Karl Marx

Word4Word: Bonapartism

Today’s word: Bonapartism. Continuing our occasional series of words or phrases of interest to the left. Not too difficult to work out the etymology (i.e. the origins and development) of this word, although there are two Bonapartes to take into consideration: the first, of course, is Napoleon (1769-1821), military genius and self-proclaimed Emperor of France in the aftermath of the French Revolution; the second is his nephew Louis (often referred to as Napoleon III, 1808-1873), who by contrast was an incompetent idiot. This is not some peculiar spiteful bias by Professor Ampersand; opinion...

The Wood Theft Laws and the beginnings of Marxism

Introduction In the Ariège Department in Pyrenean France, between 1829 – 1831, men dressed up as women revolted against their landowners in what became known, curiously, as the ‘Girl’s War’ or ‘Maidens’ War’ (Guerre Des Demoiselles). They were trying to protect their long held right to forage for firewood and graze their animals in the forests. A new forestry code passed in 1827 denied them this right and the rebellion spread across the region with many pitched battles taking place. So strong was feeling amongst the local populace that it became difficult to recruit anyone for the mayoralty...

The Jevons paradox and capitalism

Workers’ Liberty’s Marxist Ecology Reading group met on 12 June to discuss the “Jevons Paradox” via chapter 7 of The Ecological Rift by Foster, Clark and York. Almost all the models to avoid catastrophic climate change pin hopes on significant gains in resource and energy efficiency. However, history shows that efficiency alone will not do the job so long as production is organised on a capitalist basis. The 19th century economist William Stanley Jevons observed that gains in efficiency tend to lead to increased scale of production and hence paradoxically to increased, rather than decreased...

Organising economic life without “bosses”

“Neither god nor master”, ni dieu ni maître, was the name of a newspaper launched by the revolutionary socialist Auguste Blanqui in his old age, in 1880. The slogan was later used mostly by anarchists, though Blanqui was not an anarchist and the “Blanquists” would in 1901-05 merge into a more-or-less Marxist Socialist Party in France. According to the 2021 UK census, “managers, directors, and officials” are 12.9% of the entire workforce, a bigger number than factory operatives or “elementary occupations” or indeed any category except “professional”. Does that mean that “no bosses” is now...

Saito: making a mess of Marxist ecology

See a reply to this in the comments . Kohei Saito’s eagerly anticipated new book, Marx in the Anthropocene: Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism (Cambridge University Press, 2023) will likely gain a wider readership. Ultimately, Saito’s book is disappointing, promising a new version of Marx, but instead reading back badly-formulated contemporary ideas. The book demonstrates that even when starting from solid premises, it is still possible to go wildly astray. Saito deservedly won many plaudits for his first book, Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism (2017) – reviewed in Solidarity 523 (30 October 2019)...

Children, capitalism and communism

A string of reports on soaring mental illness among teenagers (and of increasing suicides, confirming there is more to it than just increased reporting of trouble). A spate of revolts by school students in England, mainly against uniform and toilet rules. The advance of technology and capital’s increasing demand for a generally-educated workforce has brought some advances for children and teenagers. In the broad sweep of history, it’s not so long since, even in richer capitalist countries, children mostly had pretty much no space to themselves at home, and socialised mainly on the street (or...

Marx and Lenin on religion

"Man makes religion, religion does not make man. In other words, religion is the self consciousness and self-feeling of man, who has either not yet found himself or has already lost himself again...

The labour theory of value, Kane, and Connolly

Intertwined with James Connolly's exchange with the Jesuit Fr Kane about socialism and religion which we reprinted in Solidarity 665 is an argument between Kane and Connolly about Marx's labour theory of value. Kane makes a mess of the theory in his attempts to refute it, and at points Connolly also, in his attempts to defend the theory, also makes a mess. It is probably to be regretted that Marx did not coin new terminology for his theory, rather than adapting terms used by previous writers. However, it is clear that in Marx's theory exchange-value and use-value are distinct. They are not two...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.