A popular coal-miner’s riddle from the 1930s summarizes one of capitalism’s most visible and absurd contradictions. After a daughter asks her father why their home is so cold, he tells her they don’t have any money to purchase coal. He explains they don’t have money because he lost his job at the coal mine. When the daughter asks why he lost his job, the father answers: “Because we produced too much coal”.
For a contemporary example, how many of us have, through a religious institution, school, mutual aid organization, or other community group, participated in a clothing drive, soliciting gently-used clothing to give to those in need? How many of us need to borrow (or bargain-shop for) nice clothes for job interviews or court appearances? One would think the world is short on clothing. The truth is that the majority of the garments we produce go to landfills instead of other workers. In 2018, 60 percent of 100 billion clothing items were trashed. Despite the immense data-tracking technologies, even garment specialists don’t know how many clothes we produce each year, according to a 2024 article in The Guardian. Based on accessible information, however, “between 80bn and 150bn garments are made” annually, and 10 – 40 percent (or up to 60 billion clothing items) aren’t sold.
A November 2024 study by United Way NCA provides a more contemporary and data-based illustration of the inhumanity of capitalist overproduction. Analyzing data from the U.S. Census and the Department of Housing & Urban Development, they found “there are currently 28 vacant homes for every one person experiencing homelessness in the U.S.”.
There are countless other examples, some more dramatic than others, that show the absurdity of the capitalist system through one of its fundamental contradictions: overproduction. Generally speaking, overproduction occurs when too much is produced compared to how much can be sold at a profit.
Read the full article here: https://www.liberationschool.org/overproduction/
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A popular coal-miner’s riddle from the 1930s summarizes one of capitalism’s most visible and absurd contradictions. After a daughter asks her father why their home is so cold, he tells her they don’t have any money to purchase coal. He explains they don’t have money because he lost his job at the coal mine. When the daughter asks why he lost his job, the father answers: “Because we produced too much coal”.
For a contemporary example, how many of us have, through a religious institution, school, mutual aid organization, or other community group, participated in a clothing drive, soliciting gently-used clothing to give to those in need? How many of us need to borrow (or bargain-shop for) nice clothes for job interviews or court appearances? One would think the world is short on clothing. The truth is that the majority of the garments we produce go to landfills instead of other workers. In 2018, 60 percent of 100 billion clothing items were trashed. Despite the immense data-tracking technologies, even garment specialists don’t know how many clothes we produce each year, according to a 2024 article in The Guardian. Based on accessible information, however, “between 80bn and 150bn garments are made” annually, and 10 – 40 percent (or up to 60 billion clothing items) aren’t sold.
A November 2024 study by United Way NCA provides a more contemporary and data-based illustration of the inhumanity of capitalist overproduction. Analyzing data from the U.S. Census and the Department of Housing & Urban Development, they found “there are currently 28 vacant homes for every one person experiencing homelessness in the U.S.”.
There are countless other examples, some more dramatic than others, that show the absurdity of the capitalist system through one of its fundamental contradictions: overproduction. Generally speaking, overproduction occurs when too much is produced compared to how much can be sold at a profit.
Read the full article here: https://www.liberationschool.org/overproduction/
Thomas Sankara: Assessing the 3rd year of a revolutionary process
Liberation Audio
51 minutes 48 seconds
1 year ago
Thomas Sankara: Assessing the 3rd year of a revolutionary process
The eighth installment in Liberation School’s series of previously untranslated works by Thomas Sankara is published on the day Sankara was born in 1949. We would like to thank Bruno Jaffré and the editorial team of ThomasSankara.net for letting us translate and publish these works and the following interview dated September 20, 1985.
The text is from an interview with Thomas Sankara conducted by a graduate student, which results in, as Jaffré notes in his introduction, a unique style of dialogue. It was originally published in French under the title provided by the student, “At the dawn of the third year of the revolution, the birth of a new society.”
Read the full article here: https://www.liberationschool.org/thomas-sankara-assesses-year-3-of-the-revolution/
Liberation Audio
A popular coal-miner’s riddle from the 1930s summarizes one of capitalism’s most visible and absurd contradictions. After a daughter asks her father why their home is so cold, he tells her they don’t have any money to purchase coal. He explains they don’t have money because he lost his job at the coal mine. When the daughter asks why he lost his job, the father answers: “Because we produced too much coal”.
For a contemporary example, how many of us have, through a religious institution, school, mutual aid organization, or other community group, participated in a clothing drive, soliciting gently-used clothing to give to those in need? How many of us need to borrow (or bargain-shop for) nice clothes for job interviews or court appearances? One would think the world is short on clothing. The truth is that the majority of the garments we produce go to landfills instead of other workers. In 2018, 60 percent of 100 billion clothing items were trashed. Despite the immense data-tracking technologies, even garment specialists don’t know how many clothes we produce each year, according to a 2024 article in The Guardian. Based on accessible information, however, “between 80bn and 150bn garments are made” annually, and 10 – 40 percent (or up to 60 billion clothing items) aren’t sold.
A November 2024 study by United Way NCA provides a more contemporary and data-based illustration of the inhumanity of capitalist overproduction. Analyzing data from the U.S. Census and the Department of Housing & Urban Development, they found “there are currently 28 vacant homes for every one person experiencing homelessness in the U.S.”.
There are countless other examples, some more dramatic than others, that show the absurdity of the capitalist system through one of its fundamental contradictions: overproduction. Generally speaking, overproduction occurs when too much is produced compared to how much can be sold at a profit.
Read the full article here: https://www.liberationschool.org/overproduction/
