Marxist Medievalist

This is a blog about marxism and medievalism. Please, check my Introduction.

[beautiful-basque-country]

Monument in Amaiur.

From the 13th to the 16th century, it existed in the Kingdom of Navarre a union of kights, lords, priests, and farmers called the Union of Infanzones. These people fought for the defense of the old ways and traditions of the Kingdom against any royal law - or unfair behaviour of the noblemen - that may destroy them: they didn’t obey the King but just let him know their requests.

Since they enjoyed a huge popular support, the Infanzones used to be harassed and attacked - sometimes even murdered - by land owners and nobles. However, their enemies found a way to win: little by little, the Union was filled with more and more noblemen that fought only for their own benefits, destroying it from the inside. By the 15th century it was already an official organization under King’s rule that solely chased after thieves. One century later the Union of Infanzones disappeared since it wasn’t needed anymore.

Their motto - as you can see engraved on the stone - was “Pro libertate patria gens libera state”, which is Latin for “Stand up freely, people, for your homeland’s liberty”. 

[howieabel]

“Indifference is the deadweight of history, yet indifference operates with great power on the course of history. It operates passively, but it operates. It is fatality, that which cannot be counted on. It twists programs and ruins the best-conceived plans. It is the raw material that ruins intelligence. That which happens, the evil which weighs upon all, happens because the human mass abdicates to their will; allows laws to be promulgated that only the revolt could nullify, and leaves men that only a mutiny will be able to overthrow to achieve the power. The masses ignore because they are careless and then it seems like it is the product of fate that runs over everything and everyone: the one who consents as well as the one who dissents; the one who knew as well as the one who didn’t know; the active as well as the indifferent. Some whimper piously, others curse obscenely, but nobody, or very few ask themselves: If I had tried to impose my will, would this have happened?” - Antonio Gramsci

“L’indifferenza è il peso morto della storia. L’indifferenza opera potentemente nella storia. Opera passivamente, ma opera. È la fatalità; è ciò su cui non si può contare; è ciò che sconvolge i programmi, che rovescia i piani meglio costruiti; è la materia bruta che strozza l’intelligenza. Ciò che succede, il male che si abbatte su tutti, avviene perché la massa degli uomini abdica alla sua volontà, lascia promulgare le leggi che solo la rivolta potrà abrogare, lascia salire al potere uomini che poi solo un ammutinamento potrà rovesciare. Tra l’assenteismo e l’indifferenza poche mani, non sorvegliate da alcun controllo, tessono la tela della vita collettiva, e la massa ignora, perché non se ne preoccupa; e allora sembra sia la fatalità a travolgere tutto e tutti, sembra che la storia non sia altro che un enorme fenomeno naturale, un’eruzione, un terremoto del quale rimangono vittime tutti, chi ha voluto e chi non ha voluto, chi sapeva e chi non sapeva, chi era stato attivo e chi indifferente. Alcuni piagnucolano pietosamente, altri bestemmiano oscenamente, ma nessuno o pochi si domandano: se avessi fatto anch’io il mio dovere, se avessi cercato di far valere la mia volontà, sarebbe successo ciò che è successo?”

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Cathedral Of St. Cecilia. Albi, France

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@Neoprusiano Corona Imperial del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire

[peashooter85]

Because some things are worth fighting for — The War of the Bucket

During the 11th and 12th centuries the Italian states and the German kingdoms were often at war due to a series of conflicts called the Investiture Controversy.  The Investiture Controversy was a politically motivated war fought over who would be the supreme power of Europe, the theocratic government of the Roman Catholic Church, or the secular government of the Holy Roman Empire. The Controversy officially came to an end in 1176 when the forces of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa were defeated at the Battle of Legnano. 

While the Investiture Controversy ended in 1176, conflict over the issue still remained in Italy between the many kingdoms and city states, which were divided into two factions, the Ghibellines who supported the Holy Roman Emperor, and the Guelfs who supported the Pope. The town of Modena was an ardent Ghibelline city, while Bologna was a staunch Guelf city. Thus for many centuries the two cities were fierce rivals.

One night in 1325 a small group of Modenese commandos snuck into the city and stole the ceremonial civic bucket from the town well.  Before they left, they filled it with is much looted treasure as could fit.  Enraged by the theft of their sacred bucket, the Bolognese mustered an army of 30,000 men to crush Modena. The two armies met at the twon of Zappolino. The Modenese only had an army of 7,000, however the Bolognese were disorganized and poorly armed while the Modenese were well equipped, well trained, and disciplined.  As a result, the Battle of Zappolino lasted on 2 hours before the Modenese broke Bolognese ranks, killing 2,000 in the process.  The Modenese chased the defeated army all the way to Bologna itself, however they did not have the numbers to lay siege to the city.  Rather, they paraded around the city walls, displaying the captured bucket for all to see while shouting insults, wisecracks about Bolognese mothers, and made obscene gestures.  Today, the bucket is still in the possession of Modena. 

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Freedom only for the members of the government, only for the members of the Party - though they are quite numerous - is no freedom at all.

Rosa Luxemburg (via lavenderebel)

[furys]

Any imaginable mode of human conduct becomes morally permissible the moment it becomes economically possible, becomes ‘valuable’; anything goes if it pays. This is what modern nihilism is all about. Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, and their twentieth-century successors will ascribe this predicament to science, rationalism, the Death of God. Marx would say that its basis is far more concrete and mundane: it is built into the banal everyday workings of the bourgeois economic order

Marshall Berman, All That is Solid Melts Into Air (via furys)

[esmitierra]

Santoyo Church, Palencia, Castile and León, Spain. VIA.

[italian-landscapes]

Castello di Rossena (Rossena Castle), Emilia-Romagna, Italy

If you have some extra million Euros in your pocket, my wealthy followers (and who does not have?), this 10th century castle is on sale.

No mockery, no funny joke, if you don’t believe me, have a look at its official site: http://castleofrossena.com/en/

Google Maps

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Selection of texts to help get some of the basics of communism.

This is a work in progress and all I’m hoping is that it might be useful for some people. Sort of in a suggested chronology, purely based on my opinion. Feel free to skip any if they aren’t interest. And if anyone can find links to the two missing .pdfs that’d be great. Why Marx Was Right - Terry Eagleton [read online] You may have to look for this in a library as I failed to find a .pdf. Less an actual introduction to Marxist thought and more of a selection of well known and tired anti-communist tropes, being disputed and largely debunked. Eagleton isn’t a terrible entry point if you’re brand new to these ideas. 17 Contradictions and the End of Capitalism - David Harvey [pdf] (thanks to @aurora-malleus and @smolpoetryking for links to this) A good introduction to some of the contradictions Marx outlines in Capital. Harvey is a populariser of Marx, as such he gets quite a lot of critique. In terms of a fairly public academic speaking about Marxism, however, he’s a better point of entry in my opinion than Richard Wolff or Noam Chomsky. 

Wage Labour and Capital - Karl Marx https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/ Yes by this point it’s probably good to go back to Marx, or else it’s far too easy to never read his own work at all - and Marxists who do this often end up with a narrow understanding of Marxist thought. This one deals with pretty much what the title implies, and outlines why the interests of the wage-labourer and the capitalist are incompatible.  The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels  https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ Worth reading, though also understanding it as an historical propaganda piece. Not the same level of rigour as many other works but still has some value. The Principles of Communism - Friedrich Engels https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm Similar to the last piece, and perhaps a bit dated. But in some ways this can quickly outline some of the foundational principles of communism - most of which hold up today regardless of how many innovations communists have made. Capital Volume One - Karl Marx https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ At this stage keen readers may want to start chipping away at Capital. It is a monster of a book, however, and some of the writing is extremely tedious. Take your time - seriously. Set aside potentially a whole year to just chip away at this and see what you can get out of it. Hopefully some of the parts Harvey highlights will reveal themselves. Don’t feel like you have to finish it to continue on the list. State and Revolution - Vladimir Lenin https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/ Those who know me might think this is a surprise as my politics are very critical of Leninism. However, this piece does have some important lessons in it - and it’s fair to say that regardless of your thoughts on Lenin he was a good writer and propagandist. Whether or not he lived up to much of the principles he seems to outline in this work is certainly up for debate. Society of the Spectacle - Guy Debord https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/debord/society.htm The tone of writing here will seem unusual compared to what’s been recommended up until this point. But SotS is a useful read. Contextually, this was written when the USSR was still powerful but being critiqued by communist thinkers - and Debord is certainly no booster for the Soviet Union. This was also in a period when capitalism was extremely bureaucratic in the realm of public life, in the form of the state (much of these functions have remained but have been privatised to be fair). Keep that in mind, as I believe Debord was not merely meaning Spectacular capitalism when he talks about bureaucratic societies - but is drawing parallels between the bourgeois democratic states and the bureaucratic “Really Existing Socialist” states. Discipline and Punish - Michel Foucault https://zulfahmed.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/disciplineandpunish.pdf Foucault is perhaps actually a bit clearer to read than Debord. This piece looks at disciplinary strategies employed by the State and how this has changed over time. His analysis of power problematises some presumptions about how to achieve liberatory politics. Do not be dissuaded by Marxists who snub Foucault - they are only patting themselves on the back for a fairly glaring blindspot they’re unwilling to consider. The Historical Moment That Produced Us - Loren Goldner http://insurgentnotes.com/2010/06/historical_moment/ This is a great introduction to some of the ways that dissident Marxist thought has culminated and some of the principles it is emphasising today. Goldner is a former Trotskyist and a populariser (to the extent that it is at all popular.. so very marginally) of Left Communism in the anglophone world. This piece is partly polemic and takes swings at some of the sacred cows of the existing ostensibly radical left (support for Chavismo, etc). 

[academicssay]

[tomicscomics]

here’s a great [reportedly] true story about everyone’s favorite catholic intellectual

[marxistmedievalist]

The transition from the feudal mode of production is two-fold. The producer becomes merchant and capitalist, in contrast to the natural agricultural economy and the guild-bound handicrafts of the medieval urban industries. This is the really revolutionising path. Or else, the merchant establishes direct sway over production. However much this serves historically as a stepping-stone — witness the English 17th-century clothier, who brings the weavers, independent as they are, under his control by selling their wool to them and buying their cloth — it cannot by itself contribute to the overthrow of the old mode of production, but tends rather to preserve and retain it as its precondition.

Karl Marx - Capital. Volume III, Chapter 20 -  Historical Facts about Merchant's Capital.

[medievalengravings]

Manuscript: Harley 3244 - Theological miscellany Folio: 28 Location: England Dating: 1236 - 1275 Institution: British Library Image

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In Christianity, the three theological virtues are faith, hope and love, a list which comes from 1 Corinthians 13:13 (νυνὶ δὲ μένει πίστις, ἐλπίς, ἀγάπη, τὰ τρία ταῦτα· μείζων δὲ τούτων ἡ ἀγάπη (pistis (faith), elpis (hope), agape (love)). The same chapter describes love as the greatest of the three, and further defines love as “patient, kind, not envious, boastful, arrogant, or rude.” (The Christian virtue of love is sometimes called charity and at other times a Greek word agape is used to contrast the love of God and the love of humankind from other types of love such as friendship or physical affection.)

Christian scholars frequently add the four Greek cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, temperance, and courage) to the theological virtues to give the seven virtues; for example, these seven are the ones described in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, sections 1803–1829.

The Bible mentions additional virtues, such as in the “Fruit of the Holy Spirit,” found in Galatians 5:22-23: “By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit it is benevolent-love: joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, benevolence, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is absolutely no law against such a thing.”

[gentlewave]

Von Singenberg, Truchseß zu St. Gallen, Codex Palatinus Germanicus 848, fol. 151r, [detail], Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift (Codex Manesse), Zürich, ca. 1304-1340. The Codex Manesse, or Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift is a Liederhandschrift (medieval songbook), the single most comprehensive source of Middle High German Minnesang poetry, written and illustrated between 1304 and 1340, source: digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de.

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Pre-Marxian Philosophical Works

Critique of Pure Reason - Kant

The Phenomenology of Spirit - Hegel

The Essence of Christianity - Feuerbach 

The Political Revolution - Bauer

What is Property? - Proudhon

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - Hume