Freedom and slavery: the birth of capitalism

In this talk from the 2018 Revolution Festival, Josh Holroyd discusses the origins of the capitalist system, the violent and contradictory revolution it carried out across the world, and the implications these hold for the fight against capitalism today.

As Josh explains, the society in which we live is often presented as something eternal; a natural expression of human nature and common sense. But the reality could not be further from the truth.

Capitalism - a system based on competition and production for profit - has in fact existed for only a few hundred years. It is only a brief and unique episode in the history of humanity.

And far from being the organic product of human nature, the birth of the “free” market required the violent overthrow of the entire existing economic, social and political order. It brought with it the greatest wave of dispossession and enslavement the world has ever seen.

True freedom, therefore, can only be brought about by breaking with the anarchy of the capitalist market and introducing a socialist plan of production based on needs, not profits.

[jcrass]

This was fucking great. We are so blinded by our elites and corporations, especially here in America. Thank you for your insightful diatribe.

[PSYxTV]

Thinking about history dialectally is so important and in the US we dont even learn about events like the peasant revolt of the 14th century and forget anything about Marx or his life other then Stalins Gulags.

[StephenSchleis]

Wish there was a transcript of this, I want to send it to my CTO step uncle because he made me read Sapiens when I told him in a communist.

[CrowdPleeza]

Adam Smith on slavery:

"Smith believed that the best economy was one in which each individuals
act freely with no government interference. The idea was that having
complete freedom created competition, which would then keep prices down
while product quality remained high. Slavery created an inefficient
market in that slave owners were forced to purchase and maintain slaves
year after year since slaves had a very high mortality rate. The cost
of purchasing slaves was then passed on to the common consumer. This
cost could be avoided by switching to a wage-labor economy and
providing decent working conditions for blacks. For example, it would
be cheaper to pay blacks a low wage and not provide them with food,
housing, or clothing than to continually buy new slaves and provide for
them."

[nemoest]

Josh!
By far my favourite IMT educator (sorry Alan Woods)

[michaelhowells]

Fabulous and very interesting, as ever Josh.

[CEA]

One suggestion for a bit of improvement. Showing some visual diagrams where it makes sense can really help drive the points home. Perhaps a edit of this version. But content is solid even as it stands.

[michaelmappin]

Thank you so much for posting this. ❤❤❤❤❤ and hello from Canada!

[yungyahweh]

Fantastic stuff man! If anyone else likes this, you guys should listen to Tides of History. Very good podcast that goes in depth into these thing. Also, Matt Christman is also great regarding these topics. His show Hell on Earth is very good, which is about the 30 years war and capitalism’s rise.

[psrwolfPAC]

What is the generic Bourgeoisie “statement” that Josh refers to at the very beginning? (Just out of curiosity)

[EricPham-grpg]

Yes that is true but if we are ethical then no slavery nor exploited of other people. All system only work if the people are ethical and had education and are not robotic trained in hatred or prejudice

[pablofre]

You do know that the planned economy you propose as the solution to capitalism was already tried for 80 years in multiple countries and it ended with a rimbombante failure, right?

[RMGWOO]

I'm new to this. Can someone answer me a question. Would the technology used to give this presentation have existed without capitalism?

[rarex]

Socialist Appeal
Sept 1, 2022
16.4K