Marx on Globalisation

Description

‘All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned…the need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere’…this was theCommunist Manifesto’s description of the global reach of capitalism one hundred and fifty years ago.

Globalisation, evidently, is not a new phenomenon; but at the beginning of the new millennium, the processes that constitute the phenomenon of globalisation are intensifying, and being experienced in new ways.

The immense scholarship and analytic powers of Karl Marx mean that his writings on international capitalism and its effects remain of great interest in current debates on globalisation. Thus this new selection from the writings of Marx and Engels aims to enrich current discussions, both in offering in-depth analysis of the processes of international capital, and in giving a sense of the long-term nature of the trends within global capitalism that we are currently experiencing.

The selection includes extracts fromThe Communist Manifesto,Capitalvolumes 1-3,The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844andThe Poverty of Philosophy.

Dave Rentonteaches History at Edge Hill College and is the author ofFascism: Theory and Practice(Pluto, 1999).