The Anti-Capitalism of Pro-Slavery Discourse: Lessons Unlearned by Postmodernists

Abstract

Compared here is what links antebellum pro-slavery discourse to contemporary postmodern theory, and how a shared antagonism to capitalism and support for ‘those below’ constitutes a populist anti-capitalism of the right. Unlike the anti-capitalism of the left, that of the right mobilises on the basis of categories outside the working class. An idealised perception of traditional culture as empowering, plus a mutual dislike of laissez-faire underwrites the emergence and consolidation of the (non-class) identity politics endorsed by pro-slavery discourse and postmodernism, but against which Marxism warned. A consequence of this failure politically to differentiate opposition to capitalism is the current misunderstanding by postmodern theory of the deleterious impact of a globally burgeoning industrial reserve army on working class solidarity/organisation in metropolitan capitalist nations.