Karl Marx contra a escravidão negra: uma análise da guerra civil americana

Abstract

This research seeks to investigate the theses of Karl Marx regarding the themes of slavery, colonization and racism in the process of the constitution of European industrial capital. It uses Book I The Capital, focusing on chapter XXIV, and the articles about the American Civil War written for the Daily New York Tribune, by Friedrich Engels. Initially, we examine the current Brazilian theoretical productions that deal with the racial question from a Marxist perspective and present one of the main criticisms directed to the founders of Marxism in Latin America regarding this question, namely the work of Carlos Moore, which we intend to criticize throughout this research. Next, we examine the process of original accumulation and the main concepts linked to capitalist production with a view to presenting Marx’s thought concerning both the formation of wage labor in Europe and the colonial slave production in the United States, which is a determining part of the constitution of English industrial capital. With this, we seek to compare free wage labor with slave labor, showing their similarities and differences, and aiming to make explicit the necessity of slavery in the colonies for the international economy centered in Europe. In the next chapter we analyze some of Marx’s articles about the war of secession, which he considers the first capitalist world war, in which he exposes the main reasons for the armed conflict relating it to the constitution and expansion of American capitalism and his criticism of the London press coverage of this war, concealing its defense of the exporting slave production mode in the American South. Finally, we present some of the repercussions of the Marxian production on the racial question in the revolutionary movements of Marxist inspiration that took place in the 20th century, connecting them to the racial problems that are still present in the 21st century.