The industrial revolution in Europe brought about a transition from feudalism to capitalism, in other terms the proletarianization of peasants and serfs who became factory and mine workers. The class contradiction between serfs and landlords then gradually became one of proletariat against the bourgeoisie. The former, like today, seeked to improve their material conditions, and ensure a life in dignity for themselves and their families. The latter wished to maximize their profits, to extract as much value from the labor-power they bought to produce commodities, in an era before any substantial gains regarding worker protection – men, women and children were forced to work 12 to 16 hour days in atrocious conditions.

We are traversing one of capitalism’s biggest crises since the great depression. We are seeing the imperialist tactics of the USA boomeranging back into the empire with unfathomable state repression, reactionary nationalism is taking hold of electoral politics in Québec and most of Europe in the face of a global systemic crisis, and the masses are quickly getting riled up without a clear direction to crush the oppressive state apparatus. Years have gone by with a constant dismantling of the labour rights and social safety nets that workers fought for in violent uprisings.

Introduction In 1872, Friedrich Engels wrote On Authority in response to the downfall of the Paris Commune, and to the criticisms given towards it by the social-democrats and anarchists. Here’s the thing: it seems that anarchists think this is one of Engels’ more important works, and that it was his entire argument against anar-chism! This couldn’t be further from the truth, notably because this is an incredibly short paper that he didn’t spend much time or thought on, being that dialectical materialism was already a framework that rebukes anarchism.

Introduction No, the solution isn’t “just build more houses”, and landlords are still parasitic middlemen that profit from a necessity. Let’s revisit a topic I briefly covered four years ago, this time exploring it in much greater depth. This video examines the issues that landlords and property management companies face regarding housing prices and offers a perspective on housing from a Marxist point of view. I’ll also attempt to respond to some arguments raised in response to that video, keeping it as concise as possible.

First, let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way, you can’t compare Marxism and Social Democracy, one is a materialist analysis of history focused on class struggle, and a critique of political economy - by marxism people usually meant socialism or communism, and social democracy is a ‘mixed economy. Social democracies are meant to mitigate inequalities created by capitalism, by using a system of progressive taxation and social benefits. Sure social democracies have improved material conditions for the working class when compared to free-market capitalism, the NHS is a good example of this.

These past few weeks, we have seen an exacerbation of the US’ warmongering rhetoric as the state department realizes that the country is losing its grips on the unilateral hegemony it has enjoyed ever since the fall of the USSR in December of 1991. The imperialist rhetoric towards Venezuela has been constantly changing in the past decades, from the good ole McCarthyite reaction to Chavismo socialism and ‘dictatorship’ to now claims of narcotrafficking (even though Venezuela doesn’t even produce any cocaine or fentanyl).

Hello World! Welcome to Cabap’s Blog. This is a place for my various thoughts on politics, social issues and marxism. Have fun browsing through! Here’s my official website: https://www.rivcharles.com/

[Context/Hook] So. You’re fed up with the system. You see suffering abroad and exploitation at home, a looming environmental crisis with no visible alternative within the current framework and voting repeatedly for your local progressive candidate has done nothing to improve your conditions. What should you do? Thankfully, someone wrote an entire book exactly about what is to be done! [Insert glowing animation of Lenin] More seriously if you’ve reached this video, you’re looking for a framework to first and foremost analyze capitalism and understand it and second of all to have a viable alternative, a set of principles to follow, and a guidebook on how to achieve this alternative.