ALB
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Here's a recent example of a misinterpretation of "fictitious capital" by a group in the Marxist tradition leading to a theory of the financial meltdown of capitalism similar to that embraced by many currency cranks. It's from a new manifesto by Internationalist Perspectives who emerged from the ICC some years ago now and some of whose stuff isn't that bad. Unlike this:
Quote:Capitalism has, especially in the last 60 years, increasingly sought refuge in money creation, either to stimulate production and consumption, or to stimulate the growth of the hoard, propping up its “value” despite a declining rate of value creation in the real economy. In other words, a massive creation of fictitious capital, not resulting from new value but created out of thin air, has been mixed into the pot. Money has grown at an increasingly faster pace than “the real economy”, that is, than the value of the commodities that are actually produced and sold. Therefore, it must devalue. But that only happens when production and consumption are stimulated despite the lack of profitability. The result is high inflation, endangering the value of money as such and thus of the entire hoard.A second approach has been more efficient: by forking over newly-created money directly to capital (meanwhile demanding austerity from the rest of society), the hoard has been successfully defended. Most of that new money never enters into circulation except within the hoard itself. It therefore causes no inflation (again, except in the hoard). While propping up the demand for financial assets, the money is sterilized in the coffers of central and private banks in the fortunes of the super-rich. There, it does no good (only a small fraction of it re-enters the productive sphere) but also no harm. Precisely by not re-entering the circulation of commodities, the hoard hides the fictitious nature of the money that is created without a corresponding creation of value. The program of the capitalist left would accomplish the opposite and reveal the fiction. And it is on this fiction that capitalism rests. The belief that money is value and that value is real wealth. If that belief falters, capitalism breaks down.Name hasn't been decided by EC yet. Last time we contested (2012) it was "The Socialist Party (GB)". But we can now use "The Socialist Party (SP-GB)" if we want or of course "The Socialist Party of Great Britain". Personally, I like "The Socialist Party (SP-GB)".We will use our only registered emblem. It's different from what we used in the general election. I'm sure Gnome can post it here.
Cameron has finally admitted that he lied about there being 70,000 "moderate" rebels in Syria ready to support Britain's bombing campaign against ISIS. As everybody knew from their words and deeds, most of these so-called "moderates" are fanatical Islamists just as bad as IS, rival gangs that want to impose sharia law on the workers and peasants of Syria instead of ISIS:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/12096133/David-Cameron-admits-70000-moderate-Syrian-army-contains-relatively-hardline-Islamist-militants.html
That's not quite what he said, just that technology replaces jobs. This doesn't mean that technology creates wealth instead of workers, but that fewer works create wealth using the new technology. It's still human labour that creates wealth or, rather, fashions, using human made machines, materials that originally came from nature into useful goods and services.
Yes, I thought that there weren't supposed to be any workers in America as everybody (except the filfthy super rich) there is supposed to be middle class. Revealing slip of the tongue on his part.
Sounds like the Planet Capitalism. The bloke from Child Poverty Action seems to be living there too if he thinks that the problem can be solved within capitalism. The government ensuring that the destitute don't get more than the bare minumum, that's par for the course under capitalism.
JamesH81 wrote:That is what I'm trying to work out, action that is not DISRUPTIVE but in support of the Junior / Student nurses ! ?
….Violence is one thing. Disruption is another. There's a long tradition of non-violent "disruption" (Gandhi, Martin Luther King and all that). In a sense strikes come into that category. Those in charge are not going to take much notice otherwise.
The strike was both democratic (in the strike ballot 98% voted for) and peaceful. Anyway, it wasn't about the establishment of socialism, just about getting better working conditions under capitalism. What were these (and other) workers supposed to do: let their employers walk all over them?
Just drove past Kingston hospital. There was a small picket outside with placards saying "NOT FAIR. NOT SAFE". A motorist tooted as they drove past. So I did too. Might as well have a so-called "fair day's wage" as long as the wages system lasts….
Yes we did. Personally I assumed that it would not have been a mistake but part of Andrew Neil and his team's plan to discredit us, also reflected in his questions. Par for the course with political journalists. But, despite this, we got our general political position over and even a few enquiries.
Here's another example of media manipulation of an item currently in the news:http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13941019000780Of course this might be Iranian propaganda but presumably the images can be checked and we do know what the Saudi royal despotism is capable of.Antidote: watch RT and Press TV as well as the BBC and Sky. As Dave B has pointed out, the truth can emerge from arguments between two liars.
robbo203 wrote:http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-03-27/piketty-s-three-big-mistakes-in-inequality-analysisRognlie seems to think the problem of increasingly inequality lies with landlordism. Any comments?Henry George rides again ! Though that's seems to be more the interpretation put on what Rognlie wrote by the author of the article, Noah Smith, who seems to be a Georgist (see for instance some of his other articles, eg this).All the same, it is interesting that so many of those in the Sunday Times Rich List are either the landed aristocracy owning land in London (eg the Duke of Westminster) or jumped up property speculators. But of course their gains come from capitalists not from directly exploiting workers, so we'd be talking about increasing inequality within the owning class. As if we should care about that.
I know that this is only tangential to the main point, but this passage from the SWP is worth commenting on:
SWP wrote:Those of us who have been in revolutionary organizations assume that everyone knows about the Russian Revolution and other revolutionary risings. In the past, even the reformists we debated knew something about these issues: it was part of a shared culture. That's no longer true.This is an unusually perspicacious comment from them. It's true but is it a good thing or a bad thing? Obviously it's a good thing that the Russian Revolution has faded as a model for the socialist revolution but other parts of the "culture" shared by critics of capitalism up until the 1990s faded too, eg "working class", "capitalism", "socialism". "revolution" but these fortunately do seem to be coming back.
That was obviously the right decision despite who said it, in fact perhaps even because of who said it. It means we can say nasty things about his religion too without being prosecuted (and they about us, of course).The BBC has reported this comment:
Quote:Boyd Sleator of Atheist Northern Ireland said: "His (Mr McConnell's) comments were offensive but we are allowed to be offensive and I would never want to see anybody prosecuted for being offensive. His comments were idiotic, his comments were silly," he said.Good to know that there are some atheists in Northern Ireland (cue for the joke: but are you a Protestant Atheist or a Catholic Atheist?)
