|
|
|
|
|
|
Reading
Notes
- From Germinal, a novel about a
French miners’strike
of the 1890s, by Emile Zola,
“ Who could say that the workers had had their reasonable
share in the extraordinary increase in wealth and comfort during the
last one hundred years? They (the bourgoisie) had made
fun of them by declaring them free. Yes, free to starve, a freedom of
which they fully availed
themselves.”
Film Watch :
Gladiators
("The Peace Game")
Peter Watkins
|
|
- From Germinal (continued from prev. column)
How capitalism works, “ Ah! There we are!”
cried M. Hennebeau.(mine owner) “I was expecting that – the
accusation of starving the people and living by their sweat. How can
you talk such folly, you ought to know the enormous risks which capital
runs in industry – in the mines, for
example?…Can you believe that the company has not as much to
lose as you
have in the present crisis? It does not govern wages; it obeys
competition
under pain of ruin.”
- i.e. blame the system, not the capitalist.
Glasgow
Buskers and more..>
|
|
"Penicillin Blues", sung by Maggie
Bell live at Renfrew Ferry."Wishing Well",-
The
Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Anthem
|
Turkeys vote for Xmas ??
Industry drive to curb
drinking.
Alcohol
abuse costs the NHS billions of pounds a year Britain's drinks industry
is launching a £100m government-endorsed campaign to discourage
excessive drinking among young adults.
The Campaign for Smarter Drinking, supported by 45 companies, is one of
the largest of its kind and aims to advertise throughout England.
Under the slogan "why let good times go bad?", the campaign will
emphasise "practical tips" for safe drinking.
But one doctors' body says raising alcohol prices would be more
effective.
|
Karl’s Quotes
|
-
On prices and value, Marx writes,
“What
then is the relation between value and market prices, or between
natural prices and market prices? …The market price expresses
only the average amount of social labour necessary, under the average
conditions of production, to supply the market with a certain mass of a
certain article. It is calculated upon the whole lot of a commodity of
a certain description. So far the market price of a commodity coincides
with its value.
On
the other hand, the oscillations of market prices, rising now over,
sinking now under the value of the natural price, depend upon the
fluctuations of supply and demand. The deviations of market prices from
values are continual, but as Adam Smith says, “The natural price
is the central price to which the prices of commodities are continually
gravitating. Different accidents may sometimes keep them suspended a
good deal above it, and sometimes force them down even somewhat below
it.
But
whatever may be the obstacles which hinder them from settling in this
center of repose and continuance, they are constantly tending towards
it.”
|
|
 |
Relating
to value and profit, Marx says, “ …it is nonsense
to suppose that profit…spring from surcharging the prices
of commodities or selling them at a price over and above their
value.
The
absurdity of the notion becomes evident if it is generalized. What a
man would constantly win as a seller he would constantly lose as a
buyer…To explain therefore the
general nature of profits, you must start from the theorem that, on
average, commodities are sold at their real values, and that profits are
derived from selling them at their values, that is, in proportion to
the quantity of labour realized in them.”
(from
Value Price and Profit pp.36/37)
So,
selling price may vary according to supply and demand but will center
around the natural price, or value, and profits are derived from
selling commodities at their value, i.e. they already contain the
workers’ surplus value embedded in them.
Thus
workers are exploited at the point of production, not the point of sale
of the commodity.
|
|
|
