This text was originally written by Marx and published in 1849, and was updated by Engels almost half a decade later, after the death of Marx. The text is an introduction to capitalism and overlaps with parts of Capital. You can read the text here.

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  1. The Defeat of One’s Own Government in the Imperialist War
  2. How to Be a Good Communist
  3. The Wretched of the Earth (1, 2-3, 4, 5-)
  4. The Foundations of Leninism
  5. Decolonization is not a metaphor
  6. Marxism and the National Question
  7. China Has Billionaires
  8. Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism
      • Labour can’t be sold – once labour has been performed, there’s nothing left to pay for. What’s actually sold is labour power – the capacity to perform labour for some amount of time, i.e. a promise of future labour.

        • davel
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          6 months ago

          Ackchyually, usually the price of labor power is first haggled, then performed, and then paid. Nobody’s ever paid me for my labor in advance, though it’s known to happen on occasion.

      • 小莱卡
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        6 months ago

        Labour-power is the ability one has to perform labour.

        • Makan
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          6 months ago

          So it’s your ability. Gotcha. And if you’re disabled, you may be possibly lacking in labor power.