The Marxist Origins of Qadhafi's Economic Thought

Sami G. Hajjar

doi:10.1017/S0022278X00056871

The Marxist Origins of Qadhafi's Economic Thought

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008

Sami G. Hajjar

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My aim is to provide an exposition and a critical analysis of Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi's economic theory as derived from Part II of his Green Book, and since it is basically an essay of conclusions, sweeping generalisations, and ‘final’ or ‘ultimate’ solutions to man's political, economic, and social problems, my primary interest is to examine his intellectual sources.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , September 1982 , pp. 361 - 375

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X00056871 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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^{page 361 note 1} See Hajjar, Sami G., ‘The Jamahiriya Experiment in Libya: Qadhafi and Rousseau’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 18, 2, 06 1980, pp. 181–200.Google Scholar

^{page 362 note 1} All page references are to the English translation.of al-Qadhafi, Mu'ammar, The Green Book, Part II, The Solution of the Economic Problem: Socialism (London, 1979).Google Scholar

^{page 362 note 2} In Marx, Karl and Engels, Friedrich, Selected Works (New York edn. 1969), pp. 72–94. All references in this article to the writings of Marx and Engels, unless otherwise noted, are contained in this volume.Google Scholar

^{page 363 note 1} Ibid. p. 93.

^{page 363 note 2} Marx, ‘Wages, Price and Profit’, p. 229.

^{page 363 note 3} See Hajjar, loc. cit. pp. 191–2.

^{page 364 note 1} Engels, ‘Socialism: Utopian and Scientific’, p. 401.

^{page 364 note 2} Bober, M. M., Karl Marx's Interpretation of History (New York, 1965), p. 47.Google Scholar

^{page 364 note 3} Engels, ‘Origin of Family, Private Property and State’, p. 528.

^{page 364 note 4} See Bober, op. cit. p. 47.

^{page 365 note 1} Engels, ‘Origin of Family, Private Property and State’, p. 530.

^{page 366 note 1} See Marx, Karl, ‘Capital’, in Eastman, Max (ed.), Capital, The Communist Manifesto and Other Writings (New York, 1959), p. 48.Google Scholar

^{page 366 note 2} Hunt, R. N. Carew, The Theory and Practice of Communism (Baltimore, 1963), p. 86.Google Scholar

^{page 366 note 3} Constant capital in the form of machinery is ‘stored up labour’, because some labour has already created it. Raw materials that have not been worked on have an exchange value because of the added value they will have when labour is applied to them. Ibid. pp. 85–6.

^{page 367 note 1} For an elaboration of this point, see Bober, op. cit. pp. 189ff.

^{page 367 note 2} Marx, , ‘Capital’, as quoted in Zeitlin, Irving, Marxism: a re-examination (Princeton, 1967), p. 46.Google Scholar

^{page 367 note 3} Ibid. p. 51.

^{page 368 note 1} Ibid. pp. 45–59.

^{page 368 note 2} The abolishment of the wage system is also the solution for Marx, to be caused by the crisis to be experienced in the very system (capitalism) that feeds on wage labour. Obviously the reference of this argument is to the dialectical process that operates in the infrastructure of society, the economic realm.

^{page 369 note 1} Marx, ‘Critique of the Gotha Programme’, p. 325.

^{page 369 note 2} The shadow of Marx looms conspicuously over this quotation. For Marx, the socialist phase dialectically issues out of the phase that preceeded it, and as such it will bear some of its features. Qadhafi seems to imply a similar conclusion.

^{page 370 note 1} See Locke, John, Two Treatises of Government (1681, New York edn. 1965), pp. 134–6.Google Scholar

^{page 370 note 2} Ibid. p. 138.

^{page 371 note 1} Marx and Engels, ‘Manifesto of the Communist Party’, p. 49.

^{page 371 note 2} Sabine, George H., A History of Political Theory (New York edn. 1961), p. 528.Google Scholar

^{page 371 note 3} In addition, six pages are devoted to the topic of domestic servants whom Qadhafi labels as the slaves of the modern age; they should be ‘liberated’ and made to work in places where material production is being undertaken.

^{page 371 note 4} See Bober, op. cit. pp. 182–3.

^{page 371 note 5} See Marx, ‘Wage, Labour and Capital’, pp. 64ff.

^{page 371 note 6} Qadhafi devotes 15 pages of his text to illustrate the point that a person working either for himself or for a socialist corporation has an incentive to be productive, unlike those working for wages.

^{page 372 note 1} Marx, ‘Critique of the Gotha Programme’, pp. 322–3.

^{page 373 note 1} Ibid. p. 323.

^{page 373 note 2} See ibid. pp. 323–5.

^{page 373 note 3} Qadhafi never defines spiritual freedom but hints (p. 82) that this might mean freedom from anxiety.

^{page 373 note 4} Bober, op. cit. p. 276.

^{page 373 note 5} Engels, ‘Socialism: Utopian and Scientific’, p. 432.

^{page 374 note 1} Habiby, Raymond N., ‘Mu'ammar Qadhafi's New Islamic Scientific Socialist Society’, in Middle East Review (New York), 11, 4, 1979, p. 34.Google Scholar

^{page 374 note 2} Ibid. p. 32.

^{page 374 note 3} E.g. New York Times, 22 November 1981.

^{page 375 note 1} See Rodinson, Maxime, Marxism and the Muslim World (London, 1979), especially pp. 51–2.Google Scholar

^{page 375 note 2} Habiby, loc. cit. p. 38.

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