Marxism, Identity, Historical life

Historical Materialism

Other Scenes: Balibar and Tosel on Class Struggle and the Struggle over IdentityOne of the pressing issues of recent years has been the relationship between class struggle, or the struggle against capitalism more broadly and the struggle over identity. While this relationship has taken on ridiculous, and almost caricatured forms in the left quasi-public sphere in the US, becoming the split between Bernie Bros and the identity politics of the democratic party, or between “the dirtbag” and “woke left.” It raises serious issues about the relationship between the state, as the manager of ethnic and racial identities, and the economy as the hidden abode of exploitation. For this reason I propose to examine the way in which two Marxist philosophers, Etienne Balibar and André Tosel, tried to think both the interrelation and irreducibly of identity struggle and class struggle. Balibar and Tosel do so by drawing from the philosophical resources of Marx and Spinoza, but in different ways. For Balibar it is a matter of thinking of “the other scene” of economic struggle, the imaginary constitution of national identities that all economic struggles necessarily pass through. There is no class struggle that does not pass through the struggle of identities, just as there is no struggle over identities that does not pass through economic relations. In a different manner, Tosel focuses less on the relation between imaginary and real, taken as the state and the economy, than on the relation between what could be considered generic struggles over the very conditions of subjectivity, and conflicts over the very nature of identity. The first have to do with struggles over our basic capacities, to live, work, and speak, while the latter has to do with the way in which living, working, and speaking are always actualized in specific identities and communities. The two struggles cannot be separated. I argue that read together, Balibar and Tosel’s political anthropologies offer a way to not only theorize the intersection of class conflict and identity conflict, but a way to think the relation between the state and economy.Jason Read (Maine University, USA)Guy Debord and Gillian Rose on Historical LifeMy aim in this paper is to show that several problems in Debord’s theory of spectacle could be addressed by drawing on Gillian Rose’s work on Hegel. The problems that I shall discuss come to light when one attends to the concerns with time and history that underpin texts such as his classic The Society of the Spectacle of 1967. The latter book is often understood as a diatribe about capitalist visual culture (even though Debord described the ‘mass media’ as the spectacle’s ‘most stultifyingly superficial manifestation’); more adequate readings tend to view the text as a broad critique of capitalist social relations. His references to modern culture, however, and to the inadequacies of capitalist society, are only aspects of a deeper and more fundamental concern with the operation and contemporary denigration of collective historical life. This notion of historical life rests upon a set of broadly Hegelian ideas concerning temporality and human history, and it supports a critique of all social formations in which human agents become fetishistically subordinate to their own collective power and potential. These aspects of Debord’s theory are illuminating, but they are also flawed. Debord’s emphasis on the contextuality of radical theory jars with the seemingly trans-historical nature of his claims about history; his account of social power and domination is marked by a rather myopic neglect of issues such as ‘race’ and patriarchy; and moreover, his entire account is premised upon the immanent arrival of a revolution that never came. I shall suggest that reconsidering Debord’s use of Hegel through that of Gillian Rose might indicate a means of addressing some of these difficulties. I shall suggest that reconsidering Debord’s use of Hegel through that of Gillian Rose might indicate a means of addressing some of these difficulties. Rose, I shall suggest, might afford a means of reading Debord in a manner that takes account of the sense in which our current moment seems defined not by immanent revolution, but rather by the absence of the kind of grand, redemptive, anti-capitalist project that he described.Tom Bunyard (University of Brighton, UK)Anti-statism and the trajectory from the Revolutionary Communist Party to SpikedThis paper explores the history of the Revolutionary Communist Party and the transition of many of its leading members into Spiked, via the magazine Living Marxism, between the 1980s and 2010s. Originally a far left Trotskyist group, over the course of the 1990s, the party&#x27;s outlook changed towards contrarian libertarianism. After its dissolution in the late 1990s, those who moved onto Spiked developed a political outlook that chimed with sections of the populist right, which has become particularly prominent in the last decade. This paper will argue that underpinning this transition en masse from the far left to the populist right is an anti-statist politics. However this has moved from an opposition to state intervention by the capitalist state that was structurally racist, sexist and homophobic to an opposition to state intervention in the belief that the state is pursuing a &#x27;woke&#x27; and elitist agenda. As the contributors to Spiked become prominent figures in the media and political landscape, a knowledge of its history and origins are key to understanding how their political positions are developed in the present.Evan Smith, (Flinders University South Australia)PLEASE NOTE: All events for HM Online are free to register, however we would ask comrades who are able to please consider making a donation, which would help us enormously in covering the costs of putting of this programme of events. Like all left organisations, HM has had a very tough period since the beginning of 2020 and our budgets are very stretched and bank balance is sinking all the time, with very little revenue coming in. If you can make a contribution to keep us afloat, please don’t hesitate! You can donate by selecting the &#x27;donation&#x27; ticket type at registration.Once you have registered, a link to the live session will be emailed to you on the day of the event. For any technical queries please contact historicalmaterialism@soas.ac.ukPlease consider subscribing to the Historical Materialism journal, published by BRILL. www.brill.com/hima

"Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen": A book launch with Nicolas Helm-Grovas

Our {communityGuidelinesLink} describe the sort of content we prohibit on Eventbrite. If you suspect an event may be in violation, you can report it to us so we can investigate.

To report other categories of prohibited or illegal content, submit {link}

Marxism, Identity, Historical life

More events from Historical Materialism

Follow organisers to get events picked for you

"Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen": A book launch with Nicolas Helm-Grovas

Still looking for the right event?

Explore all online events to browse and filter by date, category, and more.

Marxism, Identity, Historical life

More events from Historical Materialism

Follow organisers to get events picked for you

"Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen": A book launch with Nicolas Helm-Grovas

You might also like...

Browse more events with different dates, prices, and formats to find your next great experience.

Still looking for the right event?

Explore all online events to browse and filter by date, category, and more.