Introduction 1
Karl Marx (born May 5, 1818; died March 14, 1883) left an indelible mark on the study of globalization. While he initially intended to examine the “world market” (Marx 1987 [1859]: 261), he was unable to complete his study. This has not prevented future researchers from incorporating his analysis to study the world economy and global issues (see Aguirre-Beltran 1979; Amin 1976; Baran 1957; Cardoso 1972–1973; Cox 1959; Dos Santos 1970; Du Bois 2007 [1939]; Emmanuel 1972; Frank 1969; Furtado 1964; Galeano 1997; Lenin 1975; Luxemburg 1964; Magdoff 1978; Mariátegui 2011; Portes 1973; Rodney 1973; Wallerstein 1974). While the chapter will not cover Marx’s multitude of applications to globalization, it will identify the core concepts that provide the foundation for the researchers in globalization who have followed in Marx’s footsteps.
There is a statement in the Communist Manifesto often cited as evidence of his global view.
The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation. The cheap prices of commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls, with which it forces the barbarians’ intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate. It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilisation into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image. (Marx and Engels 1976 [1848]: 488)
The power of this statement, and others, in the Communist Manifesto is the generality that can be applied in any number of historical periods. Today, we can see the relevance of “cheap prices of commodities” in World Trade Organization’s (WTO) mission to lower trade barriers (WTO 2018). We can easily see the struggles of Nicaragua and Venezuela as they face the “pain of extinction” for charting a path different than free market capitalism (Con Sal 2018; Cusack 2018; Felicien et al. 2018). The Communist Manifesto was a call to action. It was unlike his more methodical research, because it was intended to excite the working population to promote social change. In his research, Marx focused on identifying the specific processes that cause the general trends outlined in the Communist Manifesto. As this chapter will demonstrate, Marx was a meticulous researcher whose body of work remains relevant today.
Early Years
At the time of Marx’s youth, Europe was undergoing tremendous political upheaval. In the German state of Prussia, political acts such as free speech rallies were subject to arrests and surveillance (Wheen 1999: 13). After entering the University of Bonn in 1835, Marx joined political discussion groups, but also enjoyed a boisterous social life in the local pubs. His father, hearing of his extracurricular activities, moved him to the University of Berlin (Wheen 1999: 16–17). At the University of Berlin, Marx continued his participation in discussion circles where he became interested in the ideas of G. W. F. Hegel, but rejected the religious aspects of Hegel’s approach. What attracted Marx was the notion of a “dialectic” between thought and reality. For Hegel, the dialectic meant reality was the end result of the ongoing refinement of ideas. As new ideas challenged and replaced older ideas, a more perfected form of society was created. Marx argued he turned Hegel “right side up again” (Marx 1977a [1887]: 19). “The ideal is nothing else than the material world reflected by the human mind” (Marx 1977a [1887]: 19). Marx was fundamentally concerned with how the existing structure of society affected the people within it. For Marx, the organization of society tends to give rise to the ideas in society. Instead of remaining in the realm of philosophy, Marx felt that the dialectic method could be used to study society. Using the dialectic method, a researcher must conduct a detailed analysis to understand the inner connection of the objects under study (Marx 1977a [1887]: 19). The dialectical method to study the material relations within society can then be applied to inform movements for social change.
Marx continued his research after completing his doctoral thesis in 1841, but he could not avoid the turbulent political conditions of his time. Personally, he grew to realize he would not obtain a professorship at a German university due to the political climate. His colleague, Bruno Bauer, was dismissed from the University of Bonn for his views (Rubel and Manale 1975: 22). At this early period in his life, Marx was increasingly affected by the appalling conditions of the working classes .
The streets are generally unpaved, rough, dirty, filled with vegetable and animal refuse, without sewers or gutters, but supplied with foul stagnant pools instead. … the stream itself is checked every few paces by high weirs, behind which slime and refuse accumulate and rot in thick masses. Above the bridge are tanneries, bonemills, and gasworks, from which all drains and refuse find their way into the Irk, which receives further the contents of all the neighbouring sewers and privies. It may be easily imagined, therefore, what sort of residue the stream deposits. (Engels 1975 [1845]: 331, 352)
Given his philosophical interests and debates with fellow scholars, Marx threw himself into the task of documenting and critiquing these inequalities.
Marx edited the newspaper, Rheinische Zeitung, from 1842 to 1843 and contributed articles detailing the loss of public access to dead wood and the plight of wine-farmers. Due to the repressive censorship of the government, the newspaper was banned, and Marx left the editor position to join his colleague, Arnold Ruge, in Paris to work on a new newspaper. This new effort lasted only one issue. It was banned in Marx’s native Prussia, and copies were seized exiting France. Arrest warrants were issued for Marx and others involved in its publication. At this point, Marx took advantage of the more radical environment in Paris to throw himself more deeply into a study of political economy . One of the articles that impressed him was written by Frederick Engels who would eventually become a close friend. Marx would refer to this essay, “Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy,” in his later work (McLellan 1973: 56, 59, 63, 98, 105–106).
Alienation
While in Paris in the summer of 1844, Marx began a very deliberate study of capitalism (Pospelova 1975: xvi). His analysis included a concept, “species being” that he felt was the core essence of human beings. For Marx , the concept of species being is not the same as a biologically determined human nature, but arises from early communal societies “among all civilised nations at the dawn of their history” (Marx 1987 [1859]: 275). As early humans evolved, they used their minds in “conscious life activity” (Marx 1975 [1844]: 276) in conjunction with their hands to “work upon the objective world” in a social context (Marx 1975 [1844]: 277). People evolved to work together to solve problems with their minds and create solutions with their hands through labour. For the vast majority of human history, people lived in relatively egalitarian, peaceful, communal societies. Species being is the inner desire to express this creative, meaningful labour as a fundamentally social being.
Marx, in his notes (now referred to as the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844), felt that capitalism stripped people of this species being. The very act of wage labour ensured that people could no longer realize their full species being. Marx called the stripping away of species being “alienation ” and identified four primary forms. “(1) … “the product of labour… (2) … the act of production” (Marx 1975 [1844]: 275, italics in original) “(3) … species being” and “(4) … man from man” (Marx 1975 [1844]: 277, italics in original).
The first form of alienation is alienation from the product. According to Marx, when workers put effort into producing a product, the product represents, or more precisely embodies, the labour that the workers put into the product. Because the capitalist owns the products of the workers’ labour, the efforts of the workers’ labour do not belong to them. Under wage labour, the workers do not produce what they need to survive, nor do they interact directly with nature. In fact, because much of the work that wage labourers do is gruelling, workers tend to be physically deteriorated by their work. 2 The product of someone’s labour, which in prior communal societies was life-affirming, is now the expression of degradation (Marx 1975 [1844]: 272–273). “It is true that labour produces wonderful things for the rich–but for the worker it produces privation. It produces palaces–but for the worker, hovels. It produces beauty–but for the worker, deformity… It produces intelligence–but for the worker, stupidity, cretinism” (Marx 1975 [1844]: 273).
The alienation from the product also leads to “the fetishism of commodities” according to Marx. Because people encounter products in the marketplace such as a store, they do not understand the role of labour in its creation. Consumers do not think of the workers’ efforts when they purchase a product. Consumers only think about the mystical qualities of the product that they purchase (Marx 1977b [1887]: 81–83). “There ...