Introduction A popular coal-miner’s riddle from the 1930s summarizes one of capitalism’s most visible and absurd contradictions. After a daughter asks her father why their home is so cold, he tells her they don’t have any money to purchase coal. He explains they don’t...
The class struggle in every commodity: Use value and exchange value
Editor’s note: A Spanish translation of this article is available here. Introduction Every year, Pew Research publishes a study on the U.S. population’s political priorities. Their 2024 report shows that, like the previous years, “no single issue stands out after the...
Capitalist contradictions and revolutionary struggle: An introduction
Introduction Hearing or reading about the “contradictions of capitalism” in an article or at a rally might be intimidating, like a foreign language or a term only a certain group can understand. While the contradictions of capitalism are complicated, working and...
Homelessness, public space, and the limits to capital: An interview with Don Mitchell
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted via e-mail during February-March 2021, in response to Don Mitchell’s latest book--Mean streets: Homelessness, public space, and the limits to capital--and his overall work on space and capitalism, which can provide us with...
What is democracy?
“Bourgeois democracy, although a great historical advance in comparison with medievalism, always remains, and under capitalism is bound to remain, restricted, truncated, false and hypocritical, a paradise for the rich and a snare and deception for the exploited, for...
Production, overproduction and overproduction crises
Author’s note: The following article was mostly written before Donald Trump became president-elect. His electoral victory if anything strengthens the thesis presented that imperialist governments, led by the U.S., will soon shift from a focus on monetary policy toward...
What is capitalism?
The economic reality of the United States today is one of vast inequality in wealth and living standards. At present, 31.1 million households do not have enough food to eat in an average year. Housing within the means of average Americans is increasingly scarce,...