RevolutionaRy Subjectivity in PoSt-MaRxiSt thought Rethinking Political and international theory Series editors: Keith breen, Dan bulley and Susan McManus, all at Queens university belfast, uK committed to show you in what ways traditional approaches in political and international theory may be applied to twenty-first century politics, this series will present inventive and pioneering theoretical work designed to build a common framework for the latest scholarly research on political theory and international relations. intended to be international and interdisciplinary in scope, the series will contain works which advance our understanding of the relevance of seminal thinkers to our current socio-political context(s) as well as problematise and offer new insights into key political concepts and phenomena within the arena of politics and international relations. Also in the series human Rights, human Dignity, and cosmopolitan ideals essays on critical theory and human Rights Edited by Matthias Lutz-Bachmann and Amos Nascimento iSbn 978 1 4094 4295 0 Knowing al-Qaeda the epistemology of terrorism Edited by Christina Hellmich and Andreas Behnke iSbn 978 1 4094 2366 9 Real green Sustainability after the end of nature Manuel Arias-Maldonado iSbn 978 1 4094 2409 3 the Politics of Misrecognition Edited by Simon Thompson and Majid Yar iSbn 978 1 4094 0169 8 Revolutionary Subjectivity in Post-Marxist thought laclau, negri, badiou oliveR haRRiSon Nottingham Trent University, UK © oliver harrison 2014 all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. oliver harrison has asserted his right under the copyright, Designs and Patents act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. Published by ashgate Publishing limited ashgate Publishing company Wey court east 110 cherry Street union Road Suite 3–1 Farnham burlington, vt 05401–3818 Surrey, gu9 7Pt uSa england www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data a catalogue record for this book is available from the british library The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for harrison, oliver, 1982– Revolutionary subjectivity in post-Marxist thought : laclau, negri, badiou / by oliver harrison. pages cm. – (Rethinking political and international theory) includes bibliographical references and index. iSbn 978–1–4724–2133–3 (hardback : alk. paper) – iSbn 978–1–4724–2134–0 (ebook) – iSbn 978–1–4724–2135–7 (epub) 1. Production (economic theory) 2. capitalism – Philosophy. 3. Working class – Philosophy. 4. Marx, Karl, 1818–1883 – Influence. 5. Laclau, Ernesto. 6. Negri, antonio, 1933– 7. badiou, alain i. title. hD4904.h338 2014 335.4–dc23 2014011139 iSbn 9781472421333 (hbk) iSbn 9781472421340 (ebk – PDF) iSbn 9781472421357 (ebk – ePub) V Printed in the united Kingdom by henry ling limited, at the Dorset Press, Dorchester, Dt1 1hD Contents Acknowledgments vii 1 Introduction 1 2 From Marxism to Post-Marxism 7 3 Revolutionary Subjectivity in Marxist Thought 21 4 Ernesto Laclau – Hegemony and ‘The People’ 41 5 Antonio Negri – Self-valorisation and ‘The Project of the Multitude’ 69 6 Alain Badiou – Event, Truth, and the ‘Communist Hypothesis’ 97 7 Conclusion 125 Bibliography 131 Index 147 This page has been left blank intentionally Acknowledgments I would like to thank the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice at the University of Nottingham for giving me the space and opportunity for developing my ideas. I would also like to thank my friends and colleagues at Nottingham Trent University, especially Ian Fraser and Lawrence Wilde; both of which have helped and supported me so much through the years. Thanks also to Tony Burns and Mark Wenman. Finally, I would like to thank my family. Parts of this work have previously appeared in the following: Harrison, O. (2011), ‘Negri, self-valorisation, and the exploration of the common’, in Subjectivity, 4 [1], April 2011, pp. 29–46. Harrison, O. (2011), ‘Revolutionary subjectivity in post-Marxist thought: the case of Laclau and Badiou’, in Global Discourse, 2 [2], pp. 1–13. This was later reprinted in Harrison, O. (2012), ‘Revolutionary subjectivity in post-Marxist thought: the case of Laclau and Badiou’, in Johnson, M. ed. (2012), The Legacy of Marxism: Contemporary Challenges, Conflicts and Developments. London and New York. Continuum. pp. 183–199. This page has been left blank intentionally Chapter 1 Introduction Revolutionary Subjectivity Today In recent years, the question of revolutionary subjectivity has become more and more prominent in contemporary social and political theory. With the failure of ‘actually existing socialism’ and the seemingly unsurpassable hegemony of neo-liberal globalisation, one might be forgiven for asking why. Throughout the twentieth century, both politically and theoretically it was Marxism that dominated the discourse of left-wing revolutionary politics. Speaking at Karl Marx’s funeral in 1883, Frederick Engels argued that Marx had discovered the ‘fundamental law’ that governed the constitution of human history, a law that when applied to the modern world had unveiled the means to which it would inevitably falter, and in so doing usher with it a fundamentally new form of communist society (Engels 1989, pp. 463, 464). The history of Marxism, however, was to be a painful one. Although it could claim relative success with the revolutions in Russia (1917), China (1949), and Cuba (1959) amongst others, politically it ossified into a doctrine that justified state terror, rather than one that advanced the cause of universal human emancipation. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in the winter of 1989 the demise of Marxism was deemed complete, leaving only a disastrously disfigured legacy in its wake. Throughout the second half of the twentieth century Marxism was also challenged theoretically. Coinciding with its many explosive political failures – Khrushchev’s 1956 public denunciation of Stalin, the crushing of the rebellions in Hungary (1956) and in Prague (1968), and the terroristic excesses of the Chinese Cultural Revolution – throughout this period many Marxists found these revelations too much to bear, and gradually began questioning some of Marxism’s most elementary claims. With the emergence of so-called post-Marxism in the 1980s, Marxism’s political defeat appeared to be complemented theoretically, and as such – to use Trotsky’s oft-quoted phrase – Marxism seemed well and truly consigned ‘into the dustbin of history’. Despite this, following the Global Financial Crisis of September 2008, elements of Marx’s thought have returned, inspiring numerous commentaries that have sought to explain it (see for example Callinicos 2010; Harman 2009; Harvey 2010). At times of capitalist crisis, then, it would appear that the Marxist critique of political economy remains authoritative for those attempting to understand the contradictory logic of capital accumulation. Yet, whilst this critique might have stood the test of time, the return to Marx hasn’t usually also included his revolutionary prescriptions with respect to resolving such crises. Today however, this seems to have changed; particularly with respect