This article revisits Karl Marx's writings through the lens of human suffering and dehumanization, exploring their contemporary relevance for struggles centered on human dignity. By critically engaging with Marx's early works on alienation and his later analyses of the commodity form and machinery in Capital, the article highlights how capitalist social relations reduce human life to abstract labor, ultimately rendering it disposable. The article proposes a selective, emancipatory interpretation of Marx that acknowledges long-standing critiques, especially from decolonial and critical race theorists, while maintaining that Marx's methodological focus on emancipation is a potent instrument for examining structural violence. Inspired by the Kurdish slogan Berxwedan jîyan e ("Resistance is Life"), which emerged during periods of severe state violence that sought to strip life of its dignity and meaning, the article illustrates how Marx's concepts illuminate the ontological dimensions of resistance to dehumanization. It argues that reclaiming Marx through the question of life provides a vocabulary to confront contemporary forms of disposability and affirm human worth.
