Globalization, the State and Class Struggle

Abstract

Theorizing the capitalist state has for some time been an abiding concern of the approach of Open Marxism, as clearly outlined in the preceding chapters throughout the book. This approach is constituted by a diverse but nevertheless distinct group of scholars committed to the dialectic of subject-object and theory-practice and the (re)constitution of categories in and through the development of a crisis-ridden social world in the analysis of the state as an aspect of the social relations of production (Bonefeld, Gunn and Psychopedis, 1992a, p. xi).¹ By extension, the intention inter alia of scholars such as Peter Burnham and Werner Bonefeld is to focus on the social class antagonism between capital and labour. By theoretically calling into question the separation of subject from object, or struggle from structure, and practically engaging with social action within which aspects of class struggle obtain and unfold, they affirm a commitment to emancipation within the social world. Ultimately, then, Open Marxism is a critical theory that interrogates theoretical and practical categories— it is reflexive about the constitution of the social world— in a spirit of opposition and resistance to capitalist relations of exploitation (also see Backhaus, 1992; Bonefeld, 1995; Gunn, 1992).