The Dispossessed: Karl Marx’s Debates on Wood Theft and the Right of the Poor

Abstract

This essay reviews Daniel Bensaïd’s book The Dispossessed: Karl Marx’s Debates on Wood Theft and the Right of the Poor. The book’s first translation into English features a new English translation of Marx’s early journalistic reflections, written for the Rheinische Zeitung, on peasants’ wood theft and an early law to criminalize what had been customarily accepted activity. Bensaïd’s book draws on this history to make critical sense of contemporary forms of dispossession and the diverse struggles to which they give rise.

Key Words:

• Daniel Bensaïd
• Commons
• Dispossession
• Karl Marx
• Privatization

Notes

1 D. Bensaïd, Marx for Our Times: Adventures and Misadventures of a Critique, trans. G. Elliot (London: Verso, 2009).