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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 ...