Capitalists Rake In Profits at Our Expense!

Capitalists Rake in Profits at Our Expense!

The Covid 19 pandemic is exposing many underlying issues facing society right now as it has put stresses on jobs, healthcare, food supply chains, and housing. The political policies coming out at the state and federal levels are showing us the interests of capitalists and their political lackeys, even when they claim to be “helping” us or the economy.

For capitalists, “helping the economy” is done by fucking us over, as the current economy is built on workers being exploited for capitalists’ profits. Behind the token gestures, the actual policies show the priorities of the capitalist politicians and their state.

Whether it’s called “America First” (Trump administration) or “Buy American” (Biden Administration), the current agenda of the ruling classes is to use the pandemic as an opportunity to open up new markets, accelerate their accumulation of capital and continue to plunder people and planet while they serve the working class an ideological meal of nationalist garbage to rationalize it.

China didn’t make a housing crisis in the US. The jobs that were shipped there were done so in concert with the capitalists of both countries. Russia didn’t layoff millions of Americans. No, all this was done intentionally, by American capitalists in an effort to secure their continued profits. (Other capitalists throughout the world did the same.)

Everything is political, everything is deliberate.

When dealing with a market driven societal arrangement like capitalism, the only true concern for those that rule that arrangement is the attainment of their riches, at any expense. There are no morals. There are no feelings to consider in a business transaction. The market dictates the relationships within it and what is top priority in capitalism is capital.

At the moment, we are also seeing the “non-profit” industrial complex line up to co-opt the genuine need of millions THAT ARE hurting - and fill the void with services intended to “ease” the blow of the pandemic (at the same time pacifying the outrage of the masses) with what seems like a new “mutual aid” project popping up every week. The term “non-profit”, of course, simply denotes a legal tax status, not an absence of capital accumulation.

But why is all this happening? It's not a coincidence that residents at Hamilton on the bay are being evicted around the same time Miami Republican Mayor Francis Suarez is trying to build a "Tech Mecca" in the city. Hamilton on the Bay, like the recently collapsed Chaplain Towers, are higher priced units, showing that no one is spared from the interests of capital.

Being given two months notice of eviction during an international pandemic exemplifies the criminality of capitalism and the parasitic relations which are embodied within it (the landlord-tenant relation being just one of them). How many of us are struggling to get by worried daily about having a roof over our heads being a check away from homelessness? We cannot count on the “good hearts” of people caught in the role of these toxic social relations. Just as capitalists are concerned with capital, landlords are as well, in the form of rent and the capitalist courts are on their side! The eviction moratorium is set to expire on July 31st, leaving millions to face housing insecurity on top of those of us already being evicted and facing the day to day struggles of food clothes and shelter.

And though it is a national phenomenon, it should be noted that the recent uptick in evictions all across Miami-Dade county - and upsurge in harassment of homeless folk - is being done under the direction of a Democrat mayor who announced “relief” for tenants and landlords while really only defending the interests of landlords and private property (along with the evictions of families labeled “squatters” who could not afford to pay their rent).

It should be noted that these dynamics are not only leading to further insecurity of so many hurting, but have already resulted in the loss of a life with the capitalist police murder of Stephanie Voikin by a specialized task force created by Miami PD just to handle the barbaric act of eviction. As usual, the local news outlets, mouthpieces for the capitalist class, lined up quickly to defame her character). A barbaric behavior to rationalize barbaric acts in a barbaric societal order (Capitalism).

Millions are hurting in this country alone. It’s not new, but it’s worse.

Biden won the election by millions of votes. Part of his victory was to stop what’s been marketed by the liberal faction of the capitalist ruling classes as “the greater evil of Trumpism”. When you’re comparing evils, you’re already in a rotten place. Part of that so-called “victory” had to do with what has been marketed as a “great blunder” by the former president not “handling” his duties effectively. But Biden, like Trump, represents the interests of the capitalist class and their capital – that is the role of the presidency. Sure, they have their differences. Some capitalists are in an intense struggle with others, but so far, the state apparatus has been successful in mitigating their quarrels and taking the offensive to the masses with attacks on working people.

Recently, striking mine workers at Warrior MetCoal were attacked by reactionary goons of capital in cars. Meanwhile in Florida recent Fascist legislation was pass to repress protests and defend these murderous acts if the driver says they felt “threatened” by protesters. George Zimmerman didn’t write that law.

Millions voted for Biden because of the precarious situations they found themselves in. Lock downs with not even a semblance of an adequate social safety net were haphazardly applied. Curfews and masks orders were mandated, but vaccines were scant. Mass furloughs and firings forced millions more on unemployment. “Essential workers” were underpaid and over worked. Meat packers were forced by executive order to keep the food supply chugging along at their expense, as managers literally placed bets on them catching Covid.

Florida is one of the states that are cutting unemployment benefits even though it is also the state with one of the lowest unemployment payment rates in the US already. Renters in Miami, which has one of the highest costs of living in the country, and is also the second most unequal large metro in the country, are being hit left and right with the realities of the pandemic crisis on top of the already precarious situation that existed beforehand. To make matters even more capitalist, the Republican governor RAISED TAXES (you read that right!) on Florida consumers trying to buy cheaper goods online to pay for….drumroll….TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH!

Those who were lucky enough to keep a job this whole time have had to juggle with what to do with their children as they were forced to continue to work during an international pandemic. Those who were fired or furloughed were forced to juggle between rent and food even as the couple of rounds of added benefits kept expiring and are now being cut. You know what didn’t expire? Rent payments, bills, car payments, school loans, etc. Some were put on hold, but still owed. On top of those of us evicted already, millions more are facing possible evictions and the alleged “rent relief’ funds that do exist are bogged down in the pipeline of capitalist bureaucracy and corruption.

They can’t find a way to help millions in a dire situation during a pandemic, but they sure have a way to continue their imperialist military crusades around the world, handing out sweet multi-million dollar contracts to private contractors for border concentration camps, and so on it goes.

It’s deeper than just a law or policy, it’s a societal question

The private ownership of land - and anything on it - is an integral pillar of how capitalism organizes society in its interests. Capitalists own factories, banks, stores, buildings, schools, etc. Private ownership of property is a way for the capitalist class to ensure its continued rule. It exists, just as any commodity, or service in society: to accumulate capital, make profit for the owners. In fact, everything functions as a business. In this manner, all of society right now is organized in a way that is determined by the market and market forces, even public utilities like libraries are subject to these dynamics as politicians, courts, teams of lobbyists and police help enforce the role and rule of bourgeois (capitalist) law.

When the (surplus) value produced by workers is stolen by the capitalists, they take part of this stolen value (in the form of profit), to invest in the market. They invest in stocks, they speculate on land values, in banks, etc. When a developer comes to buy up land for a condo or shopping mall, the capital used to purchase the land originated as stolen surplus value workers produced somewhere. More often than not, this exploitation occurred in another country, or a rural area of this country (far from the eyes of us in the big cities). When a landlord evicts tenants, it's not because the landlord is just sinister (though they very well may be), but they do so because for one reason or another, it is more profitable for them to do so.

Capitalism is a class society, and, in class society, class struggle (the struggle of classes to reproduce themselves) underpins all the relations. Capitalists are part of the dominant class and, in capitalism, they rule all other classes. When we speak of a capitalist dictatorship, all these dynamics that exist, that influence and play a role in our daily lives - for capital's accumulation, for profit - are expressions of this dictatorship. This is a dictatorship of a class, the capitalist class specifically, over society. Landlords evict us, the lawyers protect them, the courts make laws for them, and the police enforce those laws.

The state exists to organize capitalism and the capitalists, to keep their interests front and center – and their interests are the accumulation of capital – profit at any cost.

Regardless of all the seeming doom and gloom on the horizon, the reality is that capitalists work real hard to keep us divided (by “race”, sex, nationality, etc) and they do so for a reason. They know very well the power that comes with our organization. They were there when the civil rights movement made its demands, they were there when workers of all stripes marched protested, picketed, and most importantly, went on strike! (The most powerful weapon of the working class) to achieve the 8 hour day.

Organized on our class interests we can struggle, we can win, we can defend, we can attack. We are only subject to the whims of capitalists and landlords because we are not organized. Capitalists, land lords, reactors, and developers aren’t even needed (NOT AT ALL!). These parasitic relations only exist due to the reality of private property that has been usurped from us to profit capital (with the dispossession, displacement and murder of millions) and develop capitalism. It is the workers who build the houses, condos, offices, stadiums, roads, and other developments anyway!

Our power is in us!

This is why they do everything they can to keep it this way and allow non-profits to fill the void the state leaves behind, to help quell our just rage, to pacify us, keep us begging for crumbs from a world order destroying every aspect of the social fabric of our lives, including the very planet we inhabit!

When dealing with our lives, it is imperative that we start to examine our individual situations through the perspective of our collective class interests. Though we can use what already exists (like legal actions, unions and some “non-profits”) to our advantage whenever possible, we cannot rely on these existing structures to answer our ills. They have already proven themselves limited to what they can do for us. To truly answer our concerns, we need to develop new organizations, new structures, that we take active part in. This will help us build a combative and autonomous mass worker’s movement that will act as a social force capable of fighting capitalism from our interests, not theirs.

Collective concerns require collective action! It is top priority right now that we come together, start talking with each other, learn the struggles we’re each facing, and grow organizations that bring these struggles together. We have a historic role to play, we can change this whole shit! But, we can only do so together, united politically to challenge the rule of capital. This means wherever we’re at, from Miami to Seattle to Detroit. From the US to Haiti, to the Philippines, from Europe to Africa, wherever we live and work, we need to start having these broader political discussions in our neighborhoods, our job sites, our parks and barbershops. We will easily find people are going through so many of the same struggles we are, and it’s not because we’re lazy, it’s not because people “suck”, it’s because we were thrown into a world order structured entirely off the exploitation of the working class. We outnumber the capitalist class, we will always outnumber them, and so long as labor must be done, an organized laboring class will be powerful. So we must give a fuck, we must step up, and if we build a powerful enough movement, we can literally change the world together!

Do you agree? Are you sympathetic but unsure? How do you envision real change in the interests of the workers and people happening? Reach out to us, let’s start having these discussions among ourselves so we can build a better tomorrow on our terms, not theirs!

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