Basics, Part 2a
Historical Tendency of Capitalist Accumulation
In support of “The Prince” we now go straight to the most famous work
of the Communist canon: Karl Marx’s “Capital”, in full strength.
The short Chapter 32 (attached) is the second last chapter in Volume 1
of “Capital”. It is a broad-brush summary of the first volume, which was
published in 1867, when Marx was still alive.
This chapter is only about 1000 words long - roughly the same length
as a newspaper “feature” article. It is one of several passages in the works of
Marx, Engels and Lenin that compress world history into a single sweep, in this
case from the time of slaves and serfs, through the stages of the development
of capitalism, to the anticipated proletarian revolution.
Other such passages in the “classics” include Chapter 9 of “The Origin
of the Family, Private Property and the State” by Frederick Engels, which will
be posted as the next item, and the first few pages of “The Communist
Manifesto”, by Marx and Engels, which is the main text in the next part of this
“Basics” course.
The “Basics” course is
partly an attempt to answer the frequently-expressed desire for a “simple”
explanation of the politics of the working class, and of the intellectual
partisans of the working class – the communists.
In attempting this task, some texts have been chosen that exemplify
the various original authors’ own attempts to respond to, and to satisfy, the
manifest popular craving for a brief and easily-absorbed overall explanation of
how politics works.
This chapter from Marx, wrapping up his master-work, "Capital,
Volume 1", is one of those.
·
The above is to introduce the original reading-text: Capital, V1, C32,
Historical Tendency of Capital, Marx
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