[OPE-L:8519] Re: Rosa Luxemburg's *Accumulation of Capital* is now reprinted

From: gerald_a_levy (gerald_a_levy@msn.com)
Date: Thu Feb 27 2003 - 07:43:55 EST


Re Paul Z's [8519]:

Paul:   the publication of the new translation is certainly good news.
Clearly, the additional paragraph is -- as you say -- "non-trivial".
Yet, how significant is it for the interpretation of the work.  Didn't
Luxemburg write basically the same thing in other places in _The
Accumulation of Capital_?

In solidarity, Jerry

> Please note that the middle paragraph on p. 339 was NOT in the 1951
> English translation.  Alejandro Ramos translated it from the German
> original for my own work in Volume 18 of the *Research* and I passed it
> along to the editor of this new edition.  For those specializing in such
> matters, the additional paragraph is non-trivial. (snip, JL)
> [The English translation is as follows:]
>      "It must be noted that, when we assumed above that only the
> surplus product of the first or the second department is realized in a
> non?capitalist milieu, we were taking the most favorable case for
> examining Marx's schemes, a case which shows the conditions of
> reproduction in its purity.  In reality, nothing forces us to assume that
> there is not a fraction of the constant and variable capital which is also
> realized out of the capitalist realm. Accordingly, the expansion of
> production as well as the replacement in kind of the materials consumed in
> production may be undertaken by means of products from the non?capitalist
> sphere.  What should be clear from the above?mentioned examples is the
> fact that, at least, it is impossible that the capitalized surplus value
> and the corresponding part of the capitalist output can be realized within
> the capitalist realm; this part must be sold out of the capitalist sphere,
> in social strata and forms which do not produce in capitalist way."
> [translated by Alejandro Ramos-Martinez]


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