The lack of severe radical uprisings in multi-crises capitalism

Abstract

A Marxist attempt to make sense of the current non-existence of fundamental resistance against capitalist domination.

In contemporary times, that are characterised through the existence of multiple severe crises the question of capitalist stability reposes itself more urgently than in the last few decades. With the ongoing process of mass impoverishment and further precaritisation the general lack of important social uprisings against the reigning political relations can no longer be primarily explained by people’s active consent. It rather needs to be pointed out how capitalist stability relies on various interacting pillars. Some of them, on whom the essay concentrates, cannot be conceptualised as having capitalist stability as their primary goal. The basal positioning of workers under capitalism makes it appear rational to them to rather individually subordinate under the logics of capital than to collectively rebel against them. In addition, capitalism shapes the world in its own image and therefore structurally undermines fundamental conditions for radical change as it materialises its own logics and imperatives into the Earth as well as in people’s subjectivity. For that reason actors of socialist politics need to take into account how capitalism structurally reproduces its own and only its own conditions. This can be answered through working on holistic educational approaches with the aim of self-liberation of the subalterns.

Keywords:

• multi crises
• capitalism
• radical
• social uprising
• workers

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joshua Graf

Joshua Graff Social Work (M.A.) is a Lecturer in social work at Esslingen University, Germany. Email: [email protected]