Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.9, 2020

Labor Justice in Marx’s Historical Materialism Narrative

(Abstract)

Liu Tongfang

Seeking and probing the true connotations and realistic representation of labor justice is a thread that runs through the narrative of Marx’s historical materialism. On the basis of the essential needs of the mode of human existence and of freedom and liberation, Marx clarified the hierarchical structure of labor justice, production justice, and social justice through his examination of the interrelationship between human labor and human history. He established the logical priority of labor justice in this structure and also the dimensions of freedom and liberation as the premise of labor justice. The narrative mode of historical materialism and critique of modernity were basic principles followed by Marx in his exposition of the propositions of labor and justice. From the perspective of labor alienation and private ownership, he provides historical deconstruction of the injustice of labor and denounces its premise, unveiling the injustice of “capital justice” and “economic justice.” He reveals the paradox of the internal relationship between labor and capital and its derived labor, and exposes its theoretical fallacy from the heights of “labor freedom.” The narrative power and critical dimensions of Marx’s labor justice thought can be resuscitated and can inspire us to acquire new knowledge in the field of economic globalization in the 21st century.