Seminar with dr. Thijs Lijster
In two weeks time the department of Philosophy organizes a master seminar. During this seminar dr. Thijs Lijster will give a lecture on the contemporary significance of Marxism and the theory of class struggle.
Unite Yourselves!
History, according to Marx, is the history of class struggle: the struggle between those who own and those who have nothing but their own labor power. In the ancient world there were the patricians over and against the plebeians and the slaves, in the middle ages the lords over and against the serfs, and after the fall of the ancien régime, there were the capitalists over and against the proletariat. Ever since Marx and Engels in 1848, in their famous Communist Manifesto, called upon the “proletarians of all countries” to unite themselves, those who have nothing have increased in numbers. At the same time however, the have-nots have also shown much less solidarity with one another. Those who have received a higher and those who have received a lower education, intellectual and manual laborers, those with low income and flexworkers, working-immigrants and angry white males, pensioners and students; they all have been on the losing end. Yet they are still divided and easily played off against one another. In this talk, Thijs Lijster, however, explains why he is foreseeing a great turn, one that makes an end to many things, but not to history.