Resistance versus Emancipation:

Foucault, Marcuse, Marx, and the

Present Moment
by Kevin Anderson
I. The Changed World o !"##$#!
We live in a far different world than just a few short years ago.
Not only have we suffered the greatest economic downturn
since the 1930s, ut we have also witnessed the emergence of
new forms of mass struggle. !oremost among these have
een the "011#1" Ara revolutions, still ongoing. Not since
1$%$ has the world e&'erienced such a wave of revolutions
crossing orders in such a short 'eriod. (oreover, unli)e
some of the other democratic u'heavals of this century *+ran
"009, ,)raine "00%, -eria "000, etc.., the Ara revolutions
have articulated not only 'olitical ut also economic
demands. /he s'read of these revolutions countries whose
governments oasted of their anti#im'erialist credentials li)e
0iya and -yria has also tested those on the 0eft who 'lace
o''osition to ,.-. im'erialism ahead of everything else. *!or
more elaoration of this 'oint see my 12ear /wo of the Ara
3evolutions, Logos 114%, -'ring#-ummer
"01"4 htt'455logosjournal.com5"01"5s'ring#
summer6anderson5..
-everal other )ey struggles have emerged in the wa)e of the
Ara revolutions, among them the summer "011 7ritish youth
riots triggered y minority youth, a serious challenge to
racially ased state5'olice o''ression and austerity
economics. We have also seen serious movements against
austerity and economic o''ression, aove all in 8reece
*egun efore "011., ut also in -'ain and +srael, as well as
the laor u'heaval in Wisconsin. +n the ,.-. and the ,K, the
"011#1" 9ccu'y movement has galvani:ed a new generation
of young radicals, most notaly in 9a)land, ;alifornia where
they were ale to shut down of one of the world<s largest
'orts, while also lin)ing their movement to earlier 'rotests
against the murder of an African#American youth, 9scar
8rant, y local transit 'olice.
9ne could ma)e a numer of criti=ues of these new
movements concerning their organi:ational 'ractices or their
'olitical stances. +n the discussion that follows, however, +
would li)e to concentrate on a 'hiloso'hical orientation that
influences the contem'orary radical movement<s, centered
the all#too#common 'reoccu'ation with notions of
1resistance.>
II. Foucault and Resistance
9ver the 'ast decade or so, 'ost#structuralist currents of
thought have often merged with anarchism and some
elements of (ar&ism to 'roduce new notions of resistance.
/hese notions include, among others, resistance to 'ower,
resistance to the state, resistance to surveillance, resistance to
cultural hegemony, and resistance to ca'ital.
/o e sure, this constitutes an advance over forms of
intellectual radicalism ? from Althusser to Adorno ? that
stressed hegemony almost to the e&clusion of resistance. 7ut
this advance has come at a 'rice, as will e discussed elow.
7efore going there, however, it must e as)ed, where does this
"1
st
century usage of the term 1resistance> originate@ Not,
seemingly in the road#ased national resistance movements
against fascism during the World War ++. 9ne can instead
trace the current usage of the term resistance to a more recent
source, the writings of (ichel !oucault on 'ower and
resistance. Although resistance is not em'hasi:ed in his
earlier writings, y 19AB !oucault famously ta)es u'
resistance as well as 'ower. 7y now, he s)etches 'ower as a
1relation,> 1not something that is ac=uired, sei:ed, or shared>
*History of Sexuality, Col. +, trans. 3oert Durley, N24
Cintage, 19A$, orig. 19AB, '. 9%.. /his notion of 'ower as
relational was surely meant as an allusion to ? and 'erha's as
a sulation or su'ersession of E (ar&<s notion of ca'ital as a
social relation, not a thing.
!oucault writes further4 1Where there is 'ower, there is
resistance, and yet, or rather conse=uently, this resistance is
never in a 'osition of e&teriority in relation to 'owerF. /heir
G'ower relationshi's<H very e&istence de'ends on a
multi'licity of 'oints of resistanceF. Dence there is no single
locus of 8reat 3efusal, no soul of revolt, source of all
reellions, or 'ure law of the revolutionary. +nstead there are
s'ecific cases of resistanceF /hey are the other in the
relations of 'owerI they inscrie themselves as irreducile in
relation to it> *''. 9J#9B, trans. slightly altered ased on the
!rench original..
Note ? and + will touch on this elow ? !oucault<s e&'licit
attac) on Derert (arcuse<s notion of a 8reat 3efusal, one of
the !rench 'hiloso'her<s rare direct engagements with the
;ritical /heory of the !ran)furt -chool.
III. Criti%ue o Foucault&s Concept o Resistance
Why has this term, 1resistance,> largely re'laced earlier ones
li)e 1emanci'ation,> 1lieration,> 1a society free of
e&'loitation,> 1a society free of alienation,> and the li)e, and
at what cost@
At the level of 'olitical activism, one ovious cost of ado'ting
or even ada'ting !oucault<s notion of resistance is lin)ed to
the fact that not all forms of resistance are e=uivalent.
+s resistance to state 'ower y the 3ight the same as that y
(ar&ists or anarchists@
+s resistance to Western im'erialism y religious
fundamentalists the same as that y national lieration
movements@
+s the ;atholic ;hurch<s resistance to state#s'onsored
contrace'tion in the ,-A e=uivalent to the laor movement@
Are women religious fundamentalists who sei:ed the 3ed
(os=ue in +slamaad, Ka)istan in "00A in order to crac)
down on free e&'ression similar to socialist feminists in the
same society li)e (alala 2ousaf:ai, whom those with 'olitics
similar to the former tried to assassinate this year@ *!or an
interesting discussion of 2ousaf:ai<s 'olitics, see 7ill
Weinerg, 1Will American 0eft 7etray Deroine (alala
2ousaf:ai@> World War 4 Report, 9ctoer 1",
"01" htt'455www.ww%re'ort.com5node511%$A..
/his )ind of 'rolem lay at the root of !oucault<s
emarrassing su''ort for Ayatollah Khomeini<s leadershi'
over the +ranian revolution in 19A$#A9, during which he
dismissed worries e&'ressed y an +ranian feminist. As
Khomeini assumed 'ower in 19A9, !oucault wrote aout
+slamic resistance to im'erialism, this after moc)ingly
referring to (ar&ist#0eninist notions li)e 1the struggle of
classes, of the armed vanguards> as outdated and mis'laced
*Lanet Afary and Kevin Anderson, Foucault and the Iranian
Revolution, ,niversity of ;hicago Kress, "00J, '. "39.4 1/hus,
it is true that as an M+slamic< movement, it can set the entire
region afire, overturn the most unstale regimes, and distur
the most solid ones. +slam E which is not sim'ly a religion,
ut an entire way of life, an adherence to a history and a
civili:ation E has a good chance to ecome a gigantic 'owder
)eg, at the level of hundreds of millions of men. -ince
yesterday, any (uslim state can e revolutioni:ed from the
inside, ased on its time#honored traditions.> *'. "%1..
A second 'rolem is that !oucault<s conce't of resistance
lac)s a notion of emanci'ation. As the autonomist (ar&ist
Lohn Dolloway argues, 1in !oucault<s analysis, there are a
whole host of resistances which are integral to 'ower, ut
there is no 'ossiility of emanci'ation. /he only 'ossiility is
an endlessly shifting constellation of 'ower and resistance>
*Dolloway,Change the World without a!ing "ower,
0ondon4 Kluto, "00", '. %0..
+n their "011 introduction to a volume of Derert (arcuse<s
writings, Nouglas Kellner, ;layton Kierce and /yson 0ewis
raise a similar 'oint, aleit in a more 'hiloso'hical vein4
1With the rise of 'ostmodernism and the discourse of 'ower ?
in 'articular !oucault<s criti=ue of the 8reat 3efusal ? it has
ecome fashionale to re'lace revolution with the terms
resistance ? or even with micro#resistance. 3esistance is here
internal to 'ower, and ultimately 'roduced y 'ower, thus
challenging 'ower from the inside.> Kellner et al. go on to
=uote -lavoj Oi:e)<s criticism that such a conce't of resistance
1does not allow for the radical gesture of the thorough
restructuring of the hegemonic symolic order in its totality>
*+ntroduction to (arcuse, "hilosophy# "sychoanalysis and
$%ancipation, N24 3outledge, "011, '. B3..
I'. Marcuse&s (reat Reusal
What did (arcuse actually mean y the 18reat 3efusal>@ +n
his 19B% oo) &ne'(i%ensional )an, which sold very widely
in !rance in the years efore the 'ulication of
!oucault<s History of Sexuality in 19AB, (arcuse located
revolutionary o''osition to modern ca'italist society not in
the em'loyed 'arts of wor)ing classes, ut among ohemians,
the unem'loyed, and racial minorities who refused 1the rules
of the game>4
1,nderneath the conservative 'o'ular ase is the sustratum
of the outcasts and outsiders, the e&'loited and 'ersecuted of
other races and other colors, the unem'loyed and the
unem'loyaleF. /heir o''osition is revolutionary even if
their consciousness is not. /heir o''osition hits the system
from without and is therefore not deflected y the systemF.
/he critical theory of society 'ossesses no conce'ts which
could ridge the ga' etween the 'resent and its futureI
holding no 'romise and showing no success, it remains
negative. /hus it wants to remain loyal to those who, without
ho'e, have given and give their life to the 8reat 3efusal>
*(arcuse, &ne'(i%ensional )an# 7oston4 7eacon Kress,
19B%, ''. "JB#JA..
Dowever much it was e&'ressed in a language of dee'
'essimism aout the human 'ros'ect, it is clear that
(arcuse<s revolutionary vision encom'assed the need to
totally overturn the ca'ital relation, the class society u'on
which it was ased, and its no&ious y'roducts, from
aggressive militarism to stultifying social conformity in the
consumer society. +n short, a total u'rooting was needed,
however unli)ely that might seem as a concrete historical
'ossiility.
(arcuse<s )ey difference with !oucault was as follows4
,nless these forms of resistance ecame forms of
emanci'ation, lin)ed to a vision of new human relations, they
would founder and achieve little or nothing e&ce't the gesture
of a 8reat 3efusal.
/o a considerale e&tent, (arcuse<s 8reat 3efusal was rooted
in the Degelian notion of negativity, of asolute negativity,
wherein a 'ositive is constructed even as the old is eing
negated. /his was of course what (ar& had meant in
the *+44 )anuscriptswhen he termed negativity the 1moving
and creating 'rinci'le> of Degel<s 'hiloso'hy *(ar&, 1;riti=ue
of the Degelian Nialectic, in Prich !romm, )arx,s Concept of
)an, N24 ,ngar, 19B1, '. 1AB..
7ut (arcuse<s 8reat 3efusal also carried overtones of the
Kantian 1ought,> wherein the normative and the descri'tive
undergo a radical se'aration. /his can e seen in +mmanuel
Kant<s rather astract criti=ue of war. Where Degel<s
universals were concrete, in the sense of eing lin)ed to real
'ossiilities in the given world, Kant<s were more astract,
sometimes just 'anaceas li)e 1'er'etual 'eace> that he
advised warring nations to ado't from his 'erch as a
'hiloso'her, without ma''ing out any real social forces
ca'ale of ma)ing such a change.
/he generali:ed 1scream> against injustice and o''ression
with which Dolloway egins Change the World without
a!ing "owermay also suffer from some of these 'rolems,
as when he writes4 1/he loss of ho'e for a more human society
is not the result of 'eo'le eing lind to the horrors of
ca'italism, it is just that there does not seem to e anywhere
else to go, any otherness to turn toF. -o 'erha's we should
not aandon our negativity ut, on the contrary, try to
theori:e the world from the 'ers'ective of the scream> *'. 9..
'. )una*evs+a*a, Marcuse, and Foucault
When viewed from the vantage 'oint of !oucault<s unending
constellation of 'ower#resistance#'ower, (arcuse<s 8reat
3efusal holds some similarities to the criti=ue of twentieth
century (ar&ism articulated y my mentor, the (ar&ist#
Dumanist 'hiloso'her 3aya Nunayevs)aya4
1Without such a vision of new revolutions, a new individual, a
new universal, a new society, new human relations,> and
1without a 'hiloso'hy of revolution, activism s'ends itself in
mere anti#im'erialism and anti#ca'italism, without ever
revealing what it is for> *Nunayevs)aya, Rosa Luxe%burg#
Wo%en,s Liberation# and )arx,s "hilosophy of Revolution,
NL4 Dumanities Kress, 19$", '. 19%..
Nunayevs)aya also conce'tuali:ed some very s'ecific
o''ositional social forces and grou's E ran) and file laor,
youth, women<s lieration *as it was called then., 7lac)s and
other racial minorities, and /hird World national lieration
movements E that would e, if self#moili:ed and united,
'owerful enough to give life to the as'iration for a new
society. +n contrast, (arcuse<s emanci'atory 'olitics in the
form of the 8reat 3efusal remained more of an e&istential
attitude without much of a serious 'ossiility of its
reali:ation, ecause its form of negation was indeterminate
rather than determinate or s'ecific. *9n the lac) of a conce't
of determinate negation in (arcuse<s thought, see
Kellner, Herbert )arcuse and the Crisis of )arxis%,
7er)eley4 ,niversity of ;alifornia Kress, 19$%..
(oreover, y leaving his 8reat 3efusal at such a high level of
indeterminateness, (arcuse o'ened himself u' to the very
ty'e of criti=ue that those li)e !oucault would level at him
and at the emanci'atory (ar&ism of the 19B0s more
generally. According to !oucault, the 8reat 3efusal was a lot
of hot air mi&ed with nole sentiments, as seen in many of the
'olitical 'ronouncements of radical 'hiloso'hers li)e Lean#
Kaul -artre. /o !oucault, such 'hiloso'hers were always
ready to ta)e a stand ut not to do the intellectual laor
necessary to really develo' e&'ertise. 3ecall !oucault<s
evocation of the s'ecific intellectual rather than the generalist
one li)e -artre, something he himself 'racticed in his 'risoner
su''ort wor) of the 19A0s, during which he researched and
wrote an im'ortant oo) on the 'rison,(iscipline and
"unish. 9f course, that oo) also came with a lot of
limitations as well, es'ecially in how it minimi:ed the
emanci'atory currents that were running through the modern
Western 'rison system in the 19A0s, as seen most
dramatically in the Attica 'rison u'rising of 19A1.
'I. Marx and Concrete ,niversals: The )ialectics o
Ethnicit* and Class
Noes (ar&<s wor) ? and that of his 'hiloso'hical mentor
Degel ? ta)e us eyond the conundrum left to us y !oucault
and even (arcuse and Dolloway@ Noes he offer us
emanci'atory universals that are really concrete@ Pven if this
is the case, do his universals still s'ea) to us today and can
they still guide our 'ractice@
As + have argued in my recent oo), )arx at the )argins,
(ar&<s criti=ue of ca'ital was oth gloal and local, oth
universali:ing and 'articulari:ing. 9ver four decades, (ar&
e&amined the relationshi' of race, ethnicity, and nationalism
to revolution, 'articularly in Koland, the ,- during the ;ivil
War, and +reland. /hese writings elie the notion that (ar&<s
conce'tuali:ation of ca'italist modernity constitutes a
1totali:ing> grand narrative under which the 'articulars of
race, ethnicity, and nation are susumed.
/a)e for e&am'le, his writings on +reland of 1$B9#A0, where
he connected class with nationalism, race, and ethnicity ? a
discussion that egan with his writings on Koland and on the
American ;ivil War. +nside the !irst +nternational, +reland
was a major reason ehind his rea) with the anarchist
(i)hail 7a)unin, who did not want the +nternational to get
involved in 1non#class> issues li)e the defense of +rish 'olitical
'risoners. !or his 'art, (ar& thought that this issue was
intimately connected to the class struggle in 7ritain. All of this
led him to some im'ortant theoretical reflections.
7y 1$A0, (ar& saw the +rish inde'endence struggle as dee'ly
lin)ed to the struggles of 7ritish wor)ers against ca'ital. /his
is seen in the 1;onfidential ;ommunication> of (arch 1$A0, a
rejoinder to 7a)unin that he drafted on ehalf of the 8eneral
;ouncil of the +nternational. Pnglish wor)ing#class
consciousness, (ar& wrote, was attenuated y anti#+rish
'rejudice, in a dynamic similar to that of white racism in the
,-4
1/he common Pnglish wor)er hates the +rish wor)er as a
com'etitor who lowers wages and the standard of lifeF. De
views him similarly to how the 'oor whites of the -outhern
states of North America viewed lac) slaves. /his antagonism
among the 'roletarians of Pngland is artificially nourished
and )e't u' y the ourgeoisie. +t )nows that this s'lit is the
true secret of the 'reservation of its 'ower> *(ar& and
Pngels, Collected Wor!sGhereafter (P;WH, Col. "1, '. 1"0I
em'hasis in original..
(oreover, the +rish inde'endence struggle could, he wrote in
this argument with 7a)unin, ecome the 1lever> that could
'ry a'art 7ritish and thus gloal ca'italism as 'art of an
international revolutionary struggle4
1Although revolutionary initiative will 'roaly come from
!rance, Pngland alone can serve as the lever for a serious
economic 3evolutionF. +t is the only country where the
capitalist for%, that is to say, comined laor on a large scale
under the authority of ca'italists, has sei:ed hold of almost
the whole of 'roductionF. /he Pnglish have all
the %aterialconditions for social revolution. What they lac)
is a sense of generali-ation and revolutionary passion. +t is
only the 8eneral ;ouncil Gof the +nternationalH that can
'rovide them with this, that can thus accelerate the truly
revolutionary movement in this country, and
conse=uently everywhereF. +f Pngland is the ulwar) of
landlordism and Puro'ean ca'italism, the only 'oint where
official Pngland can e struc) a great low is Ireland> *(P;W
"14 11$#19I em'hasis in original, trans. slightly altered..
/he last sentence aout landlordism referred to +reland<s
revolutionary 'easantry, whose o''osition to the system was
enhanced y a national factor, that the landlord class in
+reland was to a great e&tent 7ritish, not +rish. +reland was
also where the landed aristocracy, 'art of the 7ritish ruling
class alongside the industrial ca'italists, had im'ortant
holdings. +t is notale that this 'eriod was also mar)ed y the
emergence of the !enian (ovement, a revolutionary
nationalist movement with a strong class dimension directed
against +rish as well as 7ritish landlords.
'II. Marx: Productive Forces and -eisure Time
9f course, (ar&<s core writings e&amined the ca'ital relation
and its overcoming, not national emanci'ation. After all, that
was the 'oint of his discussion of +rish and 7ritish laor, of
+reland<s national emanci'ation and 7ritain<s wor)ing class
revolution, oth of them of course only 'otentials. All of this
also rested u'on the con=uests of the ca'italist era, es'ecially
the uilding u' of the 'roductive forces. As he wrote at
length in the.rundrisse, these new 'roductive forces created
the 'ossiility of creative leisure time for all in 'lace of
stultifying toil, if and when ca'italism could e overcome4
1he creation of a large /uantity of disposable ti%e a'art
from necessary laor time for society generally and each of its
memers *i.e. room for the develo'ment of the individuals<
full 'roductive forces, hence those of society also., this
creation of not#laor time a''ears in the stage of ca'ital, as of
all earlier ones, as not#laor time, free time, for a few. What
ca'ital adds is that it increases the sur'lus laor time of the
mass y all the means of art and scienceF +t is thus, des'ite
itself, instrumental in creating the means of social dis'osale
time, in order to reduce laor time for the whole society to a
diminishing minimum, and thus to free everyone<s time for
their own develo'ment> *(ar&,.rundrisse# trans. (artin
Nicolaus, N24 Kenguin, 19A3, '. A0$..
Pventually, (ar& maintained, this unreali:ed 'otential
challenges ca'italism itself, and the wor)ers move to
overthrow it4 19nce they have done soF the develo'ment of
the 'ower of social 'roduction will grow so ra'idly thatF
dis'osale time will grow for all. !or real wealth is the
develo'ed 'roductive 'ower of all individuals. /he measure of
wealth is then not any longer, in any way, laor time, ut
rather dis'osale time> *'. A0$..
!or (ar&, however, this 'ainful 'athway through the
ca'italist mode of 'roduction was not one that all societies
had to follow, now that a few )ey ones had develo'ed those
'roductive forces, aleit amid all the e&'loitation and
alienation of ca'italism.
'III. Marx: Multilinear Path.a*s o )evelopment
and Revolution
At the end of his life, (ar& e&amined the issue of whether
3ussia and the large agrarian societies of Asia were inevitaly
destined to moderni:e in the Western ca'italist manner. +n
his well#)nown 1$$1 letter to the 3ussian revolutionary Cera
Oasulich, he concluded that alternate 'athways of
develo'ment were 'ossile. De ased his judgment in large
'art u'on the mar)ed differences etween the social structure
of the 3ussian village *and often its Asian counter'arts., with
its communal 'ro'erty and 'roduction relations, and the
village under Western Puro'ean feudalism<s somewhat more
individuali:ed social relations. De added that his recent
studies of 3ussian society 1convinced me that the commune is
the fulcrum for a social regeneration in 3ussia> */eodor
-hanin, )arx and the Russian Road, N24 (onthly 3eview,
19$3, '. 1"%.. +n the 1$$" 'reface to the 3ussian edition of
the Co%%unist )anifesto, (ar& and Pngels suggested that a
local u'rising s'ar)ed y these communal social formations
in 3ussia could form the starting 'oint for a gloal
communist revolution, if such an u'rising could lin) u' with
the revolutionary laor movement in the Western ca'italist
lands.
(oreover, (ar& made a )ey 'hiloso'hical 'oint during one of
these discussions, one that challenges the 'ostmodernist
accusation *y Lean#!ranQois 0yotard and others. that (ar&<s
wor) constitutes yet another universali:ing 1grand narrative>
or totality in which all 'articulars are swallowed u'. /his is
also relevant to !oucault<s 'oint aout 1s'ecific cases of
resistance> vs. an overarching 8reat 3efusal. +t is a 'oint that
ta)es us ac) as well to the difference etween an astract
universal in the Kantian manner and the Degelian ty'e of
concrete universal.
+n an 1$AA letter res'onding to a discussion of Capital y the
3ussian writer N. K. (i)hailovs)y, (ar& defended himself
from the charge of unilinearism, of the notion that 3ussia had
to follow the 'athway of 7ritain, first uilding u' its
'roductive forces and only then eing ale contem'late
concretely the 'ossiility of a truly emanci'ated, socialist
society. +n res'onse to his critics, and to his su''orter
(i)hailovs)y<s ham#handed attem't to defend him y
ascriing to him just such a formalistic theory, (ar& denied
e&'licitly that he had develo'ed 1a historico#'hiloso'hical
theory of the general course fatally im'osed on all 'eo'les>
*)arx and the Russian Road, '. 13B.. /his also reversed
(ar&<s 'osition in his 1$J3 0ew 1or! ribune writings on
+ndia, where he im'licitly su''orted 7ritish colonialism as a
necessary stage in the moderni:ation of Asia, a 'osition he
and Pngels also too) with regard to ;hina in the Co%%unist
)anifesto of 1$%$.
/hus, y the 1$$0s, (ar& was not only theori:ing very
concretely aout 3ussia<s revolutionary 'ossiilities in all
their s'ecificity, while at the same time lin)ing the 3ussian
'easant#ased revolutionary movement to that of the radical
laor movement in the West. De was also s)etching this
'hiloso'hically y e&'licitly denying the need for 1a
historico#'hiloso'hical theory of the general course fatally
im'osed on all 'eo'les> *)arx and the Russian Road, '. 13B..
I/. 0egel&s Concrete ,niversals
All of this was rooted in the most critical and revolutionary
side of Degel<s legacy, that found not in his more conservative
te&ts li)e "hilosophy of Right or "hilosophy of History, ut in
his most astract wor)s li)e "heno%enology of
Spirit, Science of Logic, and "hilosophy of )ind. As
Nunayevs)aya has noted4 1Krecisely where Degel sounds most
astract, seems to close the shutters tight against the whole
movement of history, there he lets the lifelood of the
dialectic ? asolute negativity ? 'our in> *"hilosophy and
Revolution, N24 Nelacorte, 19A3, ''. 31#3"..
7ut li)e (ar&, Degel also avoids astract universals of the
Kantian sortI in fact, he harshly criti=ues them. Degel
famously attac)ed 1astract universality,> as e&em'lified y
those who 'resented things as a 1night, in which, as the saying
goes, all cows are lac)> *"heno%enology of Spirit# N24
9&ford, 19AA, '. 9 GR1BH.. Degel<s ar was directed against
those )inds of Pnlightenment reason that he regarded as
overly formalistic, which conce'tuali:ed human e&'erience
via categories that neglected historical or cultural variety and
'articularity. +n short, the universal had swallowed u' the
'articular.
At the same time, Degel<s 'articulars often 'oint in the
direction of the universal. /hus, the slave develo's a 1mind of
his own> in the famous discussion of 0ordshi' and 7ondage
in the"heno%enology, and this is an im'ortant ste' on the
develo'ment of human consciousness, 'art of the road of
asolute negativity. At the same time, the master<s self#
satisfied willfulness and e&aggerated sense of his self#
im'ortance constituted a cul#de#sac on that same road to the
emanci'ation of human consciousness.
(oreover, with Degel, the universal can sometimes e&ert a
'ull on the 'articular, steering it toward universal human
emanci'ation. /his is not an easy 'rocess, and there are many
sto's and starts. -ome of them are gigantic failures, li)e the
8reat /error, which, as Degel saw it, devoured the !rench
3evolution ecause it tried to lea' too =uic)ly toward
asolute freedom. Dere, Degel offers a criti=ue avant la
lettre of modern totalitarianism and its show trials and
'urges, from -talin<s 3ussia to Na:i 8ermany to (ao<s ;hina.
/he 'ull of the universal, of the emanci'atory future, is
always there, even if for the moment driven dee' down,
eneath the surface of society. !or e&am'le, at one 'oint ? in
a statement that infuriates em'iricists and realists ? Degel
writes that 1the fact is, efore it e&ists> *Degel, Science of
Logic# trans. A. C. (iller, N24 9&ford ,niversity Kress, 19B9,
'. %AA.. ;.0.3. Lames later articulated this in (ar&ist terms in
his famous e&'ression, 1the future that is in the 'resent>
*1Nialectical (aterialism and the !ate of Dumanity>
G19%AH, Spheres of $xistence2 Selected Writings, 0ondon4
Alison S 7usy, 19$0, '. A9..
/. Marx and 0uman Emancipation
Degel<s concrete universal is undoutedly related to (ar&<s
own conce't of human emanci'ation. +n 1$J9, (ar&
famously descried ca'italism as merely a 'art of the
1'rehistory of human society> *+ntroduction to the Criti/ue of
"olitical $cono%y, in (P;W, '. "B%.. /his of course rested
u'on a conce't of socialism, and of the emanci'ation of
laor. /his theme can e found throughout his wor), as in his
youthful .er%an Ideology*co#authored y Pngels. with its
vision of communist e&istence as one where the individual
would 'erform oth mental and manual laor, gathering food
and also 'hiloso'hi:ing. +t mar)s as well his mature
theori:ing in Criti/ue of the .otha "rogra% *1$AJ. aout
overcoming 1the antithesis etween mental and 'hysical
laor> *(P;W "%, '. $A..
(ar& alludes to this notion of a fully emanci'ated human
e&istence not only in various shorter te&ts, ut also
throughout the central wor)s of his criti=ue of 'olitical
economy, from the.rundrisse to Capital, as Keter Dudis has
shown in his )arx,s Concept of the 3lternative to
Capitalis% *0eiden4 7rill, "01".. +n the .rundrisse, (ar&
writes4
1When the limited ourgeois form is stri''ed away, what is
wealth other than the universality of individual needs,
ca'acities, 'leasures, 'roductive forces etc., created through
universal e&change@ /he full develo'ment of human mastery
over the forces of nature, those of so#called nature as well as
of humanity<s own nature@ /he asolute wor)ing#out of his
creative 'otentialities, with no 'resu''osition other than the
'revious historic develo'ment, which ma)es this totality of
develo'ment, i.e. the develo'ment of all human 'owers as
such the end in itself, not as measured on a predeter%ined
yardstic!4 Where he does not re'roduce himself in one
s'ecificity, ut 'roduces his totality@ -trives not to remain
something he has ecome, ut is in the asolute movement of
ecoming@> *.rundrisse, '. %$$..
A decade later, in Capital, (ar& elaorated his conce't of
commodity fetishism, wherein human relations are li)e those
etween things, totally ojectified and instrumentali:ed. /o
e sure, this is a distorting lens, ut it is also a form of reality,
for under ca'italism, that is what human relations 1really
are.> A most chilling 'assage. And while (ar& contrasts the
sutle and hidden commodity fetish to the o'en rutality of
feudal domination over the 'easantry, his most im'ortant
contrast is to the not#yet#society that is nonetheless 'regnant
within ca'italism itself. /his is where the veil of the fetish
that hides the reality of social relations is to e swe't away y
the self#activity of the wor)ing class4 1/he veil is not
removed,> he writes, until the 'roduction 'rocess changes,
1until it ecomes 'roduction y freely associated human
eings and stands under their conscious and 'lanned control>
*(ar&, Capital, Col. +, trans. 7en !ow)es, N24 Kenguin, 19AA,
'. 1A3, trans. altered.. /his re=uires a 1material foundation>
that has een develo'ed through a long and 'ainful 'rocess,
over many centuries *'. 1A3..
!ree and associated laor is also the term (ar& used to
descrie the Karis ;ommune of 1$A1 in the Civil War in
France. /here, he wrote that the ;ommune constituted 1the
'olitical form as last discovered under which to wor) out the
economical emanci'ation of 0aour> *(P;W "", '. 33%..
-imilarly, as early as 1$%3, he had written of the difference
etween merely 'olitical and fully human emanci'ation4
1Kolitical emanci'ation is not the com'leted contradiction#
free form of human emanci'ation> *19n the Lewish
Tuestion,> in (ar&, $arly "olitical Writings, edited y
Lose'h 9<(alley, New 2or)4 ;amridge ,niversity Kress,
199%., '. 3%I for a recent discussion of the early (ar&<s
conce't of emanci'ation, see 8eorge ;omninel,
1Pmanci'ation in (ar&<s Parly Wor),> in )arx for oday,
edited y (arcello (usto, N24 3outledge, "01", ''. A3#91I see
also my )arx at the )argins for a discussion of the
limitations of this essay<s characteri:ations of Lews and
Ludaism..
-uch a dialectical, 'refigurative stand'oint is a far cry from
!oucault<s conce't of a 'lurality of 1resistances,> a conce't
that fails to 'resent a vision of a future in which such
resistances might no longer e necessary.
/o e sure, (ar& also mentioned 1resistance> from time to
time, for e&am'le, in his discussion of laor<s struggle, against
the voracious demands of ca'ital, for a shorter wor)ing day4
1As soon as the wor)ing class, stunned at first y the noise
and turmoil of the new system of 'roduction, had recovered
its senses to some e&tent, it egan to offer resistance, first of
all in Pngland, the native land of large#scale industry>
*Capital, Col. +, '. 390.. 7ut he tied it to a roader conce't of
human emanci'ation.
Pven Dolloway, one of !oucault<s most incisive critics from
the 0eft, does not fully elaorate such an emanci'atory future
at a 'hiloso'hical level, grounded as he is in a form of
dialectical negativity, that of /heodor Adorno, in which the
'ositive in the negative is sidelined if not rejected outright.
As Arvind 8hosh and Keter Dudis write4
1What Dolloway fails to single out, however, is that for (ar&
mere negativity y itself does not surmount the fetishism of
commodities. +n cha'ter 1 of Capital, (ar& does not say that
that the s'ell of commodity fetishism can e ro)en sim'ly
through Meveryday resistance< or 'ure negativity. De instead
says that the s'ell of fetishism is ro)en when we have Mfor a
change, association of freely associated men<> *1;an We
;hange the World without /a)ing Kower@> &pen Space
Foru% G+ndiaH, 9ctoer 19,
"00J htt'455www.o'ens'aceforum.net5twi)i5ti)i#
read6article.'h'@article+dU%9 .. /his 'oints to a limitation in
Dolloway<s notion of the 1scream,> as mentioned aove.
/I. Concluding Points
*1. /he theories of resistance found in !oucault, and also in
many contem'orary deates, e&hiit several 'rolems, among
them notions of resistance that fail to distinguish among
different ty'es of resistance to 'ower, whether reactionary or
emanci'atory.
*". Another 'rolem is that the notion of resistance often
im'lies a sort of circularity or 'ermanence of resistance ? and
of 'ower ? which occludes the 'ossiility of an actual
overcoming of ca'ital and the state in a 'ositive,
emanci'atory manner.
*3. /he 8reat 3efusal of (arcuse, which !oucault unjustly
attac)s, is a )ey e&am'le of a truly emanci'atory 'olitics. At
the same time, however, (arcuse<s 8reat 3efusal is too
astract, with vestiges of Kantian formalism, thus 'roviding
an o'ening to the )ind of criti=ue !oucault ma)es.
*%. A return to (ar& after these deates over resistance and
emanci'ation shows that his general dialectic ? rooted in
Degel E is not one of astract universalism ut has 'lenty of
room for the s'ecificities of nation, ethnicity, and race, issues
on which he ma)es im'ortant and original contriutions.
(ar&<s theori:ation of race, ethnicity and nationalism in
relation to class and to revolution remains very relevant
today, as seen for e&am'le in the 7ritish youth riots of "011.
*J. Ps'ecially in his later writings, (ar& theori:es indigenous
forms of o''osition to ca'ital and their need to connect to the
wor)ing classes of more technologically develo'ed sectors
*and vice versa.. /he 'ersistence of these issues can e seen
most 'rominently today in 'arts of 0atin America li)e 7olivia.
*B. !inally, (ar&<s entire intellectual 'roject is guided y a
vision of an emanci'ated human future. /his is the vantage
'oint from which he measures, criti=ues, and attem'ts to
sulate or transcend ca'italist society.

"reli%inary versions of this article were presented as a
"lenary 3ddress to the )anchester'Shanghai Foru% on
)arxist 3esthetics# 5niversity of )anchester 6578# and to a
%eeting of the )arxist'Hu%anist London Corresponding
Co%%ittee# both in 3pril 9:*9; and as part of a panel
entitled <3lternatives to Capitalis%2 heoretical# "ractical#
=isionary> hosted by the International )arxist'Hu%anist
&rgani-ation and the (epart%ent of Sociology at Loyola
5niversity Chicago# ?uly *@# 9:*9A )uch of it was also
hashed out in %y spring 9:*9 se%inar in Conte%porary
Sociological heory at 5niversity of California# Santa
Barbara# in dialogues with the student participantsA I would
also li!e to than! the following individuals for co%%ents
and corrections2 Richard 3bernethy# "aul Buhle# .reg
Burris# Corrie $llis# 3nton $velynov# and )ir 1arfit-A