How are old tweets "unearthed"? I'm not on twitter and don't know how it works

For anyone wondering:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lori_Lightfoot#Christopher_Columbus_statue

As of July 1, African Stream is officially dead. A small journalistic outfit crushed by the empire.

https://xcancel.com/african_stream/status/1936632532943970802

*Also see their post "chronology of attacks on African Stream"

https://xcancel.com/african_stream/status/1940125781491085744

I really recommend reading Capital, the theory comm has a book club on it and it's super helpful.

it's looking like I really should, not only to understand the world but also to understand the Marxist perspective on it more deeply, since I call myself one

and by increasing the degree of exploitation of labor- longer days, more intense work, etc. as well as lowering wages, but that can only go so far

makes me wonder what will happen when the repression of the global south begins to crack

an unknown number of suspects

It's hard to tell if this means that some of them escaped, or just that the information hasn't been released

*sounds like some got away?

A federal law enforcement source told CBS News Saturday that local police arrested eight people. The official said some of those apprehended were wearing body armor. The source told CBS News that early reports indicate that more than a dozen masked individuals dressed in black arrived at the Prairieland ICE detention facility late Friday night and vandalized vehicles and security cameras in the parking lot.

**actually, were those two separate incidents?

By the way, I always worry that I seem argumentative when I ask a lot of questions, but to be clear, that's not the intent! I'm just laying out my current mental picture so people can see where it's wrong and help me update it. I had some existing notions in my head, but they didn't all seem to add up.

That still falls under the overarching cost structure that firms need to lower

of course, but it'll always cost something, right? Which means that, if you have a region in which you're the only supplier, and your competitors are outside that region, everyone in your region basically has to pay a transport tariff if they want to buy from your competitors. That "tariff" gives you more wiggle room to charge above cost.

I don't know how important this is though. I assume it matters for unprocessed raw goods, like minerals or crops, where everyone's product is basically identical, and production is often constrained to certain locations where mines or farms can be developed. I assume it also matters somewhat for brick and mortar stores — a consumer isn't going to drive to the next town just to pay slightly less for bread. But I don't know how big a chunk of profit can be blamed on this. Is it more of a footnote or is it a big deal?

Capitalists stop investing, begin layoffs and a depression ensues, no room for profits and growth means no investments

Ahh okay that makes sense.

that caption

it makes me feel existential horror that someone spent their one chance at life being Margaret Thatcher.

that person can never come back and make it right again. They had one chance, and "person whose statue gets egged" is who they were.

What stuff by Stafford Beer have you enjoyed the most?

Labor is unique in that a laborer can produce more value than it costs to reproduce (feed, clothe, shelter) them.

ahhhhh, okay.

Does "the cost of reproducing labor" strictly refer to the cost to keep workers alive, or is it more the cost to sustain their expected standard of living?

Although employers pay more than the bare minimum to keep us alive, because we have a little more leverage than that, it's true that they pay the bare minimum they can get away with, as determined by their leverage as employers and our leverage as workers who may or may not be organized. And that minimum is not related to the value produced by our labor — for example, if one low-skill worker operating a machine can spit out $1 million worth of goods in a day, that value does not give the worker any leverage to ask for more pay, because the worker is still replaceable and does not have very much leverage.

Familiarity with linear algebra helps

Hell yeah, lay it on me.

For your last point, I think most Marxists would avoid this type of interpretation as it accepts the bourgeoisie's own ideology of individual property rights.

When I say "bargain" I don't mean a civilized transaction. I get the systemic violence. But isn't it a kind of bargain? Isn't that the whole point of a union? The individual worker has little or no bargaining power, because we are easily replaced, which is why we band together and threaten to withhold labor as a group.

In the early days of industrial wage labor, we had no unions or legislation to protect us. Our wages were individual bargains — and yes, our main leverage was that that we needed to stay alive to work. Our main threat was, "If you pay me any less, or work me any harder, I may starve and be too weak to work." That continued until the labor movement had sufficiently demonstrated the power of organized labor, forcing capital to grant concessions to stop us from radicalizing and militarizing any further.

But capitalists also depend on bargaining power — they just have a lot more of it than we do. If tomorrow the cops and the feds suddenly stopped protecting private property, and announced, "workers, you now have the choice to commandeer your boss's business and run it however you want," profits would vanish. The owners would no longer have the leverage to pay themselves millions of dollars a year, because we would just take over the business and keep the profits ourselves.

My apologies for talking too much. I'm very long winded. Again, I can give some examples for your first question if still interested!

Not at all! Thanks for taking the time. And yeah, I am interested.