Relation to others· Power and justice
Emancipatory violence
Axis: Violence — Can violence be legitimate?
Where domination is itself an entrenched violence, exploitation, colonization, an iniquitous order upheld by force, the violence of the oppressed is not an evil but a reply: the means of breaking a system that will never yield of its own accord, and, for the oppressed, a way of reclaiming their denied humanity.
Philosophers 1
Marxexplicit
The ruling class never yields of its own accord: the emancipation of the proletariat requires the revolutionary conquest of power, and violence there plays the role of the midwife of history, a means in the service of a new order rather than a value in itself. Yet Marx concedes that in certain countries with open institutions a peaceful transition is not ruled out: violence is an instrument of emancipation, not its essence.
Capital, vol. I, ch. 31 · Manifesto of the Communist Party, IV · Amsterdam speech (1872)