A atualidade histórica do capital e da classe trabalhadora mundial: trabalho, tempo de trabalho, contradições sociais e revolução

Abstract

This article deals with labor, labor time and the current world of the working class and its productive member of capital, the proletariat. It also deals with the revolutionary potential of both, without losing sight of the fact that, due to their productive condition of surplus value, the proletariat occupies a major position in economic production and, consequently, in the revolutionary political potential. To make such claims, we draw on a variety of sources, including Karl Marx's “Capital”, Marxist authors, non-Marxist and anti-Marxist authors, financial organizations owned by capitalists or state organizations serving capital, as well as media outlets whose owners are capitalists and who broadcast news according to their class interests. With that, we question by the roots the theses that affirm the absolute reduction of the working class worldwide and, in the limit, the end of the proletariat. Among the critically approached authors are Habermas (1994 and 2012), (GORZ, 1982), (OFFE, 1994), (BECK, 1997 and 2010), (ARENDT, 2000) and (LOJKINE, 1995). We question, to the same extent, authors who did not openly break with Marxism, but who assimilated similar theses such as, the Brazilian Marxist José Chasin (CHASIN, 2000). The questions and criticisms of these authors were based on the theoretical foundations of historical materialism and their critique of bourgeois political economy. As a result, we affirm the relevance of these criticisms. Capital continues its expansion and complexification worldwide, taking with it its immanent contradictory structural elements, whose theoretical criticism was carried out by Marx and Engels, expressed through categorizations, that is, expressing the ways of being fundamental toit. Therefore, we conclude that working time affects immediately and mediately the whole of social life, regardless of the quantitative or qualitative dimension of working hours.