Rupturing the Dialectic: The Struggle Against Work

by Harry Cleaver

Since Reading Capital Politically was first published in 1978, Harry Cleaver has been a central figure for anti-authoritarian Marxists and radicals seeking to understand the working class as an autonomous force, capable of acting independently and not simply reacting to the depredations of capitalism. Rupturing the Dialectic brings this project up to date, interpreting capitalism's most recent crises and demonstrating how ordinary men and women can, and do, rupture the smooth functioning of the system that exploits them.

Harry Cleaver retired from the University of Texas at Austin in 2012. His book Reading Capital Politically has been translated into seven languages and republished in ten countries.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Economics

200 pages, Paperback

First published October 13, 2015

About the author

Harry Cleaver is Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Texas at Austin, where Cleaver teaches Marxism and Marxist economics. He is best known as the author of Reading Capital Politically, an autonomist reading of Karl Marx's Capital. Dr. Cleaver is currently active in the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, Mexico, and is also a contributor on the aut-op-sy email list.

Reviews

[Kevin Carson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent addition to both Cleaver's body of work and the autonomist tradition. It's perfectly in keeping with the autonomist approach of challenging the mainstream Marxist one-sided focus since the Second International on the laws of capitalist accumulation and expansion as if they were a done deal, emphasizing instead the agency and creativity of the working class as revolutionary subject, and treating the construction of a post-capitalist society as an ongoing process here and now rather than something the Party will do for us "after the Revolution."

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do not typically care for Marxist books. They are almost always unreadably academic. This one has its moments. But it is actually worth the slog through those moments. Thinking about the value of labor as being fundamentally about its use for controlling people is incredibly helpful when trying to parse out some of the decisions and responses that elites make on a day to day. Thinking about what elites do as always in response to what we do is also extremely helpful. And we very much need as much work against work as we can get. 100% agree that all our struggles should be leading towards less work and more commons. Some really useful stuff in here.

[xDEAD ENDx · Rating 2 out of 5]

A totally unnecessary book for anybody who has ever worked. Academic Marxist language and concepts are no longer necessary or appealing in these struggles.

[Kevin Doyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book but I supposed first thing to say is that in places it is a superb account of aspects of radical Marxist thought in its most elemental anti-capitalist form. I learned quite a few things from this book – which was why I read it – and so am grateful to Harry Cleaver and his publisher AK Press for getting this book out there. Harry’s restatement and repositioning of the Marx’s labour theory of value is really good and the book is valuable in its own right for this alone. To cut a long reiew short I felt the book let itself down by not taking on, explaining and itemising real examples of the financial crisis and what ‘financialisation’ is. I get the feeling that Harry Cleaver was an interesting and highly engaging teacher of economics before his retirement, so I imagine exampling what he is talking about from real issues in the world we are living in, is not at all beyond him. The book in short stayed too abstract for me in its later sections. However in terms of books on Marxism that I’ve read, this book is uplifting in terms of how it puts the working class (and the class struggle) back at the centre of all – drawing attention fundamentally to how the working class and people in general have fought back again and again against the constraints of dehumanising capitalist system. This took tells again (and it’s always worth stating) that yes we are powerful.

[Joe Xtarr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Boss makes a dollar.
I make a dime.
That's why I read this book on company time.

Loved it. The concepts are explained in a way that make them easy to understand, but most importantly, easy to use. For me, this is Marx applied correctly. Highly recommended.