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 Table of Contents

• What is Class?
• What are Wages?
• Is Wage-Labor a Voluntary Exchange?
• The Purchase of People
• Getting Paid vs. Getting Richer
• The Market: Capitalism’s System of Distribution
• 7 Main Characteristics of a Market Economy
• Alienation of Labor
• Immigration: Cheap Labor, Nationalism, and Borders
Nature
• Capitalism and Nature
• Capitalism Devours Nature
• Capitalism is Ecocide
Glossary of Terms
• Democratic Socialism vs. Social Democracy

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 Return to Table of Contents

What is Class?
1

What is class?

When people speak about class, what exactly do they mean by "class"?

While the word "class" usually refers to economic inequalities within societies, there are
different ways of understanding class. Today, the most common is to think of class as a
demographic which categorizes people into groups or tiers defined by their range of income
or wealth.

In this way of thinking, "class" is a location on a scale, and the names of these locations are
such things as upper class, upper middle class, middle class, lower middle class, lower class,
and under class.

The existence of income and wealth inequality is obvious, but there's another way to think of
class which tells us not only that economic inequality exists, but gives us greater insight into
the causes of these inequalities, the ways in which systems of inequality operate, and the ways
in which the people within these systems relate to one another.

Class is more than simply categorizing people based on their common or different levels of
income. Class is, first of all, a social relation.

Social relations are the many ways in which human beings are connected to one another, the
ways in which we interact with, associate with, or affect one another.

There are many types of social relations. Some social relations are voluntary and freely
chosen, such as when a person chooses to associate with a friend, a partner, or some groups.
Other social relations may be involuntary, or initially chosen for them by others, where people
can be socially related as members of a family, a group, an organization, a community, a
nation, etc.

The social relations that determine class as the relations of production: the total number of
social relations that people must enter into in order to produce and reproduce their means of
life, the things that allow them to live and to have a life worth living.
 3

Class societies consist of two main, broad categories of people in relation to one another: a
class of producers and a class of non-producers.

Producers are people who work to producer, transport, and distribute the goods and services
which allow societies to exist.

Non-producers are those who do not participate in the direct production of goods and
services, but live off of the production of others.

The labor of the producing class also falls into two distinct categories: necessary labor and
surplus labor.

Necessary labor is labor which producers expend to producer their own livelihoods (the
necessities and comforts of life).

Surplus labor is labor which produces a surplus beyond what's necessay for producers to
producer their livelihoods.
The surplus product produced by surplus labor is what the non-producers of class society
take from the producers for their own use. This surplus product becomes the material basis of
life for the non-producing class.

Generally speaking, there are two possible ways for people within societies to organize their
labor and their lives:

1. The first is a classless society where producers (whether individuals or collectives)

organize themselves and their own labor, and distribute the products of their labor among
themselves as they decide (whether individually or collectively).

2. The second is class society, where one class organizes the labor of another class for the
purpose of producing and appropriating (taking for their own use) a surplus product.

But what determines this relation between producers and non-producers? What makes it
possible for one class to organize the labor of another class, and take the surplus produced by
another class, in the first place?

In class societies, the producing and non-producing classes relate to one another through
their relation to a third thing called the means of production.
 6

The means of production is a term which means all of the things that humans use to transform
nature into useful forms capable of satisfying their wants and needs. These things include:

1. The natural resources and raw materials used in production.

2. The tools and machinery used to transform those materials.

3. The infrastructure and equipment used to transport, store, and distribute those transformed
materials.

4. The facilities and workplaces where work is performed.

Why is it important to understand the relationship between producing and non-producing

classes and the means of production? Because power over the means of production is power
over people.

Power is the capacity to influence or control the conduct or behavior of others.

Because people need to produce in order to fulfill their needs, controlling the means of
production means controlling people's ability to fulfill their needs. Controlling people's ability
to fulfill their needs is a direct way of controlling people.

Power over the means of production, and thus people's ability to fulfill their needs, removes
power from the producing class and gives power over producers to the non-producing class,
and is what allows for one class to take the surplus produced by another.

How non-producing classes enforce their power over certain means of production and their
power over the producing class varies throughout history. For example:

Under slave class societies: through outright legalized ownership of people, brutally enforced
through violence, domination, and dehumanization, where the non-producing class of slave
owners owned both the means of production and the producing class of slaves, as well as all
of the products of their labor.

Under feudal class societies: through legal and military customs, where the non-producing
class of monarchs and lords held military power over lands (a means of production) and
granted the producing class of serfs the right to farm those lands in exchange for loyalty,
labor, and taxes and presents in the form of shares of their crops.

Under capitalist class society: through the transformation of the means of production into
private property.
 9

In capitalist society, private property is a "right" of ownership over some means of production
for a person (or group) to use, abuse, neglect, dispose of, or alienate (keep separate from
others) as they see fit.

"Rights" are moral or legal entitlements defined by some legal system or social convention,
and what counts as a "right" in any society is usually determined by the moral standards of
that society's dominant class. "Rights" are no inherently ethical. Rights can be ethical, but
they can also be unethical, such as the "right" to own slaves. They can also be exclusionary,
such as the "right" to vote, which has excluded many people throughout different periods of
history.

Private property is also an exclusionary "right" which excludes all but a limited group of
people (or a person) from the productive capacity of the human species.

Often the term "private property" is used in a way that blurs the lines between "ownership of
the means of production" and "ownership of personal items" so that in conversation the two
are regarded as being the same things.

But "private property" more specifically refers to ownership of means of production, while
ownership of personal items is better referred to as "personal belongings".

10

Exclusive ownership of the means of prodution as "private property" is a relation to the means
of production in which some people are owners and other people are not.

This relation to the means of production results in a new social relation between people, a
relation of production between two opposing classes. This relation of production is a class
relation where one class owns and controls the things people need to produce their lives,
while another class owns and controls only their ability to work. In capitalist class society,
these classes are:

1. The working class (also called the proletariat), which is the producing class of capitalist
society. They relate to the means of production as non-owners.

2. The capitalist class (also called the bourgeoisie), which is the non-producing class of
capitalist society. They relate to the means of production as owners.

Because the working class has the disadvantage of non-ownership over the means of
production, they have the disprivilege of needing to sell their labor-power and surrender the
ability to organize their own labor to the capitalist class in order to earn wages to buy the
things they need to live.

Because the capitalist class has the advantage of ownership over the means of production,
they have the privilege of buying the labor-power and organizing the labor of the working class
in order to set their means of production into motion to produce and appropriate (take for their
own use) a surplus product.

11

Surplus product takes on different forms depending on the different forms of production
throughout history. What is the surplus product produced under capitalism?

In capitalist society, when workers produce commodities (goods and services for sale), they
produce value.

Values (or commodities containing value) are exchangeable with other values. The ratio at
which values are exchanged with other values is called their exchange value.

Because workers also sell their labor-power (their capacity to perform labor) as commodities,
their labor-power also has an exchange value.

The difference between the exchange value of workers' labor-power and the exchange value
of the products they produce is called surplus value.

Surplus value is the form of surplus product under capitalism. It is the surplus which the non-
producing capitalist class takes for themselves to sell for profit. This process, where the
capitalist class lives off of the surplus labor of the working class and the surplus value it
produces, is classed surplus value extraction, and is an important part of the capitalist mode
of production.

12

A common claim is that capitalists and workers share an equal place in capitalist society
because individual workers can also own some means of production. But are all means of
production the same?

The means of production can also be divided into two categories: individual means of
production, and social means of production.

Individual means of production are instruments of labor which are workable by individuals,
such as hand tools, small machines, workshops, and small plots of land. Adapted for the use of
one worker, they are necessarily small and simple, with a limited productive capacity, while
the number of tasks and processes involved in production can usually be completed locally.

Social means of production are workable only by a collectivity of individuals, such as large
industrial machinery, factories, power plants, and networks of producers in an extensive web
of production. Adapted for the coordinated use of many workers, they are often larger and
more complex, with a greater productive capacity, while the number of tasks and process
involved in production can span across the globe.
Ownership of some individual means of production is not the same as ownership of the social
means of production. Social means of production, with the combined productive power of a
collectivity of individuals, are able to produce commodities far more cheaply, and in much
greater quantity, than individual small producers.

The greater productive power of a collectivity of individuals, working in coordination, make the
social means of production capitalist society's dominant means of production. Private
ownership of the dominant means of production puts the capitalist class in a position of
dominance over capitalist society and the working class, including those workers who might
own some smaller, individual means of production.

13

Like all class relations, the relation between the capitalist class and the working class is a
relation of exploitation.

Exploitation occurs when members of one class use their position of social or economic
advantage against the disadvantage of members of another class in order to gain at the
expense of another's loss.

The capitalist class uses their position of advantage (exclusive ownership of the means of
production) against the disadvantage of the working class (non-ownership of the means of
production) in order to gain (receive for themselves, in the form of surplus value, more than
the amount of labor they put in) at the expense of working class people's loss (receive for
themselves, in the form of wages, less than the amount of labor they put in).

In this exploitative relation, the material wellbeing of the exploiting class (which comes from
the surplus produced by the working class) depends on the material deprivation of the
exploited class (who are deprived on the means of production, and can only access the
products of their own labor if they can afford to buy them).

14

In class societies, where an owning class (slave owner, lord, capitalist, etc.) organizes the
labor of a producing class (slave, serf, wage-worker, etc.), there is a tension between these
two opposing forces.

The owning class is concerned with the production and appropriation of surplus wealth, which
requires surplus labor and exploitation. The producing class is faced with the problem of
reducing or eliminating their surplus labor and exploitation. "Freedom" for the owning class is
freedom to exploit the producing class. Freedom for the producing class is freedom from the
owning class.

The coexistence of two opposing classes (exploiter / exploited) with two opposing interests (to
exploit / to be free from exploitation), results in an antagonistic relationship where each class
struggles against the other. This is known as class struggle.
In capitalist society, class struggle can appear in a number of ways. For example:

For capitalists, in the struggle to increase the hours of labor for workers, to reduce worker
wages, to prevent, dissolve, or weaken the formation of worker organizations (such as
unions), to pass or repeal laws in favor of their accumulated wealth, to direct society's ideas
and cultural values in ways that strengthen their perceived right to exploit, and so on.

For wage-workers, in the struggle to decrease their hours of labor, to increase their wages, to
form worker organizations, to pass or repeal laws that favor workers, to recognize and share
awareness of themselves as an exploited class, to organize as a class, and to free themselves
from exploitation.

15

Between the two classes of capitalists (bourgeoisie) and wage-workers (proletarians) is a

class that shares attributes of both: a self-employed class of small proprietors (for example,
owners of small stores) and general handicrafts people who are both owners of some small
means of production and workers who participate directly in the production of commodities.

This class is an intermediate or transitional class known as the "petite-bourgeoisie", or small

proprietors, who are mostly small, individual producers.

Although the petite-bourgeoisie can sometimes afford to buy the labor-power of wage-
workers, they typically work alongside their employees, unlike the bourgeoisie. Like the
bourgeoisie, the petite-bourgeoisie can sometimes be personally wealthy, but, like proletarian
producers, they can also sometimes be very poor.

The petite-bourgeoisie often aspire to become bourgeoisie themselves by starting a small

business and expanding it into a large business capable of buying the labor-power of others.
Some succeed and become capitalist employers. This aspiration often leads small proprietors
to align politically with capitalists over workers.

But because large factories and retail outlets can produce and distribute commodities faster,
better, and for cheaper prices than small proprietors, many are driven out of business by
larger competitors and pushed into the working class. This is part of a process called
proletarianization: the process of people moving from being either an employer, self-
employed, or unemployed, to being employed as wage-workers.

Proletarianization, which includes the movement of the petite-bourgeois class into the
capitalist class and working classes, results in an increasingly divided class society with two
major poles and a shrinking class of self-employed producers.

16

Capitalists sometimes need more workers, sometimes less. Due to their constantly changing
needs and the varying condition of the overall economy, demand for labor-power is constantly
fluctuating. To cope with this and ensure that the supply of labor-pwer never falls below the
demand, capitalism requires a surplus of workers.

Because labor-power is sold as a commodity, the prices of labor-power are subject to the
forces of supply and demand like all other commodities. Fluctuations in the demand for labor-
power (relative to the supply of workers) results in fluctuations in wages.

Under capitalism, full employment would mean the demand for labor-power becoming equal to
or greater than the supply, raising the price of labor-power and reducing the ability of
capitalists to make profits.

But full employment never occurs under capitalism. As unemployment decreases (and the
price of labor-power increases) employers buy less labor-power. This ensure that there is
always a surplus or reserve supply of labor-power; in other words, a permanently unemployed
and underemployed portion of the population who cannot exchange their labor-power for
wages, and thus cannot afford to fulfill their needs.

The unemployed, who are looking for work, but exists as part of a supply beyond the demands
of capital, are called the reserve army of labor. This reserve supply of labor, along with those
who are unable to work, is called the relative surplus population. Unemployed workers, who
make up the reserve army of labor and the relative surplus population, are a permanent
feature of capitalism.

17

Within the relative surplus population is a portion of the population who are unable to find a
stable place within capitalist class society as either capitalist, wage-worker, or petite-
bourgeoisie.

Chronically unemployed, rejected, refused, abandoned, and thrown away, these individuals
are unable to provide for their needs in the usual ways (wage-labor, or starting/owning a
business, etc.). Out of necessity and desperation, they often turn to illegal activities, or are
pushed into increasingly dangerous, violent, exploitative, or dehumanizing work. This portion
of the population is called the lumpenproletariat.

No longer being wage-workers seeking employment, and turning to criminal activities to

provide for their needs, the lumpenproletariat are considered to be de-classed, or demoted
from their original social class.

Incapable of eliminating unemployment and desperation from capitalist society, capitalism

must have police, judicial, and prison systems to "protect" itself from, and punish, the
criminals it has created.

18

Class relations can be complicated, and the capital-labor relation can structure the lives of
individuals in many complex ways. While plenty of people might fall into the categories of
"pure" wage-worker or "pure" capitalist, others may occupy more than ne role within the
capital-labor relation.

The "pure" wage-worker and the "pure" capitalist are comingled with others in a diversely
structured crowd.

Within this diverse crowd, the opposing forces of capital and labor are engaged in constant
struggle.

19

Under capitalism, where society is dominated by a capitalist class, is it possible for capitalists
and wage-workers to be equals in society, and to have an equal share in the governing of
society through democracy?

Democracy, as an ideal, is a system of collective decision-making that allows for every person
to have an equal voice in the decisions that affect their lives.

Does this exist in a society where the rich use their wealth to control political systems and
leaders to further entrench their wealth by pushing for tax breaks, blocking redistributive
policies, and dismantling worker protections? Where the rich and powerful get their policies
adopted into law even when opposed by the majority of voters? Where electoral candidates
are more likely to win when backed by wealthy donors? Where private owners have near
dictatorial power over the workplaces where workers spend the majority of their lives?

Democracy under capitalism does not give an equal voice to all people. Members of the
working class, who have little time and few financial resources, have little to no real
participation in the "democratic" institutions of our governments. Democracy under capitalism
exists only to a certain extent, in the form of democracy for the owning class, where capitalists
hold enough wealth and power to shape political institutions and society according to their
interests.

20

Socialists seek to formally end capitalist class society and ain form the creation of a socialist
classless society.

What might a classless society look like?

Rather than a society where one class dominates and organizes the labor of another in order
to appropriate a surplus product, people would organize themselves and their own labor, and
distribute the products of their labor among themselves as they decide in order to directly
fulfill their needs.

Rather than a society where producers spend the majority of their awake hours performing
surplus labor to produce a surplus product for a class of non-producers, people would need
only perform necessary labor, allowing people to work less overall and spend their lives
enjoying life.

Rather than a society where the goals and direction of society are dictate by those with the
most wealth and power, for the benefit of those with the most wealth and power, a classless
society would open up the possibility for the whole of humanity to socially determine its own
goals, for the benefit of the whole of humanity.

21

How would socialism create a classless society? Firstly, by socializing ownership of the means
of production.

In earlier times, when commodities were produced by individual producers with their own
materials, their own tools, and their own labor, whoever owned the means of production
naturally owned the products of their own labor.

Under capitalism, the primary means of production have been transformed from individual to
social means of production; the vast majority of production is performed not by individuals
working alone, but by a coordinated collectivity of individuals. Production under capitalism is
not individual production, but social production.

But while the means of production and the labor required to set them into motion have become
socialized, ownership of the social means of production and appropriation of the products of
social labor have not.

One of the ways socialism aims to transform class society into a classless society is by
continuing the process of socialization to its logical conclusion, to transform private
ownership into social ownership, so that no person is excluded from or materially deprived on
the productive capacity of the human species, or the products of social labor.

22

Once the social means of production are socially owned and controlled, how would society
determine what to produce, and how to distribute the products of social labor? In general,
there are two driving forces that determine society's mode of production and distribution.

Production for use: The driving force of production for use is to produce and distribute things
that are immediately useful, without the need to exchange something (labor, money, etc.) in
return. This method of distribution is direct. The products of labor are distributed directly to
the people who need them. Producers don't produce (or organize production) in order to make
money, they produce to fulfill needs. The fulfillment of needs is the primary purpose of
production.

Production for exchange: The driving force of production for exchange is to produce things
that can be sold in order to generate profits. This method of distribution is indirect. The
products of labor are not distributed according to need, but are temporarily removed from use
and distributed to people only if they have money. Producers don't produce (or organize
production) in order to fulfill needs, they produce to make money. The fulfillment of needs is
secondary to profits.

Under capitalism, the indirect distribution of the products of social labor on the market, the
need for workers to sell their labor-power for wages on the labor market, and the permanent
feature of under/unemployment, ensure that countless people's needs are never met.

Under socialism, society would organize production according to a definite and scientific plan,
without the presence of a market, so that the products of social labor are available to each
person and community for free, according to their need, regardless of whether the recipients
have anything to exchange in return.

23

Under a socialist mode of production, where the social means of production are socially
owned and controlled, and social production is organized for direct distribution according to
need, class society would cease to exist.

With the means of production socially owned and controlled, no person will be deprived of the
ability to produce (or have produced for them by society) whatever they need, and no person
will be able to exploit the disadvantage of non-owners for their own benefit.

With social production and distribution organized according to need, no person will have to
exchange money for the products of social labor, meaning no person will have to sell their
labor-power to capitalists in exchange for wages.

An end to wage-labor would mean an end to surplus labor, and freedom from the forces of
capital which dominate our lives. An end to surplus labor would mean a decrease in the overall
amount of time spent laboring, and in increase in free time, which people could use to develop
themselves and their communities as they wish.

24

Class struggle is the conflict that exists between workers and the ruling capitalist class in
capitalist society.

The goal of a socialist movement is to bring about an awareness of the working class as an
oppressed and exploited class, unite the working class, and transform ordinary day-to-day
class struggle (such as the struggles for healthcare, or a higher minimum wage) into
revolutionary struggle.

A revolution is the overthrow of one class by another, followed by rapid societal change from
one mode of production to another.
A socialist revolution would mean the overthrow of the capitalist class by the working class,
followed by a rapid transformation of society from a capitalist mode of production (for
exchange) to a socialist mode of production (for use).

25

Overthrowing the capitalist class (the bourgeoisie) is not enough. The capitalist class is a
"ruling class" because their private ownership of the social means of production gives them
authority over workers, and their wealth gives them political authority over capitalist society's
governmental institutions, but the bourgeoisie don't rule over capitalism itself.

Abolishing (formally ending) the capitalist class does not mean the capitalism itself is
abolished. The capitalist class is a product of capitalism. Removing them from their positions
of class dominance without dismantling the system that put them there isn't a solution by itself.

For a socialist revolution to be successful, the working class must abolish not only the
capitalist class, but also itself as a class, and the methods by which capitalism operates.
Capitalism is more than its class relations. Capitalism is an order or logic. For the working
class to abolish itself as a class, the mechanisms that motivate and perpetuate capitalism
must also be abolished.

Without doing so, the development of capitalism and the accumulation of capital will continue,
and the working class will continue to be subordinate to its demands.
 Return to Table of Contents

What are Wages?

1

What are wages?

If you were to ask someone how much they get paid from their jobs, you’d get different
answers depending on who they work for or which industry they’re employed in.

A fast food worker might tell you they’re paid $8 or $9 per hour; a banker might earn $50k or
$60k per year; a steel fabrication worker might make $15 or $20 per hour.

But despite the different answers, these workers would all agree: their wages are the amount
of money their employers (capitalists) pay them for a certain period or amount of work.

So it would seem pretty obvious that employers buy their workers’ labor, and that workers sell
their labor to their employees.

But what an employer actually buys is, more specifically, your labor-power.

Labor-power is a term meaning a person’s capacity to do work, which is distinct from labor,
which is the act of doing the work. Labor-power is potential, whereas labor is kinetic.

Once a worker’s labor-power is bought, employers use it up by having their employee labor for
a period of time, and during that time they will try to get the most labor out of the worker’s
labor-power possible.

In the same way that an employer might buy 10 yards of fabric, 20 pounds of flour, or 30 sheets
of steel, they also buy a certain amount of a worker’s labor-power. But instead of being
measured and bought in units of yards, pounds, or sheets, labor-power is measured and
bought in units of time, most often by the hour (for hourly employees) or by the year (for
salaried employees).

Labor-power, like fabric, flour, or steel, is a commodity. A commodity, in simple words, is

anything which can be bought or sold in order to satisfy a want or a need.
A worker’s primary commodity, which they can sell to satisfy the need of an employer, is their
labor-power. In exchange for their labor-power, the worker receives money, which they can
exchange for other commodities such as food, clothing, electricity, and so on.

So the exchange between employer and employee (capitalist and worker) is really an
exchange of commodities: the capitalist receives a certain amount of the commodity labor-
power to fulfill the needs of their business, and the worker receives a certain amount of
commodities (in the form of money) to fulfill the basic wants and needs of life.

In this exchange, money is used as a placeholder, a way to represent the exchange value of
labor-power. Exchange value simply means, “How much of this commodity can be exchanged
for that commodity?”

Since an employer can’t possibly have on-hand every commodity that a worker wants or
needs, the exchange value of the worker’s labor-power is estimated by the employer and paid
to the worker in the form of money.

The exchange value of any commodity estimated in money is called its price. A wage is the
exchange value of labor-power estimated in money, so the word “wage” is just a special word
meaning the “price of labor-power”, a special word for a special commodity which can only be
found in human form.

Are a worker’s wages actually a share in the product of a worker’s labor?

Let’s take for example a worker employed by a furniture manufacturer. The employer supplies
their worker with the wood, nails, glue, and fabric, as well as the machinery and tools needed
to perform the work. The worker gets busy and puts together ten chairs. The employer then
takes the chairs and sells them.

Are the worker’s wages a share in the sale of those chairs?

No. Whether the employer sells the chairs for a profit, a loss, or only manages to break even,
the worker will receive their wages, usually long before the sale of the product.

Employers don’t pay employees from the money they receive after selling a commodity, but
from the money they already have in their possession, with already existing capital.

The worker who built the chairs doesn’t receive a share in the sale of the chairs because the
worker does not own the chairs anymore than the materials or the tools used to build them.
 6

The relationship between the capitalist employer and the worker is not a business partnership
where two parties each receive a share in the product of their shared work. Instead, the
capitalist buys a worker’s labor-power in the same way that they buy materials or productive
equipment such as machinery and tools, or any other instrument of labor.

A worker’s labor-power, their capacity to perform work, isn’t something which they can sell
separately from themselves.

So to the capitalist, the work is an instrument of labor.

Why does a worker sell their labor-power?

In order to live.

But turning labor-power into action (performing work) is the active expression of a person’s
own life. It is a life-activity which can often be the source of our greatest joy and self-
expression.

This life-activity is what every worker sells, as a commodity, in order to receive what they need
to continue to exist. Workers sell their very lives so that they can stay alive.

Work becomes not a part of life, but a sacrifice of life.

For the worker who has no choice but to sell portions of their life to another, the product of
their life-activity is no longer the goal of their life-activity.

Chairs aren’t what the furniture manufacturer’s employees make for themselves; shirts aren’t
what the clothing manufacturer’s employees make for themselves; meals aren’t what a
restaurant’s cooks make for themselves.

Workers produce these things for capitalists. What they produce for themselves is only one
thing: wages.

For the worker who spends 8, 10, or 12 hours a day building chairs, sewing shirts, or cooking
meals, do they consider that activity to be a manifestation of life? Do they consider that to be
life?

Not often. Life for the worker begins where these activities end. Those long hours of work have
no meaning except to earn a wage which enables them to finally leave work to enjoy some
entertainment, to eat, to sleep, to spend a little time with their families.
 9

Labor hasn’t always been wage-labor, and labor-power hasn’t always been sold as a
commodity.

Under slavery, a slave doesn’t sell their labor-power as a commodity. Slaves are themselves
sold as commodities, and their labor-power belongs to the slave owner once and for all.

Under feudalism, a serf sells a portion of their labor-power to the owner of the land. Serfs don’t
receive wages from their lord; instead the lord receives a tribute from the serf.

Under capitalism, a wage-worker has no choice but to sell portions of their life to those who
are private owners of the means of production.

The worker appears to have a choice in the sale of their labor-power, because they can
sometimes leave the employment of a particular capitalist if they want to. But for the worker
whose only source of income is the sale of their labor-power, they can’t leave the employment
of the capitalist class as a whole, unless they give up their existence.

As a result, wage-workers don’t belong to one particular capitalist, but to the entire capitalist
class.
 Return to Table of Contents

Is Wage-Labor
a
Voluntary Exchange?
1

When a worker sells their labor-power to a capitalist for a wage, is it a “voluntary exchange?”

Workers under capitalism occasionally have the freedom to choose whether to sell their labor-
power to this capitalist or that capitalist, so the worker appears to have a choice. But can they
choose to not sell their labor-power (and therefore portions of their life) altogether?

In reality, if a worker weighs this option, they discover that the choice isn’t a choice at all, but
comes down to this: work (for the capitalist class) or face starvation and homelessness.

For the worker whose only source of income is the sale of their labor-power, the choice has
been removed beforehand, especially if they have families or loved ones who also depend on
their incomes.

This amounts to coercion: the practice of persuading someone to do something by the use of
force or threats. In this case, workers face the threat of losing their means to survival. They
don’t experience this threat from one particular capitalist, but from the entire capitalist class.

But haven’t people always had to work for their survival?

Of course. Nature compels us to work in order to fulfill our needs. Work has always been and is
still essential to our survival. It’s also essential to expression of who we are as individuals, and
inseparable from our nature as a species.

Socialists are not at all opposed to working or being compelled to work by nature; they’re
opposed to being compelled to work under the direction and rule of a dominant and
exploitative class. In capitalist societies, that dominant and exploitative class is the capitalist
class.
By privately owning the means of production, the capitalist class exploits our need to work for
survival for their own benefit, to ensure that we’re compelled to work for them.

Rather than have workers labor for the benefit of the wealthy, socialist seeks to liberate
workers so that they can work under their own rule, through democracy, so that the full value
of their labor benefits themselves, their loved ones, their communities, and society as a whole.

We all have to work to survive. We do this best when we work together, and we al live better
when we work to fulfill the needs of every person.
 Return to Table of Contents

The Purchase
of
People
1

The purchase of people.

Under capitalism, capitalists purchase amounts of labor from wage-workers. The amount of
labor purchase is measured in units of time, usually by the hour. When labor is purchased in
units of time, it becomes a special commodity (a good or service for sale) called labor-power.

This exchange between capitalists (employers) and wage-workers (employees) creates an

illusion: that a worker is even capable of selling their labor or their time separate from
themselves in the first place. Hidden behind this illusion is a truth: that a person’s labor and
time are, in reality, inseparable from their person.

This means that with the sale of human labor-power comes the purchase of not only people’s
labor and time, but also of people.

The basic difference between the slave and the wage-worker is this: the slave is sold by
another all at once and as a whole, while the wage-worker must sell themselves to once
capitalist or another, again and again, hour by hour, piece by piece.
 Return to Table of Contents

Getting Paid
vs.
Getting Richer
1

Getting paid does not mean the same thing as getting richer.

Under capitalism, employees (workers) sell their labor-power to employers (capitalists) in

exchange for wages.

You may have heard proponents of capitalism claim that this exchange between employer and
employee is one where both are getting richer.

This sounds true, because both are receiving something which they previously did not have:
the capitalist receives labor, the worker receives money.

But what each gets out of the exchange are actually two different things.

When a capitalist receives labor from a worker, what they’re receiving is an increase in the
value of their capital.

Capital is wealth in the form of money or other assets which is used to generate more wealth.
Money used for investment and assets such as machinery, production equipment, facilities,
company branding, company vehicles, patents, software, and so on are all examples of
capital.

When a worker receives wages from a capitalist, what they’re receiving is money which they
will mostly use to purchase consumables.

Consumables are commodities (goods and services for sale) that are intended to be used up
and then replaced. Commodities like food, water, gas, clothes, electricity, medicine, personal
vehicles, rented housing, and so on are all examples of consumables.
 3

To become richer means to increase your wealth.

If a worker uses most or all of their wages to buy consumables (which they need to continue
their existence, or to maintain a standard of living), then they are not getting richer. After
those consumables are bought and used, the worker has no more wealth than they had to
begin with.

The only party who is getting richer in this exchange is the capitalist, whose capital value is
increased by the labor of the worker.

While capitalists get richer, competition between capitalists on the market and competition
between workers within the labor market pushes wages downwards, meaning workers have
less and less money to spend on the consumables they need.

This is what is meant by the phrase, “The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.”
 Return to Table of Contents

The Market:
Capitalism’s System
of
Distribution
1

In capitalist economies there is a disconnection between needs and the fulfillment of needs.

There are people without homes, without food, without clothing, without healthcare, without
electricity, without drinkable water; the list of unfulfilled needs is without end.

The production of goods and services is higher now than at any point in human history, which
should be a good thing for everyone. And yet the waste of those goods and services has also
achieved historic heights, and much of what societies produce never reach the people who
need them.

So at a time in human history when production could fulfill the life needs of every person, why
doesn’t it?

Part of the answer can be found in capitalism’s method of distribution.

Economics is primarily about two things:

1. Production (making things).

2. Distribution (getting this things to the people who need them.

The distribution of goods and services is essential to every economy. Distribution is how we
determine who gets the things that are produced in society, and how much of those things
they get.
In capitalist economies, how much of something gets distributed and who it gets distributed to
is determined by one thing, a system of distribution called the market.

A market system of distribution is one where goods and services are traded in exchange for
other goods and services.

Although it’s possible to exchange some goods and services through bartering, exchange
within a capitalist market system is primarily done through the use of money.

Money is a medium of exchange; it’s a facilitator which is intended to make the exchange of
goods and services (called “commodities”) easier by representing all of the potential
commodities which it can be exchanged for.

The market system is how capitalism distributes goods and services. When society produces
something, if a person wants or needs that something distributed to them, they have to buy it
through the market system and the process of exchange.

The moment at which a person purchases something is the moment at which their want or
need is connected with the thing that fulfills their want or need.

But this system of distribution—which everyone in capitalist societies relies on to connect

their needs with the fulfillment of their needs—is also the very same reason why so many
people’s needs are never fulfilled.

Without a sufficient amount of money, the chain of distribution becomes broken, and the goods
and services which societies produce don’t reach the people who need them. People’s needs
become disconnected from the fulfillment of their needs.

For example, in the U.S.:

3.5 million homeless people are disconnected from 18.6 million empty homes (a ratio of almost
6:1).

1 in 6 people face hunger and food insecurity and are disconnected from 60 million tons (or
$160 billion) worth of annually wasted produce foods

6
If goods or services exist which people could use to fulfill their needs, then it would seem
logical to most people that what a society should do is distribute them to the people who need
them so that they can use them.

But in a capitalist market economy, goods and services aren’t produced for use; they’re
produced for sale.

In a market economy, increasing and maximizing profit, rather than satisfying social needs, is
the aim of all production.

This difference in the intent—the main goal and purpose behind production—dramatically
affects why we produce, what we produce, how we produce, when we produce, and for whom
we produce.

Since production under capitalism is guided by the drive to obtain money and profit, workers
are directed (by capitalists) to work on producing goods and services which will make the
most profit (for capitalists); in other words, those things which people with the most money will
want to buy.

Many things which societies could produce in order to provide for people’s needs aren’t
produced at all, or are produced in insufficient quantity, while labor and resources are wasted
on the production of empty and pointless products, or luxuries for the rich.

Many other things which societies do produce (as in the case of produce like fruits and
vegetables), are often thrown away if capitalists decide they are unmarketable to those with
money, even if those things are in acceptable conditions and will satisfy the needs of those
who don’t have the money to buy them.

The way capitalism organizes production is also the very same reason why so many people
don’t have enough money to acquire the goods and services they need in the first place.

Because capitalists have to compete with one another to sell their commodities for the best
price on the market, they must do everything they can to increase efficiency and produce at
the lowest possible costs, or risk being out-competed and driven out of business.

Because capitalists need to reduce production costs to stay competitive, they experience
pressure from the market to keep workers’ wages as low as possible, and to terminate jobs
which are not seen as profitable.

This means that workers have less and less money to buy (have distributed to them) the goods
and services that they need, and which they themselves produce. Many workers have very
little money at all, and many others are without jobs and money entirely.
 9

Capitalism produces for sale, not use. But imagine a system of economics which does the
opposite.

Imagine a system where societies produce for use.

Imagine a system where instead of workers competing against one another to sell their labor
to capitalists, or being told by capitalists how to direct their labor, workers come together to
decide for themselves how to direct their own labor, to decide what to produce and who to
produce it for.

Imagine a system where instead of competing for money, members of societies cooperate and
work together, not for the production of luxuries for the rich, not to produce empty, pointless,
and redundant products, or to let the useful things they produce go to waste, but to plan
production and distribution for the fulfillment of every person’s needs.

This is the type of system which socialism aims to achieve.

 Return to Table of Contents

7 Main Characteristics
of a
Market Economy
1

7 Main Characteristics of a Market Economy:

1. People buy whatever goods and services they want, but only if they can pay for them
with money.
2. Money, therefore, becomes necessary for life.
3. People are forced to do or sell anything in order to obtain money for their survival.
4. Increasing and maximizing profit rather than satisfying social needs is the aim of all
production.
5. Discipline over those who produce the wealth of society (workers) is exercised by
money, by those who have the most money, and by the conditions of work that one must
accept in order to earn money.
6. Rationing of scarce goods is based on who has more money rather than who has
worked hard or longer or has a greater need for those goods.
7. Since people are technically kept from trying to get rich, and workers are paid for their
labor, people acquire a false sense that each person receives (and has received) what
they deserve economically, and that both the rich and the poor are responsible for their
life circumstances.

These characteristics of a market economy reverberate throughout capitalist societies and,

like falling dominos, cause many social and economic problems to escalate, such as:
increasing inequality between the rich and poor, worsening exploitation of workers, growing
unemployment, increasing political influence for those with more money, and an increase in
economic crimes and acts of desperation.
 Return to Table of Contents

Alienation of Labor
1

When you think about the hours you spend at work, what sort of feelings do you experience?
Fulfillment? Meaning? Connection? Belonging? Empowerment? Happiness?

Or do you experience the opposite of these? Does work feel meaningless, hopeless, without
purpose, or without end? Do you feel trapped, as though you have no control over your own
life? Does it leave you feeling lonely, distant, or isolated? Does it feel like an obstacle to your
real hopes and dreams, to becoming the person you want to be?

If you've ever felt the second way about your work, then there's a very good chance you've
experienced something called alienation.

Alienation is a word which describes the coming apart of things that belong together, and
which belong together in such a way that to separate them goes against their design.

When humans experience alienation, we experience a separation of ourselves from important

parts of what it means to be human, the separation of which goes against our human design
and can cause us to feel stressed, worried, lonely, dissatisfied, despaired, and even lacking in
identity or meaning in life.

Alienation under capitalism occurs in many ways, but for wage-workers (those who sell their
labor-power to capitalists in exchange for wages) it begins with the alienation of labor.

The Alienation of Labor

Labor (performing work) is a life-activity. A life-activity is the active expression of one's life
through action. As a life-activity, labor has the potential to be one of our greatest sources of
fulfillment, of enjoyment, of empowerment, of connection with others, and of realizing who we
are as individuals.
For human beings, this life-activity is one of the most important parts of being human.

Under capitalism, wage-workers must sell this life activity--one of the most important parts of
their humanity--in order to survive. The result is a separation of ourselves from our labor (the
coming apart of things which belong together). This separation is called the alienation of labor.

There are four main parts which make up the alienation of labor.
1. Alienation from the Products of Our Labor.
2. Alienation from the Labor Process
3. Alienation from One Another.
4. Alienation from Self.

1. Alienation from the Products of Our Labor.

Human beings produce in order to fulfill their needs; and not only for their physiological and
safety needs, but also their psychological, social, emotional, self-esteem, and self-realization
needs—needs which all humans have. When we produce for our own fulfillment, for the
fulfillment of those we care about, and according to our own design, we see ourselves and
others reflected in the products of our labor. products of our labor gain meaning to us.

Humans also produce as a means of empowerment. Having the ability to transform the natural
world with our own labor is a tool which empowers us to create our own freedom, and to grain
control over our own lives.

When wage-workers produce under capitalism, they produce things which are not of their own
design nor meant for their own fulfillment. Because of this, wage-workers develop a sense of
alienation (of no longer feeling connected) to the products of their labor. They do not
recognize the products of their labor as being products of their own creation. The products of
their labor lose meaning for them.

Under capitalism, the product of a wage-worker's labor is not only removed of meaning, but is
also physically removed from their possession; what the worker produces is not owned by the
worker, but by a capitalist. The means the removal of empowerment from the worker, which is
then given to the capitalist. The product of the wage-worker's labor no longer serves to
empower themselves, but to empower others with power over them. The product of their labor
is no longer for their own liberation, but for their domination.

2. Alienation from the Labor Process

In nature, most species produce what they need according to instinct. Humans produce
differently. Rather than produce entirely by instinct, we're driven to produce freely (of our own
choosing) and consciously (of our own design). Humans learn, build upon the knowledge of
others, and imagine their own designs and methods of production. For us, the process of labor
isn't only a means to an end, but is itself a fulfilling and enjoyable source of freedom and
creative expression.

Under capitalism, the option to produce freely is removed from wage-workers, who are not
owners of the means of production, and so have little to no choice but to sell their labor-power
to capitalists, who are owners of the means of production, in order to survive. Wage-workers
no longer experience their labor as a source of free, but as the removal of freedom.
The option to produce consciously is removed from wage-workers, who have little to no choice
but to produce according to the design and methods of their employer's choosing. Wage-
workers no longer experience their labor as a source and outlet for their creativity, but as the
removal of their creativity.

The option to choose the conditions under which they work (where they, how many hours,
sitting or standing, when to rest, etc.) is also removed from wage-workers, who have little to
no choice but to accept whatever conditions are imposed upon them by their employer.

3. Alienation from One Another

Through the majority of human history, humans worked to produce not only for themselves,
but for one another, to secure each other's safety, love, and belonging. This drive to care for
and produce for one another is a psychological need which ensures our greater chances of
survival when fulfilled. Working as an act of unity and shared responsibility towards others
allows us to connect to one another as human beings.

Capitalism atomizes us. It reduces us from the social creatures we are to the level of
individuals. It expects us to stand on our own, contrary to our design, and directs us to pursue
individual self-interest above all.

To survive under capitalism, wage-workers compete against one another to sell their labor.
Rather than work in cooperation to ensure each other's survival, wage-workers work in
competition. Rather than seeking to uplift one another, to secure each other's safety, love, and
belonging, wage-workers must perceive each other as potential threats to their survival,
whose full-time jobs are to exclude, scrutinize, out-compete, push out, and push down other
human beings.

Wage-workers are also often physically separated from one another, quarantined to their
assigned work stations, cubicles, or offices in order to discourage and minimize social
interaction while maximizing production (and profit) for the capitalists who employ them. As a
result, wage-workers often see each other as strangers, and so feel isolated, lonely, and
disconnected from one another.

This alienation doesn't always end after work. Even during their off hours, wage-workers are
often so stressed about their income and survival the they're unable to provide their loved
ones with the emotionally attuned care and attention they need. They may be physically
present, but become emotionally absent. This can be especially detrimental to children who
need the constant interaction of the adults in their lives for their healthy development.

4. Alienation from Self

Humans don't only create commodities with their labor, they also create themselves. Our work
can be our greatest means of realizing our deepest potential. It has the capacity to help us
realize our innermost talents and interests, some of which we may not even be aware of.
What we do, what we create, and what we contribute to the world is directly connected to who
we are, and so our labor gives us a way to understand and develop ourselves as individuals, to
express ourselves and our full humanness.
Under capitalism, alienation from their labor means that wage-workers are alienated from the
potential to realize themselves through their labor, and so they are more and more alienated
from themselves and the opportunity to develop themselves according to their own hopes and
dreams, possibly one of the worst effects of alienated labor.

With the majority of their time, labor, and energy spent working to create wealth for capitalists,
stressing about their income, and worry about their survival, wage-workers more often than
not have little to nothing left to dedicate to the pursuit of their own development and their own
happiness. Alienated from their labor and themselves, wage-workers begin to feel more and
more than something is missing from their lives, that life has become meaningless and
unsatisfying. The work only to stay alive, not to truly live.

All of these add up to wage-workers becoming alienated from large parts of what it means to
be human. The vital relationship between humans and their labor is among the most important
aspects of our humanity; it's what distinguishes us from many other species, or from simple
machines.

When wage-workers are forced by the conditions of a class system to sell their labor-power, to
objectify a part of their humanity as though it were a commodity to be bought and owned by
another, as though it were an object separate from themselves rather than an essential part of
themselves, they are being dehumanized.

Dehumanization is what occurs when human qualities are removed from human beings, when
human beings are regarded as being not fully human or not human at all. To consider a vital
part of a human (their labor-power) as an object (a commodity) is to consider that part of them
as being not human at all, and so is to regard that human as being not fully human.

For wage workers, to not be considered as fully human means to not be treated as fully human,
and to not experience life as a fully human life. For wage-workers who are alienated from their
labor, human life exists only outside of their work, rather than inside their work. Their labor is
not a part of life, or the expression of life, but a sacrifice of life.

Socialism aims to reduce, and one day even eliminate, alienated labor by placing the working
class in power over the means of production (factories, workplaces, machinery, tools,
infrastructure, natural resources, etc. used for production), and thus give workers ownership
and control over their own labor, as well as the fruits of that labor.

By no longer being coerced by a class system to subject their labor to the dictatorial demands
of their capitalist employers and the capitalist class as a whole, workers will be free to direct
their labor according to their own choosing and to the needs of the working class, for their
own benefit and for the benefit of humanity, rather than for the profit of an exploitative class.

Socialism seeks to restore to the working class the products of their own labor, and their
sense of pride, accomplishment, and empowerment in their labor; their ability to produce
according to their own design, and under conditions of their own choosing; their connection
with other human beings through their labor and their sense of solidarity and shared human
destiny; and their natural right to develop themselves freely through their labor.
 Return to Table of Contents

Immigration:
Cheap Labor, Nationalism,
and Borders
1

Today, anti-immigration sentiment--the feeling that nations should secure their borders and
limit or ban immigrants from entering their countries--is on the rise in many parts of the world.

But where does this feeling come from?

Anti-immigration sentiment may come from many places, but among the largest contributors is
capitalism. Here are two main contributing and competing factors to consider:

1. The capitalist class's demand for cheap labor.

2. Nationalism.

1. The capitalist class's demand for cheap labor.

In societies where capitalism is the dominant mode of production, there are two primary
classes: the capitalist class, who own the means of production and buy the labor of workers,
and the wage-working class, who do not own the means of production and must sell their
labor-power to capitalists.

For capitalist employers, keep the costs of production as low as possible is necessary for their
business's survival. If production costs get too high, they may be out-competed by other
capitalists. One of the ways in which capitalists lower production costs is to buy labor-power
for the lowest possible price; in other words, to pay workers the least amount of money in
wages they can get away with.

The capitalist class has an interest in employing immigrants (whether documented or

undocumented) because workers from poorer countries are often willing to work for far less
money, for far longer hours, and under far worse conditions than non-immigrant workers. This
means more profit for capitalists.
 3

So if immigrant workers are a benefit to the capitalist class, why does it so often appear as
though capitalists are against immigration, and in favor of anti-immigration policies?
Often capitalists are not against immigration, but against legal immigration.

Although documented immigrants are very profitable for the capitalist class, undocumented
immigrants are even more profitable because when an employer underpays them, overworks
them, forces them to work in unsafe conditions, or abuses them in any other way, the fear of
punishment, deportation, and even separation from family keeps them from going to the law
for protection. An undocumented worker is an unprotected worker who cannot demand fair
treatment or better pay.

In some cases capitalists will even bring undocumented immigrant workers across border to
work at their facilities. Yet at the same time the capitalist class encourages fear and
resentment of immigrants among non-immigrant workers through privately owned, for profit
news and media companies.

When non-immigrant workers are fearful and resentful of immigrants, they develop prejudices
and demand harsher anti-immigration laws. But these laws don't stop immigration; they only
make immigrant workers more vulnerable to unfair pay and inhumane treatment.

Not only are immigrant workers made vulnerable, it also means that some non-immigrant
workers--those who compete against them in certain areas of the labor market--must accept
lower prices for the sale of their labor-power, which depresses wages and furthers
resentment.

Another misconception is that when immigrants move to new locations, they "take all the jobs"
from non-immigrants. In reality, because immigrants are also consumers and must buy goods
and services for themselves and their families, they also create demand for those goods and
services. Immigrants also often open their own businesses. Both of these mean more jobs, not
less.

Unemployment and lack of job opportunity aren't the result of immigration, but are everyday
features of capitalism. Unemployment benefits the capitalist class, and exists for a number of
reasons:

Under capitalism, a worker's labor-power is considered a commodity--a good or services for

sale. Because wage-workers must sell their labor-power (and thus themselves) as
commodities, they are subjected to the forces of supply and demand like all other
commodities. A supply of workers which is greater than the capitalist class's demand keeps
the prices of labor (wages) low. If the supply is less than or equal to the demand, wages
become higher, and capitalists buy less. Keeping the price of labor low means there will
always be a vast pool of unemployed workers who are unable to provide for their existence.

A large supply of unemployed workers also means that employees are easily replaced. This
keeps workers fearful of losing their jobs and less likely to stand up to their employees. And if
workers shows signs of unity amongst one another, they can simply be fired. The existence fo
unemployment and the threat of poverty, homelessness, and loss of social status that comes
with it is a powerful motivator which coerces workers into laboring for the profit of capitalists,
following the orders of capitalists, accepting the working conditions of capitalists, and
accepting low wages for their labor.

Other contributors to unemployment under capitalism:

If a worker's talents and skills can't produce profit for capitalists, then they are no considered
by society to be useful. This means that only certain workers will find jobs; meanwhile, those
whose talents and skills don't match the demands of capitalists are left on their own, and the
useful work they could contribute to humanity, which is very much needed, goes undone.

Advances in technology also mean that when machines can produce more for lower costs,
human beings become expendable. Rather than allow technology to ease workloads so that
workers can work less to fulfill their needs, workers lose their jobs and means to survival
altogether (while those who keep them work harder than ever). If they're lucky, these workers
either accept lower paying jobs or obtain schooling or training for more complex jobs, often at
great person cost and risk. If they're unlucky, they'll become a part of the growing
unemployed.

Competing to sell their labor means that workers must compete against one another for their
survival. The worse this competition becomes, the more hostile workers become to one
another.

Without being able to identify capitalism and the capitalist class as the source of their
troubles, workers may lash out and blame one another, even resort to racism, sexism,
xenophobia, homophobia, or any other form of prejudice or "othering", in a desperate attempt
to maintain a privileged status with the capitalist class.

For capitalists, placing the blame on immigrants is an easy way to keep non-immigrant
workers from recognizing their common interest in uniting with immigrant workers against the
exploitative capitalist class, and ensures they remain divided against one another instead.

2. Nationalism.

Conflicting with the capitalist class's demand for cheap labor is another feature of capitalism:
nationalism.

With the lands and territories of the world divided into the private property of capitalists, large
numbers of human beings no longer have access to the resources that once sustained them.
With access to land and other means of survival removed from them, people are funneled into
cities--centers of capitalist production--where they have little choice but to sell their labor-
power to survive.
Because of this, capitalism introduces increased level of competition, anxiety, uncertainty,
frustration, hostility, and volatility into society. To confront this volatility and maintain their
positions of dominance over the working class, the capitalist class needs laws, such as private
property laws, and a state to enforce them.

To enforce the laws that protect their property and ensure their positions, capitalists use the
state and its institutions of coercion: the police, prisons, judiciaries, militaries, and so on. In
other words, bodies of armed men and women who are ready and willing to apply violence, if
necessary, in the interests of the capitalist class.

But in a world of increased volatility, where people are increasingly resistant to the political
and economic institutions that govern their lives, the use of force is not always enough.
Another way to ensure submission to these institutions is to establish consent (agreement or
permission) to their authority.

To get workers to consent to the state and its institutions of coercion, to get them to submit to
their authority rather than rebel against it, a feeling must be created among workers of
belonging to a nation, and of a nation belonging to them. But if a nation belongs to some
people, it must also not belong to others.

Nationalism--the idea that people should place patriotic loyalty, devotion, and promotion of
their nation's interests and culture above those of other nations--is a tool of the capitalist
class.

Nationalism convinces working class people that their interests and the interests of the
capitalist class are aligned, that they share the same values and goals as "countrymen and
patriots". This hides the division between the two opposing classes so that workers are less
likely to recognize themselves as a class separate from the capitalist class.

Rather than be able to perceive themselves as excluded members of an exploited and

dominated class, working class people are misdirected into identifying themselves as included
members of a nation. Class identity is replaced by national identity. The read division and
struggle between the working class and the capitalist class is then replaced with an artificial
division between the ordinary working class peoples of the world.

This artificial division encourages anti-immigration sentiment among non-immigrant workers,

and keeps the working class of different nations from recognizing themselves as members of
the same class, regardless of borders, and from unifying against their common opponents, the
capitalists of every nation.

Nationalism is especially useful to the capitalist class in times of economic hardship. When the
capitalist economy experiences a crisis which results in hard times for the working class,
nationalism can serve to redirect attention and angers towards "enemy" nations and leaders,
distracting and switching focus from "those who caused and benefited from the crisis vs those
who suffer from it" to "our nation vs their nation".
 10

Nationalism is also used to justify the type of foreign policies, political interventions, and uses
of force on other nations which are a major cause of immigration in the first place.

Capitalists are not only opponents of the working class, they also compete for dominance over
one another. To dominate another nation's economy, exploit their laborers, and deplete them
of their wealth and natural resources, capitalists utilize the power of states to intervene and
destabilize other nations, to overthrow leaders who are resistant to their exploitation, and
replace them with leaders who are more compliant and who may also benefit from their
exploitation.

Nationalism convinces workers in the dominant nations that the actions of their nation, which
are done in the interests of their capitalist class, are justifiable and good--no matter how
criminal or inhumane. It convinces them that if their ruling class is "winning", then as members
of the same nations they must be winning too.

These interventions--whether direct or indirect--create conditions of poverty, turmoil, and

violence for the working people of these nations. Afraid for their lives and those of their
children, they are left with little choice but to leave their homes in search of safety and
security.

11

What are borders?

Nationalism and the capitalist class's demand for cheap labor are two contradictory and
competing features of capitalism. Borders serve to mediate (to find an agreement or balance)
between these two competing features.

Borders (along with the laws that enforce them) can be thought of as the walls of a water tank,
and points of entry (along with the laws that govern them) are like valves which control the
flow of workers into and out of a nation.

When more workers are needed to satisfy the capitalist class's demand for cheap labor (and
increase the supply of workers to decrease the cost of labor over-all), immigration controls
can be loosened to increase the flow of workers into a nation. To decrease, stop, or even
reverse the flow of workers, immigration controls (along with deportations) need only to be
tightened again.

In the same way that borders regulate the flower of workers coming in, they also keep to many
workers from going out. But like many other features of the state, workers must also be
convinced to consent to borders. To achieve this, workers are led to believe that borders are
for their safety and protection from outside dangers, and that only the state has the strength
and authority to secure them.

Borders are artificial lines which serve the interests of the capitalist class, and which divide
the working class people of the world to prevent them from uniting against their exploiters.
Meanwhile, the capitalist class is allowed to move across borders to exploit workers and the
resources of their lands with ease.
 12

Migration controls have resulted in untold amounts of human suffering and death, especially
for refugees who are turned away from nations while seeking safety from violence or poverty.
Ultimately, to eliminate anti-immigration sentiment and the suffering which immigration
controls create, we must do away with capitalism and build a new economic and political
system where human need, not profit, is the driving force of production and the guiding
principle of humanity.

In the meantime, decriminalizing immigration to reduce human suffering, reunify families, and
eliminate fear among immigrant workers of retaliation from employers and punishment from
the law, and then unionizing immigrant workers so that they can demand better treatment and
higher wages, will benefit both immigrant and non-immigrant workers alike.

It's time for the working class to stand together and fight for:

The decriminalization of immigration!

The dismantling of government detention and deportation machinery!
Asylum for every family escaping violence or poverty!
The Reunification of every family separated by immigration controls!
Citizenship and full legal rights for all immigrants!
The unionization of immigrant workers!
The complete demilitarization and dismantling of all national borders!
 Return to Table of Contents

Capitalism and Nature

1

The Earth is in the midst of an ecological crisis.

Climate change (also called global warming) refers to the rise in average surface
temperatures on Earth. It is one of the world's most serious problems and greatest challenges.
There is no denying that climate change is real, and that it is due to human activity.

Overwhelmingly, scientists agree that climate change is due primarily to the use of fossil fuels
which release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the air. These gases trap heat
within the atmosphere and are having a wide range of effects on the Earth, including rapidly
melting polar ice, rising sea levels, deadly heat waves, increases in severe weather events,
droughts, wildfires, and the loss of plant and animal life, including species extinctions.

In addition to (and contributing to) rising global temperatures, many of the Earth's ecosystems
are facing ecological collapse due to human activity such as:

- Atmospheric pollution and the release of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels.
- Marine pollution from industrial, agricultural, and residential waste.
- Deforestation from wood industry.
- Habitat fragmentation from roads, agriculture and industrial practices, and urban
development.
- Soil erosion and desertification from agricultural practices, deforestation, and urbanization.
- Land degradation from overgrazing by livestock.
- Species depletion and extinctions from overexploitation (overhunting, overfishing).

Humanity's relationship to nature has clearly become destructive. But what's the cause of this
destructiveness?

What is the source of the current ecological crisis?

Nearly all of our ecological problems today are the result of deeply entrenched social
problems. How humans relate to one another determines how we relate to the natural world.
Unless we deal with the problems within society, we cannot fully resolve our ecological
problems.

Our social problems originate from how we organize our social relations.
Social relations are the ways in which human beings are connected to one another, the ways
in which we interact with, associate with, or effect one another. Our social relations determine
our relation to nature.

Our social relations determine our relation to nature. The main foundation of our social
relations, which creates the majority of our social problems (and as a consequence, our
ecological problems), is the system around which our entire society is organized, our social
and economic system, which is called capitalism.

In contrast to other animal communities, humans tend to create highly formal communities
that become increasingly structured over time. They form not only communities, but a new
phenomenon called societies.

The formal structure of society under capitalism, which has formed over a long process of
historical transformation, is called capitalist society, and capitalist society is a class society.
All class societies are made up of two broad categories (classes) of people: direct producers,
who produce the goods and services which allow societies to exist; and non-producers, who
live off the production of others.

If one of these classes exists, its opposite must also exist. Therefore, a class can only exist in
relation (connection) to another class. And the way these classes relate to one another is
through their relation to a third thing called the means of production.

The means of production are all of the things which the producers of society need in order to
produce: the natural resources and raw materials used in production, the tools and machinery
used to transform those materials, the infrastructure used for transporting and distributing
those transformed materials, and the workplaces where the work is performed.

In capitalist society, the working class (a.k.a. the proletariat) are the producers of society.
They relate to the means of production as non-owners. As the non-owning class, they relate to
the owning class by selling their labor-power in order to buy what they need to survive.
The capitalist class (a.k.a. the bourgeoisie) are the non-producers of society. They relate to
the means of production as owners. As the owning class, they relate to the non-owning class
by having the privilege of buying their labor-power in order to live off their production.

You may sometimes hear people say that "we" as a whole, as the "human species", are to
blame for the destruction of our natural environment. In this view, "destructiveness" is
considered to be an inherent "human" trait. In this view, humans destroy because being
destructive is simply "who we are".

This view does not distinguish between the powerful and the disempowered, the personally
wealthy versus the poor, exploiters versus exploited, oppressors versus oppressed. Blame is
not assigned to specific humans, or specific human activity, but to humanity in the abstract.

To consider something in the abstract means to consider it as an idea, by itself, separately

from the things which are connected to it in reality. When we consider human activity as an
idea separate from its connections to class society, we lose sight of the many real, tangible
conditions which lead to those activities.

To place blame on "humans" in the abstract as a "destructive species" is not only incorrect,
but is misanthropic. Misanthropy is a dislike, contempt, or hatred of humankind or human
nature.

Misanthropic views like this, which regard humans as a "disease", "plague", or "cancer"
infecting the Earth, and which place an equal or greater amount of blame on the poor,
oppressed, marginalized, and disempowered, lead to incorrect ideas about human
"overpopulation", and even more horrifying ideas about how to control or reduce it, including
forced sterilization and genocide of certain "undesirable" or "inferior" people.

If "destructiveness" isn't an inherent human trait, then why do humans do things like clear-cut
forests for timber, or level mountaintops for coal?

For the worker, it isn't because of a desire to destroy their natural environment. Lumberjacks
don't clear-cut forests because they hate trees. Miners don't mine coal for burning at power
plants because they want to raise global temperatures.

In fact, these workers may value nature greatly, and feel regret about its destruction. Their
feelings, however, are outweighed by their economic needs.

Under capitalism, workers are alienated (profoundly separated) from the means of production.
The resources, tools, infrastructure, and workplaces needed to produce the things they need
to survive are owned by the capitalist class, the private owners of the means of production.
Because they are non-owners of the means of production, wage-workers have little choice but
to sell their labor-power in exchange for wages in order to buy what they and their families
need to continue existing.

For the majority of people, environmentally destructive work isn’t freely chosen, but is the
result of need, and these needs come from social arrangements (such as non-ownership of the
means of production) which are outside of their control. They are doing what they need to do
to survive in a system that alienates them from their own productive power.

One of the main causes of environmental destruction under capitalism is its demand for
unlimited expansion.

While it's important to recognize greed as a motivator, the need to expand and accumulate
greater profits does not depend on whether or not a capitalist is personally greedy. Just as
wage-workers are compelled by an economic system to act against their better impulses,
capitalists are also compelled to act against their better impulses.

Under capitalism, capitalists must compete against one another on the market. Sheer survival
requires entrepreneurs to grow their enterprises in order to remain ahead of their
competitors. They must try to devour their rivals, or be devoured by them.
The key to survival in this system of vicious competition is expansion. Expansion leads to
greater profits, and profits are invested into greater expansion in order to outcompete market
rivals. This cycle of expansion and profits leads to reckless, irrational, and ecologically
destructive economic growth which cannot be persuaded to stop by moral or ethical
arguments.

Each capitalist in the world is engaged in production and exchange for the sake of profit. In the
quest for profit, it's usually the most immediate results (those which will result in greater
profits and ensure the growth and survival of the business) that are considered to have the
most importance, and exert the most force in deciding the capitalist's actions.

The distant effects of these actions are rarely taken into consideration. To expand production,
cut costs, and secure greater profits, capitalist enterprises often engage in environmentally
harmful practices. For example:

- Dumping waste materials into oceans and rivers.

- Expelling waste gases and atmospheric pollutants into the air.
- Overusing water in production.
- Sabotaging more environmentally friendly technologies.
- Clearing wildlife habitats to expand suburban sprawl with paved surfaces and single-family
homes.

The destructive long-term effects of practices like these are considered by capitalists to be
externalities. Externalities are the side effects or consequences of an industrial or commercial
activity that affect outside parties, but not the company's balance sheets. Negative
externalities are the "costs" of doing business that capitalists get away with not paying, and
which have harmful consequences outside of the business.

For capitalists, making decisions for the long-term at the expense of the short-term would put
them at risk of being out-competed. The result is a contradiction: what's "good" for
capitalism's short-term interests becomes bad for humanity's, and nature's, long-term
survival.

It would be very difficult to convince capitalists to act against their own short-term interests in
favor of humanity's long-term interests. Shaped by the rules of the economic system, the
accumulation of wealth, power, privilege, and property becomes the capitalist's primary
motivation and purpose.

For capitalists who are invested in the businesses of extracting fossil fuels from the earth,
burning fossil fuels for energy, or any other environmentally damaging industry, discontinuing
these processes would mean that their assets (the means of production which they own and
control) could no longer be used to produce profits. This would mean losing trillions in the
value of their investments.

As individuals, people sometimes go to great lengths to protect their egos and justify their
wealth and power as being moral and acceptable. When the belief that their wealth and power
is morally justifiable comes into conflict with evidence that the source of their wealth and
power is the cause of destruction, injustice, and inhumanity, the discomfort many people face
when confronted with letting go of that wealth and power is often too much to bear.

Individually, some capitalists might be convinced to act against their interests, but convincing
the entire capitalist class to do so is either unlikely or impossible.

The way humans view nature has changed over time. Throughout history, as societies
changed, people's conceptions about nature (the ways in which they perceived or understood
nature) also changed.

In early human history, the forces of nature were mysterious, often viewed as something to be
feared, sometimes commanded by gods.

Later, with the appearance of science and philosophies of rational thought, nature came to be
thought of as simple matter following fixed laws that could be discovered and mastered
through careful study and observation, as something which could be conquered and
harnessed to serve humankind.

In time, others began to view this "conquest" of nature with a sense of tragic loss and
nostalgia for a past unity between humans and nature, romanticizing the simpler life of
primitive humans and "noble savages", and calling for a "return to nature".

Today, these views, and many others, continue to exist, but the ways we think about nature are
now largely shaped by capitalism. Individual people under capitalism might have slightly
different views about nature, but capitalism has its own view, and because we live under
capitalism, *capitalism's* view greatly shapes *our* view.

10

Capitalism's conception of nature is unique to capitalism.

Under capitalism, the things we produce to fulfill our everyday wants and needs take on a
specific form which is specific to capitalism. This form is called the commodity.
Commodities are goods and services which are produced, first and foremost, not for use, but
for exchange. The primary purpose of a commodity is to be sold for profit and turned into
capital. Every other purpose is secondary to this purpose.

The materials we use to produce commodities must come from nature. Because nature is the
material for making commodities, and commodities are produced for sale, capitalism views
nature as one thing and one thing only: something for turning into profit and capital.

Capitalism, like science, also views nature as simple matter and the forces that govern it. The
difference, however, is that while science is interested in nature for the sake of understanding
nature (and applying that understanding for the benefit of all), capitalism is interested in
nature (and the use of science to understand nature), for the sake of exploiting nature. To
capitalism, nature is a free gift to capital, a wealth of raw materials waiting to be transformed,
through labor, into sellable commodities.
 11

Under capitalism, fewer and fewer people interact directly with the natural world. Our
interactions with nature are filtered down through many complex processes and the breaking
down of labor tasks into smaller and smaller roles, so that when nature finally appears before
us, it does so in a processed form, the form of commodities.
As the world of commodities becomes more familiar to us than the natural world, the natural
world becomes a stranger, and the world of commodities replaces the role of nature in our
lives.

By no longer interacting directly, but only indirectly with nature, mediated by the world of
commodities, we're left with the illusion that human society exists separate from nature rather
than within nature, because of nature, and as a part of nature.

Because we no longer recognize nature as a part of our lives which we depend on for life, the
relationship of humans to non-human nature under capitalism is transformed from symbiotic to
antagonistic, from a relationship of long-term closeness, where both may potentially benefit, to
one of opposition and hostility.

12

One myth about capitalism is that its market is "self-correcting", that market forces such as
the "invisible hand" will eliminate destructive technologies and replace them with newer and
cleaner (and more profitable) technologies, providing the solutions to climate change on its
own.

Although new technologies do appear under capitalism (like any other mode of production),
and these innovations will be indispensable to combating global environmental problems, it
would be a mistake to believe that technology itself can be the magical solution to all of our
problems.

Our ecological problems aren't technological problems as much as they are social problems.
Many technological solutions (such as wind and solar energy) already exist, but without the
right social solutions, they can't be implemented quickly enough, or on a scale large enough,
to adequately address the current and soon-to-be ecological catastrophes. Industries being
under the direct control of individuals with business interests opposed to technological
solutions is one example of how social problems keep us from solving our ecological
problems.

Additionally, the so-called "solutions" provided by capitalism rarely seek to eliminate the
causes to ecological disaster, but seek to make profit by selling survival. Instead of reducing
greenhouse gas emissions to stop the melting of glaciers and rising sea levels, the market
would rather sell the construction of walls. Instead of addressing the worsening environmental
conditions that will lead to starvation, mass migration, and social upheaval, the market would
rather sell luxurious underground bunkers to the rich.

13

Another myth is that as consumers we control what happens in society and the economy, that
we can do good things for the environment and bring about social and economic change by
carefully choosing what and how we purchase. In this view, environmental destruction is
presented mostly as the result of individuals making poor consumer decisions.

This claim, along with the misanthropic view that humanity is a destructive species, is an
attempt to misdirect blame away from the root of the problem: the system of economic
relations which rule over human production, and those who benefit from that system.

The majority of working class families would have to overcome major economic hurdles to
even try to "do good things" for the environment with their purchases. The working class can
rarely afford to purchase according to their ethics, but rather purchase according to their
needs, especially the need to survive by spending less money on cheaper goods and services.

Being a well-informed and responsible consumer is also not as easy as it sounds. Businesses
use marketing, advertising, and consumer psychology to influence people's thoughts, feelings,
beliefs, and perceptions in order to shape what they buy. In the US economy alone, over a
trillion dollars are spent per year on marketing to get people to buy things they neither need
nor want.

The idea that consumption determines production is also greatly exaggerated. In reality, what
is consumed largely depends on what is produced, not the other way around. Consumers can
only choose to purchase what's available to them, and what's available to them (what is
produced) is determined by those who own and control the means of production. Real power
in a capitalist economy lies with capitalists, not consumers.

14

Can carbon taxes and regulations under capitalism curb the emission of greenhouse gases or
end other environmentally harmful practices?

Carbon taxes are an attempt to indirectly address climate change with a “market based
solution” that turns a negative externality (greenhouse gas pollution) into an internalized
financial cost (a tax), in the hope that introducing a cost will encourage industries and
individuals to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

But this cost doesn’t tell polluters to stop polluting, it tells them they can continue if they can
afford it, and they do this by increasing their prices, shifting the burden of payment onto
consumers who are already struggling to make ends meet.

Carbon taxes throughout the world have done very little. A number of studies have shown that
the ability of carbon taxes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ranges anywhere from slight
to insignificant, with only very small percentages in reductions noted—a scale and pace of
reduction which is too small and too slow to meaningfully impact climate change before the
worst case scenarios predicted by scientists become unavoidable and irreversible.

Under capitalism, indirect attempts to reduce greenhouse gases through carbon taxes, and
even the direct regulation of pollutants have had little success. The reason for this is specific:
because capitalism requires endless growth, it will viciously attack anything that obstructs
that growth. When governments try to pass laws that impede growth, capitalists will use their
greater wealth and political power to block those laws, repeal them, evade them, revise them,
win exemptions from them, use them to suppress competitors, or move to developing nations
without them.

When money buys political power and influence, democracies are not democracies for the
poor and working class; they are democracies for the wealthy capitalist class. It would be
impossible to enforce the solutions needed to stop climate change through governments
which are controlled by the big polluters themselves.

15

The climate crisis is intensifying. We are facing an ecological disaster of global scale, the
greatest threat to ourselves and the natural world in thousands of years, and which is the
direct result of the capitalism.

Some experts estimate the Earth has lost more than 60% of its wildlife in fewer than the past 50
years, and that the Earth's species are going extinct at a rate of 1,000 to 10,000 times higher
than the natural extinction rate (the rate without humans), with anywhere between 10,000 and
100,000 species becoming extinct every year.

Life on our planet is being sacrificed so that a small number of people can make enormous
profits. The loss of life won't be limited to nature either. Humans will continue to feel the
worsening effects of climate change and environmental destruction, including the potential for
billions of deaths, beginning with the poorest and most vulnerable. Meanwhile, the wealthy,
who benefit from the destruction of the Earth under capitalism, will escape the worst of
climate change by moving to new luxurious homes in more comfortable parts of the world.

Current efforts to stop the catastrophic destruction of nature are not enough to match the
threat our planet is facing. All of our businesses, industries, media outlets, and governmental
institutions are failing us. Capitalism is going to drive us over a cliff of destruction. The
working class needs to take the steering wheel by force before it does.

16

The challenge of climate change requires us to radically restructure the way we organize our
economy. If solutions within the system are so impossible to find, then it is time to change the
system itself.

It is now necessary to govern the relationship between nature and human economic activity in
a rational way. Now is the time to act with solutions that embrace clean energy and create a
healthy and sustainable future. We need an economy and society which work harmoniously
with nature, because the future of human life and nature go hand in hand.

This is completely beyond the capabilities of capitalist society. Capitalist control over
production, wealth, politics, media, and public discourse thwarts rational decision-making,
because the short-term interests of the capitalist elite are radically different to the long-term
interests of humanity and nature. Endless economic growth is incompatible with the Earth’s
systems. For humanity and the natural world to continue, capitalism must end.

To do this, we must form an organized mass movement to:

- Seize control of our state governmental institutions.
- Remove all vital industries from private ownership and control—especially the energy,
agricultural, forestry, and transportation industries—and place them under the direct
ownership and control of the working class.
- Dramatically and very rapidly scale down the production of fossil fuels.
- Create entirely new energy and transportation platforms that are not reliant on fossil fuels.
- Invest heavily into a program that puts people to work decarbonizing every sector of the
economy.
- Halt the large-scale deforestation of the planet, and reverse it by planting new forests.
- Decommodify all vital industries so that resources are distributed rationally, according to
need, rather than sold for profit.

Time is running out. What’s needed now, more than ever, is an international proletarian
revolution. The working class must seize the state and the means of production. The
continuation of humanity and the natural world depend on it.
 Return to Table of Contents

Capitalism Devours
Nature
1

Capitalism Devours Nature

To make anything of use, humans must transform the materials found in nature into useful
things.

For this reason, commodities (which are produced primarily for exchange and secondarily for
use) must be produced from nature.

Capitalism must continuously produce and exchange commodities in order to produce profits.

Capitalist enterprises must also continuously expand their productive apparatuses to remain
competitive.

Therefore, capitalism must continuously, and at an ever expanding rate, devour nature.

Capitalism is incompatible with the sustainability of life on Earth.

 Return to Table of Contents

Capitalism is
Ecocide
1

Capitalism is Ecocide

Ecocide is large-scale damage to, destruction of, or loss of ecosystems, most often used to
refer to humanity’s destructive impact on the natural environment.

Life on Earth is being wiped out by human activity, and not just any activity, but a historically
specific activity called capitalist production, which views all of nature as raw material to be
ripped from the Earth and transformed into profits, and nature’s habitats as its productive
facilities and waste bins for the garbage and toxic byproducts of its productive processes.
 Return to Table of Contents

Glossary of Terms
Democratic Socialism is a term that often gets confused and misused in everyday political
conversation. Countries like Norway, Sweden, and Denmark are often incorrectly called
Democratic Socialist countries and praised for being a “mix of socialism and capitalism”, when
actually they are Social Democracies. These two terms sound similar, but their meanings are
very different.
Social Democracy Democratic Socialism

Social Democrats support a capitalist Democratic Socialists support a socialist

economic mode of production. economic mode of production.

Social Democrats believe that capitalism can
be “humanized” with economic and social
interventions (such as regulations and social
welfare programs) that promote equality and
social justice.
Democratic Socialists believe that capitalism
can never be sufficiently “humanized”, and
that equality between the exploiters and
exploited in a capitalist society does not
exist.

Social Democrats aim to create policies
within a capitalist system that lead to greater
democratic and egalitarian outcomes aimed
at curbing inequalities, poverty, and
oppression of underprivileged groups.
Democratic Socialists also aim to create
policies that curb inequality, poverty, and
oppression of underprivileged groups, but
recognize that these issues can never be
fully resolved under capitalism, that reforms
will eventually only worsen the problems
within capitalism, and that capitalism must
ultimately be replaced with socialism.

Social Democrats maintain that the goals of Democratic Socialists view capitalism as
capitalism and the goals of democracy are inherently incompatible with the values of
compatible. democracy, and believe that true democracy
can only be achieved with socialism.

Social Democrats believe in capitalism: Democratic Socialists believe in socialism:

private ownership of the means of social (worker) ownership of the means of
production. production.

Capital and the means of production are
owned and dictated by the capitalist class:
private owners who appropriate for
themselves the wealth generated by the
labor of others. Workers who are not owners
of the means of production have no choice
but to sell their labor-power to capitalists in
return for wages which are less than the full
value of their labor.
Capital and the means of production are
socially owned and democratically
controlled by the working class rather than
private owners. Workers are no longer
required to sell their labor-power to
capitalists in exchange for wages, but
instead retain (either individually or
collectively) the full value of wealth created
by their own labor.

Democratic Socialism is not a mix of capitalism and socialism; neither is Social Democracy,
which is just capitalism with regulations and good intentions. Democratic Socialists are still
socialists; they are simply socialists who believe in achieving socialism by operating withing
the democratic framework already in place within our political systems.
Return to Table of Contents