Capital #1 – The Commodity (Chapter 1)

Welcome to Red Book Club. We are a Marxist educational podcast and study group challenging ourselves and each other to learn and grow by analysing and breaking down a wide array of important works. In our inaugural episode we begin our exploration into 'Capital - Volume I' by Karl Marx starting with 'Chapter I - The Commodity'. In this episode Marx lays out some foundational concepts and we discuss what exactly is a commodity, as well as understanding 'use' and 'exchange' values and 'relative' and 'equivalent' forms of value. This episode is part of our series on the epoch-defining masterpiece 'Capital - Volume I' by Karl Marx, a book which has helped change the face of our world since its initial publication in 1867, giving inspiration and clarity to hundreds of millions of working and colonised people across the globe and providing the theoretical foundations for socialist movements and revolutions from the time of its publication until the present day. With painstaking dedication Marx brought to light the previously obscured, inner-workings of the capitalist mode of production, from the core concepts of the commodity, value and exchange, through to the discovery of surplus-value; from the historical beginnings of capitalism to the colonial structures which still exist to this very day. It is an unparraleled work of unimaginable profundity, and we hope that our discussions can help contribute towards your understanding of it. "There is no royal road to science, and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits." - Karl Marx. Please note that these sessions were initially recorded for self-reference as a study aid. As we continued and found that there was an audience for our discussions, we took the opportunity both to teach ourselves and to share skills meaning that as you progress through our sessions you should find that our episodes become more structured, better produced, cleaner sounding and hopefully more enjoyable. Thank you for listening. Follow us on Twitter at @RBCpod or https://twitter.com/RBCpod and feel free to message us if you need links to companion resources or have any questions. You can also find us on our website at www.rbcpod.wordpress.com where you can find ebook copies of the works that we're covering and more. If you'd like to join or support the book club, you can find us on Patreon as Red Book Club: https://www.patreon.com/redbookclub including access to our Red Book Club discord server, early access to our episodes and more. Thanks to @NunezKeenan for the intro theme; you can find more of their work here: http://tiny.cc/keenan Thanks to the Craig bot for helping us to record via Discord! And a special thanks to our patrons for their support in helping us to create the podcast. Our logo was designed by Rob, you can find his work on Instagram @roobmmm