A review of Simon Clarke’s texts on the State, labor and capitalist society. Because what it is all about is the negation of capitalism

Abstract

In this article we will revisit some texts by the British Marxist author Simon Clarke, insofar as we understand them to be highly topical in order to problematise certain views, even in the field of the political and academic left, regarding the current functioning of capitalist societies at the global level, as well as the ‘forms’ and functions of the capitalist state. This is not a minor issue if we consider the emergence today of different extreme right-wing political movements around the world, some of which have gained access to government, and which, while assuming a radicalised conservative discourse in defence of capitalism, question the validity or functions of this political institution, and of the democratic regime itself (even if this political regime is strictly a capitalist democracy). The recovery of these texts also seeks to challenge us, not only to be able to establish a diagnosis of the current functioning of capitalism and the role played in this type of society by the state and capitalist democracy, but also to be able to exercise a materialist critique that seeks to promote a debate on future emancipation.