“The worker becomes all the poorer the more wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and range. The worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity the more commodities he creates. With the increasing value of the world of things proceeds in direct proportion to the devaluation of the world of men. Labor produces not only commodities; it produces itself and the worker as a commodity — and does so in the proportion in which it produces commodities generally.”
— Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, 1844 (via arielnietzsche)
“In Venezuela Chavez has made the co-ops a top political priority, giving them first refusal on government contracts and offering them economic incentives to trade with one another. By 2006, there were roughly 100,000 co-operatives in the country, employing more than 700,000 workers. Many are pieces of state infrastructure – toll booths, highway maintenance, health clinics – handed over to the communities to run. It’s a reverse of the logic of government outsourcing – rather than auctioning off pieces of the state to large corporations and losing democratic control, the people who use the resources are given the power to manage them, creating, at least in theory, both jobs and more responsive public services. Chavez’s many critics have derided these initiatives as handouts and unfair subsidies, of course. Yet in an era when Halliburton treats the U.S. government as its personal ATM for six years, withdraws upward of $20 billion in Iraq contracts alone, refuses to hire local workers either on the Gulf coast or in Iraq, then expresses its gratitude to U.S. taxpayers by moving its corporate headquarters to Dubai (with all the attendant tax and legal benefits), Chavez’s direct subsidies to regular people look significantly less radical.”
An African man gestures after his car was damaged by an Israeli mob following a rightwing rally in Israel’s capital Tel Aviv against African refugees who have settled there, on May 23, 2012. Among the speakers were Knesset Members Miri Regev — a member of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud Party — who called the refugees “a cancer in our body” and Danny Danon — also Likud — who wrote on his Facebook page after the event referring to the Africans as “infiltrators”. Interior Minister Eli Yishai said the African asylum seekers threaten “the Zionist dream,” adding, “Jobs will root them here.” (Photos: AP / Getty Images)
Correa: Episode Six The World Tomorrow — Julian Assange
“What’s the difference between a Republican and a Democrat? I believe there is a far greater difference between what I think in the morning and what I think in the afternoon, than between those two parties.” -Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador
”The only country that can be sure never to have a coup d’etat is the United States, because it doesn’t have a U.S. embassy.” -Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador
“Let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality. We must strive every day so that this love of living humanity will be transformed into actual deeds, into acts that serve as examples, as a moving force.” -Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara
“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” -John Steinbeck
