Guerras e Capital

Explosante

by Éric Alliez, Maurizio Lazzarato

"O capital é um modo de produção na exata medida em que é um modo de destruição", afirmam os filósofos Éric Alliez e Maurizio Lazzarato neste livro. Para dar conta do atual momento histórico, em que o caráter racista, nacionalista, machista e xenófobo dos novos fascismos redefine desigualdades e acentua polarizações, os autores propõem um experimento ousado: uma espécie de contra-história do capitalismo que toma a relação entre política e guerras como seu eixo. São "guerras", no plural, pois se desdobram em múltiplas dimensões da vida: guerra ecológica, guerra de raças, de gênero, de nacionalidades, guerra contra os estrangeiros, contra as mulheres, contra os indígenas, contra os pobres.

Para os autores, o processo de acumulação primitiva do capital implica necessariamente a promoção de guerras civis infinitas, e a matriz comum a elas é a da guerra colonial, "que nunca foi uma guerra entre Estados, mas uma guerra em meio à população e contra ela, na qual nunca foram vigentes distinções entre paz e guerra, entre combatentes e não combatentes, entre o econômico, o político e o militar".

Genres: Philosophy, War, Politics, Nonfiction, Economics

448 pages, Paperback

First published October 21, 2016

About the author

Éric Alliez is a philosopher and Professor at Université Paris 8 and at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University, London. He is the author of Capital Times, The Signature of the World: Or, What is Deleuze and Guattari's Philosophy?, The Brain-Eye: New Histories of Modern Painting, and Wars and Capital, with Maurizio Lazzarato (Semiotext(e), and editor of The Guattari Effect, with Andrew Goffey, and Spheres of Action: Art and Politics, with Peter Osborne (MIT Press).

Reviews

[Rhys · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wars and Capital begins a little slowly with a standard outline of 'primitive accumulation' prior to, and early within, the emergence of capitalism through to colonialism. The book adds its contribution in its analysis of 'total war' of the early 20th Century followed by Infinite Consumption as aspects of accumulation. The authors then explore the endocolonization of 'Western' populations - "'War amongst the population' does not only address 'terrorists and insurgents.' In its plural form of wars against populations, it is the main instrument of control, normalization, and disciplinarization of the globalized labor force." This brings us today to the "total form of value creation of capital". The authors seem to think that this is a good time to dispose of capitalism.

[hami · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is examining Wars and Capital, with State in between as an important element to constitute the notion of politics (in a Schmittian & Greek sense). I came across the book in an exhibition titled Crossings in Kunsthal Charlottenborg in Copenhagen this Christmas. The cover description of the book says: “A critique of capital through the lens of war, and a critique of war through the lens of the revolution of 1968.” I have read some of the works of Lazzarato before on notion of sovereignty, which made me interested to read this one.

The book is drawing heavily from the Nazi racist political scientist Carl Schmitt (who was going as far as demanding that all publications by Jewish scientists should henceforth be marked with a small symbol) and at the same time political works of Foucault and Deleuze. Unsurprisingly, Foucault has been criticized for being too liberal, specifically in chapter 7: “The Limits of the Liberalism of Foucault”. That’s also probably, the reason that Schmitt’s Naziism has not been mentioned throughout the whole book. Schmitt has been cited more than 35 times and one chapter is dedicated to him alongside Lenin. (Chapter 8: The Primacy of Capture, Between Schmitt and Lenin)

Alliez and Lazzarato seem to fully agree with Wallerstein’s world-system theory. Creation of the term "War of subjectivity” (which is also another fancy word for identity-politics) is a big part of the concept. Since today everyone has recognized that mostly white-boys are complaining about identity politics (for obvious reasons), writers have become creative in coming up with this new term “War of subjectivity”. However, the essence of the book is pushing for the same good-old critiques: fascism is not so different from Capitalism / Anthropocene is Capitalocene / poor White workers in England suffered as much as slaves in America (page 115, 374) / Postmodernism is bad, class-consciousness is needed… etc. etc.

“During colonization, entire peoples, after having been expropriated from their ‘life as savages,’ let themselves die off rather than fall into a slavery that could include the option of ‘free labor.’ ‘Free labor’ that the practice of working to death in workshops and manufactures brings so close to slavery itself that the Morning Star—the organ of the English free-traders—could exclaim: ‘Our white slaves, who are toiled into the grave, for the most part silently pine and die.’”

The centrality of the debt-economy concept is always present in the background of the book. Also, neoliberalism is defined as the “Global Civil War”. At some point, I questioned myself if he’s just adding the word WAR at the end of anything that capital is to blame for? War here is referred to as “the most deterritorial form of sovereignty”. “War of Subjectivity”, “War of Race, class, gender, sex, etc..”. This is also not a new strategy, orthodox white-boy Marxists have been presenting all sorts of privileges (especially “white-privilege” and “male privilege”) as a divider and a sidetrack for class wars. Borrowing from Giovanni Arrighi, they inserted a passage that clearly shows how they think about colonialism. They blame almost everything aside from the most important element: “racism”.

“The synergy between capitalism, industrialism, and militarism, driven by interstate competition, did indeed engender a virtuous circle of enrichment and empowerment for the peoples of European descent and a corresponding vicious circle of impoverishment and disempowerment for most other peoples.”

Full Review Here:
insideanairport
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[Noah Trap · Rating 5 out of 5]

A reconstruction of history through the view of finance and capitalism as warfare, as movements of the state and markets and bloodless violence (and bloody), and the fractal, ongoing wars that capital reinforces between peoples intersectionally.

[jacob · Rating 2 out of 5]

very unimpressed with this as a whole work. only the last chapter is worth reading, which makes the first 300 pages even more grating because it shows that there is the possibility of insight amidst all the name (and hyphen) dropping.

[Alex Cortes · Rating 3 out of 5]

La imagen de portada es erronea