Oxfam’s lie that richest 85 people as “wealthy” as the bottom 3.5 billion LLCO.org We have all heard it or read it in some version or another. We have all seen some version of the sensationalist statistic that 85 people at the top own the same amount of wealth as the bottom 3.5 billion. The statistic recently made it into …
A letter from a reader: Do all Americans live like Bill Gates? 28 June 2012 LLCO.org We received the following letter: “I do not agree with the positions of Leading Light At the time of Marx sub continent was a colony of British Imperialism. Many other Asian countries along with Afrcian and Latin American countries were colonies of European Imperialist …
First World Elections, First World Divisions Jacob BrownLLCO.org The Bourgeois First World’s absolute dominance of the world is in decline. Rising labor productivity in the Second World “BRICS” countries is decelerating imperial expansion into and penetration of the Third World. Despite the recent imperialist subversion and aggression against Third World countries across the MENA region and in Latin America, the …
Americans, First Worlders waste food, Third Worlders starve LLCO.org Karl Marx described the proletariat as the dispossessed, as earning only enough to survive to the next day and having nothing to lose but its chains. However, this hardly describes the American, or the First World, working class. The First World working class doesn’t have chains to lose, rather what they …
Two questions on exploitation and sociological mobility LLCO.org Someone recently asked: “I have two questions. I am honestly not trying to be flippant or provocative. 1. Does Leading Light theory ignore the possibility that First World workers are able to recognize the general trend of global capitalism, which will end up impoverishing all workers? Does it deny the possibility that …
Socialism will lead to a lower-material standard of living for First World peoples. First World peoples earn many times more than the value of their labor. They earn many times more than an egalitarian, socialist distribution worldwide would entail. First World populations get more than their share of the pie. They live off the labor of the Third World. Under socialism, First World populations will have to give up their privileges, their lives of luxury, based on extracting super-profits from the Third World.
Americans have less than 1,000 dollars to their name? LLCO.org A recent Esquire article reports: “In a recent survey, 56 percent of Americans said they have less than $1,000 in their checking and savings accounts combined, Forbes reports. Nearly a quarter (24.8 percent) have less than $100 to their name. Meanwhile, 38 percent said they would pay less than their …
Revolution in the Third World; Resistance in the First World LLCO.org The First World currently has no significant social base for revolution. This means that in the United States there is no social group that as a whole can be consciously mobilized along its class, gender or, generally speaking, even national interests to support the revolutionary proletariat of the Third …
“Dear Leading Light,
Are there any groups in the First World with revolutionary potential at all? I understand that most First World workers possess none. Are some sweatshop employees, so-called “illegal” Mexican workers, and possibly some prisoners groups in the First World exploited?”
Comments on the evolution of empire LLCO.org Empire is constantly evolving to thwart the people’s movement. Imperialism has changed significantly since its beginning. The period of traditional colonialism during which the imperial powers literally occupied colonial lands mostly came to a close around the end of World War 2. The shattered empires of Europe could no longer occupy vast lands …
