Marx was right in his analysis of capitalism, and history has proved him
wrong in what to do about it, for his solution -- abolition of the
market and of production of commodities (goods made for sale, their
usefulness being immaterial) -- meticulously applied by Stalin and all
the Communist-led governments, has proved to be yet another failed
Utopia.
Last night, on C-Span, I watched a jam-packed press conference called
by the anti-globalization movement. Its spokespeople are suing the
government on the basis of the organized brutality against them in the
major demonstrations this past year. The globalization they oppose is
simply the further development of what Lenin, and German
Social-Democrats before him, called the imperialist stage of capitalism.
They oppose impoverishment of non-imperialist countries by the IMF and
World Bank. They are against racism. Their bill of demands is one that
Marxists can support totally. The difference is that they offer no
Utopia, but a deconstruction of that which Marxism undertook to oppose.
Their technique is the fullest use of democracy, above all freedom of
assembly.
Marx wrote that philosophers had only explained the world, but the job
is to change it. It is the anti-globalization movement which organizes
that effort today, and not minuscule parties splitting sectarian hairs
over seizure of power by the working class, which shows not the
slightest interest in doing so.
Bill Mandel
Jay Moore wrote:
>
> Capitalism is a world system. Looked at as such, I don't know how we can
> doubt that at the present time the rich are getting richer and the poor are
> getting steadily poorer. What Marx called the "general law of capitalist
> accumulation" applies to the relations of regions and countries as well as
> to classes within those regions and countries.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Aug 17 2001 - 02:36:50 EDT