THE COMMONS, THE PAST AND THE FUTURE

AN ESSAY ON THE HISTORIOGRAPHICAL AND POLITICAL CURRENTNESS OF E. P. THOMPSON

Abstract

This essay examines the relevance of Edward Palmer Thompson's thought (1924-2024) on his centenary, specifically focusing on his contribution to commons studies as a political alternative to contemporary dilemmas. In a context marked by the resurgence of "new faces of fascism" and the deepening of the global ecological crisis, we argue that Thompson offers unique methodological and political tools for understanding communalist struggles as both historical and contemporary phenomena. After briefly situating the panorama of common studies in Brazilian historiography, we analyze how Thompson developed an original perspective that rigorously articulates the local and global, the particular and universal, avoiding both abusive generalizations and extreme particularism. We demonstrate that his approach in Customs in Common is characterized by three fundamental aspects: historiographical rigor in dealing with partial and ambivalent evidence; the refusal of generalizations that subordinate Global South experiences to European struggles; and the capacity to suggest connections between historiography and politics without prescribing revolutionary scripts. Finally, we examine how Thompson maintained a realistic diagnosis of capitalism's exterminationist threats, understanding the struggle for the commons not as an idyllic dream, but as a vital necessity for human species survival. We conclude that Thompson offers us "utopian fuel" to think alternative forms of resistance and social creation that transcend classical dichotomies between reform and revolution.