Marx and the Crisis of the Society of Labor

Abstract

 

In recent years, the question of the relevance of Karl Marx's thought has sparked renewed interest, both in academic and political circles. The spectacular collapse of actually existing socialisms, along with the failure of the socialist system as a hegemonic economic-social organization, was interpreted by many as a sign of the obsolescence of Marxist ideas. Amid this horizon of the "end of history," Marx's thought was contrasted with any possibility of emancipation and even accused of complicity in the totalitarian danger. Buried in a decaying past from which we had supposedly liberated ourselves, the relevance of his legacy seemed to be exhausted. In a context where capitalism appears to consolidate as the superior form of socioeconomic organization, the entirety of his work came to be regarded as a disembodied and obsolete specter, an object relegated to the outdated analysis of the historian of ideas, with little to say about the present.