Re: (OPE-L) Re: Paresh Chattopadhyay 'Capital, The Progenitor of Socialism'

From: Paul Cockshott (clyder@GN.APC.ORG)
Date: Tue Dec 23 2003 - 06:33:17 EST 

 
> > socialist revolution begins when capital has reached a situation
> > where the productive powers it has generated---including its «
> > greatest productive power »---can no longer advance on the basis of
> > the existing relations of production.Socialist revolution itself is
> > seen as an immense emancipatory project---based on workers’
> > self-emacipation leading to the emancipation of the whole
> > humanity---whose very first step is the « conquest of democracy
> > »,the rule of the immense majority in the inter est of the immense
> > majority.
> 
>         Sounds a bit like Gerry Cohen's position--- about which I
> commented as follows:
> 
> > In this framework, how do we explain the continued existence of
> > capitalism? Cohen reasons that it follows from this thesis that
> > capitalism ‘persists because and as long as it is optimal for
> > further development of productive power and ... is optimal for
> > further development of productive power’ (Cohen, 1978: 175). In
> > short, there is a very simple answer to those ‘anomalies’ noted in
> > Chapter 2 that ‘confront Marxism as its refutation’: capitalism is
> > not yet at the point where its relations of production are fettering
> > the development of productive forces. 


I think that on a world historical scale this is right,
there are still hundreds of millions who have not yet been
converted into industrial wage labourers.

This is not inconsistent with the capitalist mode of 
production being alread over-mature in the metropoles,
but we need some objective explanation for the strength
of reaction.

 
> >             What does this Marxism offer to all who would reject
> > capitalism? Wait. Wait until capitalism runs out of steam. Indeed,
> > the true revolutionaries would appear to be those who speed the
> > development of the productive forces, the agents who generate that
> > ‘high technology’! This ‘conservative Marxism’, however, differs
> > rather significantly from the Marx and Marxism outlined in this
> > book.

One does not have to conclude that revolution should be
postponed if the political circumstancees are right, that
would be obvious menshevisit conservatism, but one can
recognise that with the passage of time the balance of
forces move in favour of socialism.

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