Karl Marx (1818–1883) German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist
Grundrisse (1857-1858)
Source: Introduction, p. 14.
Source: Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia
Karl Marx (1818–1883) German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist
Grundrisse (1857-1858)
Source: Introduction, p. 14.
Clay Shirky (1964) American technology writer
Source: Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations (2008), p. 14
Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution
Source: Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1917), Chapter Four, "The Export of Capital"
Alfredo Rocco (1875–1935) Italian politician and jurist
Source: The Political Doctrine of Fascism (1925), p. 113
John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) American politician, 6th president of the United States (in office from 1825 to 1829)
Letter to James Lloyd (1 October 1822)
Anthony Giddens (1938) British sociologist
(describing Marx’s view), p. 35.
Capitalism and Modern Social Theory (1971)
“Power may be defined as the production of intended effects.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Source: 1930s, Power: A New Social Analysis (1938), Ch. 3: The Forms of Power
Dwight Macdonald (1906–1982) journalist
"The Root is Man" (1946).
Peter Kropotkin (1842–1921) Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, scientist, revolutionary, economist, activist, geogr…
Anarchism: Its Philosophy and Ideal (1896)
Context: What economists call over-production is but a production that is above the purchasing power of the worker, who is reduced to poverty by Capital and State. Now, this sort of over-production remains fatally characteristic of the present capitalist production, because — Proudhon has already shown it — workers cannot buy with their salaries what they have produced and at the same time copiously nourish the swarm of idlers who live upon their work.
The very essence of the present economic system is, that the worker can never enjoy the well-being he has produced, and that the number of those who live at his expense will always augment. The more a country is advanced in industry, the more this number grows. Inevitably, industry is directed, and will have to be directed, not towards what is needed to satisfy the needs of all, but towards that which, at a given moment, brings in the greatest temporary profit to a few. Of necessity, the abundance of some will be based on the poverty of others, and the straitened circumstances of the greater number will have to be maintained at all costs, that there may be hands to sell themselves for a part only of that which they are capable of producing; without which, private accumulation of capital is impossible!
These characteristics of our economical system are its very essence. Without them, it cannot exist; for, who would sell his labor power for less than it is capable of bringing in, if he were not forced thereto by the threat of hunger?
And those essential traits of the system are also its most crushing condemnation.