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The Red St★r Writing Guide
Welcome to the Red Star writing guide!In this guide I hope to:
Show you a generic layout to writing articles.
Show you how to reference.
Show you the different levels of referencing.
The general layout should be like this:
You should write in paragraphs.
A paragraph is a block of text which usually encompasses a single idea/point.
A paragraph should be about 100 or so words, give or take, or about 4 sentences.
Your article should be structured using this format, you may add or subtract paragraphs as needed.
TITLE
Optional: Abstract.
This is where you write a very short paragraph on the subject your article is on.
Optional: Definitions.
If your article has some hard to understand definitions, they should be laid out here.
Introduction: What is your article about?
Body: This is the main part of your article. The vast majority of your paragraphs should go here. Remember to only have one idea or point per paragraph.
Some things to keep in mind with the body:
Try to have at least a few paragraphs.
That being said, you don't need twenty, like I have done in the past.
A paragraph is one idea which spans about 100 words, or four sentences.
If you're struggling to add paragraphs, two can be added as a counterpoint to your point, and then your rebuttal to that counterpoint.
Conclusion: This is where you wrap your article up. Say your closing statements, try not to add any new information, if you find that you are adding new information, perhaps add the new information into your body instead.
For example, if you were writing about Wage Labour and Capital, as I did here:
News Service of The Leftist Assembly Vol. 8 · Iss. 4
Comrade Quotes
If the whole class of the wage-laborer were to be annihilated by machinery, how terrible that would be for capital, which, without wage - labor, ceases to be capital!- K. Marx, Wage-Labour and Capital, 1847
A reflection by Vegemiteisgross
Reviewing the first Red Star debate, there were a few things to keep in mind.
Firstly was that it was the first debate properly held on this platform. We have had response articles in the past, notably Cedoria’s response article to Libertasnia’s article on the DPRK, and my response article to Cedoria’s article on the USSR.
Due to it being the first debate, I should outline how I wanted it structured:
I would make two separate google docs. One per side.
I made some basic points to keep the debates relevant to one another, this was to stop both sides talking past one another.
Both sides would read the opposing points and respond later.
Keeping this in mind, let’s now review what happened.
I made the two docs, got both teams interested, this was done well for the anarchist side, but not so well for the statist side, as there was only one person writing for that side, while three people wrote for the anarchists.
Despite me making some basic points to follow, my points were possibly not the best topics to structure a debate around. Additionally, the debaters felt like they were still talking past the other side, rather than having a properly structured debate. In future, this could be fixed by creating the more traditional response article variant we have already found here.
Finally, as can be seen, neither side made a response. This was probably the most unfortunate part about this experiment, at least for me, as I was looking forward to both sides picking apart the other’s points.
Going forwards, I wonder if I will retry this again. Maybe, maybe not. If so, I would hope I do our debates more justice, as I was a little disappointed in how this debate panned out. But with every grey cloud there is some silver lining, I am quite happy that it became an interregional project with comrades from three regions applying themselves to debate here. It’s been nice to interact with our NSLeft comrades.
An article written for the Communist Party of Australia by Vegemiteisgross. This article has been edited to be used as a guide for the Red Star Writing guide.
Abstract:
Workers operate under an economic system of governance known as capitalism. In 1847, Karl Marx wrote a pamphlet named ‘Wage Labour and Capital’. This pamphlet was published before Marx finished Capital vol. 1. This article would finalise itself as a precursor of Capital, but it was written before Marx had fully formulated his ideas on capitalism.
Definitions:
Labourer/Worker/Proletarian: A societal class who do not own any means of production and must sell their labour to those who own the means of production.
Bourgeoisie/Capitalist: A societal class who own the means of production and buy the labour power of the proletariat.
Means of Production: A place or tool where labour power is extracted and transformed into commodities. The easiest example is a factory.
Labour power: The commodified form of human labour which is sold on the market for a wage.
Capital: “Capital consists of raw materials, instruments of labour, and means of subsistence of all kinds, which are employed in producing new raw materials, new instruments, and new means of subsistence. All these components of capital are created by labour, products of labour, accumulated labour. Accumulated labour that serves as a means to new production is capital.” (Marx 1847)
Capitalism: An economic and political system which is identified by the private ownership of the means of production, a class divided society between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, protection of private property through the use of the state, and the political supremacy of the bourgeoisie.
Commodity: A product which is produced by human labour power and is exchangeable for other products, which are also commodities. A table is a commodity just as much as the human labour power put into it, just as much as the money exchanged for it.
Wage Labour and Capital:
Introduction
Here on out, I will compress the ideas Marx laid out in Wage Labour and Capital, which are already a compression of his ideas which would be laid out in Capital, into a scant few pages. This will be used in the same flow that Marx uses in the pamphlet, using the same, or similar headings if one wishes to use this as a guide alongside Marx. Firstly, we will examine how production happens, how prices of commodities are determined, and the nature of wages to capital.
Body
What is the relation of Wage Labour to Capital?
To find out this relationship, we must first find out what wage labour is.
Wage labour is literally that, labouring for a wage. The proletariat (Workers) work to live, they sell their labour power. The selling of their labour power on the market can only show one thing: That human labour is a commodity, and like all commodities, it’s exchange value, or price, is affected by three types of competition, which we will address later.
Wages then, are simply another term for the exchange value of human labour power.
When the wage labourer is paid their wage, let us assume they are paid $100 for a 5-hour work day, earning $20 an hour. Doesn’t this $100 also represent all other commodities this worker can buy? This goes to show that the worker has simply exchanged their commodity; human labour power, for all other commodities which can be bought for the same price. By paying this worker $100, the capitalist has given the worker so x amount of food, y amount of clothing, z amount of fuel, electricity and so on.
Let us now take a worker. In this example, our worker makes tables, let us say 5 a day, or 1 per hour. The capitalist supplies this worker with a hammer, nails, wood and so on. This worker applies himself to make the table. The table is made and the capitalist proceeds to take the table and sell it for $200. Are wages the craftsman’s fair share of the furniture, $20? No! The worker is paid before the table is sold, perhaps they are paid while they are still building the furniture. Secondly, a worker produces more than one table in a day, yet they are still paid $100. Workers are paid out of the money the capitalist already has. There is no guarantee that the capitalist sells the table, and if they do, there is no guarantee that they sell it at the price of wages, below the price of wages, or even high above the price of wages. Wages are not the worker’s share in commodities produced, rather wages are part of already existing commodities which are bought by the capitalist, just the same as the capitalist bought the hammer, nails and wood.
How is the price of a commodity determined?
Prices are affected by three forms of competition:
Competition between sellers. Each seller will try to sell their table at the lowest price possible. One sells the table for $200, one for $175, one for $150. Similarly, one worker will sell their labour for $22 an hour, one for $21 an hour, one for $20 an hour. This competition will drive down the cost of the commodity.
But buyers will also compete to buy the commodity, one will offer $150 for the table, one will offer $175, one will offer $200. Similarly, one capitalist will buy wage-labour for $20 an hour, another will buy it for $21 per hour, and a third will buy it for $22 per hour. This competition will cause the price of the commodity to rise.
Competition between buyers and sellers. Those who wish to buy low, sell high. This competition is dependent on the first two. It depends which camp is stronger.
What causes prices to fluctuate then?
Supply and demand are in constant battle with one another, if supply is high and demand is low, the price will fall. Conversely, if supply is low and demand is high, the price will rise.
We must think about price dialectically. We must not see prices in a vacuum, separated from each other. Instead we must see the price of commodities in relation to each other. The rise in the price of tables means that a table can be exchanged for more amounts of other commodities (Labour power, food, fuel, electricity, etc.). After all, the price of a table means nothing on its own, it only means something when it can be compared to other items. Let us think of the items which can be bought for $200, one could buy food for a week, assuming they spend just under $30 on food per day, or they could buy a few tanks of fuel, the list goes on until the $200 is exchanged.
But let us now think to where price comes from, if we remember that the worker was paid $100 for a day making tables, say 5 if they make one per hour, we must also remember how much the capitalist paid for all the other commodities in the table. Perhaps they spent a total of $100 for the wood and nails required, as well as putting some small money aside for the replacement of tools, meaning that they spent a grand total of $130 for the labour power, materials and tools. Why would they sell it above $130?
If the capitalist sells the table at under $130, they have lost money. $130 is their zero point which they determine how profitable their business is. They will try to sell it at a higher price, perhaps they will be successful, but this leaves an important question unanswered.
This does not answer why price fluctuates. Let us see what happens if a rise in the exchange value of a table in relation to the price of the falling exchange value of chairs. For the sake of this example, we will assume that no other prices rise or fall. Now we see that a table can now be exchanged for more commodities, especially chairs. What will the capitalists do? A great mass of capital will be put into the production of tables as it is more profitable to produce tables. Now according to supply and demand, there will then be a higher supply of tables. When there is a higher supply of one commodity, the exchange value of that commodity will fall. Capital will continue to be pushed into the production of this commodity until the price falls below the cost of production.
What about the chairs? Capitalists will flee the production of chairs as it is less profitable to create chairs. The supply for chairs will fall, causing their exchange value to rise until it is again profitable to produce chairs.
Now we see why prices fluctuate. Capital is constantly fleeing the production of one commodity for the other, now we see a rise then a fall in commodities. One thing will always arise from this fluctuation: Products will eventually return to their cost of production. Price, therefore must be determined by the cost of production.
How are the prices of wages determined?
Wages, being the exchange value of the commodity of labour power are also subject to supply and demand. A high supply of wage workers will lead to a fall in wages. The price of labour power, or wages, will also fluctuate around the cost of production.
What is the cost of production for labour power?
The cost required to maintain the worker. The price of production and maintenance of the worker does not differ to that of a machine. Just like the machine, the worker must be paid enough to replace the itself at the end of some time. Therefore, the wear and tear of the worker is calculated in the exact same way as the money set aside to repair or replace the tools and machinery they work with.
The Nature and Growth of Capital:
Production does not happen in a vacuum, again, we must not think about production metaphysically, separated from society. No, production is only production when it happens in society. When producing commodities, human beings work with each other as well as working on nature. We produce commodities by working together. Only under these social and economic connections do we produce commodities.
We see from all class society that each epoch of human history had different modes of production, each mode of production changing the conditions under which humans work together and share the whole of society. Therefore, each change in society through the forces of production will change society. Each stage of history had a certain level of development in production. Ancient society with the sewing needle, feudal society with the spinning wheel, bourgeois society with the electric sewing machine.
Capital, too is also a social relation. Capital has been produced and accumulated under capitalism. Capital is more than just the means of subsistence, tools, and raw materials as products, but also as exchange values. After all, the wood from our previous example costs money, just as the money set aside to replace the tools, and the money set aside for wages. Capital will remain capital no matter what it is consisted of, whether it is metal, or wood, shoes or shirts provided they are all have the same exchange values. Capital may be made up of different stuff, or different amounts of stuff, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is still capital. Same thing about many products, 1 shirt has an exchange value, 10 shirts have an exchange value, 100 shirts have an exchange value.
If capital is made up of a sum of commodities, how does this happen?
Class society. There needs to be a labouring class for capital to be created. “It is only the dominion of past, accumulated, materialized labour over immediate living labour that stamps
the accumulated labour with the character of capital. Capital does not consist in the fact that accumulated labour serves living labour as a means for new production. It consists in the fact that living labour serves accumulated labour as the means of preserving and multiplying its exchange value.” (Marx 1847)
Capital can only exist if:
There is a class of labourers.
This class works together in production as a class.
This labour accumulates into commodities.
Relation of Wage Labour to Capital:
The capitalist exchanges the labour power of the worker for money. The labourer has made their wage. This wage is enough to continue living. Marx draws from the Iron Law of Wages here, one of the theories from the bourgeois economist Malthus. Thomas Malthus essentially said that wages must be kept low enough to ensure that the worker returns the next day. They must keep working to survive.
Now, the capitalist who has just exchanged labour power for wages, has now received a commodity. The labourer’s wages are less than the value of the commodity, how do we know this? Profit. The labourer must not be paid the full value of their labour if the capitalist is able to draw a profit from their activity. Every worker knows this if they think about it. It is an unsaid part in their contract. If they are paid $20 an hour, they will make the capitalist more than what they have been paid. The wage-labourer has created capital just the same as capital has created the conditions for the wage-labourer.
If a rise in wages occurs, there too notes a rise in capital, as now the wage workers may afford more commodities, therefore increasing the gains of the capitalist class. So, a rise in wages creates a rise in capital. Yet since the labourer does not get the full value of their labour, the wealth and luxury of the capitalist grows ever more. We need only look at men like Jeff Bezos to see just how much capital increases the wealth of the capitalist.
The General Law that Determines the Rise and Fall of Wages and Profits:
First Marx restates that wages are not a share in the commodities made by the workers. Wages are paid to the worker with the already existing money the capitalist has. The capitalist must replace this money though the selling of the commodities which the worker makes. This means, as we have stated previously, that the capitalist must make a profit.
The price of commodities is divided into three parts:
The replacement of the raw materials, wear and tear of tools and other such like.
Replacement of wages.
Surplus leftover or profit.
While the first replaces itself, we can see the second and the third part are taken out of this leftover value.
What is the general law that determines the rise and fall of wages and profit in their reciprocal relation?
They stand in opposition to each other and have an inverse relation. A rise in profits essentially means that wages have fallen. Even if the wage labourer has not seen a decrease in pay. Our table maker can build an extra table every working day and be paid $100 at the end of it. The share of profits has risen, the share of wages, then, has fallen.
Now we can see that the interests of wage labour to capital are opposed completely. Profit can only rise when wages fall, wages can only rise when profits fall. If more wage labourers are employed because there is enough capital to employ more workers, this just means that the domination of capital will spread to more wage labourers, meaning that the capitalist returns more profit at the end of the year.
Cheaper production, be it through new technology or lesser share of wages will see a growth in capital. For the same price, the capitalist may now exchange their money for more commodities. It is then in the interest of the capitalist to undercut their competition, to gain a larger share of the market. The rest of the capitalists will scramble to compete, some will succeed, some will fail. Now we see what is called the falling rate of profit in Marxist economics:
For the capitalist to retain the same money, now they must sell more commodities. Other capitalists will now become as competitive, using the same sort of machinery, the same division of labour and so on. Each capitalist will then undercut one another to receive more market share. This breakthrough, this new cheaper production has now become so widespread that the capitalists will now sell at, or even below, the cost of production. Now we see an event happen which is put so beautifully in the Manifesto of the Communist Party. “Society suddenly finds itself put back into a state of momentary barbarism; it appears as if a famine, a universal war of devastation, had cut off the supply of every means of subsistence; industry and commerce seem to be destroyed; and why? Because there is too much civilisation, too much means of subsistence, too much industry, too much commerce.”
Conclusion
What happens now? The capitalists will then discharge large sectors of employment, sending many workers into unemployment, starvation and want. We can see this happening in all financial crises. The capitalists cannibalise their own capital, as capital is only created by wage labour.
References:
Marx, K 1847, Wage-Labour and Capital, Progress Publishers, Moscow
Marx, K, Engels, F 1848, Manifesto of the Communist Party, Progress Publishers, Moscow
Marx, K 1867, Capital: A critique of Political Economy volume 1, Progress Publishers, Moscow
Marx, K 1898, Value, Price and Profit, Progress Publishers, Moscow
Comrade Llorens reviews the events of the past fortnight.
Over the past two weeks, the 9th General Assembly has been busy at work passing laws and implementing new regional initiatives. So, let’s start from the beginning.
On 15 April, The final horseman was appointed by Cedoria and I to join us as the third founder in the wake of British accia ceasing-to-exist. Since I replaced Atealia mere weeks ago, this makes Cedoria the last remaining original founder. It is my hope that now with three very active founders, we will be more secure against invaders and will be able to respond in more live-time to passed legislation and the like.
On 19 April, my Justice Terms Act passed 19-0 via referendum. Throughout this, the 2nd Culture Competitions continued on till 22 April, with yours truly as the organiser. After some late nights compiling results, we have gained a new anthem, flag, and coat-of-arms since the last publication! Can’t say I particularly like any of them honestly, but democracy works its will. 
You can find the full details and results of the event here. To jump forward a bit for the sake of relevance, the results of these Culture Comps were enshrined into our law in the Regional Designs Act on 26 April with consensus in the General Assembly.
To return back, the RMB then became host to a heated debate amongst mainly me, Kavagrad, and Cedoria concerning the Executive Article Act. It lasted over a couple days, including a legal question about the validity of the poll that went unanswered, and it eventually failed to pass via referendum on 24 April with a very narrow margin of just 6-8.
With the heated legislative discussion and Culture Comps out of the way, it was census time! I was appointed as Minister of Archives on 24 April to head the operation, which opened on 25 April and will close on the 30th. You can vote here (it is optional and anonymous, so just vote once please).
However, in the wake of this exciting news, we were unfortunately faced with a threat from the seemingly-fascist Risastorstein who, after having been warned on the Discord server by our Admin team, continued to break our rules and was promptly kicked by me. What ensued was a flurry of hateful and vulgar RMB messages and crudely-named puppets, which Kavagrad and I dealt with as it happened. At the time of this writing, it seems that the person behind the attack has held off for now and NSLeft has been alerted to their activity and ban status in our region.
And so that brings us up to now, nearing the end of April after our first full month with our exciting and progressive government. Now, many Comrades who have seen another April in our region may be aware that this month has not always been one for political stability. In fact, so much to this point that this month we commemorate the aptly-named April Crisis. For almost exactly the entirety of April 2017, the region endured the shocking reign of Losinia as Secretary, which included the blatant disregard for regional law and crumbling political alliances and dismissals, culminating in their fleeing from the region on 30 April. In reflecting, we should remember how important it is that we select good leaders to represent us.
Going forward in the short-term, we still have much more law to vote on and the census data to release in the coming days. I look forward to another positive fortnight for our government!
- Senator & Minister of Archives Llorens
Your scaffold would look like this:
Title:
Wage Labour and Capital.
OPTIONAL: Abstract:
Workers operate under an economic system of governance known as capitalism.
OPTIONAL: Definitions:
Worker/Proletarian: A societal class who do not own any means of production and must sell their labour to those who own the means of production.
Means of Production: A place where labour power is extracted and transformed into commodities. The easiest example is a factory.
Labour power: The commodified form of human labour which is sold on the market for a wage.
etc.
Introduction:
[100 words on what this article is about.]
Body:
[Point 1: 100 words] What is the relation of Wage Labour to Capital?
[Point 2: 100 words] How is the price of a commodity determined?
[Point 3: 100 words] What causes price to fluctuate?
[Point 4: 100 words] How are the prices of wages determined?
[Point 5: 100 words] What is the cost of production for labour power?
[Point 6: 100 words] The nature and growth of Capital.
[Point 7: 100 words] The relation of wage labour to Capital
[Point 8: 100 words] The general law that determines the rise and fall of wages and profits.
Conclusion:
[100 words on what this article was about]
Some things to make everyone's jobs easier:
If you are struggling, please feel free to ask for help on
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When I reference, I generally use Harvard referencing. It is one of the most widely used referencing styles. But in my opinion, as long as you are following some sort of referencing guide you'll be fine. I'd prefer if you did more referencing than just pasting the links at the end of your article, but it is ultimately up to you.
Harvard referencing generally goes as follows:
Book:
Author Surname, First letter of first name/s. Year, [i]Title[/i], Publisher, Location.Example:
Marx, K. 1867, Capital Vol. 1, Progress Publishers, Moscow.
In Text Referencing: (Marx 1867)
Journal Article:
Author Surname, First letter of first name/s. Year, 'Title of article', [i]Title of Journal[/i], vol. x, no. x, pp. xx-xx.Example:
Corrigan, P., Ramsay, H. and Sayer, D.. 1981, ‘Bolshevism and the USSR.’ New Left Review, vol. 125, p.45.
In Text Referencing: (Corrigan et al. 1981)
Newspaper:
Author Surname, First letter of first name/s. Year, 'Title of article', [i]Newspaper name[/i], Day and Month of publication, accessed on Day, Month, Year via: Link to articleExample:
Stewart, W. 2016, ‘Back in the USSR: 64 per cent of Russians say life was better in the Soviet Union than now’, The Express, 17 August, accessed 23 December 2017 via https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/701026/russians-life-better-soviet-union-ussr-sixty-four-percent
In Text Referencing: (Stewart 2016)
Some referencing tips:
When there are 2 names for the one source, write this when you are doing in text referencing: (First surname & Second surname Year)
When there are 3 or more names for the one source, write this when you are doing in text referencing: (First Surname et al. Year)
Put your in text referencing at the end of the sentence before you put in the fullstop.
Sort your references! Your references should be in alphabetical order first, then date, with the oldest sources appearing first.
This only applies to articles which require sources! If your article is talking about regional happenings then you obviously don't require sources. Not every article requires sources, use common sense.
If you still have questions or are still confused, please ask us on
The Leftist Assembly Discord.
In my opinion, there are 5 different levels of articles.
Level | What Sort of references | How many sources? |
Level 1: Fully Academic | Academic Journals, Books, Journal Articles etc. | Minimum 1 per 100 words. |
Level 2: Relaxed Academic | All the above plus newspaper articles | 1 per 100 words. |
Level 3: Relaxed | All the above plus movies, well sourced blogs etc. | Minimum 1 per 300 words. |
Level 4: Low effort. | All the above plus Wikipedia and similar sites. | Minimum 1 per article. |
Level 5: No sources. | No sources. | None. |
I prefer to keep things at level 3 or higher, but that's no constraint. I have submitted level 4 articles when I have had little time to write. Some articles don't require sources at all, for example: Talking about TLA politics or regional happenings.
First and foremost, make sure to have fun! Writing articles should be something which is enjoyable, you get to teach the rest of us something!
Secondly, before you start writing, you may want to shoot the Editor a quick telegram to ensure your topic hasn't already been covered.
Thirdly, if you set up a scaffold, writing the article becomes far, far easier. Planning saves time and gives you goals to work towards.
Fourthly, if you still require help, please feel free to message us on
The Leftist Assembly Discord.Finally, once you are done, make sure you send it to the Editor!
