surplus is left over. This is for the sake of simplicity.  First, we'll talk about Department 1.  F is Capitalist 1's money-capital (let's assume that he borrowed money from the bank). Using this money, he buys constant capital 1.  A (constant capital 1) is Capitalist 1's commodity-capital. This refers to the means of production (MP) and labor-power (LP) which the capitalist owns. In the former, the metal, rubber (for handles), machines used to make the spatulas, and in the latter, the labor-power of his employee, who assembles these.  B isthe process by w...

This section is based on Chris Harman’s “A People's History of the World” and Paul Cockshott’s “How the World Works: The Story of Human Labor from Prehistory to the Modern Day,” both Marxist accounts of world history. The section on labor in the Philippines is based on Eskum: Manggagawa’s overview.  For 90% of human history, humans lived by hunting and gathering. Everyone did the same thing in order to live. The only differences were due to biological sex. In the case of women, they gathered plants and prepared vegetable foods since they were immobilized with the task of breastfeeding and child-rearing, and the men hunted or caught animals. But in case of burials and diet, men and women were basically the same.  Other than that, there were no rich or poor people, precisely because there was no surplus. People ate what they hunted, day-by-day, and nothing substantial was left over. And even assuming something would be left over, there would be no use for it, since everyone had ...

Two assumptions are made by the capitalist in justifying retaining surplus value for himself: (1) that he took the labor in setting up the paperwork for the business, getting permits from the government, conducting feasibility studies, etc., and (2) that due to the inherent risk of the business' failure, where in the meantime he would have to pay wages, maintain machinery, and settle his electric bills. These factors, according to him, come at a loss in the first case, and a possible loss in the second case. So, the fruits of surplus labor should be expended to (1) compensate him for realized losses, and (2) maintain a reserve fund (controlled by himself) to pay for possible losses.  This fallacy has already been attacked by Marx in his manuscript "Theories of Surplus Value," where he addresses the "Bourgeois Conception of Profit as Reward for Risk." Here, he presents a dialogue between a capitalist (A)  and his employee, a worker (B).   A starts off by making t...

Contrary to the crocodile pleas of the State, it is not the government who has the right to choose whether peace should prevail in this land. It is up to the Filipino people - the peasants, workers, and students united.  The State cannot continue to hoist up "the law" above its head and claim that "this is the will of the people." Neither can they claim that these laws are "the product of man's careful and calm reflection based on sound logic and public policy." In doing so, they foist a great falsehood on the people - one that deliberately strips them of their right, which since the first men entered into relations with each other and called that a society have had - the right to wage a people's war.  What these laws, formed by the probing investigations and deliberations by the landgrabbers in the Senate and the House, and so delicately inked onto the glossy pages in between the thick covers of the Official Gazette, are, in truth and in fact, not...

 

Q: Ano ang HB 407? ‣ Ang pangalan nito ay "Batas na poprotektahan ang karapatan ng lahat ng manggagawa, organisasyon sa paggawa, at unyon laban sa panghihimasok ng amo, pampublikong otoridad, at mga ahente nila, at mga parusa sa lalabag dito."   Q: Bakit kailangan ang HB 407? ‣ Simula't sapul nang maluklok si dating Pangulong Duterte, 56 na ang bilang ng mga unyonistang pinaslang, lalo na noong "Bloody Sunday Massacre" sa Timog Katagalugan. ‣ Pinaigting din niya ang pang-haharas sa mga unyonista, lalo na sa Nexperia, Wyeth, Optodev, at marami pang iba, lalo na ng AFP, PNP, at NTF-ELCAC.     Q: Ano ang unyon? Anumang organisayon, unyon, o grupo ng empleyado, pederasyon, o pambansang unyong at kanyang mga pangkat, sa pampubliko o pambribadong sektor. Kasama rin dito ang mga ambulante, minsanang may trabaho, sarili ang amo, nagtatrabaho sa kanayunan, at mga walang tiyak na amo. Ang layunin ay para sa sama-samang pakikipagkasundo, pakikipagtulungan, pakikipagtaguyod...