Krisis, or the Krisis-Gruppe, is an anti-political journal and discussion group formed in 1986 as a "theoretical forum for a radical critique of capitalist

Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...

 society." Its members include Robert Kurz, Roswitha Scholz, Nobert Trenkle, Ernst Lohoff, Achim Bellgart and Franz Schandl.

History

The Krisis Group was founded in 1986 in Nuremberg

Nuremberg

Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...

, by German intellectuals and activists influenced by the work of Guy Debord

Guy Debord

Guy Ernest Debord was a French Marxist theorist, writer, filmmaker, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationist International . He was also briefly a member of Socialisme ou Barbarie.-Early Life:Guy Debord was born in Paris in 1931...

 and Theodor Adorno. Its original members included Robert Kurz, Roswitha Scholz, Ernst Lohoff, Franz Schandl, Norbert Trenkle and Claus-Peter Ortlieb. The group published the theoretical journal Krisis : Contribution to a Critique of Commodity Society, and the review Marxist Critique. Krisis also organized seminars and debates, and published articles in different European and South American reviews.

Theory and Ideology

In its journal , the group proposes a critique of contemporary capitalist society based on a fundamental reinterpretation of Marx's

Karl Marx

Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...

 analysis of labor, the commodity

Commodity

In economics, a commodity is the generic term for any marketable item produced to satisfy wants or needs. Economic commodities comprise goods and services....

, value

Value theory

Value theory encompasses a range of approaches to understanding how, why and to what degree people should value things; whether the thing is a person, idea, object, or anything else. This investigation began in ancient philosophy, where it is called axiology or ethics. Early philosophical...

 and money

Money

Money is any object or record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally in the past,...

 in Das Kapital

Das Kapital

Das Kapital, Kritik der politischen Ökonomie , by Karl Marx, is a critical analysis of capitalism as political economy, meant to reveal the economic laws of the capitalist mode of production, and how it was the precursor of the socialist mode of production.- Themes :In Capital: Critique of...

.

Krisis argues that a distinction exists between an « exoteric » and « esoteric » analysis of capitalism in Marx’s writings. Marx’s "exoteric" analysis (associated with his early works) is a critique of capitalism from the point of view of labor or the working-class, a point of view which leads inevitably to an emphasis on the struggle between capitalists and laborers, and redistribution of wealth, as the aim of class struggle. Marx’s "esoteric" analysis of capitalism, on the other hand, is a critique of the historically specific form that labor and wealth assume in capitalism – abstract labor and value. Moreover, it identifies domination in capitalism with these historically determinant forms, rather than with the classes or individuals who appropriate surplus labor and wealth from the laboring classes.

In the Manifesto Against Labour , Krisis argues against the traditional Marxist notion of class struggle

Class struggle

Class struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....

 as the motor of history. According to Krisis, there is no class-subject. The struggle between the proletariat

Proletariat

The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...

 and the bourgeoisie

Bourgeoisie

In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...

 is not a struggle between a revolutionary class and its oppressor, but rather a struggle between two opposed interests that are integral to capitalism and form a single "labor camp". Contrary to traditional Marxism

Marxism

Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

, then, Krisis asserts that the struggle against capitalism is not the struggle for the liberation of labor, but rather a struggle for liberation from labor.

Krisis Division

In 2004 Krisis split, and the members Robert Kurz and Roswitha Scholz together with a several members of the editorial staff formed the Exit! group. According to Exit! the split was a result of a putsch by a minority of the editorial staff of Krisis.

External links

• Krisis webpage
• Krisis articles in English
• Principia Dialectica (UK based magazine and blog influenced by Krisis and Exit)
• EXIT! webpage