The worker is the slave of the possessing class. She or he is sold in the market like a commodity whose price is subject to rise and fall like that of any other commodity. If there is an increased demand for workers, their price goes up; if there is a decreased demand, the price goes down; if the demand has so decreased that a certain number of workers find no buyer of their labour-power, as ‘surplus stock’, then they have to lie in reserve, and thus earning no livelihood, and suffer deprivation. A chattel slave is sold once and forever but the worker has to sell him or herself each and every day and hour.
Capitalism signifies the supremacy of the markets and the capitalists who wield their social power through these markets and who rule the world to even a greater extent than ever before. The social power of capital is enforced through the so-called rule of law, which exalts the sanctity of private property and negates the sanctity of human life. Workers don't just replace their wages; their unpaid labour is the source of all of the capitalists' profits, and also pays for economic activities that do not add to social wealth, such as advertising, security, finance, etc. In other words, the exploitation of living labour is fundamental to capitalism. The capitalist class uses all forms of division and disunity amongst working people in order to reap their profits and to bear down on the wages of all workers. As a result of this unmitigated war on the working class, wages have fallen, the “middle class” has shrunk, and job insecurity has become the norm.
Since hunger for cheap labour is the main force driving the global shift of production, it's no surprise this is manifested in a preference for the cheapest labour namely that of women (and children) in countries such as Bangladesh. In societies that had hitherto excluded women from life and labour outside the home, globalisation is conferring the status of wage-workers and bread-winners on young women and concentrating them in large numbers in factories which is now transforming their social status and self-image, never more so than when fighting street battles with baton-wielding police and company security-guards. Many women who have previously been uninvolved in politics are suddenly becoming active.
Unions were established because workers quickly discovered that as isolated individuals they have no power when confronting their employers. Without a union, individual workers can be fired at will; their wages can be reduced; they can be forced to work unreasonable schedules; they can be denied benefits; the list is endless. But when workers unite and act collectively, the balance of power shifts. If workers decide to strike, for example, they can bring the employers to their knees, provided their picket lines are impregnable. This means that unions must reject the culture of capitalism that atomises people by forcing them to compete against one another. To operate effectively, unions need to embrace socialistic cooperative values where an injury to one is an injury to all, and everyone works for the common good.
What we are up against is the power of the plutocrats and their servile State-servants. They sow discontent and fear among the people, fear-mongering the people into believing that dangerous foreigners are preparing to invade. You teach them to passively accept whatever is told them by the corporate media or a government spokes-person. They endeavour to brainwash us into believing that everything the government does is for our own good and anyone who opposes the “benevolent” government is an enemy. They create a state of martial law, carried out militarised police officers. They polarise us so that we can never unite and stand in unity against the ruling class. Those who speak up are shouted down by propaganda lies and the rhetoric of politicians. We are coming to a crossroads. Either we join together now and attempt to gain political and economic freedom or all will be lost. Resistance must also be accompanied by an alternative vision of a socialist, anti-capitalist society. Because the enemy, in the end, is not Trump, May or Merkel but capitalism, itself.
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