Displaying a heretofore unknown passion for political economy, Biden the scholar explained to the assembled reporters that “capitalism without competition
is not capitalism, it’s exploitation.” Actually, he’s wrong. 1/
Capitalist exploitation is rooted in the extraction of surplus value from the working class — the essential prerequisite for capitalism whatever the state of competition among the owners of the means of production. 2/
Moreover, the hankering for a capitalism where competition flourishes is a nostalgic fantasy, which did not exist even in the distant days of Biden’s youth, let alone by the time he was dispatched to the Senate by the DuPont corporation to look after its interests. 3/
The drive for monopoly and the extinction of competition arises, as Marx explained in 1867, out of the “immanent laws of capitalistic production itself, by the centralization of capital.” He added: “One capitalist always kills many.” 4/4

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More from @DavidNorthWSWS

Jan 19
The #NYTimes spells out the #herdimmunity strategy of the Biden administration: "By infecting large numbers of people quickly, it’s also generating immunity quickly. And that counts toward making #COVID19 a more manageable illness..." 1/
The author admits this may be "cold comfort" to those who get sick and die now. "As older age groups are infected things may deteriorate further, but the situation is still vastly better than if people hadn’t already accumulated some immunity against Covid." 2/
He adds: "The immunity Omicron will leave behind might well be a major step toward making Covid a manageable illness by providing more protection against future surges and variants. ... But the immunity generated by Omicron is not going to lead to the extinction of the virus." 3/
Read 4 tweets
Jan 13
School reopening advocates and apologists invariably invoke the impact of #remotelearning on children's mental health. What they do not talk or write about is the shattering impact on a young person of a parent's sudden death due to #COVID19. 1/
"The Burden of Bereavement," published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in September 2018 - before the pandemic - examined the long-term effect of parental death. "The loss of a parent," it wrote, "is one of the most stressful events that a child can experience." 2/
The study established that the loss of a parent is for children an emotionally catastrophic event with long-term consequences. Over a 7 year period, bereaved children suffered "depression, post traumatic stress disorder, and functional impairment." 3/
Read 6 tweets
Jan 12
Of all the vicious anti-Chinese propaganda pieces Ms. Li Yuan has churned out for the @NYTimes, this ranks among the filthiest. As always, her aim is to portray China's ZeroCovid policy -- which has kept deaths below 5,000 people -- as a monstrous violation of human rights. 1/
The article is titled: "The Army of Millions Who Enforce China's #ZeroCovid Policy, at All Costs." Her technique is to sensationalize individual incidents -- actually reported in the Chinese press -- as examples of pervasive brutality. 2/
Li Yuan cites the following incidents: 1) a man in Xi'an who failed to gain admittance to a hospital died of a heart attack; 2) a pregnant woman, with an invalid Covid test, lost her baby; 3) two security guards beat up a man who was caught violating lockdown rules. 3/
Read 10 tweets
Dec 31, 2021
The reduction of history to "narratives" and the claim that the struggle between these "narratives" are merely conflicts over the distribution of power evades the decisive issue of objective truth. 1/
The materialist conception of history, developed by Marx and Engels in the 1840s, uncovered the objectively existing driving forces of world history in the economic structure of society and the class struggles to which it gave rise. 2/
It made possible the application of scientific method to the study of history as well as contemporary events. The categories that it utilizes in the study of society - i.e., class, productive forces, social relations, capitalism, feudalism, slavery - exist objectively. 3/
Read 12 tweets
Dec 29, 2021
The #CDCGuidelines establish the continuity between the Trump and Biden administration's subordination of public health to corporate financial interests. In April 2020, Trump ended social distancing rules to facilitate the reopening of businesses. 1/
wsws.org/en/articles/20…
At that time, US #COVID19 deaths stood at 34,000. The WSWS warned: "Trump’s plan...is not conceived from the standpoint of public health, but to ensure that major corporations are allowed to get back to the business of squeezing profits out of workers as quickly as possible." 2/
The WSWS added: "Trump’s back-to-work campaign aims to normalize death on a massive scale, in which outbreaks of COVID-19 are seen as the cost of doing business...As far as the ruling class is concerned, if workers die, they will simply be replaced." 3/
Read 4 tweets
Dec 20, 2021
The victory of #GabrielBoricPresidente will not stop the growth of fascist forces in Chile, let alone, as the Democratic Party-DSA's @jacobinmag claims, "move the country toward social democracy..." Remember the lessons of the Chilean coup of 1973. 1/
wsws.org/en/articles/20…
Nearly 50 years ago, in February 1972, Luis Figueroa, head of the Chilean trade union federation (CUT), addressed a press conference in NY organized by the Stalinist Daily World. He spoke with rapture about Chile's unstoppable march to socialism under Allende's leadership. 2/
As a reporter for the Bulletin (predecessor of the WSWS), I asked Figueroa what his trade union federation was doing to prepare workers to defeat an inevitable attempt by the Chilean military, allied with the CIA and local fascists, to overthrew the Allende government. 3/
Read 5 tweets

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