Interview, Listen

The Commons and Communism— Peter Linebaugh on Against the Grain

Against the Grain

What is the relationship between things held in Common — from rivers and forests, to traditions of sharing and mutual aid — and communism? How should we understand the connection between the Commons within class society and life after capitalism? Historian Peter Linebaugh weighs in on the history of the idea of Communism, the very different history of enclosure, and the influence of the Commons and egalitarian indigenous ideas on the work of Karl Marx.