Publication Type:
Journal Article
Source:
Rethinking Marxism, Volume 11, Number 1, p.30--48 (1999)
Abstract:
It is contended that the connection between ethics and politics in Karl Marx's later writings is essentially aporic. Rather than interpret Capital as a study of capitalist economics and a paradigm for establishing proletarian politics, it is asserted that Marx's three volumes address the downfall of class politics during the mid-19th century. The need to perceive theories of labor as distinct from theories of class consciousness and political organization is articulated. Marx's critique of commodity fetishism and the dynamics of capitalist exchange in Capital's first two volumes are reviewed. It is subsequently claimed that Marx's understanding of labor power as variable capital both negates the possibility of a working-class alliance and invalidates laborer-centered theories of proletarian politics. It is concluded that contemporary Marxist thought must reconsider the connection between socialism and capitalism in order to better understand the ethical-political relationship in Marx's thought. 32 References. J. W. Parker
