The Ideas, Politics, and Hopes of David Harvey

R.G. Williams

This short essay is a study of David Harvey – the Marxist economist.

  Professor David Harvey is probably the most well-known Socialist thinker alive today. He is also probably the most well-known and best Marxist thinker we have. Harvey has certainly established himself as a Socialist intellectual, as a major Socialist thinker, and as someone who seems to understand what is actually happening today – in terms of the great social, economic, and political struggles of our time. He is also one of the most interesting figures of the Left today – someone who is not afraid to chart his own path, as an independent man of the Left. His ideas on economics, politics, and crisis, are some of the best new ideas to have emerged, from the Left, in the last few decades. His ideas have helped to push Marxism into new politics and new developments. His ideas have also helped to develop Left and Socialist ideas into new ideas. Harvey is one of the key Left thinkers alive today. He is a man who is clearly committed – committed to the Socialist vision of human freedom. This brief essay is a brief study of his work.

  Harvey is a Marxist. He is a Marxist thinker. Specifically, he is a Marxist economist – a Marxist economist who has written dozens of books, articles, and essays, about Marx and economics. Indeed, he is unapologetically, brilliantly, and correctly, a Marxist. As a Marxist thinker, he came to Marx, to Marx’s politics, Marx’s theories, and to Marx’s economics, early in his career in the 1960s — via his interest in geography and Marx’s own ideas on economic development. This interest in Marx and Marxism has developed across Harvey’s academic career both as a researcher and as a teacher. Over a series of essays, articles, and books, from the late 1960s to present, Harvey has established himself as a leading figure in modern Marxist theory – in economics, politics, and the interpretation of Marx’s own ideas. Indeed, he has helped to revolutionise and deepen Marx’s ideas, while also developing his own insights, particularly in terms of Marxist thinking about geography and the geographical limits of Capitalism. In terms of politics and political thought Harvey has been a member of the intellectual Left and political Left for a long period of time. In the current period it is Harvey’s interest in Marx’s politics, Marx’s economics, and Marx’s method where Harvey has been most effective for Socialist thought — both for Socialists and for Marxists. Harvey, also, has provided the Left with many new concrete and theoretical ideas, in a difficult period for the Left since the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. In dark times, like ours, Harvey has helped to keep the light of the Left alive.

  Harvey is a Socialist. He is a clear Socialist thinker. Harvey has clearly contributed to Left thought and to Socialist thought. Harvey has written a huge amount on a variety of theoretical subjects and political subjects — from geography to economics, from politics to history, from Marxist theory to Marxist politics. Together his work forms some of the most varied and effective Left analysis and Socialist analysis to have been produced by the modern Left — at least since the 1960s and 1970s. What has always distinguished Harvey has been his determination to develop new ways of thinking about both Marx and Marxism, and new ways of applying both Marx’s method and Marx’s ideas to the economic problems and political problems of Capitalism. In political terms his Marxism remains one of the most developed examples of Marxism to have appeared in both the 20th century and the 21st century. Harvey’s work, across his various political subjects and various economic subjects, is also highly analytical, and has never been polemical or sectarian. Indeed, on this point, his Marxism and his work has tended to avoid the political and polemical divisions of the Left over the past thirty years, despite Harvey’s own connection to the ideas and politics of the Left and the Socialist Left.1 Harvey is a man of the Left — but he is a man who tries to avoid sectarianism. His theory and sense of practice means that much of his thought remains useful and effective, even if sectarians, from across the Left, constantly nit-pick him and his ideas. Indeed, his writing highlights the connection between theory and politics — a point of importance for all Socialists. Harvey’s Marxism and Harvey’s Socialism is useful for all Marxists and all Socialists.

  Harvey’s Socialism, ultimately, is a humanist Socialism.  Harvey’s politics are consistent. He is a man of the Left and of Socialism. In terms of his political evolution Harvey has only shifted further towards the Left as his thought has developed. In general, however, Harvey has remained a consistent Socialist. This is a key point to his Socialism. Above all, he believes in a consistent Socialism – a Humanist Socialism.

   We need people like Harvey. We need more people like him – if the Left is to win. Indeed, Harvey, himself, has certainly been effective. He has shaped our politics – and our political struggles. He has also influenced the upcoming generation. He has clearly been an important thinker for a new generation of the Left. He has certainly inspired many to think and to act – to think and to struggle.

  I respect and admire Harvey. Indeed, my own development, as a Socialist, was heavily shaped by reading Harvey – in the 2000s and 2010s. Like so many other young Marxists and Socialists, in the late 2000s and early 2010s, I learnt most of what I know about Marx and Capital from listening to Harvey’s lectures and from reading his books. I certainly learnt how to understand the great economic crisis of 2008 by reading Harvey – and others, like Richard D. Wolf and John Bellamy Foster.

  Politics is difficult. In times like these you always need a good and clear guide – someone who can effectively outline political ideas and how to use them to change the world. Marx, of course, for Socialists, is a good and clear guide – especially with his vision of working-class freedom and the vision of a society based on the free development of each and the free development of all – but Harvey, in our times, is also important. He is a good and clear guide.

  David Harvey is clearly one of the most interesting Left thinkers alive today. His work deserves to be read. You should read it.

Notes

1. D. Harvey, Social Justice and the Right to the City, (1972)
2. D. Harvey, Limits to Capital, (1982)
3. K. Marx and F. Engels, The Communist Manifesto, (1848)
4.F. Engels, The Housing Question, (1872)
5. F. Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England, (1845)
6. H. Lefebvre, Le Droit à la Ville, (1968)
7. D. Harvey, Limits to Capital, (1982 and 2006); D. Harvey, The Enigma of Capital, (2010)

(2017)

Categorised in: Article

This post was written by R.G. Williams