Marx and the Commons

Karl Marx offered a rich historical analysis of the commons (and communal property generally), present in the entire body of his work. With respect to the English commons, he detailed the five phases of the enclosure movement, from the late fifteenth century to the nineteenth century, leading to the genesis of the capitalist farmer and the genesis of the industrial capitalist. His analysis extended to colonialism and the expropriation of lands and peoples throughout the world, including extensive ethnological inquiries into communal “natural economies,” closely tied to his theory of metabolic rift. This analysis was carried forward by Rosa Luxemburg.