Week 1

Birth of capital

Key Questions

  • How did capitalism arise? How was this process racialized and gendered?

  • What is the labor theory of value? What are use-values and exchange-values? What are commodities?

  • What is money? What is the relationship between money, price, and value?

Required Materials:

  • Hadas Thier, A People's Guide to Capitalism: An Introduction to Marxist Economics, “The Birth of Capital”

  • Hadas Thier, A People's Guide to Capitalism: An Introduction to Marxist Economics, “The Labor Theory of Value"

  • Hadas Thier, A People's Guide to Capitalism: An Introduction to Marxist Economics, “Money"

Supplementary Materials:

  • Reading Capital with Comrades, "Bloody Capital"

  • Reading Capital with Comrades, "Value"

  • Reading Capital with Comrades, "Money"