Blackledge - Marxism and Ethics: Freedom, Desire, and Revolution

SUNY series in Radical Social and Political Theory

Roger S. Gottlieb, editor

Marxism and Ethics

Freedom, Desire, and Revolution

PAUL BLACKLEDGE

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

2012 State University of New York

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Printed in the United States of America

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Blackledge, Paul, 1967

Marxism and ethics : freedom, desire, and revolution / Paul Blackledge.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4384-3991-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)

1. SocialismMoral and ethical aspects. I. Title.

HX45.B53 2012

171'.7dc22 2011010773

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Kristyn, with love

Acknowledgments

Some of the arguments presented below were first rehearsed in articles published in the journals Analyse and Kritik, Critique, History of Political Thought, International Socialism, Political Studies, Science and Society, Socialism and Democracy, and Studies in Marxism. Thanks to the editors and referees of these journals for forcing me to sharpen up my ideas. Thanks also to the numerous other people who have helped along the way. These include the various organizers of, and contributors to, conferences and seminars organized by Historical Materialism in both London and New York, the Political Studies Association, Manchester Metropolitan University's annual Workshops in Political Theory, the University of Glasgow Centre for Socialist Theory, Nanjing University's Institute for Marxist Studies, the Department of Philosophy at Flinders University Adelaide, the London Socialist Historians, and the SWP's annual Marxism conference. Thanks also to my colleagues in the School of Social Sciences at Leeds Metropolitan University. For more detailed criticisms I am indebted to Colin Barker, Ian Birchall, Joseph Choonara, Neil Davidson, Sam Farber, Rob Jackson, Kelvin Knight, Rick Kuhn, Jonathan Maunder, Peter McMylor, and Victor Wallis. Chris Harman's untimely death in 2009 robbed the international left of one its most important thinkers, and me of an inspirational mentor. The arguments presented in this book are much stronger for his searching comments on an earlier draft. At a more mundane level, my colleagues on the Branch Committee of UCU lecturers' union at Leeds Metropolitan University are a practical example of the virtues of solidarity defended in the pages that follow. My thanks to them. My sons Johnny and Matthew are now old enough to ask hard questions about my work. They do, and they are inspiring. My daughter Kate isn't old enough to do anything but inspire; she's a beautiful reminder of the better world we're fighting for. She was born and almost died while I was writing this book. The staff at Leeds General Infirmary, particularly those on the children's intensive care unit, reminded me what a wonderful institution the NHS continues to be, despite all the attacks that market-driven politicians continue to make on it. My heartfelt thanks to them. Most of all, though, this book could not have been written without the unstinting support of Kristyn Gorton. Kristyn, you are my rock, and this book is dedicated to you.

Introduction

Marxism's Ethical Deficit

We have found no way to replace capitalism as an effective mode of production, and yet that capitalist society as it actually functions violates all defensible conceptions of a rational moral order.

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