Something I am struck by in Marx and Engel's argument is its applications to a wide variety of societies. As I was reading, particularly about the division of labor and stages of development, I couldn't help applying these theories to the context of indigenous societies in North America.
At first I felt that this was a rather imperialistic view as Marx and Engels placed hunter gatherer societies low on the stages of development (though we know some North American societies practiced forms of agriculture pre-contact, I am in this case speaking specifically about Alaska Native populations). Maybe we can chalk this up to implicit bias toward imperialism within Marx and Engels themselves due to the hegemony of imperialism they were living in. Later in the reading I rescinded my doubts about this as Marx and Engels spoke about communism and how in a capitalist society one is tied to their means of living, their job, in order to survive. In communism, Marx and Engels state, "where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow" (Marx, Engels, 53), Does this not sound like the ways many indigenous societies function? The Germans at the time, held the belief that there exists a prehistory before written language. Where does this leave oral traditions? We are coming to find that these are often as accurate as written histories.
Furthermore, Marx and Engels say that one needs certain materials in order for one to live and to then go on to "make history". These materials include food, shelter, water, clothing etc. German philosophy at the time had become so separate from these materialistic necessities that it became abstracted from the realities of day to day life. This brings to mind Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Of course one needs food, shelter, water, these materialistic things to live and thrive, but I would argue that in today's world one also requires access in order to live and make history. Access to education is the first that comes to mind, but if we apply this to modern politics we could say any number of needs that people require in order to make history, freedom from violence enacted by police, for example. Maybe this goes beyond the materialism that Marx and Engels are talking about, but if we look back at history we can see that those who influence it have access to much more than the raw materials of life. Conflict justifiably arises when oppressed groups don't have the same level of access to the concrete or abstract tools to "make history". We may use materialism as the basis for these needs and tools, but I would stay aware that access to clean water would not solve all of Flint, Michigan's societal ills (though it would be a huge step forward and the basis on which to tackle other social ills).
Good stuff here Erika, I agree that there is a resonance with Marx and Engels arguments about the relationship to the environment and indigenous relations to the land--which has become a valuable direction of research in the last two decades. Take a look at the book Red Skin/White Masks by Glen Sean Clouthard as well as this overview essay from February of this year: https://monthlyreview.org/2020/02/01/marx-and-the-indigenous/ which also addresses the value of focusing on 'exploitation' as opposed to 'domination' that we discussed in class today.
ReplyDeleteAnd your point about the value of different needs is an important one and at what point are communities able to make history or "make space" in their own urban environments. This is a point that is crucial for Gramsci particularly: who creates "culture"--and thereby defines who has access to culture--is precisely linked to categories of racial, class, gender, sex, age, ability, etc., hierarchies. Marx would want to say to Maslow, sure, these self fulfillment needs come after basic needs are met, but the way one goes about acquiring one's basic needs (and here we can use Patel and Moore's strategy of cheapness quite usefully) on a global scale already goes a long way toward determining or 'mediating' who on the planet will get time, space, & resources to practice self-fulfillment. In Juneau, as in most cities, we know that the prison, the garbage dump, and the superfund sites are located in the neighborhood of the working and marginalized communities. And so we can begin to identify the concrete practice of "environmental racism" within our cities as well--which brings these questions of education, water, and environment closer together through the process by which all three of them are created today.