23.11.6
Marcelo Musto
While living in Algiers, Marx angrily attacked the French for their violent abuses, their repeated provocations, their shameless arrogance, their hubris and their Moloch-like response to every act of rebellion by the local Arab population. Obsession with revenge.
“Here, the police used a form of torture to force Arabs to ‘confess,’ just as the British did in India,” he wrote.
Marx: “The goal of the colonialists was always the same: to destroy indigenous collective property and transform it into objects freely bought and sold.”
What was Marx doing in the Maghreb?
In the winter of 1882, the last year of his life, Karl Marx suffered from severe bronchitis, and his doctor advised him to rest in a warm place for some time. Gibraltar was excluded because Marx needed a passport to enter the territory, which, as a stateless person, he did not have. Bismarck’s empire was covered in snow and entry was prohibited in any case, and Italy was even less likely because, as Friedrich Engels said, “the first condition for convalescents is that they cannot be harassed by the police”.
Marx’s son-in-law Paul Lafargue and Engels persuaded the patient to go to Algiers, which at the time had a reputation among the British as a place to escape the harsh winter. As Marx’s daughter Eleanor Marx later recalled, what propelled Marx on this unusual journey was his first priority: completing Das Kapital.
He traveled by train across England and France and then by boat across the Mediterranean. He lived in Algiers for 72 days, the only time he spent outside Europe in his life. As the days passed, Marx’s health did not improve. His pain was more than physical. After his wife’s death, he felt very lonely and wrote to Engels that he felt “deeply melancholy, like the great Don Quixote.” Due to his ill health, Marx also missed the serious intellectual activity that was always vital to him.
The impact of the introduction of private property by French colonists
A succession of adverse events prevented Marx from gaining an in-depth understanding of Algerian reality and from truly studying the character of the common property of the Arabs, which had interested him so much a few years earlier. In 1879, Marx copied part of Russian sociologist Maxim Kovalevsky’s book “Public Ownership of Land: The Causes, Process and Consequences of Its Decline” in one of his study notebooks. They focus on the importance of Algerian common property before the arrival of French colonizers, and the changes they brought about. Marx plagiarized from Kovalevsky: “In the view of the French bourgeoisie, the formation of private property in land is a necessary condition for all progress in the political and social spheres.” The maintenance of public property “as a form of support for communist tendencies, Dangerous to both the colony and the country.” He was also attracted by the observation that “the French, under all regimes, sought to transfer land ownership from natives to settlers. (…) The goal was always the same: the destruction of indigenous lands. “Collective property and its transformation into an object of free sale and purchase, thereby favoring its eventual passage into the hands of French settlers”.
Regarding the legislation on Algeria proposed by the left-wing republican Jules Vanier and passed in 1873, Marx agreed with Kovalevsky that its sole purpose was “the expropriation of the land of the local population by European settlers and speculators” “. French audacity extended to “blatant theft” or the conversion of all vacant public land set aside for local use into “government property”. The purpose of this process is to produce another important result: the elimination of the danger of resistance by the local population. Marx once again pointed out through the words of Kovalevsky: “The establishment of private property and the settlement of Arab tribes by European settlers will become the most powerful means of accelerating the process of the dissolution of tribal alliances. (…) Rights of the Arabs provided for by law There were two goals: 1) to provide the French with as much land as possible; 2) to break the Arabs from their natural ties to the land in order to break up the last remaining strength of the tribal alliance. Disbanded, and with it the danger of any rebellion “.
Marx commented that this personalization of land ownership not only brought huge economic benefits to the invaders, but also achieved “a political goal: to destroy the foundations of this society.”
Thoughts on the Arab World
In February 1882, while Marx was in Algiers, an article in the local newspaper La Stampa documented the injustice of the newly created system. In theory, any French citizen at the time could obtain a concession of more than 100 hectares of land in Algeria without even leaving the country, and then resell it to locals for 40,000 francs. On average, settlers sold each plot of land they purchased for 300 francs for 20 to 30 francs.
Due to poor health, Marx was unable to study this matter. However, in the sixteen extant letters written by Marx (he wrote many more but have been lost), he made a number of interesting observations about the southern shores of the Mediterranean. What really stands out are those dealing with social relations among Muslims. Some characteristics of Arab society left a deep impression on Marx. For a “true Muslim” he commented: “Such accidents, good or bad, do not distinguish the children of Muhammad. Absolute equality in their social relations is not affected. On the contrary, it only occurs when they become They become corrupt when they are corrupt.” “Your politicians rightly believe that this sentiment and practice of absolute equality is important. But without a revolutionary movement, they will become corrupt and bankrupt.”
In the letter, Marx scornfully attacked the violent abuses and constant provocations of the Europeans, especially their “shameless arrogance and tyranny towards the ‘lower races’, (and) their terrible, Molochic attempt at atonement for anyone.” obsession”. Acts of rebellion. He also noted that in comparative histories of colonial occupation, “the British and the Dutch outnumbered the French.” He told Engels in Algiers that Ferme, a progressive judge he saw frequently, had witnessed “a kind of torture” throughout his career. (…) To obtain ‘confessions’ from Arabs, which is commonly used by the police (as in English in India). ” He told Marx, “For example, when an Arab gang commits a murder, it is usually carried out by Arabs. And asked to “go away” for at least half a dozen innocent Arabs. (…) When the European settler lived among those who were considered an ‘inferior race’, whether as settlers or simply for commercial purposes, he usually considered himself more inviolable than the king. “
Opposition to British colonial rule in Egypt
Likewise, a few months later, Marx did not hesitate to harshly criticize the British presence in Egypt. The war launched by British forces in 1882 ended the so-called Urabi Revolt that had begun in 1879 and allowed the British to establish a protectorate in Egypt. Marx was angry at progressives who proved unable to maintain an autonomous class status and warned of the absolute necessity for workers to oppose the institutions and rhetoric of the state.
When Joseph Cowan, an MP and chairman of the Co-operative Congress, whom Marx regarded as “the best British MP”, defended the British invasion of Egypt, Marx expressed total disapproval.
Above all, he criticized the British government: “Excellent! In fact, there is no more blatant example of Christian hypocrisy than the ‘conquest’ of Egypt: conquest in peace! But Cowan on January 8, 1883 At Newcastle on the 1st, he expressed his admiration for the British “heroic deeds” and “our dazzling parade”; he also “smiled at the charming prospect of all those strong offensive positions between the Atlantic and the Atlantic.” Marx concluded Said that in terms of foreign policy, Cowen is “the British way”, characterized by “responsibility” to “domestic interests”. This is “those poor British bourgeoisie who are shouldering more and more responsibility for their historical mission” groaning but in vain protest at the ‘duty'”.
Marx conducted an exhaustive survey of societies outside Europe and spoke out against the ravages of colonialism. Although instrumental skepticism is so popular among some liberal academics today, it would be a mistake to suggest otherwise.
Marx paid close attention to major developments in international politics throughout his life. It can be seen from his writings and letters that he strongly opposed British colonial oppression of India and Egypt in the 1880s, as well as French colonialism in Algeria. He was by no means a Eurocentrist solely focused on class conflict. Marx believed that the study of new political conflicts and peripheral geographies was the basis for his progressive critique of the capitalist system. Above all, he was always on the side of the oppressed and against the oppressors.
Marcello Musto, Professor of Sociology, York University (Toronto). His works have been translated into twenty-five languages and are available at www.marcellomusto.org. His last Spanish monograph was Karl Marx, 1881-1883. The Last Voyage of the Moors (21st Century, 2020).
Source: www.marcellomusto.org.Translator: G. Bast