well the luddites were by definition reactionary as they were acting in reaction to the advent of capitalism by resisting it and trying to maintain their feudal rights
they did however have a valid point about how they had a better deal under feudalism but I imagine that Marx was criticising them for not having the imagination to see that the machines would have been good if they were the owners of the machines and rather than fight the machines they should have took them
Ok, that makes sense to me. Of course, by the same logic, modern labor unions trying to claw back conditions they lost in the 80s are also reactionary, even while doing harm reduction and building labor power which might help in a future revolution.
I think of ‘reactionary’ as synonymous with ‘anti-communist’ but that’s only really the common connotation because of our context.
well the luddites were by definition reactionary as they were acting in reaction to the advent of capitalism by resisting it and trying to maintain their feudal rights
they did however have a valid point about how they had a better deal under feudalism but I imagine that Marx was criticising them for not having the imagination to see that the machines would have been good if they were the owners of the machines and rather than fight the machines they should have took them
Ok, that makes sense to me. Of course, by the same logic, modern labor unions trying to claw back conditions they lost in the 80s are also reactionary, even while doing harm reduction and building labor power which might help in a future revolution.
I think of ‘reactionary’ as synonymous with ‘anti-communist’ but that’s only really the common connotation because of our context.
As long as I can keep posting 🔨
yeah I actually don't think reactionary is necessarily always bad.
reactionary is sometimes incorrectly used in place of counter-revolutionary