Communist Party USA
We struggle for the right to be human. To the ruling class, we are units of labor-power endowed with “human capital.” The latter term refers to intangible attributes of the workforce that contribute to productivity. It includes education, training, and experience, but also non-cognitive skills (like flexibility or resilience) and even patterns of emotional response. In other words, their “human capital” is our intellect, knowledge, thoughts, feelings, and acquired skills insofar as they enhance the productivity of our labor and thus the profits of capitalist class. But human capital is not the same as humanity. Indeed, the difference between the two is one of the great lessons of the struggle for the eight-hour day, where International Workers’ Day sinks its roots. The fight to restrict the workday to eight hours, to limit the intensity of exploitation, was also a struggle to seize part of the day for ourselves. “Eight…
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On May Day, we celebrate working-class humanity