I've explained this so many times, but you are new here so I suppose I
will have a go at it again. First, it is necessary to understand the
labor theory of value. Consider a slave. This is an ideal slave in that
he does not have to eat or consume anything else to survive and to
continue to produce. Now suppose you put this slave to work making a
product for you. Because this is an ideal slave we can use ideal raw
materials too. That is, the raw materials are completely valueless. Once
the slave makes a product from these raw materials you sell it and one
hundred percent of the sale price is your profit. Because you added no
labor to the raw materials to make it a product of value you have
effectively stolen the value of the slave's labor from him because any
value the product has is arrived at from the slave's labor. Now, suppose
this slave is a more realistic slave. In order to keep him producing and
in order to keep stealing his labor value you have to give him food and
shelter. This will cost you something and it will have to be subtracted
from the profit you get from selling the product. Once you subtract what
the slave gets back what is left over is profit and the profit
represents what you have stolen from the slave. Then let us suppose that
the slave is not a slave but a wage worker. The formula remains the
same. Whatever you pay the worker in either wages or benefits has to be
subtracted from the price of the product's sale to determine the profit.
That is, profit is stolen labor value and the entire profit system is
based on this theft from the producing class. So the working class, the
exploited class, is made up of producers. That is, they are the people
who actually add their labor to nature to create wealth. The owning
class is the class of thieves who exploit the workers for their labor
power. That is a pretty simplistic way of explaining it, but in a large,
indeed worldwide, capitalist economy it is more complex than that. There
are various class layers, such as the petty bourgeoisie who both produce
from their own labor and also extract value from the labor of others.
Other divisions can be made too and depending on how and what you are
analyzing at any given time you might make reference to the labor
aristocracy, the intelligensia, the lumpen proletariat or others. There
are splitters and there are lumpers and at their extremes you can divide
each individual into a class because if you look at any two people you
can find that one or another of them might have some slight advantage
over the other and can exercise some amount of power, no matter how
small. That is more suited for psychological analysis rather than
economic analysis though. On the other extreme the extreme lumper would
not recognize that class exists at all and would deny reality by calling
everyone to belong to just one class. But if you are trying to analyze
economics you have to either lump or split according to the specific
analysis you are making. However, in a capitalist economic system it is
generally a safe bet that the more money one has or can control the more
power one has and those with the most money have the most most power. At
the very top there are those who manage to control entire countries.
They use their control of money to determine who gets into political
office and how much leeway they have in passing laws or other wise
constructing both the economic and the social structure. These super
rich have enormous power just by having the money even if they don't
necessarily spend it directly on social control. Ultimately, though,
that money that they have at their disposal is a measure of wealth and
that wealth was created by the working class who made that wealth by
transforming nature into it. It is that very small minority at the top
of the wealth pyramid who are the ruling class. Now, I hope you
appreciate my explaining this to you at your request, but if you are
like most of the people on this list you will proceed as if I had not
explained anything at all. That is extremely frustrating for me.
On 10/23/2017 8:31 AM, MARY CONVY wrote:
I'd like to know how you decide, very specifically, on who is the working class and who the ruling class. Take the newspaper. OK, owner or CEO--ruler. Editorial writer? Accountant? Big time gossip writer making more money than either? Union head who is printing press operator?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf of Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
*Sent:* Sunday, October 22, 2017 9:10 PM
*To:* blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; Carl Jarvis
*Subject:* [blind-democracy] Re: The North Korea Neither Trump Nor Western Media Wants The World To See
This is another example of what Marx meant when he said that the ruling
ideas are the ideas of the ruling class and how the ruling class ensures
that it will be that way.
On 10/22/2017 11:28 AM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
> When I was about 13 years old, 1948,there was a big fight between the
> Teamster Union and the Aero Mechanics Union over the control of Boeing
> Aircraft Company workers.
> I read some of the articles in the Seattle Times, and asked my dad why
> anyone would want to work under the control of corrupt unions.
> According to the paper, both unions were riddled with Commies and
> Gangsters. Boeing, according to those reports, was being held for
> ransom. My dad asked me if I knew who owned the news paper? We
> checked it out and learned it was part of a nationally owned company
> of newspapers. He asked me if I knew how the company paid for the
> papers that appeared at our door each afternoon. I said I thought we
> paid each month to the paper boy. Dad showed me how much of the cost
> our subscription covered, and how many ads the paper needed to sell in
> order to cover the rest of the costs. Dad reminded me that the
> advertisers were also very often large corporations with a vested
> interest in maintaining their control over their employees. Finally
> Dad asked me if I knew the reason the Times printed a paper at all.
> I said that it was putting out the paper in order to get the news to
> the people. Dad said that the Times put out a daily paper in order to
> make a profit. In order to do this, they had to provide a format to
> advertisers wanting to sell their products. So the paper is owned by
> a corporation, selling advertisement to other corporations, and
> presenting an editorial page that supports the corporations.
> "Where" Dad asked me, "do you see the editorial page for the Labor Unions?"
> That day I learned for the first time, what Alternative News was. We
> didn't call it that back then. Nor was the term, Fake News bandied
> about. And most certainly we did not have Propaganda in our Free
> Nation. Propaganda was what the Bad guys, like the Soviet Union used
> in order to keep their citizens ignorant.
> So just in my lifetime the American People have been fed a steady diet
> of "Alternative News". And it gets worse. As radio and Television
> spread across the Land, they were mostly owned by large corporations.
> Small town stations were soon bought out by national conglomerates,
> and used to promote product. Even so, a whisper campaign went
> around, accusing the Media of being Liberal. Personally, I find that
> funny. If I were the owner of a national broadcasting corporation
> dependent on advertising for my existence, I would be insulted to
> think that I'd allowed Liberals into my studios.
> And here we are again. Donald Trump screams that our Media is
> peddling Fake News, and we all jump around like a room full of
> Ninnies. But then, why not? We are the product of years of Fake
> News, shaping our mushy brains.
>
> Carl Jarvis
>
>
> On 10/21/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> There are a lot of captions to photographs, but they are very informative,
>> even if we can't see the actual photographs. You get a very different
>> picture of North Korea from that given by the mass media.
>> Miriam
>> The North Korea Neither Trump Nor Western Media Wants The World To See
>> By Eva Bartlett, www.mintpressnews.com <http://www.mintpressnews.com>
<http://www.mintpressnews.com/>
MintPress News <http://www.mintpressnews.com/>
www.mintpressnews.com
Photo-Report: The North Korea Neither Trump Nor Western Media Wants The World to See . What we hardly ever see in articles on North Korea is the human side, some ...
>> October 20th, 2017
>>
>> Above Photo: From mintpressnews.com
>>
>> What we hardly ever see in articles on North Korea is the human side, some
>> of the faces among the 25 million people at risk of being murdered or
>> maimed
>> by an American-led attack. I was part of a small delegation that visited
>> the
>> DPRK, with the intent of hearing from Koreans themselves about their
>> country
>> and history.
>>
>> PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA - North Korea (the Democratic People's Republic of
>> Korea, or DPRK) is one of the least understood and most lied about
>> countries
>> on Earth. In Western corporate media renditions, most news about the
>> country
>> is alarmist (of "the North Koreans want to kill you" type), fake ("all men
>> have to have the same haircut," a story originating from Washington
>> itself),
>> or about the North's military.
>>
>> Accounts of the nation's military prowess and threat generally ignore (as
>> noted here) the presence of the 28,500 U.S. troops occupying South Korea,
>> their 38 military installations, and more recently their Terminal
>> High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery in South Korea - "a U.S. radar
>> system opposed by the Korean people, in the North and South, as well as
>> China."
>>
>> On September 19, 2017, in the forum of the United Nations General Assembly,
>> U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to "totally destroy" North Korea.
>>
>> This is not the first time threats against the DPRK have been issued. Colin
>> Powell in 1995 threatened to turn North Korea into "a charcoal briquette"
>> and in 2013 reiterated that threat to "destroy" the country.
>>
>> Not broadcast in corporate media is the fact that America had already
>> annihilated North Korea, destroying the capital city, Pyongyang, and cities
>> around the country, with 635,000 tons of bombs, including 32,557 tons of
>> Napalm - indeed turning the North into a 'charcoal briquette'.
>>
>> Retired U.S. General Curtis E. LeMay, who headed the Strategic Air Command
>> during that earlier war, said that they had "burned down every town in
>> North
>> Korea." In LeMay's words, "Over a period of three years or so we killed
>> off,
>> what, 20 percent of the population of Korea, as direct casualties of war or
>> from starvation and exposure?"
>>
>> Also omitted in news on North Korea are the criminal sanctions against the
>> North, enforced since 1950, making even more difficult the efforts to
>> rebuild following decimation. The sanctions are against the people,
>> affecting all sectors of life (as humorously noted in this clip). Yet, in
>> spite of all odds, the country maintains an enviable health system. As
>> Professor Michel Chossudovsky noted: "North Korea's health system is the
>> envy of the developing world." And, according to World Health Organization
>> Director General Margaret Chan, North Korea has "no lack of doctors and
>> nurses."
>>
>> Further obfuscated in Western reporting are the simulated attacks (what
>> America euphemistically calls 'war games') on North Korea twice a year.
>> Involving "hundreds of thousands of troops." As researcher and author
>> Stephen Gowans noted, "It is never clear to the North Korean military
>> whether the U.S.-directed maneuvers are defensive exercises or preparations
>> for an invasion."
>>
>> A purposeful and familiar crime against reality
>>
>> The absurdly cartoonish "news" one hears in Western media about North Korea
>> is meant to detract from America's past and current crimes against the
>> Korean people, and to garner support for yet another American-led slaughter
>> of innocent people.
>>
>> The stories are designed to vilify the leadership and provide no context,
>> while completely ignoring the North Korean perspective. This is standard
>> operating procedure with respect to countries like Syria, Libya, Venezuela,
>> Cuba, and wherever America and its allies have set their sights on
>> establishing control (and military bases). As historian Bruce Cumings
>> wrote:
>> The demonization of North Korea transcends party lines, drawing on a host
>> of
>> subliminal racist and Orientalist imagery; no one is willing to accept that
>> North Koreans may have valid reasons for not accepting the American
>> definition of reality."
>>
>> We are meant to believe that the North Korean leader is a maniac,
>> inexplicably hell-bent on bombing America. Utterly deleted from the story
>> is
>> the fact that North Koreans have a different perspective: the right to a
>> deterrent against yet another U.S. annihilation of their country. The right
>> to self-defense.
>>
>> In response to Trump's threats of annihilation, DPRK Minister for Foreign
>> Affairs, Ri Yong Ho, on September 23, stated:
>>
>> The United States is the country that first produced nuclear weapons and
>> the
>> only country that actually used them, massacring hundreds of thousands of
>> innocent civilians. It is the U.S. that threatened to use nuclear weapons
>> against the DPRK during the Korean war in the 1950s, and first introduced
>> nuclear weapons into the Korean peninsula after the war.
>>
>> .The very reason the DPRK had to possess nuclear weapons is because of the
>> U.S. and it had to strengthen and develop its nuclear force to the current
>> level to cope with the U.S."
>>
>> North Koreans as seen through a visitor's lens
>>
>> Propaganda and history aside, what we hardly ever see in articles on North
>> Korea is the human side, some of the faces among the 25 million people at
>> risk of being murdered or maimed by an American-led attack.
>>
>> From August 24 to 31, 2017, I was part of a three-person delegation that
>> independently visited the DPRK, with the intent of hearing from Koreans
>> themselves about their country and history.
>>
>> As it turned out, we heard also about their wishes for reunification with
>> the South, their past efforts towards that goal, their desire for peace,
>> but
>> their refusal to be destroyed again. Following are snapshots and videos
>> from
>> my week in the country, with an effort to show the people and some of the
>> impressive infrastructure and developments that corporate media almost
>> certainly will never show.
>>
>> Impact of U.S. travel ban on unfiltered views of North Korea
>>
>> My visit coincided with the impending U.S. travel ban to the DPRK, which
>> came into effect one day after I left the country.
>>
>> As a dual citizen holding Canadian and U.S. citizenship, I can still choose
>> to return to the DPRK after September 2017 on my Canadian passport.
>> However,
>> for Americans, the ban means they will only in limited instances be
>> permitted to travel to the DPRK. The U.S. State Department advisory notes:
>>
>> "Persons who wish to travel to North Korea on a U.S. passport after that
>> time must obtain a special passport validation under 22 C.F.R. 51.64, and
>> such validations will be granted only under very limited circumstances."
>>
>> While the U.S. pretends that the travel ban is for the safety of U.S.
>> citizens, the same advisory contains this threat:
>>
>> Using a U.S. passport in violation of these restrictions could result in
>> criminal penalties. In addition, the Department may revoke a passport used
>> in violation of these restrictions."
>>
>> This wording reveals that the intent of the ban is far more likely to
>> prevent the American public from seeing the human face, and positive
>> aspects, of the DPRK.
>>
>> Indeed, in an August 2017 Forbes essay on North Korea, amid the predictable
>> Western rhetoric were surprising admissions of truths:
>>
>> Pyongyang looks much more like a normal city than 25 years ago. Then there
>> were no private cars and few government ones. I wondered why they bothered
>> with traffic lights. Today there is traffic. It's not much by U.S. (or
>> Chinese!) standards. But there's no longer the ghostly sense of empty
>> boulevards. .Visitors on longer tours with more guides often have more
>> meaningful informal interaction with "real" North Koreans. It's one of the
>> reasons I believe banning travel to the North is foolish and
>> counterproductive."
>>
>> For more photos and videos from the DPRK, please see my Facebook album and
>> my Youtube playlist, and watch my conversation with the creators of the
>> satirical documentary, "The Haircut, a North Korean Adventure."
>>
>> The Mangyongdae Children's Palace in Pyongyang is a sprawling
>> extra-curricular facility offering children lessons in sports, dance and
>> music (Korean and non), foreign languages, science, computers, calligraphy
>> and embroidery, and more. Around 5,000 children daily attend this facility.
>> They may indeed be the most talented children in Pyongyang and
>> surroundings,
>> but encouraging the growth of talent is something done worldwide. Unlike in
>> many Western nations, in the DPRK lessons are free of charge.
>> nations, in the DPRK lessons are free of charge.
>>
>> The Pyongyang International Football School opened in 2013. The complex
>> includes a massive stadium and a school teaching all subjects, with
>> football
>> as a focus for the roughly 200 students. Different classes practiced their
>> skills outside, doing warm-up drills to energetic music. When years ago I
>> lived in Korea's south, practicing Tae Kwan Do I warmed-up to similar
>> drills.
>>
>> Students at the Mangyongdae Children's Palace playing the traditional
>> Korean
>> instrument, the kayagun. Listen to their performance here.
>>
>> In Pyongyang Middle School. Students spoke in English of the universal
>> desire for peace, one girl urging people to struggle for peace. On the
>> issue
>> of North Korea's weapons, one teenage boy said: "We make intercontinental
>> ballistic rockets, not for invading other countries but for our national
>> defense. To protect one's country, the country must have a powerful
>> defense."
>>
>> To my questions about the U.S. sanctions, a girl replied: "The sanctions
>> are
>> not fair, our people have done nothing wrong to the USA." Another boy spoke
>> of the silence around America's use of nuclear bombs on civilians: "Why do
>> people all over the world give us sanctions? Why just us? Why can't we put
>> sanctions on the U.S.? It's not fair, it's totally wrong."
>>
>> In a hallway in the Middle School, a poster encourages students to alert
>> authorities if they come across unexploded ordnance (UXOs). Our host, Kim
>> Song-Nam, said: "We're still discovering old bombs, for example when we dig
>> to lay the foundation for a building." This article noted the discovery of
>> nearly 400 UXOs near an elementary school playground, that farmers
>> periodically come across UXOs, and that the cleanup period may take longer
>> than 100 years. At the Pyongyang War Museum, we learned: "There were
>> 400,000
>> people in Pyongyang, and they dropped more bombs than that on the city."
>> 428,000 bombs, according to the museum guide.
>> the Pyongyang War Museum, we learned: "There were 400,000 people in
>> Pyongyang, and they dropped more bombs than that on the city." 428,000
>> bombs, according to the museum guide.
>>
>> Students playing football outside the Middle School.
>> Pyongyang's Science and Technology Center, completed in 2015, is an
>> expansive structure heated by geothermal energy, and with drip
>> irrigation-watered live grass on inside walls. Its more than 3,000
>> computers
>> are solar powered, the library has books in 12 foreign languages, and a
>> long-distance learning program enables people from around the country to
>> study and earn a degree equivalent to that of in-university studies. Watch
>> a
>> tour of the center.
>> Watch a tour of the center.
>>
>> Student in the aquarium section of Pyongyang's zoo. While the zoo was
>> well-maintained, by far most interesting was watching the human
>> interactions, from schoolchildren to adults. Koreans returned our smiles
>> with deep, genuine smiles.
>>
>> A group of schoolgirls pause for a portrait photo at Pyongyang's zoo.
>>
>> The Okryu Children's Hospital is a six-story, 300-bed facility across from
>> Pyongyang's towering maternity hospital. U.S. sanctions on the DPRK prevent
>> further entry of machines like the pictured CT scan. While defiantly proud
>> of the health care system, Dr. Kim Un-Song spoke of her anger as a mother:
>> "This is inhumane and against human rights. Medicine children need is under
>> sanctions."
>>
>> The Children's Hospital provides classes to inpatient children to continue
>> their studies while in hospital.
>>
>> Dr. So-Yung (60) works in the tele-consultation department of the
>> Children's
>> Hospital. "We have contacts with provincial-level and county-level
>> hospitals, mostly about children's diseases or illnesses. When they have
>> difficulties with diagnoses, they request consultations from this
>> hospital,"
>> he explained. "I cannot suppress my anger about the sanctions imposed by
>> the
>> U.S. and other countries. Yet, generally, it doesn't affect our health
>> system. We have a solid health system, we are giving proper treatment to
>> people and are producing our own medicines."
>> health system, we are giving proper treatment to people and are producing
>> our own medicines."
>>
>> While walking up a path to the Pakyong Waterfall, over 100 km south of
>> Pyongyang, I met a group of men and women grilling meat over a fire. At the
>> waterfall, other picnickers ate grilled meat, fish, boiled eggs, kimbap
>> ("Korean sushi"), and kimchi (fermented vegetables), drinking beer and soju
>> (alcoholic drink). Having lived in South Korea, this scene is one I saw
>> countless times along the sea or in the mountains. While walking up a path
>> to the Pakyong Waterfall, over 100 km south of Pyongyang, I met a group of
>> men and women grilling meat over a fire. At the waterfall, other picnickers
>> ate grilled meat, fish, boiled eggs, kimbap ("Korean sushi"), and kimchi
>> (fermented vegetables), drinking beer and soju (alcoholic drink). Having
>> lived in South Korea, this scene is one I saw countless times along the sea
>> or in the mountains. Watch clips here and here.
>> sushi"), and kimchi (fermented vegetables), drinking beer and soju
>> (alcoholic drink). Having lived in South Korea, this scene is one I saw
>> countless times along the sea or in the mountains. Watch clips here and
>> here.
>>
>> Beneath a tree near the waterfall, soldiers took turns being photographed
>> with the waterfall as a backdrop. Later, they repeated at the waterfall.
>> Beneath a tree near the waterfall, soldiers took turns being photographed
>> with the waterfall as a backdrop. Later, they repeated at the waterfall.
>> Watch here.
>>
>> A group of men sit and chat near the base of the waterfall.
>>
>> North Korea has suffered harsh periods of drought and starvation. The
>> long-imposed brutal U.S. sanctions and destruction of the country don't
>> help
>> matters. Yet, traveling over a hundred kilometers south from Pyongyang, we
>> passed endless lush fields of corn and rice.
>>
>> Plots of land surround houses in the Jangchon Cooperative Vegetable Farm.
>> Homes are equipped with solar water heaters, and use methane gas for
>> cooking. Song Myong-Oh moved with her husband from Kangnam county to the
>> farm. Outside their home grew eggplants, peppers, corn, and herbs. Of
>> America's threats against North Korea she said: "Although we don't want
>> war,
>> we are not afraid of the US."
>>
>>
>> Inside the child-care center of the Jangchon Cooperative Farm. The
>> cooperative also includes a cultural center for meetings and events, and
>> rows of greenhouses.
>>
>> At the Kaeson Youth Amusement Park inside the city one night, I interacted
>> with people and tried out some of the rides. The park was packed with
>> families and children, including a group of 14-year-olds who had visited
>> multiple times. A schoolteacher from Nampo City said she frequently brings
>> her students to visit. A young man next to me on one of the rides filmed
>> with his mobile. With an entrance fee of 200 North Korean Won (about US
>> $0.22), the lines were long. Photo: A second amusement Park outside of
>> Pyongyang.
>>
>> Under colonial Japanese rule, Pyongyang Silk Factory laborers worked in
>> unsanitary conditions. When Korea gained independence, conditions were
>> gradually modernized and improved. The present-day factory is clean and
>> well
>> lit, with water coolers throughout. The 1,600 workers work eight-hour
>> shifts, with financial incentives to those who exceed their quotas. A
>> nursery provides childcare, and unmarried women have accommodation on site,
>> with a cafeteria and sports and leisure areas.
>>
>> Fruit stand seen in Pyongyang. Small stands this size also sell snack food,
>> sweets, water, sodas, beer, and ice cream.
>>
>>
>> A revolving bar and restaurant at the top of Yanggakdo Hotel overlooks a
>> modern, rebuilt city. The DPRK receives tourists from around the world -
>> especially China and Japan, but also South Koreans - and is continually
>> opening up areas for tourism. The potential for more American tourism was
>> recently stymied with the September 1, 2017 U.S. travel ban.
>>
>> At Panmunjom, near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), one learns the North
>> Korean
>> side of history, including the over 8,400 ceasefire violations by the
>> United
>> States. One of many notable such violations was the espionage vessel, the
>> USS Pueblo, now on display outside Pyongyang's war museum. North Koreans on
>> several occasions proposed to have peace treaty talks, with "no positive
>> response from the U.S. side."
>>
>> This is something former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who has visited the
>> DPRK three times, confirmed - saying he had met with Kim Il-Sung in 1994
>> "in
>> a time of crisis, when he agreed to put all their nuclear programs under
>> strict supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency and to seek
>> mutual agreement with the United States on a permanent peace treaty, to
>> have
>> summit talks with the president of South Korea." Carter maintained Kim
>> Jong-Il pledged he would honor these promises.
>>
>> In a hall near the DMZ, photos depict 2000 and 2007 meetings between North
>> and South discussing reunification, as well as the support of the people in
>> both South and North. Our guide at Panmunjom noted: "On July 7, 1994, the
>> day before he died, President Kim Il-Sung was looking through documents
>> regarding reunification. He devoted his whole life to this."
>>
>> Pyongyang's metro is a three-minute escalator ride below ground into a
>> series of marble stations with elaborate chandeliers and beautiful wall
>> paintings. Passengers ranged from well-dressed people, women in nice
>> dresses
>> and high heels, and others in casual blouses and slacks. Mosaics and
>> engravings depict scenes of farming, construction, factories, rebuilding.
>> Riding the metro costs the equivalent of a few cents. The tour group, Uri
>> Tours, writes that half a million people ride the subway daily. Watch a
>> clip
>> of the metro here.
>> million people ride the subway daily. Watch a clip of the metro here.
>>
>> One of our hosts, Kim-Young, holding the flag of the DPRK. Behind her, the
>> Juche tower, so-named after the dominant philosophy of self-reliance. Our
>> other host, Kim Song-Nam, explained: "The Juche philosophy was created by
>> President Kim Il-Sung. Man decides his own destiny, we rely on our own
>> resources."
>>
>>
>>
