Citation

Jal M. Critique 2012; 40(2): 235-259.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/00111619.2012.664729

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This essay is on Marxist theory of violence, keeping in mind Marx's idea of Gewalt that he first drew in his 1843-1844 critique of Hegel. Gewalt, an almost untranslatable term, is translated as force, sometimes also as violence. But Marx's Gewalt is immediately related to humanity in ferment, which is in the grips of revolutionary theory. Gewalt becomes an ethical idea, a revolutionary categorical imperative. Later Marx in Capital brings in again the idea of Gewalt, this time as the midwife of revolutions. We are taking these two readings of Gewalt and attempting to understand whether Gewalt as revolutionary violence has meaning in the contemporary era of the imperialist Empire, or whether the Stalinist and imperialist counter-revolutions devour this revolutionary repertoire. In the background of this problem we are also reflecting on Marx's idea of the human essence as also psychoanalytic deliberations on these themes, deliberations carried out in the epochs of Lenin's reading of imperialism and Negri's understanding of the New Imperial World Order: the (dis)order of Empire-ism where the warfare economy has monopolized politics and henceforth rendered unnecessary the process of critical and revolutionary thinking.