Marxism and human rights: new thoughts on an old debate

ABSTRACT

This paper revives the debate as to whether Marxism is compatible with a commitment to human rights, but, in presenting a defence of such a compatibility, seeks to extend that debate beyond the confines of philosophical analysis to incorporate the contributions of Marxist theory to the sociology of human rights. It suggests that Marxist theory enables us to re-evaluate the priorities of human rights as a political project, and that in doing so it complements the social constructionist approach prevalent within the sociology of human rights. Taken together, a Marxist theory of social structure and a social constructionist theory of human rights enable a fuller realisation of the possibility of an emancipatory politics.

KEYWORDS:

• Crisis of liberalism
• Marxism
• Marx’s ‘On the Jewish Question’
• social constructionism
• sociology of human rights

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Martin Crook and the anonymous reviewers for casting their critical eyes over an earlier draft of this paper and making invaluable suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Darren J. O'Byrne is Reader in Sociology and Human Rights at the University of Roehampton, where he is also Director of the Crucible Centre for Human Rights Research. He has published widely on the sociology of human rights, globalization, and sociological theory. His latest book, Human Rights in a Globalizing World, was published by Palgrave in 2015.

Notes

1. K. Marx, ‘On the Jewish Question’, in The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. R. Tucker (New York: Norton & Co., 1978). This work was first published in 1844.

2. See, for example, A.E. Buchanan, Marx and Justice: The Radical Critique of Liberalism (Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Allenfield, 1982), S. Lukes, ‘Can a Marxist Believe in Human Rights?’, Praxis International 1, no. 4 (1982): 334–45, and S. Lukes, Marxism and Morality (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987).

3. See, for example, A. Bartholomew, ‘Should a Marxist Believe in Marx on Rights’, Socialist Register (1990): 244–264, C. Boyd, ‘Can a Marxist Believe in Human Rights’, Critique 37, no. 4 (2009): 579–600, J. Lacroix and J.-Y. Pranchere, ‘Karl Marx: Fut-il vraiment un opposant aux droits de l’homme?’, Revue francaise de science politique 62, no. 3 (2012): 433–51, D. Leopold, The Young Karl Marx: German Philosophy, Modern Politics and Human Flourishing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), and W. McBride, ‘Rights and the Marxian Tradition’, Praxis International 4, no. 1 (1984): 57–74.

4. A. Bartholomew and J. Breakspear, ‘Human Rights as Swords of Empire’, in The New Imperial Challenge, eds. L. Panitch and C. Leys (London: Merlin Press, 2003); D.J. O’Byrne, Human Rights in a Globalizing World (London: Palgrave, 2016).

5. See, among others, J. Dale and D. Kyle, ‘Smart Humanitarianism: Re-imagining Human Rights in the Age of Enterprise’, Critical Sociology 42, no. 6 (2016): 783–97, S.M. Falcon, Power Interrupted: Antiracist and Feminist Activism Inside the United Nations (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2016), B. Gregg, Human Rights as Social Construction (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), and B. Gregg, The Human Rights State: Justice within and Beyond Sovereign Nations (Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 2016), for contributions to this debate.

6. Marx, ‘On the Jewish Question’, 28.

7. Ibid.

8. M. Maidan, ‘Marx on the Jewish Question: A Meta-Critical Analysis’, Studies in Soviet Thought 33, no. 1 (1987): 28.

9. Marx, ‘On the Jewish Question’, 30.

10. Ibid., 34.

11. Ibid., 35.

12. The concept of the ‘clash of liberalisms’ is discussed in more detail in O’Byrne, Human Rights in a Globalizing World, particularly chapter ten.

13. Marx, ‘On the Jewish Question’, 40.

14. Ibid.

15. Ibid., 41.

16. H. Arendt, ‘The “Rights of Man”: What Are They?’, in The Origins of Totalitarianism (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1951).

17. Marx, ‘On the Jewish Question’, 41.

18. Ibid., 42.

19. Ibid., 42–43.

20. E. Balibar, ‘On the Politics of Human Rights’, Constellations 20, no. 1 (2013): 18–26, following C. Lefort, ‘Human Rights and Politics’, in The Political Forms of Modern Society (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1986).

21. Bartholomew, ‘Should a Marxist Believe in Marx on Rights?’, D. Cornell, ‘Should a Marxist Believe in Rights?, Praxis International 4, no. 1 (1984): 45–56, Lukes, ‘Can a Marxist Believe in Human Rights?’.

22. S. Lukes, ‘Five Fables About Human Rights’, in On Human Rights, eds. S. Shute and S. Hurley (New York: Basic Books, 1993), 29.

23. K. Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme (New York: International Publishers, 1938). This work was first published in 1875.

24. G.A. Cohen, Self-Ownership, Freedom and Equality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).

25. P. Blackledge, ‘Marxism and Ethics’, International Socialism, no. 120 (2008). http://isj.org.uk/marxism-and-ethics/, Marxism and Ethics: Freedom, Desire and Revolution (New York: SUNY Press, 2012).

26. Boyd, ‘Can a Marxist Believe in Human Rights?’, 585.

27. M.H. Van Herpen, ‘Marx and Human Rights: Analysis of an Ambivalent Relationship’, Cicero Foundation Great Debate Paper No. 12/07 (2012), 11.

28. S. Hessen, ‘The Rights of Man in Liberalism, Socialism and Communism’, in Human Rights: Comments and Interpretations, ed. UNESCO (New York: Columbia University Press, 1949), 118, 120–1.

29. Ibid., 124–7.

30. Ibid., 127.

31. Ibid., 133.

32. K. Marx and F. Engels, The Communist Manifesto (New York: Penguin, 1985). This work was first published in 1840.

33. J. Somerville, ‘Comparison of Soviet and Western Democratic Principles, with Special Reference to Human Rights’, in Human Rights: Comments and Interpretations, ed. UNESCO (New York: Columbia University Press, 1949), 152.

34. N. Gordon, J. Swanson, and J. A. Buttegieg, ‘Is the Struggle for Human Rights a Struggle for Emancipation?’, Rethinking Marxism: A Journal of Economics, Culture and Society 12, no. 3 (2000): 1–22.

35. Bartholomew, ‘Should a Marxist Believe in Marx on Rights?’, 250.

36. B.R. Roth, ‘Retrieving Marx for the Human Rights Project’, Leiden Journal of International Law no. 17 (2004): 41.

37. Bartholomew, ‘Should a Marxist Believe in Marx on Rights?’, 253–5.

38. Lacroix and Pranchere, ‘Karl Marx’, 442.

39. For a discussion of the contemporary debate on commodification, see D.J. O’Byrne and C. Bond, ‘Back to the Future: The Idea of a University Revisited’, Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management 36, no. 6 (2014): 571–8.

40. Boyd, ‘Can a Marxist Believe in Human Rights?’, 586.

41. But see D.J. O’Byrne, ‘On the Sociology of Human Rights: Theorising the Language-Structure of Rights’, Sociology 46, no. 5 (2012): 829–43 for a defence of the sociology of human rights.

42. K. Marx and F. Engels, The German Ideology (New York: International Publishers, 1970). This work was first published in 1845–1846.

43. T. Brass, The Political Economy of Unfree Labour (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999); E. Genovese, The Political Economy of Slavery (New York: Vintage, 1965); E. Genovese, In Red and Black: Marxian Explorations in Southern and Afro-American History (London: Allen Lane, 1971); G. Ste Croix, The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World (London: Duckworth, 1981).

44. O. Cromwell-Cox, Caste, Class and Race (New York: Doubleday, 1948).

45. J.-P. Sartre, On Genocide (Boston: Beacon Press, 1968).

46. T. Barta, ‘Relations of Genocide: Land and Lives in the Colonization of Australia’, in Genocide and the Modern Age, eds. I Wallimann and M. Dobkowski (New York: Greenwood, 1987).

47. M. Crook and D. Short, ‘Marx, Lemkin and the Genocide Ecocide Nexus’, International Journal of Human Rights 18, no. 3 (2014): 298–319.

48. O’Byrne, ‘On the Sociology of Human Rights’.

49. Lacroix and Panchere, ‘Karl Marx’, following Leopold, The Young Karl Marx, 153–5.

50. Van Herpen, ‘Marx and Human Rights’, 10–11.

51. Boyd, ‘Can a Marxist Believe in Human Rights?’, 589.

52. Gordon, Swanson and Buttegieg, ‘Is the Struggle for Human Rights a Struggle for Emancipation?’.

53. Boyd, ‘Can a Marxist Believe in Human Rights?’, 582.

54. Van Herpen, ‘Marx and Human Rights’, 17.

55. H. Miller, ‘From “Rights-Based” to “Rights-Framed” Approaches: A Social Constructionist View of Human Rights Practice’, International Journal of Human Rights 14, no. 6 (2010): 915–31.

56. E. Hobsbawm, ‘The Universalism of the Left’, New Left Review 21 (May/June 1996); Reprinted in The Human Rights Reader, ed. M. R. Ishay (New York: Routledge, 1997).

57. L. Sklair, Globalization: Capitalism and Its Alternatives (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).

58. Roth, ‘Retrieving Marx’. 52.

59. Ibid., 65.