In his reflections on capitalism, Marx argued that universal history
came into being when the social relations of production and exchange
became global and when more cosmopolitan tastes emerged, as illustrated
by the desire to consume the products of distant societies and to enjoy an
increasingly ‘world literature’. But the forces which unified humanity also
checked the growth of universal solidarity by pitting members of the bourgeoisie against the proletariat (and against each other), and by forcing
members of the working class to compete for scarce employment. Yet the
very tension between the wealth generated by capitalism and the poverty
of many individual lives generated new forms of solidarity among the
exploited classes. International working class solidarity was also triggered
by the remarkable way in which capitalist societies used the language of
freedom and equality to justify existing social relations, while systematically denying real freedom and equality to the poorer classes.