The structural crisis of capital

considerations in the light of István Mészáros’ analyzes

Abstract

Situated within the scope of Marxist theory, the main objective of this text is to analyze the socioeconomic conditions that allow us to affirm the existence of a structural crisis of capital and, consequently, a structural crisis of capitalist sociability. To this end, the study takes as its fundamental reference the intellectual production of the Hungarian philosopher, István Mészáros. In the first part of the article, the relationship between the capital system and economic crises is examined. Furthermore, the different types of economic crisis are identified in order to differentiate them from the structural crisis that manifested itself from the 1970s onwards. In the second moment, the need for a socialist alternative and overcoming the capital system stands out, paying attention to the fact that capital and capitalism are distinct phenomena. In the third moment, the structural antagonisms of capital are discussed and, in effect, the opposition between genuine production and destructive production is highlighted. In view of this, attention is drawn to the absolute limits of capital. In the fourth moment, the worsening of chronic unemployment is analyzed as one of the phenomena that constitutes the activation of the absolute limits of capital. It concludes in defense of popular organization and the maturation of the revolutionary conditions of the socialist alternative, highlighting the ideological resurgence of the forces of capital that aim to restore its hegemony.