Thread by @PracticalLefty

Capitalists see themselves as job providers.

But CV19 has shown how dependent capital is on workers. It cannot exist, it cannot grow, it cannot do much of anything w/o workers.

The $$ they sat back and watched grow without lifting a finger is shrinking bc workers aren't there.

Workers provide the value off of which capital draws surplus--i.e., the profits--workers make for them. That is, the value that capitalists lift no fingers to create.

This is how capital mystifies what it does. It makes it appear capitalists are the great gifters of jobs when...

...in fact the workers are the great gifters to capital.

When workers demand higher wages, they merely expect a fairer share of the surplus value capital takes from them.

The great lie that capitalists sell is that they "give" jobs & livelihoods & workers must appreciate that.

Am I suggesting that we must therefore resurrect the failed Soviet communism? Of course not. Fact is, Soviet communism isn't at all what Marx had in mind. Capitalism was supposed to fail under the weight of its own contradictions [for one of them, see above].

MORE

But it was not expected to fail until the majority had direct experience with at least a form of democracy, so that they would expect their new economic structure would be SHAPED by democratic values. Not authoritarianism.

The Russian & Chinese revolutions weren't rebellions...

...against capitalism, but against the feudalism that hadn't yet been transformed by mercantile capitalism. There was no democracy in those states. Serfs were accustomed to authoritarian rule. They just wanted that rule to be on THEIR side rather than on the aristocracy's side.

At 1st the Revolution had strong democratic elements, as originally promised. But global circumstances intervened in contributing to the economic and institutional chaos that all revolution inevitably brings. Indeed, the effects of WWI brought on the Revolution...[MORE]

...same as the way Germans were treated by extremely punitive conditions created by conditions of surrender required by other nations in turn created the conditions that made WWII inevitable...and created the conditions for the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic devastate the globe:...

🌟50 MILLION🌟died worldwide, 675K of whom were in the USA. [COMPARE, per Johns Hopkins database, 2,196,109 confirmed CV19 cases worldwide, & 149,024 dead. But it's likely greater due to inadequate testing & many dying at home w/no medical supervision.]

arcgis.com/apps/opsdashbo…

The contagiousness & deadliness of CV19 is far greater than even the Spanish flu's. As w/1918, we have no vaccine. But we do know better how to contain the contagion and to keep it from overwhelming our medical system...so long as people cooperate. Unfortunately [MORE]

...we have many "grown ass" adult babies going about telling the gov't "you are not the boss of me!" & they are getting support fm the worst possible administration [read infantile] to deal properly w/a pandemic.

[What I would like to do with those people....never mind!]

MORE

...and guess what's driving it all?

This is where we go back to the 1st several posts in this thread.

The virus is in its infancy. It's becoming clearer that falling ill w/it does not create immunity & there will be more waves of infections & deaths. Bc it can be contagious....

...for so long among anti-symptomatic carriers [who may themselves have some kind of immunity so they never actually have symptoms...and many may have had it long before the 1st official cases showed up], it is obvious to anyone with a brain capable of logic & paying attention...

...to the news that we MAY be stuck w/it for yrs to come, if not for the remainder of human life on earth.

While vaccines are being fast tracked [and capitalist eyes glow w/giant $ signs], millions more will sicken and die. Fewer will sicken & die if we follow the rules. MORE

Here again, w/ calls to put the economy ahead of people's lives...namely, WORKERS' lives, and the lives of their families...we see the fault lines of late stage capitalism widening. Those lines are more VISIBLE than they were before, as the veil of mystification falls away.

This cannot continue. That 2% death rate [which is millions, btw] will GROW exponentially IF rules are relaxed w/o significant safeguards in place. None of which we have and most of which employers will not likely to consent to or cooperate w/ [note existing OSHA violations] ...

...bc it will require too much of that surplus value to be put into preserving lives already considered to be expendable.

They want workers to come back & keep creating the surplus value their $BN assets require so they will grow, maybe, to $TNs.

Guess what, folks?

There's no better time for workers to join together & demand conditions for returning to work.

More pay [i.e., greater share of that surplus value], better work conditions, better safety conditions, better health care [full cov'g for everything], better pensions, better SS.

Turn CV19 around. As devastating as it is emotionally when our loved ones die, it actually gives workers--if they JOIN TOGETHER--the opportunity to use the revelations re: late stage capitalism to empower themselves.

While Marx couldn't have predicted that a pandemic...

...would demystify capitalism to workers as it collapses around them, making a truly democratic revolution possible, there's still some truth to his prediction that late stage capitalism will collapse.

The open question is: will workers use the power it has given them...

...to benefit all workers, or will they stand passively by, accepting crumbs thrown at them, as has always been the case since feudalism? Will we shrug passively at that power --power we've always had but couldn't see as well before... & let authoritarians drag us back to work...

...in virtual shackles?

Flash tho't derived from this [tho I'm sure other lefties have arrived at it as well]...

Capitalists want everyone back at work giving their all [including their lives] so the mystification will continue.

& of course they fight "socialism" w/lies...

...that say the only alternative to capitalism is Soviet or Chinese style communism...who wants that?

So workers absolutely must get back to giving capitalists the surplus value they claim to own already.

But nothing says the people can't create something better for all.
[more]

NOW IS THE OPEN MOMENT...

medium.com/@matrixeditori…

Full thread here...

...or continue to read as separate tweets below.