Our seventh episode covers chapters 11-14. After covering the rate and mass of surplus value, we examine how capitalists can increase surplus value (and therefore exploitation) without making the working day longer, which leads to the distinction between absolute and relative surplus value. Absolute surplus value is produced by prolonging the working day, but given the political and natural limits of the working day, how can capital increase surplus value? By shortening necessary labor time (the value of labor power and variable capital) and therefore lengthening surplus labor time. The last half of the episode considers some of the ways capitalists pursue relative surplus value, specifically through cooperation and the division of labor. Through cooperation, we see how capital begins producing the social collective worker--and the potential for class unity against capital--at the same time as it produces new forms of exploitation. By examining the division of labor in handicraft and manufacture, we see how capital individualizes workers at the same time as it unites them. At the end, we observe how manufacture--because the worker is the motive force--poses a limit to capitalism’s command, and how this is an example of the disjuncture between the forces of production and the relations of production.

Contact us with questions or feedback at ReadingCapital@LiberationSchool.org

#7: DIS-UNITING CLASS (Ch. 11-14)

Our eleventh episode concentrates on chapter 25, where Marx synthesizes his findings so far to articulate some general laws (or tendencies) of capitalist accumulation. We cover the different compositions of capital before turning to the two models of accumulation Marx proposes, the difference between concentration and centralization, and how the centralization of capital provides the material foundation for communism. We clarify the general law of capitalist accumulation and the absolute general law of capitalist accumulation before examining the impacts they have on the working class, including the production of an industrial reserve army. After examining how the reserve army serves as a lever of capitalist accumulation, we go next to reviewing some of the layers of the industrial reserve army--including the “dangerous classes”--and relating them to our contemporary condition. We draw out that here Marx is insisting that the working class includes all of those who are oppressed and exploited by capitalism and what this means for organizing. Finally, we spend some time on the colonization of Ireland and how Marx’s thought about the relationship between anti-colonial and socialist revolution developed over time.

Articles mentioned in this chapter: https://www.liberationnews.org/us-govt-jobs-report-the-reality-behind-the-fakery/

Contact us with questions or feedback at ReadingCapital@LiberationSchool.org

#11: CAPITAL’S TENDENCIES (Ch. 25)

Curso de Tefilá # 9. La fuerza que tienen nuestros rezos

Disquiet 0581 - this weeks challenge was to download a rhythmic field recording and make it part of a track or incorporate it somehow.

Thanks to Scott Fletcher for having provided the original material. It is used thanks to a Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0). Original track at: https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/helsinki-downspout/

I loaded the field recording into Ableton and put it into a drum rack. I then took all the bits between the beats (hiss and non rhythmic parts) and started to mess about with these, adding filters and effects and also playing them as drum hits - that is how the track opens. 
I them loaded all these hiss parts into a synth and stretched and played them as keys, creating the additional synth sounds with effects changing the sounds somewhat.  After jamming about for 30 / 40 minutes I hit reccord and laid down a fairly basic arrangement. 
I tweaked this slightly, adding a little more effects until I had a nice short experimental track i'm pretty happy with!

More or less the whole track was made with the source sounds but it's debatable if the original sound is recognisable?  However I took the prompot to "to sample and rework the source material" as a guide! 

Disquiet Junto Project 0581: Helsinki Downspout

The Assignment: Use a rhythmic field recording as the foundation for a new track.

Step 1: This is a shared sample project, one in which all the participants will utilize the same provided recording, about a minute and a half long, as the rhythmic element for their own music. Access the track, originally recorded by Scott Fletcher and used with his permission, here:

https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/helsinki-downspout

Step 2: Listen to the provided track several times. Think about ways to map its content, perhaps making notations about when certain unique, momentary aspects surface.

Step 3: Record an original piece of music for which the provided music is the underlying rhythm. You might take this quite literally, using the source as it is, resulting in a track that is precisely 1:35 long. Alternately, you might elect to sample and rework the source material. If you go the latter route, make certain that the original sound is, at least at some point in the finished track, recognizable.

Step 4: Because this is a Creative Commons resource, be sure to identify Scott Fletcher as the original recorder of the source material, and include a link to the source track. Identify the license as: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

Audio Obscura - Helsinki Downpour [disquiet0581]

KETA - SNCHEXX x JES$

My contribution to Disquiet Junto Project 0600. The opportunity to participate in this is special to me as I participated on Project 0004 which also featured wonderful samples from Marcus Fischer. I created a piece that is still a personal favorite.

Approach and process - I was extremely time constrained with only a few hours to put something together. I built it around a heavily re-worked and effected version of the file '600_PSU_stairs-mfischer'. I used Bitwig Studio, a lot of automation, and a few time stretching tricks. 

I hope Marcus provides more raw material in the future. Thank you to Marc and Marcus for putting this together.

Reaching Out And Reaching Back - Disquiet0600

Seven days to make music in response to the assigned haiku: to participate visit https://www.naviarrecords.com/about/naviar-haiku

Moonlight Blesses The Temple (naviarhaiku508)

LA HISTORIA DE LOS JUDIOS DE SIRIA, DESDE ABRAHAM HASTA EL ULTIMO JUDIO (1 Parte)

More on this 621st weekly Disquiet Junto project, The Leftovers (The Assignment: Use recently discarded material to make something new), at: https://disquiet.com/0621/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0621-the-leftovers/

I'm In The House (disquiet0621)

Songs written by Phil Bourgault
Played by Blues ConFusion
Phil Bourgault - Guitar
Bella Bourgault - Vocals
Simon Sharp - Keyboards
Chris Fayle - Drums
Andy Robinson - Bass

Shes not listening anymore

An interactive, chapter-by-chapter class on Karl Marx's 'Capital' Volume 1 for all skill levels, taught in 12 episodes by socialist educators.

#7: DIS-UNITING CLASS (Ch. 11-14)

Reading Capital With Comrades

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