Will Brown, this site’s economic boffin, offers some advice for anyone who plans to use the Christmas holidays to read Capital. The bad news is that it’s a bit like playing soccer. He also mentions meeting members of left groups who “were happy just to select the negative stories in the Financial Times and talk about the capitalist crisis with plenty of hand waving” but that must be apocryphal.

After the miners were beaten in 1985 I set about reading Marx’s big one – Das Capital. In my mid 20’s, I’d met enough ‘Marxists’ in the labour movement to realise the tradition was important – but most didn’t seem to have read the key works themselves – they were sketchy when quizzed on the details. Sales of Capital have trebled over the last 12 months. Below are a few suggestions on how to tackle a daunting book.

Capital comes in 3 volumes and is definitely not user-friendly. Marx only completed the first volume himself, the second was in rough manuscript and the third was reams of disorganised notes. The heroic Engels published volumes 2 and 3. Though Capital is hard, like playing Manchester United at Old Trafford, it is hopeless to treat Karl Marx with too much respect. You must get in with a big slide tackle, have a jostle in the tunnel and get close up behind whispering obscenities. Marx’s style can be verbose, repetitive and meandering. His sentences can be very long. He may stick on one point and make it at great length in repeated ways. He can wander off on long examples and tedious arguments with long forgotten Victorian professors. Of course, he can also write with stunning lucidity and power.

The first thing to read is Marx for Beginners by Rius. This was a 1976 Spanish comic book setting out the key Marxist ideas with a thumbnail biography. It has spawned a whole industry of illustrated guides to big thinkers. ‘Marx for Beginners’ gives an entertaining introduction to the broad scope of Marx’s thinking and allows Capital to be placed in a wider context. Next read The Communist Manifesto, written with Engels in 1848. It is mercifully short. It is written in passionate, lucid prose with characteristic paradox and assertion. The radical originality of the ideas is startling. I was shocked aged 16 to read Marx’s claim that monogamy was derived from private property and the hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie and that communists might advocate free love. I’ve thought about that one a lot since. The Manifesto moves from a riveting and concise exposition of communism’s main ideas to a rather laboured and extended dismissal of the theories of their rivals. This is classic Marx – re-read the good bits, skim the boring stuff.

On to Capital. Some very brainy and determined people just read the thing through and understand it all. Some read it in a group – great if you can keep it organised. I found three invaluable books that I used to guide me through it. The first was Anthony Brewer’s A Guide to Marx’s Capital (1984). This splendid book takes you through the key arguments chapter by chapter and volume by volume. I used to have it beside me as I read my way through Capital. I’d read Brewer’s synopsis of a chapter and then read the real thing. The second was Marx’s Capital by Ben Fine (1975). Mr Fine takes the key economic theory from the three volumes and sets it out in 100 clearly written pages. The third – and a treasured possession – is A Dictionary of Marxist Thought edited by Tom Bottomore (1983). This wonderful encyclopedia compiles the contributions of a galaxy of leading Marxists from a wide of traditions: Monty Johnstone, Ralph Milliband, Ernest Mandel, Paul Sweezy, Anwar Shaikh and 30 others from round the world. In 500 pages it gives concise introductions to every aspect of Marxist thought, leading Marxist figures and Marxist movements. Absolutely invaluable.

Marx’s goal was to analyse human society using the rigorously rational methods employed by scientists. This leads him to assertions of certainty that today sound bizarre. It was the spirit of his time. It turned out that science was not as certain and sure as he hoped. Within 50 years of the publication of Capital Vol 1 even physics – the most rigorous archetype of hard sciences – was rendered inherently uncertain by Einstein’s relativity and the Heisenberg’s new uncertainty principle. This leaves Marx’s certainty sounding dogmatic – it doesn’t in itself invalidate the ideas and arguments.

Once I’d made some headway with Capital I started trying to see the economy around me using the notions Marx introduces. The primary importance of class for example. The fundamental role of profit. The mysterious nature of money and exchange. I set about following the world economy and trying to understand its characteristics through Marx’s theory. I found that some Marxist organisations could explain his theories eloquently but put little effort into following contemporary capitalism. They were happy just to select the negative stories in the Financial Times and talk about the capitalist crisis with plenty of hand waving. It seemed to me that there were significant aspects of contemporary Capitalism – such as the bond markets, currency markets and state fiscal and monetary policy which were not extensively analysed by Marx. So that’s ok – we’ve just got to figure these things out for ourselves.

I’ve never regretted my effort in getting to grips with Capital. It’s by far the most profound and comprehensive analysis of our economic system from a critical and detached stand point. While celebrating capitalism’s productive power it also discusses how capitalism doesn’t work. Conventional academic economy only discusses how capitalism does work – not appealing if you are of the majority on the wrong end of things. Capital contains powerful and radical insights – the labour theory of value, the idea of commodity fetishism, the tendency of capitalism to monopoly and scores more. Capital is rich in remarkable historical detail. Marx insists we are capable of understanding the world that we have created. Above all, Marx never loses his outrage at exploitation and oppression, his belief that humanity is capable of a better future and his determination that working class people can create a better world.

I heartily recommend this book.

Will Brown

Totterdown

Bristol