TY - JOUR
T1 - Capital Accumulation and Class Struggles from the “Long 19th Century” to the Present—A Luxemburgian Interpretation
AU - Schmidt, Ingo
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - This article reconstructs Rosa Luxemburg's theories of capital accumulation, class formation and class struggle against the background of the “long 19th century.” It then uses these theories to analyse the “short 20th century” and ends with some preliminary thoughts about capital accumulation and class formation today. It is argued that the working classes that had developed over the 19th century were integrated into statist development projects—welfare capitalism in the West, state socialism in the East, or developmental states in the South—in the 20th century. It is further argued that this integration was accompanied by the capitalist penetration of non-capitalist milieus that the strategies of colonial expansion in the 19th century could not reach. After a period of intense conflict within these “three worlds of statism,” capitalist restructuring led to the unmaking of hitherto existing working classes. Yet, this restructuring not only produced a great crisis but also laid the foundation for the remaking of international working classes.
AB - This article reconstructs Rosa Luxemburg's theories of capital accumulation, class formation and class struggle against the background of the “long 19th century.” It then uses these theories to analyse the “short 20th century” and ends with some preliminary thoughts about capital accumulation and class formation today. It is argued that the working classes that had developed over the 19th century were integrated into statist development projects—welfare capitalism in the West, state socialism in the East, or developmental states in the South—in the 20th century. It is further argued that this integration was accompanied by the capitalist penetration of non-capitalist milieus that the strategies of colonial expansion in the 19th century could not reach. After a period of intense conflict within these “three worlds of statism,” capitalist restructuring led to the unmaking of hitherto existing working classes. Yet, this restructuring not only produced a great crisis but also laid the foundation for the remaking of international working classes.
KW - Keynesian wave of accumulation
KW - capital accumulation
KW - class formation
KW - crises
KW - neoliberal wave of accumulation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85046777068&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/21598282.2014.954319
DO - 10.1080/21598282.2014.954319
M3 - Journal Article
AN - SCOPUS:85046777068
VL - 4
SP - 457
EP - 473
JO - International Critical Thought
JF - International Critical Thought
IS - 4
ER -