Capitalism demands too much - Not the workers Sibusiso Mchunu, The New Age, Johannesburg, 2 August 2016 "It is not money that renders commodities consumable. Just the contrary. It is because all commodities, as values, are realised human labour, and therefore commensurable, that their values can be measured by one and the same special commodity, and the latter be converted into the common measure of their values, that is, into money. Money as a measure of value, is the phenomenal form that must of necessity be assumed by that measure of value which is immanent in commodities, labour-time." (Marx, 1867, Capital, Vol. 1) Every time workers down tools, a statement from the employers' association always hits the ground running, demonising workers. The Chemical, Energy, Paper Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union (CEPPWAWU) has embarked on a legitimate strike with reasonable demands, yet the employers are again calling on the union to call off the strike, without conceding or agreeing to the demands put to them by the workers. This has been a common practice within the capitalist class. Whenever the working class downs tools, the plea to call off the strike is always negatively put around the neck of a union to call off the strike. Lazy journalism from the media houses remains visible. These are the very same media houses who publish the executives' earnings and companies' economic standing in relation to profit-making. Yet when workers demand higher wages, the same media houses (with exploited workers in their own ranks) don't compare the difference in salaries. For example, profits made by petroleum, pharmaceutical and mining executives are never compared to the workers demands. Just take a look at Shoprite/Checkers, Pick 'n Pay and Woolworths wage increases compared with the salary increases of its executives, and the Gini coefficient of the country and that of the company concerned. Look at the low circulation data of print media. This alone is testimony that workers are frustrated with capitalism, such that they can't afford to buy these newspapers. This posture of media houses is a consequence of their ownership by the capitalist class. Unsurprisingly therefore, the media call is not on employers to meet the demands of the workers, even though the workers are already in a no-work, no-pay situation. The culture of capitalism is to demonise workers as if they are responsible for the disruption of the economy, forgetting that workers only try to improve their living wage once a year. Employers fail to meet the workers' demands, but put them in a negative light with the help of the media. If the truth be told, there has never been a salary increase that really improves the lives of the working class. The workers only attempt to counter the inflation that raises the price of everything, including basics like potatoes, bread and milk. Employers are hell-bent on reducing the living wage every year, resulting in workers living below the breadline. Workers get their increases once a year, but prices of commodities often go up four times a year, depending usually on petrol prices, yet when the petrol price decreases, food prices remain the same, with a whopping profit for the capitalists. Another example, look at cellphone companies' exorbitant charges. Our government is not helping the situation. How many big corporations have been bust for price fixing? The government simply fines them. The life of exploitation continues unabated. We have economists who include the wage increase in their inflation index, meaning that wage issues are also a cost factor in their inflation statistics. It's like the chicken-and-egg story. Today, some argue for worker share schemes. This, too, is manipulated. On paper it looks rosy, but it is actually worthless, as they are locked in for a long time before workers can benefit. Most recently, MTN employed an executive who is already a shareholder. His shares are worth millions already, before he even sets foot inside MTN and yet MTN workers are struggling every day to survive the high cost of living. Marx also says: "A use-value, or useful article, therefore, has value only because human labour in the abstract has been embodied or materialised in it. How, then, is the magnitude of this value to be measured? "Plainly, by the quantity of the value-creating substance, the labour, contained in the article. The quantity of labour, however, is measured by its duration, and labour time in it finds its standard in weeks, days and hours." (Marx, 1867, Capital, Vol 1) The call should be for bosses to accede to workers' demands once and for all and the strike will be off. . Mchunu is a CEPPWAWU shop steward writing in his personal capacity as a worker and citizen. From: http://tnaepaper.co.za/DRIVE/main%20edition/02082016/epaperpdf/19.pdf __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 13894 (20160801) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. 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