Rocking-Chair Marxism

I was inspired by someone to change the title of this post from “Armchair Marxism” to “Rocking-Chair Marxism.”

On a Marxist listserve, we read the following relatively recently:

I find your schadenfreude at the suffering of an invaded and oppressed people revolting [referring to the Russian invasion of the Ukraine]. [Schadenfreude is a German word, meaning “malicious glee” or “gloating.

However, on this listserve the majority of posts relate to this war or to Israeli oppression and massacre of Palestinian peoples. I made the following comment in response to the above quote:

I wonder whether the writer would find the daily exploitation and oppression of workers who work for an employer “revolting.” I do find a lack of discussion of the daily exploitaiton and oppression of–how many workers worldwide–an interesting silence.

I suspect that part of the reason for the focus on foreign affairs in general and the Russian-Ukraine war in particular is that it is much easier to criticize from afar, with the criticism not threatening one’s own bread-and-butter, rather than close at hand. How many so-called Marxists are willing to jeopardize their own lives in the pursuit of their goals?

But let us look at some statistics. In an earlier post (The Issue of Health and Safety in the Workplace Dominated by a Class of Employers), I pointed out the following:

More than 1000 employees die every year in Canada on the job, and about 630,000 are injured every year (Bob Barnetson, 2010, The Political Economy of Workplace Injury in Canada. Edmonton: Athabasca University Press, p. 2).

In 2009, Canada had a population of around 34,000,000 ( https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/12-581-x/2010000/pop-eng.htm), and world population was around 6.85 billion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_in_2010). If we divide 6.85 billion by 34,000,000, we obtain 201 times the population of Canada. If we then multiply 201 times 1,000 deaths at work in Canada worldwide, we obtain 201,000 deaths at work worldwide if the Canadian case is typical of workplace situations throughout the world.

In an article posted August 18, 2023, we read the following about Russian and Ukranian casualties:

The U.S. believes nearly 500,000 Ukrainian and Russian soldiers have been wounded or killed during the expansive conflict that has raged in Ukraine since February of last year, according to a New York Times report citing unnamed officials.

The officials cautioned that casualty figures remained difficult to estimate because Moscow is believed to routinely undercount its war dead and injured, and Kyiv does not disclose official figures, the newspaper said.

Russia’s military casualties are approaching 300,000, including as many as 120,000 deaths and 170,000 to 180,000 injuries, the newspaper reported. Ukrainian deaths were close to 70,000, with 100,000 to 120,000 wounded, it added.

So, the total number of deaths in the Russian-Ukrainian war so far is around 190,000–not far from the estimate above of 2010 for the total world population. How many so-called Marxists systematically and persistently express their repulsion of the daily deaths (and injuries) of workers throughout the world? Not many, it seems.

Furthermore, the estimate of 201,000 dead workers in 2010 is likely to vastly underestimate the real number of deaths at work. One source (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/03/workplace-death-health-safety-ilo-fluor/ )indicates that more than 2 million workers die annually worldwide:

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), more than 2.3 million workers die every year as a result of occupational accidents or work-related diseases. To put this number in perspective, across the world 167,000 people died in armed conflicts in 2015, according to the latest edition of the IISS Armed Conflict Survey. In addition to this astounding number, each year 313 million accidents occur on the job resulting in extended absences from work.

The moral expression of outrage of Russia invading the Ukraine is rarely matched by many so-called Marxists by the mortal outrage of this daily, weekly, monthly and annual carnage at work.

Should one not wonder what the relevance of this moral outrage of the Russian invasion of the Ukraine has to anyone except the self-righteous left? What does it achieve? Is it matched by a moral outrage of the mass deaths at work? What is being done about both these massacres on a practical level (and not just chattering about the war (and, much more rarely, about exploitation and oppression)? Would the Marxist critics really jeopardize their own lives and lifestyles in order to match their professed moral outrage? Is there much evidence to that effect?

I am reminded of the poem by Otto Rene Castillo, one of most brilliant Guatemalan poets, titled “Apolitical Intellectuals.” If you substitute “Armchair Marxists,” the poem is also apt:

“Apolitical Intellectuals

One day
the apolitical
intellectuals
of my country
will be interrogated
by the simplest
of our people.

They will be asked
what they did
when their nation died out
slowly,
like a sweet fire
small and alone.

No one will ask them
about their dress,
their long siestas
after lunch,
no one will want to know
about their sterile combats
with “the idea
of the nothing”
no one will care about
their higher financial learning.

They won’t be questioned
on Greek mythology,
or regarding their self-disgust
when someone within them
begins to die
the coward’s death.

They’ll be asked nothing
about their absurd
justifications,
born in the shadow
of the total lie.

On that day
the simple men will come.

Those who had no place
in the books and poems
of the apolitical intellectuals,
but daily delivered
their bread and milk,
their tortillas and eggs,
those who drove their cars,
who cared for their dogs and gardens
and worked for them,
and they’ll ask:

“What did you do when the poor
suffered, when tenderness
and life
burned out of them?”

Apolitical intellectuals
of my sweet country,
you will not be able to answer.

A vulture of silence
will eat your gut.

Your own misery
will pick at your soul.

And you will be mute in your shame.”

Rene Castillo joined the Guatemalan guerrillas in the 1960s, fought with them, was captured, tortured and was burned alive.

We need to develop the fortitude of Rene Castillo for the future battles that need fighting–the power of employers as a class and the associated economic, political and social structures.