http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/04/the-return-of-marxism
There are several interesting ideas in this story. First, as the economic crisis stays around and worsens, people may move to the left (they might also move to the right, but that's probably a better subject for another thread):
There are also some interesting takes on the role of China in the current state of capitalism:
I disagree with this assessment. I actually think western capitalism was thriving when China was not part of the equation. The creative destruction going on in the global economy today due to free trade is what is destabilizing western economies to the point where more and more are questioning capitalism. (That could raise the paranoid thought that the Chinese Communist party's knows this.)
At some point, are people going to choose a second world existence to a third world one?
There are several interesting ideas in this story. First, as the economic crisis stays around and worsens, people may move to the left (they might also move to the right, but that's probably a better subject for another thread):
Capitalism is in crisis across the globe but what on earth is the alternative? Well, what about the musings of a certain 19th-century German philosopher? Yes, Karl Marx is going mainstream and goodness knows where it will end
There are also some interesting takes on the role of China in the current state of capitalism:
The irony is scarcely wasted on leading Marxist thinkers. "The domination of capitalism globally depends today on the existence of a Chinese Communist party that gives de-localised capitalist enterprises cheap labour to lower prices and deprive workers of the rights of self-organisation," says Jacques Rancière, the French marxist thinker and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris VIII. "Happily, it is possible to hope for a world less absurd and more just than today's."
I disagree with this assessment. I actually think western capitalism was thriving when China was not part of the equation. The creative destruction going on in the global economy today due to free trade is what is destabilizing western economies to the point where more and more are questioning capitalism. (That could raise the paranoid thought that the Chinese Communist party's knows this.)
This chimes with something Rancière told me. The professor argued that "one thing about Marxist thought that remains solid is class struggle. The disappearance of our factories, that's to say de-industrialisation of our countries and the outsourcing of industrial work to the countries where labour is less expensive and more docile, what else is this other than an act in the class struggle by the ruling bourgeoisie?"
At some point, are people going to choose a second world existence to a third world one?