Marx's Proletariat: The Making of a Myth

274 Pages·1988·11.337 MB·English

by  David W. Lovell

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
MARXISM
Volume 21
MARX'S PROLETARIAT
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MARX'S PROLETARIAT
The Making of a Myth
DAVID W. LOVELL
ROUTLEDGE RTayolour &t Flerandcigs Geroup
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published in 1988
This edition first published in 2015
by Routledge
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© 1988 David W. Lovell
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-138-85502-1 (Set)
ISBN: 978-1-315-71284-0 (Set) (ebk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-88852-4 (Volume 21) (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-71336-6 (Volume 21) (ebk)
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The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but
points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.
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The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome
correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.
PIARl'S
PROLETARIAT
THE tlAKllG OF A tlYTH
DAVID W. LOVELL
ROUTLEDGE
London and New York
First published in 1988 by
Routledge
a division of Routledge, Chapman and Hall
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Published in the USA by
Routledge
a division of Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc.
29 West 35th Street, New York NY 10001
© 1988 David W. Lovell
Printed in Great Britain by
Billing & Sons Ltd, Worcester
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or
other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Lovell, David W.
Marx's proletariat: the making of a myth.
l. Economics. Marx, Karl, 1818-1883 -
Critical studies
I. Title
335.4'092'4
ISBN 0-415-00116-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
ISBN 0-415-00116-1
Contents
Preface
Citations and Abbreviations
1 Introduction 1
2 The Dialectic of Universal and Particular 17
3 Sources 57
4 Marx's Proletariat Challenged 95
5 A Proletarian Ethic? 110
6 A Proletarian Ideology? 131
7 The Proletariat as a Political Class 148
8 The Proletariat as an Economic Class 187
9 Conclusion 214
Notes 224
Bibliography of Works Cited 246
Index 254
for Christopher
Preface
George Orwell wrote in his Nineteen Eighty-Four that 'If there is
hope, it lies in the proles'. A century earlier, Marx was
unequivocal: the future belonged to the proletariat. Today we might
wonder at such confidence. The proletariat has yet to fulfil Marx's
expectations, and seems unlikely ever to do so. Parties acting in its
name, however, have helped to dim our hopes and to debase his
theory. In the work before you, I have explored the origins of what
Raymond Aron, in his The Opium of the Intellectuals,
appropriately called 'the myth of the proletariat'.
How could Marx have entertained the notion that the proletariat
would emancipate humanity from capitalism and from class rule
itself? By examining the sources and development of his concept of
the proletariat, I contend that it was a significant departure in
socialist thought-which had generally relied on class unity as the
solution to the 'social problem' -and a crucial element in the
elaboration of Marx's theory. I also suggest that not only may
Marx have been mistaken in attributing to the nineteenth century
proletariat qualities and actions which betokened the momentous
role he assigned to it, but that his vision of communism may be
compromised for more fundamental reasons. Although there are
hints in his work of a positive conception, Marx's proletariat is
chiefly the class of suffering, not of freedom; historically, the
proletariat has often preferred security to enterprise.
Built into the structure of this inquiry is the assumption that
there was a progression in Marx's work from conceptual to political
to economic categories; I document this progression in relation to
his proletariat. In the continuing debate over 'How many Marxes?'
this notion posits a basic continuity while not neglecting the
importance of change. Another feature of the work is its discussion
of Marx's conception of universality, which I contrast with Hegel's.
Both Marx and Hegel, it seems to me, attempted to understand the
conditions in which man can feel himself to be part of one
community rather than an isolated individual. Hegel believed that