Blood and Fire: The Violent Origins of Capitalism

Join the MEP’s Capital Study Group in a four-week study of the concluding section of volume I of Marx’s Capital, which discloses the widespread violence and dispossession – in both Europe and colonized areas – that accompanied the emergence of capitalism. For Marx, the history of this original expropriation or “primitive accumulation” was “written in letters of blood and fire.” In order for social relations to become structured around the production of commodities, direct producers had to be violently separated from their means of subsistence, and common resources had to be concentrated and privatized.

This series both concludes our year-long close reading of Capital, Volume I, and introduces the work for new readers who are welcome and encouraged to attend. It is also a good opportunity for those who had to drop out along the way to return to the study of Capital. Each week, we recap the passages covered at the previous session, introduce new material, and open up a discussion. We read the more challenging sections together a paragraph or two at a time. Supplementary materials and/or questions for reflection are circulated prior to each week’s session, and the conversation continues in the group’s Slack channel.

Illustration depicts the clearing (enclosure) of the Scottish Highlands, which Marx details in chapter 27 of Capital.