The contradiction between labour and capital as a political antagonism

Abstract

This article actualises the Marxist approach to the antagonism between capital and labour. Following an attentive reading of some of his texts –but especially Capital– I suggest the idea that this conflict is not between world conceptions but between material forces and mystified forces. Accordingly, I simply want to suggest that this antagonism involves a class struggle between labour as the insertion of human beings into materiality and capital as an articulation of founding and preserving violences that prevent the emergence of that materiality. I also point out that capitalism in its contemporary form has increasingly intensified its mystifications, transforming its violence into an extreme violence that allows for the valorisation of capital. To support these two hypotheses, the text focuses, first, on the Marxist concept of labour and, second, offers a brief genealogy of violence in capitalism. Finally, it focuses on the relationship between labour and anti-violent strategies.