Marxist Research Articles

Research on Digital Labor Alienation from The Perspective of Digital Capitalism

In the Economic and Philosophical Manuscript of 1844, Marx put forward the theory of "alienated labor". According to Marx's analysis, the process of labor alienation is actually the process of workers from formal subordination to actual subordination to capital, and it is also the process of workers' losing their subjective status, which is a vicious circle. In the era of digital economy, as a new form of labor, digital labor, while greatly improving labor efficiency and liberating productivity, is still dominated by the production system dominated by private ownership of the means of production.

Alexandre Kojève – Filozoficzny jakobin czy nowoczesny bonapartysta?

Kojève is considered by many to be a Marxist thinker whose interpretation of Hegelianism was said to be similar to the twentieth-century ‘totalitarian’ ideologies. Historical research on his political thought has preserved his image as a ‘philosophical Jacobin’, who had an affirmative stance toward political violence and was an apologist for revolutionary activity, the ultimate goal of which was to be ‘the end of history’. The article aims to present an alternative narrative based on new research and sources that show that his thought is much more nuanced. Firstly, it is claimed that the context of his work should be found primarily in Russian religious philosophy and relations with Russian intellectuals in exile. Secondly, the infl uence of geopolitical changes in the first half of the twentieth century on the evolution of his political concepts is emphasised. Thirdly, his critical attitude to revolutionary theories is discussed. Finally, the article concludes with a presentation of the views of ‘mature’ Kojève as one of the creators of the vision of modern European universalism based on a specific ideal of justice and the desire for a lasting peace ending the post-Enlightenment chaos full of brutal wars and revolutions.

Book Review: Service Workers in the Era of Monopoly Capital: A Marxist Analysis of Service and Retail Labour by Fabian van Onzen

Book Review: <i>Service Workers in the Era of Monopoly Capital: A Marxist Analysis of Service and Retail Labour</i> by Fabian van Onzen

Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Cooled Down or Stimulated the Countertendencies of Capital? A Critical Review

This is a critical review of what the Marxist scientific literature presents on the forms of countertendency to falling profit rates carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 33 articles included in this review were studied using a Marxist approach. The following elements of the articles were synthesized and criticized: the analysis matrices, the methodological aspects of the articles, the elements contrary to the law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall, and the cases studied and their contexts of analysis. The articles reviewed allow us to state that during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was intensification in the forms of an increased degree of labour exploitation, cheapening of the elements of constant capital, and increased relative overpopulation and shareholder capital.

Currency Crisis or Overproduction? A Marxian Analysis of the Exchange Rate Peg Collapse in Brazil

We revisit the recent past of the Brazilian economy in an attempt to present an alternative characterization of the nature of the late 1990s crisis. The theoretical basis of this analysis is Marxian political economy. This choice is justified by the contraposition between the Marxian theory of overproduction cyclical crisis and the most popular currency crisis theories, revealing that while the latter focus on the phenomenon’s appearance, the former analyzes it in depth. The analysis of capital accumulation during Brazil’s Real Plan shows that the examined crisis can be characterized as another manifestation of the aforementioned phenomenon: the overproduction cyclical crisis. JEL Classification: B51, E32, N16

The classes and class struggles contents of the Bangsamoro question

PurposeThere is a noticeable dearth of literature offering Marxist perspectives and analyses on the Bangsamoro struggles for self-determination, ethnic and religious identities and social justice. A reason for this may lie in the general derision of bourgeois academics and conventional commentators on the supposed paucity of Marxist theories on nationalism, ethnicity and religion. This may have influenced, ironically, Filipino Marxist thinkers into being indifferent to this research topic. Far from the truth, however, that Marxism is essentially an economic determinist social conflict theory, its historical materialism offers a rich treasury of analyses and perspectives on nationalism, self-determination, religion and ethnic identity within the context of class struggles as the acme of the theory of scientific socialism. The paper, therefore, offers a scientific analysis of the Bangsamoro Question from a Marxist standpoint beyond the perspectives of psychologism, naturalism and ethno-racialism, which are usually deployed by traditional and uninformed commentators in analyzing ethnicity questions and quests for separatism.Design/methodology/approachThe paper employs the historical and class analysis of the dynamics, relationships and struggles of classes in the history of the Bangsamoro struggles against colonialism and the subsequent postcolonial regimes up to the present time.FindingsAs a scientific paradigm, historical materialism presents itself as a general scientific social conflict theory. Using this framework through historical and class analyses, the paper proves the improbability of the Moros’ quest for separatism or genuine autonomy at this historical point. It, therefore, asserts the linking of the Moro struggles to the more immense struggles of the Filipinos for national and social liberation from imperialism.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is limited to the historical and class analyses of classes’ dynamics and struggles. It is, therefore, far from an exhaustive analysis of the Moro struggles using different non-Marxist social conflict theories.Practical implicationsThe research can be considered a practical guide in analyzing and predicting the trajectories of the Moro struggles in Mindanao and Sulu.Social implicationsThe work addresses the question from radical and Marxist premises.Originality/valueThis is a highly original and valuable work from the point of view of Marxist social conflict theory.

Globalized Luxury Fashion is the Crisis: Kanye West, a structure of feeling, and the case of Louis Vuitton

Globalization, the process of communication and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide, is a central concept in the study of luxury and fashion, both as innovative activity and guide to the future. This article offers readers an encounter with vital developments within globalized luxury fashion and with one of the most important theoretical arguments of the twenty-first century, namely, that globalized luxury fashion is constitutive of the contemporary crisis. In exploring the idea of globalized luxury fashion as integral to the current crisis and its impact, the article traces the American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and luxury fashion designer Kanye West’s (now known simply as “Ye”) beleaguered conflicts with globalized luxury fashion from the point of view of what the Marxist thinker Raymond Williams called “a structure of feeling,” the culture of the present period, or the specific living consequence of all the components in the overall organization. The article concludes with a discussion of Ye’s globalized luxury fashion style through a case study of his work for and ressentiment toward the global luxury fashion brand Louis Vuitton and presents an in-depth understanding of globalized luxury fashion which is essential to anyone reading contemporary critical luxury theory.

Engels and the housing question 150 years on: A roundtable discussion

How far does the current housing crisis resemble the housing question as Friedrich Engels analysed it 150 years ago? Three housing experts, Linda Clarke, Michael Edwards and Paul Watt, explored this question in a panel discussion at the Marx Memorial Library on 30 January 2023, chaired by Marjorie Mayo, editor of Theory and Struggle. They pointed to the continuing relevance of much of Engels’s approach, rooted in a Marxist analysis of industrialisation, urbanisation and conflicting class interests in relation to land ownership, property development and the housing crisis. Market forces continue to drive so many people out of city centres, for a start. The panellists then went on to identify some of the issues that Engels missed (particularly the role of the construction industry) as well as some of the issues that were not so evident in Engels’s time, such as the changing nature of state intervention, the roles of local authorities and the unions, and the increasing influence of the financial sector. The discussion concluded by focusing on what a progressive government could be doing to ensure that decent housing is provided as a right, and how to link housing struggles with wider struggles, fighting for a more sustainable future for us all.

‘If “Marxists” would only read Marx’: The significance of Simon Clarke’s Marxism

Simon Clarke was an original and consistent Marxist thinker. From an early stage in his career, he independently developed a cogent, non-dogmatic reading of Marx’s work that ran against the grain of the dominant variants of Marx of his day. In this piece, we delineate the main features of Clarke’s Marxism through a reading of an early essay, first drafted in 1970. We highlight his critique of ideology, his focus on the forms through which the social relations of production appear and his insistence on the unity of theory and history – the conviction that the class struggle is expressed in the concrete movement of history. These features would form the bedrock of his truly significant contribution over five decades.

Ontology as ideology: A critique of Butler's theory of precariousness

Ontology as ideology: A critique of Butler's theory of precariousness

Domination, social norms, and the idea of an emancipatory interest

Domination, social norms, and the idea of an emancipatory interest

Political Suppression in Mahasweta Devi’s Draupadi

“I think a creative writer should have a social conscience. I have a duty towards society…. I ask myself this question a thousand times: Have I done what I could have done?”- Mahasweta Devi. Mahasweta Devi is a reputed Indian writer who was born in the year 1926 into a middle class Bengali Hindu Brahmin family in Dacca now in Bangladesh. She writes within the parameters of classis Marxist ideology and evinces a keen interest in history in many of her novels. In fact, her novel ‘Jhansir Rani or Rani of Jhansi’ demonstrates an interest in both history and her woman protagonist. She is a noted Bengali writer disgusted by the modes of humiliation that the lower castes, especially the womenfolk, are subjected to and the champion of the cause of the ‘Untouchables’, is horrified by the game of politics that tries to break the spirit of men and women who fight for emancipation from slavery on behalf of their caste and clan. Hence she embarks on a project of presenting the shocking realities that happen behind the socioeconomic and political iron curtains, through her most powerful work ‘Draupadi’.

Russian Philosophers on the Concept of a Scientific Worldview

The article shows the controversiality of the concept of “scientific worldview.” It indicates its connection with the ideology of Marxism, which claimed to reflect the objective laws of social development. The idea is made that within the framework of this approach, the understanding of the worldview as a source of personal meanings gives way to its vision as a combination of principles of socially significant activity. This approach is opposed to the position of Russian philosophers who criticized the concept of a scientific worldview and pointed out that the source of personal meanings that make up the content of the worldview is the life experience of the subject, understood as irrational introduction to being. To express such an introduction to being, the concepts of “world sense” and “world consciousness” used by Berdyaev can be used. Conceptual, scientific worldview means the attitude to reality as something external, otherworldly, i. e. is the position of substance. Science, according to Berdyaev, is knowledge of necessity through adaptation to world given and knowledge of necessity. To fill the meaning of the inner life of a person, a specific being of a person plays a decisive role, which acts as a form of rooting in being as such. In other words, a person acquires the main meanings of his existence not on the basis of a worldview, the content of which is a generalized image of the outside world, they are acquired from his own experience of spiritual growth, which constitutes the essential basis of life.

A Marxist Reading of the Story, “Hansel and Gretel”

This paper analyzes the story “Hansel and Gretel” from the Marxist point of view. This children’s story is the story of haves-and-have-nots. The conflict between these two classes: the upper class and the working class is a non-stop process. There is a conflict between the witch and the children: the upper class and working class, feudalism and Marxism. Theoretically, feudal society is out of practice but it is still going on. This conflict is because of discrimination. The working-class people are suffering from the upper-class people’s domination and discrimination. The findings of the study show that the discrimination between upper-class and working-class people is never ending process. Society still has a feudal mentality. In every sector, discrimination is as usual. The upper class or high-ranking people dominate the working class or low-ranking people. This paper focuses on how to minimize the feudal discriminating mentality. The grounded feudal system is more dangerous than the surface-level feudal system. The study adopts the Marxist approach to analyze the story. Millions of people struggled and sacrificed for providing economic freedom to the working class people for ages so that the gap between them would fill up, but their sacrifice has not been meaningful. The change, which is nominal, is not satisfactory. Monetary power beats almost all kinds of power in the world. Exceptionally, intellectual powers seldom beat some orthodox power but money, which is all in all in the world of the American dream, is the major cause of discrimination.

Automatic Systems after Marx

ABSTRACT This article foregrounds the relevance of Marx’s analysis of machines beyond 19th century industrial technology. Can a Marxian analysis shed light on the historical implications of contemporary digital technology and automation? The article proposes that “automatic systems,” an expression from volume 1 of Capital, could serve as the guiding conceptual tool for envisaging possible answers to this question. A close reading of mainly volume 1 of Capital, in addition to Marx’s preparatory notes for Capital, is presented in the second and main section of this article. The overarching argument is that contrary to claims otherwise, the foundation laid out in Capital provides us with a structural analysis that neither is technologically determinist nor denies the social significance of technological shifts as the material condition for class struggle. This argument will be preceded by a detailed and critical discussion of an ongoing debate in Marxist theory today, notably literature inspired by authors such as A. Negri and P. Virno. The article concludes with the relationship between knowledge and capital.

Claudia Jones, The Person and The Idea

Carol Boyce Davies’ influential work Left of Karl Marx describes the life and time of Claudia Jones, a not very well known influential 20th century Marxist thinker. Through an in-depth look at the trials and tribulations Jones underwent, whether it be her time in prison or her deportation to England, Davies succeeds in capturing her essence, as well as thoroughly analysing her political development. What is left lacking in her discussion of Jones’ life, however, is Davies’ own reasoning as to why the grandmother of intersectionality was left out of the history books, both by Capitalists and Socialists alike. In this work, I use Davies’ work on Claudia Jones’ life to discern why this is the case, and how the factors which contributed to her erasure from the public consciousness were so effective in their efforts. By the end of this review, I look at how the separation of one from their ideas plays a pivotal role in their erasure, and how this occurred to Claudia Jones.

Karl Marx’s thoughts on critical pedagogy, reproduction, and aesthetic literacy in STEAM education and praxis

This article sheds new light on Karl Marx’s theoretical legacy to promote educational philosophy and theory in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) education. Accordingly, this article selects Marxian thought as an exemplar case to elaborate critical pedagogy and aesthetics and culminate with an overview of the Marxian approach to the theoretical underpinnings of STEAM education. Hence, the article critically reviews Marx’s original works and earlier Marxian scholars’ contributions to extending critical pedagogy and its applications to the STEAM paradigm and informational and communication technology (ICT) development. This article critiques notable structural problems of STEAM education that produce power differentials such as educational gaps and digital divides in the current age of digital capitalism. Given the context, this article refines art and communication theories through the lens of his biography and writings. Additionally, this article incorporates the Marxian viewpoints about reproduction and aesthetic literacy into STEAM education. Overall, this article reviews the theoretical legacy of Marx and his essential critical and pedagogical theory, calling on scholars to pay close attention to re-orienting STEAM pedagogy as an emerging multidisciplinary field.

Terpasung Dalam Bualan Kepentingan

This study aims to determine the representation of female beauty in Garnier Sakura White advertisements. This type of research uses a qualitative descriptive research approach. Data obtained from garnier sakura white advertising posters. This research was conducted using the semiotic analysis method of Charles Sanders Peirce and also Marxist analysis. The results of this study show that the advertisement implies that the beautiful label of a woman is just a trick that ends up only for the benefit of certain parties in making coffers of money. As a result, many societies, especially women, are shackled in boasting interests that are only for certain parties to enjoy. It is as if the standard of human living, including the beauty of women is also measured according to the advertisements that are aired. &#x0D; Keywords: Beauty, Advertising, Semiotics, and Marxist.

Samir Amin the African, Global Giant, and Epitome of uBuntu in Tireless Pursuit of the ‘Highest Level of Human Civilization’

Abstract This article is the English version of a presentation delivered at the international symposium that was held on February 10–12, 2020, in Dakar (Senegal) in honor and memory of Professor Samir Amin. In what could be read as an autoethnography of more than four decades of observation and evolution the intellectual journey has been enriched from the status and experiences as students to adult academics with critical perspectives shaped the uBuntu-inspired life vision of Samir Amin. The journey of this global giant evolved with extraordinary consistency from childhood questioning social inequality to the global arena as the ultimate advocate of the marginalized everywhere. He inspired generations with his unsurpassed prolific knowledge production, his intellectual rigor and his humanity. The article also recognizes the role of his comrade and spouse, Isabelle Eynard Amin. Samir Amin’s unwavering commitment to the struggle to create a new world of equality and respect of our common humanity to achieve the highest level of human civilization. Beside the economy as the substructure articulated in Marxist analysis, formal education, as part of the superstructure, plays a more critical role than conceived by the classical Marxist and dependency theory as a critical tool for colonial and neo-colonial control. Indeed, formal education also contains the seed for possible social transformation.

A Jihadi Critique of the Modern State: Abū Qatāda in Conversation with Decolonial and (neo-)Marxist Thought

This paper analyzes the reception of decolonial and neo-Marxist thought in a jihadist critique of the modern state. The author argues that a study of Abū Qatāda al-Filisṭīnī, a prominent theorist of modern Jihadism and Salafism, reveals his nuanced interaction with theories of hegemony, ideology, and decolonization. An examination of Abū Qatāda’s critique of modern state institutions and ideology shows that he engages with philosophical critiques of sovereignty, hegemony, capitalism, and the nation-state and utilizes both neo-Marxist and decolonial thought. This paper explores how Abū Qatāda theorizes the modern state as a colonial project, leading him to rationalize jihad, or violent resistance, as the only solution to realize paradigmatic change. It further shows how Abū Qatāda justifies opposition to the modern state and hegemony with seamless deployment of scripture and Islamic jurisprudence and insists that his political project builds on premodern Islamic theories of knowledge and government necessary for decolonization, albeit often without offering details. This study reveals a feature of jihadist thought that has remained largely unnoticed in the literature and is the first to explore the interactions between Salafism and critiques of the modern state.