Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

If this article is supposed to stress the contradictions of capitalism yet its progress to an ever better world, it is a mediocre attempt. Quoting Marx and Engels is meant to support the bourgeoisie's  violence, not to condemn it. Thus when the author speaks about how progress has come at a cost, he minimises the scope and depth of that cost. He could have added that the existing system with a cost is better than any alternative. The author has ignored too many negative effects from waste to exploitation, from persisting poverty to wars and proxy-wars, to creating the conditions of more wars, from stress, depression, precarity to insecurity, inequality, and stagnating wages, from monopolies to corruption, from the rise of neo-fascists, nationalism, xenophobia, racism and hate crimes, building more borders to persisting slums, oppression of women, child labour and human trafficking, from proliferation of narcissism and indifference to commodification of everything, normalising po...

UK An account of a worker's experience Joe Attard, 11 April 2019: Debenhams is biting the dust: the capitalist crisis claims another high street staple. My first paid job was at Debenhams, I was there for two years, and I'll be lying if I said I'll be sad to see the back of it.  They ran the restaurant on the cheap, mostly with casual labour, much of it made up of under-18s, and we were always understaffed. I remember double-dosing over-the-counter stress relievers to get through my shifts, where I and one other person had to cover a 200-se at dining area between us, for eight-hours, with a half-hour break.  We were always moving, always covered in crap, stinking, and totally exhausted. Both of us were 16, working a child's minimum wage (about 4.00-an-hour) but an adult's hours (half the lunch-break, earlier starts etc.) Once, my manager came up to me, beaming, and told me that I should be proud because "in light of my good work, I was getting...