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The lockdowns we have had to endure were only what capital was able and willing to sacrifice: the social and recreational aspects of life. Depriving people of visits from family and friends for months, thousands of elderly people dying isolated and alone.
The measures taken against the heart of proletarian social relations—the bonds of kinship and friendship—were simply a denial of life outside of work. In other words, lockdown is the dissolution of the few non-market interactions left under capitalism, turning life into a
seamless fusion of consumption and work. This will become ever more clear as additional data is gathered, until the sheer scope of damage to our mental and physical wellbeing will be undeniable.
If anything, the massive lockdowns have only aided Capital. The fear and
If anything, the massive lockdowns have only aided Capital. The fear and
and precariousness inherent in the rhetoric of “the pandemic slump” has been turned against working people in order to increase their exploitation.
Huge increases in productivity have been observed, even as companies have long-ceased investing in productivity-increasing
Huge increases in productivity have been observed, even as companies have long-ceased investing in productivity-increasing
technologies. What this suggests is a rise in what Marx calls “absolute surplus value”—that is, the gains are from extensions of the working day and increases in the intensity of the work being performed.
The employment generated by the recession will increase the rate of profit as our new reserve army of labor is pushed into what will be highly exploitative, precarious jobs.
Believing that the virus was ever a significant threat to working people, or that it could somehow be
Believing that the virus was ever a significant threat to working people, or that it could somehow be
in some ways leveraged against the bourgeoisie to advance a class struggle, was an incredibly stupid mistake. Left-liberals, by supporting an untested, unproven, and historically unprecedented pandemic response, merely aided the bourgeoisie in worsening the lives of the people
they claim to speak for.
The long term aim of global capitalism remains unchanged: reduce the wages of workers down to the lowest level possible. The only shocking thing that will emerge from the pandemic won’t be the lockdowns or any of its attendant drama,
The long term aim of global capitalism remains unchanged: reduce the wages of workers down to the lowest level possible. The only shocking thing that will emerge from the pandemic won’t be the lockdowns or any of its attendant drama,
but how little it will have changed the makeup of capitalism.
