ABSTRACT

The workers of the world could get around to heeding Karl Marx’s advice at some point in the future, even if they have shown no signs of doing so in the 172 years since he and Engels proffered it. In 2019 a considerable majority of the world’s workers have far more to lose than their chains. Even 172 years ago, some more prosperous workers–Engels’ ‘labour aristocrats’–were in possession of significantly more than their chains. In fact it is the enormous inequalities amongst the world’s workers which are, and always have been, the main impediment to their unification. For the workers of the world to ‘unify’ in their demands they either all have to be about equally impoverished or they all have to be about equally prosperous. In reality of course such a day will never come. That capitalism has always depended on the tight nexus between work and consumption is something that almost everyone recognises, irrespective of their political views.