The Rate of Exploitation of Magna International Inc., One of the Largest Private Employers in Toronto, Part Two, Or: Intensified Oppression and Exploitation

As I argued in the last post on this topic  (see  The Rate of Exploitation of Workers at Magna International Inc., One of the Largest Private Employers in Toronto, Part One), Christopher Arthur, in his The New Dialectic and Marx's Capital, claims that there are two forms of exploitation (pages 55-56): It is obvious here … Continue reading The Rate of Exploitation of Magna International Inc., One of the Largest Private Employers in Toronto, Part Two, Or: Intensified Oppression and Exploitation

Working for an Employer May Be Dangerous to Your Health, Part Six

Injuries, disease and death are the common experiences of many Canadian workers--and undoubtedly workers in all countries dominated by the power of a class of employers. This is so since, on the one hand, profit is the driving force of human life in such societies (see  The Money Circuit of Capital for an explanation of … Continue reading Working for an Employer May Be Dangerous to Your Health, Part Six

The Rate of Exploitation of Workers at Magna International Inc., One of the Largest Private Employers in Toronto, Part One

In another post, I presented the twenty largest employers in Toronto according to level of employment (see A Short List of the Largest Employers in Toronto, Ontario, Canada). One of those employers is Magna International Inc., a multinational corporation whose workers produce automobile supplies for inputs into car manufacturing. This is a first attempt at … Continue reading The Rate of Exploitation of Workers at Magna International Inc., One of the Largest Private Employers in Toronto, Part One

The Call for the Conversion of the GM Oshawa Plant to a Facility for the Production of Medical Equipment in the Wake of the Coronavirus Pandemic

On April 19, 2020, on the Socialist Project website--Retool Oshawa GM Complex to Combat Covid19--there is a press conference by five individuals--Tony Leah (facilitator), Michael Hurley, Rebecca Keetch, Patty Coates and James Hutt--calling on the Canadian government (and the Ontario provincial government) to take over the GM Oshawa plant, which closed on December 19, 2019, … Continue reading The Call for the Conversion of the GM Oshawa Plant to a Facility for the Production of Medical Equipment in the Wake of the Coronavirus Pandemic

The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Seven: The Idealization of the Nation State or the National Government and Nationalization in the Wake of the Coronavirus Pandemic, Part Two

In a previous post, I pointed out how Professor Noonan idealized the nation state. This post will expand on this view by showing that Professor Noonan's proposal to nationalize  the economy by means of the modern state does the same thing--idealizes the modern state. Professor Noonan makes the following claim: The alternative is to use … Continue reading The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Seven: The Idealization of the Nation State or the National Government and Nationalization in the Wake of the Coronavirus Pandemic, Part Two

The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Six: The Idealization of the Nation State or the National Government in the Wake of the Coronavirus Pandemic, Part One

Professor Noonan, a self-declared historical materialist and teacher of Marxism, continues to argue a political position that ignores the reality of capitalist society. In his post Back to the Magic Mountain, he argues the following: No one should fetishize the nation state, but it remains the dominant form of political society and, when it chooses … Continue reading The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Six: The Idealization of the Nation State or the National Government in the Wake of the Coronavirus Pandemic, Part One

Class Harmonies in Health Care? The Social-Democratic Way

Researchers in health care, like researchers in education, seem to assume that the current social structures are sacred. They simply research what is there, and assume that any problems must be resolved in terms established by that social structure. There are, of course, possible differences in the way problems are defined or solutions proposed, but … Continue reading Class Harmonies in Health Care? The Social-Democratic Way

The British Labour Party’s 2019 Manifesto: More Social Democracy and More Social Reformism, Part Two

The following is the second of a two-part series of posts, providing a critical assessment of some of the views expressed in the 2019 British Labour Party's Manifesto, It's Time For Real Change. The section on public services is typical of the social-reformist or social-democratic left: what is needed is mainly a quantitative expansion of … Continue reading The British Labour Party’s 2019 Manifesto: More Social Democracy and More Social Reformism, Part Two

The British Labour Party’s 2019 Manifesto: More Social Democracy and More Social Reformism, Part One

The following is the first of a two-part series of posts, providing a critical assessment of some of the views expressed in the 2019 British Labour Party's Manifesto, It's Time For Real Change. The British Labour Party seemed to be more concerned with jumping on the bandwagon of climate change than really addressing the core … Continue reading The British Labour Party’s 2019 Manifesto: More Social Democracy and More Social Reformism, Part One

Working for Employers May Be Dangerous to Your Health, Part Five

In Dwyer's book, Life and Death at Work: Industrial Accidents as a Case of Socially Produced Error, in a passage quoted below, he argues that so-called accidents at work are socially caused but, historically, have been defined otherwise--as technical problems, for example, or as a result of individual mistakes.In the passage below, he notes that … Continue reading Working for Employers May Be Dangerous to Your Health, Part Five