Dissent from Capitalism “What does this accusation amount to? The history of all past society is the history of class antagonisms, which took different forms in different epochs” (Blaisdell 140-141). Karl Marx made an accusation that capitalism will eventually come to an end. The Horizontalist Movement in Argentina, Sabotage in the American Workplace, and the Occupy Movement in the United States can all prove Marx’s predictions to be authentic.
Marx breaks society down into three important structures: thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. The thesis is the dominant class, antithesis the challenger, and the synthesis branches off to form a new stage of society. An example of this is back in the slavery era. The thesis was the masters, antithesis …show more content…
The first example would be the horizontalist movement in Argentina. “Horizontalism it is not an ideology, but more of a social relationship, a way of being and relating. It comes from a new practice in Argentina, a practice that as of yet we do not have in the English language … not yet anyway” (Sitrin, line 3). Horizontalism requires direct democracy, but obtains no hierarchal systems. For example, Zanon, a factory in Argentina, was controlled completely by the workers. The workers are the bosses, and they decide what gets done around the factory. All of the workers are paid the same, treated the same, and considered the same. Thus, this creates a horizontal system. The competition to move “vertically” is eliminated, and the whole system is based off a horizontal …show more content…
The Occupy Movement stems from the Occupy Wall Street movement that protests economical inequality. The main goal is similar to that of Horizontalism. They want economic and political relations to become less vertically structured. Essentially, Horizontalism and the Occupy Movement are striving for the same thing. “The richest 1% of the US population own a third of US net worth” (The Guardian). A major issue the Occupy Movement has is with the rich. They do not like that the rich keep getting richer, and the poor keep getting poorer. Thus, this is exactly why they say, “we are the ninety nine percent.” The ninety nine percent dissent against capitalism for the same reasons as the Horizontalism movements. They want everyone to be on an equal playing field; this requires no hierarchal systems. Essentially, Occupy is protesting capitalism by the belief that everyone should be on an equal playing field when it comes to the
Marx breaks society down into three important structures: thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. The thesis is the dominant class, antithesis the challenger, and the synthesis branches off to form a new stage of society. An example of this is back in the slavery era. The thesis was the masters, antithesis …show more content…
The first example would be the horizontalist movement in Argentina. “Horizontalism it is not an ideology, but more of a social relationship, a way of being and relating. It comes from a new practice in Argentina, a practice that as of yet we do not have in the English language … not yet anyway” (Sitrin, line 3). Horizontalism requires direct democracy, but obtains no hierarchal systems. For example, Zanon, a factory in Argentina, was controlled completely by the workers. The workers are the bosses, and they decide what gets done around the factory. All of the workers are paid the same, treated the same, and considered the same. Thus, this creates a horizontal system. The competition to move “vertically” is eliminated, and the whole system is based off a horizontal …show more content…
The Occupy Movement stems from the Occupy Wall Street movement that protests economical inequality. The main goal is similar to that of Horizontalism. They want economic and political relations to become less vertically structured. Essentially, Horizontalism and the Occupy Movement are striving for the same thing. “The richest 1% of the US population own a third of US net worth” (The Guardian). A major issue the Occupy Movement has is with the rich. They do not like that the rich keep getting richer, and the poor keep getting poorer. Thus, this is exactly why they say, “we are the ninety nine percent.” The ninety nine percent dissent against capitalism for the same reasons as the Horizontalism movements. They want everyone to be on an equal playing field; this requires no hierarchal systems. Essentially, Occupy is protesting capitalism by the belief that everyone should be on an equal playing field when it comes to the