As a summer project for myself I have started reading Karl Marx’s Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Volume One. I picked up the Penguin Classics edition translated by Ben Fowkes. I’ve long been intimidated by the thick text and the reputation of being an incredibly complex read, but since leaving the throes of liberalism these past couple of years and finding clarity in Marxist ideologies I’ve also felt a responsibility to read and understand the book. Recently, I was lucky enough to see David Harvey speak at a leftist forum and during one of the panels he mentioned of his book A Companion To Marx’s Capital and I knew that this could be my opportunity finally conquer Marx’s magnum opus.
So far I’m still finding my way through chapter one, and given Professor Harvey’s description it is no easy task, but I’m having a much easier time of it than I thought I would. This has me thinking that most people see the size of the book and the inability to scan, rather than read, its pages and thus assign it such a level of difficulty.
However, it’s already helping me better understand myself and where I fall in the social divisions of labor. As a web-developer by trade, I had a hard time understanding where my work fit in on this grand scheme, but the opening pages of Capital illuminated the ideas of the commodity and the use-value, exchange-value, and value that composes it. This idea, coupled with Hardt and Negri’s description of immaterial production in Multitude has really been something of a “eureka” moment for me.
If you haven’t already read Capital or want to better understand it, I thoroughly recommend Professor Harvey’s book. Though I predict that what would have taken a long time to read is now lengthened by reading Harvey’s book simultaneously, I sure don’t mind so far.
Apparently not. I saw this on Matthew Yglesias’ blog a bit ago and didn’t immediately do anything with it as I was curious whether it would ever be widely reported. Much to my dismay it wasn’t and had it not been for Yglesias’ report on it, I unfortunately would not have seen it at all. What its lack of reporting means to us makes it all the more unfortunate.
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While platforms explode and leak thousands of gallons of death into our oceans, and while mines collapse and kill workers – our country now seems to be jumping in the way of a bullet fired generations ago. That bullet is nuclear power. Seemingly ignoring perhaps the best opportunity to make the case for transforming our country’s energy system into actual clean and renewable source dependency, our president is doing the only thing he knows how to do – catering to corporate power. The nuclear industry has been trying to resuscitate its image for decades and have found themselves the perfect cheerleader in our president.
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Yesterday, Eric Holder appeared on Meet the Press to announce the next step in America’s ever-quickening decent into a police state. With the conservatives’ continuous quest for the reversal of civil liberties in favor of control from above, (which, in an Orwellian twist of fate, is something they seem to rage against at the same time) we again discover a “need” to fix something that has not been broken and is well documented as working. The next sorry step we find ourself at is the beginning of the destruction of Miranda rights.
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In an election year when Democrats have shown the country yet again that they offer nothing to the American people and their prospects for retaining power in the senate are dismal, you would think that they would be happy to take on an issue that energizes one of the fastest growing demographics in the country, but you’d be wrong. At the same time as Senator Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer announce their new immigration plan, President Obama does them a big favor telling reporters on his plane “there may not be an appetite” for these reforms and that little to nothing can be expected on immigration this year. I can’t roll my eyes hard enough.
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While I was reading about this disastrous oil spill last week, I really thought that this would be all the proof needed to show the country and most importantly our president that the idea of expanding our offshore drilling is nothing short of stupid. Personally, I loved the Huffington Post’s headline of “SPILL BABY SPILL” and thought it the perfect response to Sarah Palin’s mindless droning. However, I am continuously surprised with the speed and ability of those who would defend the status quo and when I read this morning that Representative Gene Taylor of Mississippi compared the gulf’s oil spill to that of chocolate milk – I nearly fell out of my chair.
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Workers of the world, unite! Happy May Day, everybody. To commemorate this holiday I have been reading Sharon Smith’s Subterranean Fire: A History of Working-Class Radicalism in the United States, named after the famous quote by anarchist and Haymarket martyr, August Spies:
“If you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labor movement, then hang us. Here you will tread upon a spark, but here, and there, and behind you, and in front of you, the flames will blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out. The ground is on fire upon which you stand.”
It’s a really great book so far and provides a lot of information about the struggles fought for worker’s rights in our country. I highly suggest picking it up if you haven’t read it. I’m also planning on seeing a punk rock show being organized by a local radical bookstore – what are you doing to celebrate?
