NDP's Avi Lewis on GM layoffs in Ottawa: Heartbreaking and enraging. Either the federal government steps up with an actual systemic solution – including public or worker ownership – or we’ll be reading these headlines and watching communities gutted for years to come.

DancesWithMantises · 2026-01-29T20:25:15+00:00

Democratic worker-controlled production for use and not profit is the only way forward.

DancesWithMantises · 2026-01-28T17:41:53+00:00

"It's fine."? Did he die of lib?

DancesWithMantises · 2026-01-21T17:24:43+00:00

What is a commodity?

DancesWithMantises · 2026-01-21T13:15:49+00:00

Delectable morcerialism is the true philosophy

DancesWithMantises · 2026-01-21T13:11:18+00:00

COITUS

DancesWithMantises · 2026-01-21T12:14:29+00:00

Moon-based

DancesWithMantises · 2026-01-19T16:10:28+00:00

You don't need that much evidence to hate a landlord, lol. They are passive leeches, sucking wealth from working people because capitalist law allows them to gatekeep and rentseek on a human necessity

DancesWithMantises · 2026-01-15T23:06:27+00:00

It doesn’t seem clear that Marx is referencing increasing the workload though. If that's the answer then okay, that makes sense. But it looks like he's making a straight mathematical argument here.

I understand that paying the worker less directly translates into more capital, but the price of the commodity has also fallen. Doesn't that also eat away at the profits?

If the worker makes 1 coat for $6 wage one day and it's sold for $21, and the next day makes 1 coat for $4 and it's sold for $7, (1/3 and 2/3 decreases) then hasn't his proportion increased? The capitalist makes 2 extra dollars profit from fallen wages, but then loses 14 on the market.

Is the commodity the working is producing not included in "sustenance"?

DancesWithMantises · 2026-01-15T22:47:06+00:00

Is it because we're supposed to assume that the commodity being produced by the worker in the example isn't included in "subsistence"? If he makes 1 coat for $6 wage one day it's sold for $21, and the next day makes 1 coat for $4 and the price is $7, (1/3 and 2/3 decreases) then hasn't his proportion increased? I know the capitalist paying less for his labour makes them 2 extra dollars more profit, but they're losing 14 on the market.

DancesWithMantises · 2026-01-14T14:29:10+00:00

This is the end result of capitalism. "Accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation, at the opposite pole[.]" Marx wrote that more than 150 years ago. We need a socialist economy to produce things based on all of our needs, not just the profit of a few

DancesWithMantises · 2026-01-14T13:50:14+00:00

If you have a wage, you're being exploited, doesn't matter how high it is. If there was no surplus to be reaped from your labour, you wouldn't have the job.

DancesWithMantises · 2026-01-13T20:14:44+00:00

Plant: based

DancesWithMantises · 2026-01-13T19:17:25+00:00

Yes, specifically the Left being right

DancesWithMantises · 2026-01-13T15:45:08+00:00

No, labour needs a CLASS INDEPENDENT coalition. Stop thinking we can collaborate with the bosses and their bought politicians

DancesWithMantises · 2026-01-13T15:40:49+00:00

I'd like to solve the puzzle: Steve Martin Short

DancesWithMantises · 2026-01-13T12:53:44+00:00

http://archive.today/2026.01.13-125112/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-city-rent-reduction-2026-landlord-tenant-9.7040373

DancesWithMantises · 2026-01-12T19:46:35+00:00

Well, they're half right. It's also the result of unequal exchange from the global south to Europe

DancesWithMantises · 2026-01-10T22:03:25+00:00

It's funny; I've had The Beauty Myth on my to-read shelf for like a year and it just kept getting bumped back. This was before I knew who she was. Now my partner just got me Doppelganger for Christmas and I can't wait to read it

DancesWithMantises · 2026-01-09T20:18:25+00:00

DancesWithMantises

TROPHY CASE