>
>I think one of the problems with our communication is that the *focus*
>of our concerns has been different: for Kliman, his _primary
>research focus_ has, to date, been hermeneutic; for many others,
>their primary research focus has been capitalism. In other words,
>Kliman has been mainly focused on what is essentially a *history of
>political economy question* (i.e. what is the interpretation of Marx's
>quantitative theory that is the most consistent and has the best textual
>evidence when placed in the context of Marx's overall theory?),
>whereas many other Marxists are focused on comprehending and
>struggling against the dynamics of capitalism.
This is simply slander against Kliman whose contributions to News and
Letters and public lectures are often such analyses of the dynamics
of capitalism in terms of "Marx's Marxian" theory the logical
consistency of which he has attempted to demonstrate. It just turns
out that Kliman is probably not comfortable without defending his
foundations in a comprehensive, profound and rational way. For this
he should be criticized?
Again it is nonsense to imply that Kliman has been interested in
hermeunetic interpretations of Marx as an end it itself. Kliman's
hermeunetic contributions are obviously meant to underpin overt
political writings which are submitted as contributions to the
struggle against and thus the comprehension of capitalism. See his
writing on the Asian Financial Panic and his criticisms of Brenner
and Greider. And what about the overtly political class which he
teaches at the Brecht Forum (see below). For goodness' sake, it does
not seem that Kliman and McGlone are interested only in gardening as
Levy maliciously implies at the end of his post.
Kliman (as well as Alejandro) sees that there are important political
consequences to rejecting the thesis that the rate of profit is
solely an index of the exploitation of one class by another, and
instead maintaining that it is influenced by the contribution of
capital (Malthus), time (Bohm Bawerk), and/or the level of science
and technology embodied in the conditions of production (the arguably
implicit key to the neo Ricardian school, as Michael Lebowitz
suggested long ago). Of course Kliman's theorizing on the FROP is an
attempt to focus struggle against capitalism on the abode of
production itself, rather than on competition or realization in the
market.
Levy's hostility to Kliman shows yet again an irrational and nasty
side. Do note that I say all this as no friend of Kliman whose calls
for retractions are in my opinion based on misleading information.
Yet too bad we are left with Levy's ad hominem, inaccurate and
irrelevant criticism while some serious debate by former list
members will be occuring in Italy.
Perhaps the list coordinators will have some discussion about this?
Rakesh
st & 3rd Tuesdays
7:30 pm
6 sessions beginning April 16
Economic Crisis and Crisis Theory
Andrew Kliman & Ted McGlone
The world's major economies are caught in a
"synchronized recession." Argentina's recent default could trigger a
massive
debt crisis. Living standards have plummeted in the
Third World for two decades.This class will explore why capitalism is
rocked by recurrent economic crises and why, despite
its continual technological revolutions, it is unable to create
prosperity
for all.
We will focus on Karl Marx's crisis theory, but also
survey radical and mainstream alternatives. The differing political
implications
of these theories will be stressed throughout. We
will also address the current debate over whether Marx's crisis
theory is
internally inconsistent. The class is designed for
both newcomers to crisis theory and those with prior knowledge. Please
contact Andrew_Kliman@msn.com to obtain readings for
the first class.
Andrew Kliman and Ted McGlone teach economics at
local colleges. Kliman's work on Marx's crisis theory and critique of
political economy has appeared in Capital and Class,
Historical Materialism, Research in Political Economy, etc. McGlone
has
taught several Brecht Forum classes on the
revolutionary dialectic in the philosophies of Hegel and Dunayevskaya.
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