The capitalist mode of production and accumulation, and therefore capitalist private property, have for their fundamental condition the annihilation of self-earned private property: in other words, the expropriation of the labourer.
The labour-power is a commodity , not capital, in the hands of the labourer, and it constitutes for him a revenue so long as he can continuously repeat its sale; it functions as capital after its sale, in the hands of the capitalist, during the process of production itself.
A labourer cannot sit at the table and write, but a man who has worked at the table all his life can certainly take to physical labour.
Every labourer is a father, his labour is his child. Choose your project carefully and achieve it worthily
The labourer's muscle is that of a cart-horse, his motions lumbering and slow.
Looking back now, I realise that belonging to the family of a labourer actually helped to prepare my body for boxing. There were many times when my family didn't have enough food or warm clothing to go around. All this made me physically, as well as emotionally, tough.
Whether an instrument shall be regarded as productive capital or not depends entirely on its being used, or not, by some productive labourer…
If this labourer were in possession of his own means of production, and was satisfied to live as a labourer, he need not work beyond beyond the time necessary for the reproduction of his means of subsistence, say 8 hours a day.
No sooner is the exploitation of the labourer by the manufacturer, so far, at an end, that he receives his wages in cash, than he is set upon by the other portions of the bourgeoisie, the landlord, the shopkeeper, the pawnbroker, etc.
I call myself a labourer because I take pride in calling myself a spinner, weaver, farmer and scavenger.
