From: Rakesh Bhandari (bhandari@BERKELEY.EDU)
Date: Mon May 01 2006 - 13:12:26 EDT
>> > >I have. Here is a review to appear in Studies in Marxism >Chris A thanks for this review > >Mark Neocleous > >The Monstrous and the Dead: Burke, Marx, Fascism >University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 2005, pp.152. >ISBN 0-7083-1904-1 (hb.£45); 0-7083-19903-3 (pb. £17.99) > >Reviewed by Chris Arthur > >This is an original book on an interesting and >unusual topic. It explores the political power >of the monstrous and the dead in the traditions >mentioned in the title. As is predictable, the >monster in the Marx chapter on 'Marx: the >political economy of the dead' is the famous >vampire of capital, of which much has been >written. But Neocleous is right that the real >heart of the matter is not explicated in the >usual discussions of bloodsucking and alien >others. Marx says: 'Capital is dead labour >which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking >living labour, and lives the more, the more >labour it sucks.' As Neocleous stresses, this >choice of metaphor is philosophically and >politically important because through it Marx >aims to make a substantive point about the >social world. What Marx really gives us is 'the >political economy of the undead.' While it may >be true that the substance of commodities, and >of money, is dead labour, capital itself is an >active social agent. Accumulated labour can >exercise power over living labour because it >refuses to stay dead, but like the vampire >returns to drain the living energy of the >workers. The domination of capital over labour >is nothing less than the rule of undead labour. yes indeed. >In the second part of the Marx chapter Neocleous >turns to a central tension in Marx's >revolutionary politics: on the one hand the >revolution must draw its poetry from the future >and 'let the dead bury their dead' (a favourite >trope of Marx's); but on the other hand the >revolution is not a bolt from the blue but >liberates a potential with which the present is >already 'pregnant' (again, the obstetric >metaphor is a favourite of Marx and Engels). >Moreover many fall in the struggle for >liberation. Following Benjamin and Adorno, >Neocleous calls for a Marxist politics of >remembrance. Adorno once commented that 'one of >the basic human rights possessed by those who >pick up the tab for the progress of civilisation >is the right to be remembered.' Neocleous >develops this idea persuasively through the >Benjaminian category of redemption, in which >liberation is completed in the name of the >ancestors. >But isn't Benjaminian talk of a secret agreement >of generations the stock in trade of >conservatism? The best attempt I have read to save Benjamin on this point is Michael Lowy's Fire Alarm. >Neocleous is indeed trying the wrest the dead >from the hands of the enemy. Here he ingeniously >collates the separate chapters of the book with >a differentiating formula: Burke sought a >reconciliation with the dead, fascism sought a >resurrection of the dead, Benjaminian Marxism >strives for the redemption of past suffering. >Thus 'redemption and conservatism are understood >in political opposition: the task to be >accomplished is not the conservation of the >past, but rather the redemption of the hopes of >the past'. >Neocleous is good on both fascist fears of >monsters (e.g. an anti-semitic reading of >vampires) and its cult of death. In particular >he argues that central to fascist ideology was >the immortality of the fallen. >In sum the book demonstrates that the struggle >over the dead is live political terrain. It is >supported by a wealth of detail that cannot be >resumed in a short review. However, I offer here >a little detail of my own. One of the central >cases covered in the chapter on fascism is the >cult of Schlageter, a German nationalist >executed in May 1923 by the French forces >occupying the Ruhr. What is also interesting is >that in response to this event the KPD adopted >the so-called 'Schlageter line' following an >electrifying speech given by Radek in June, in >which he declared: >'This martyr of German nationalism ... has much >to teach us.... We believe that the great >majority of the masses who are stirred by >nationalist feelings belong not in the camp of >capital but in that of labour.... We shall do >everything to ensure that men who. like >Schlageter, were ready to give their life for a >common cause, will ... shed their blood ... in >the cause of the great working people of >Germany.' (quoted in The German Revolution >1917-23, P. Broué, Brill, Leiden, 2005 p. 727) I think Enzo Traverso has a very interesting discussion of this martyrdom in his book on Marxism and the Jewish Question?? rb
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