From: Gerald A. Levy (Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM)
Date: Tue Mar 02 2004 - 13:58:46 EST
Anders: It's good to hear from you again. I wish it was a happier occasion. The following was sent by Joe Smith to GloboList. Note url at bottom for full interview. In the following excerpt PMS tells us why and how he became a Marxist. In solidarity, Jerry > Paul Sweezy: "The reason I first became interested in Marxism and > radical ideas was because of the state of the world in the early > thirties, the financial collapse, and the Great Depression, the > international situation which was prelude to the Second World War. > And during that decade, particularly in the United States--well not > particularly, but certainly markedly in the United States-- there was > an upsurge of radical activity and radical thought. Up to then, I > would say, there was virtually no Marxism in the United States. > > "You may be familiar with the work of Thorstein Veblen. He was one of > the original faculty at the New School. He was not a Marxist, but he > was very strongly influenced by Marxism, and he was just about the > only important U.S. social scientist of the time, of the 1920s, who > had really taken Marxism seriously. There was the old Socialist Party > which had developed a few interesting thinkers, particularly Louis > Boudin, who was more or less in the mold of Kautsky and the social > democratic theories of the German party. But he was also an original > thinker. And there were a few others. But by and large, in academia > anyway, Marxism was nothing of any influence whatever, and whatever > was known about it or written about it was a caricature, was not > serious. There was no serious Marxist tradition. > > "When I came back from England in the fall of 1933, it had already > begun to change. There was a good deal of questioning and thinking > around the big universities. I was at Harvard at the time, but this > was true of various other universities too. Particularly in New York, > New York University, City College. During the 1930s, the Communist > Party, of course, grew rapidly, and took a leading role in the > organization of the working class, and the CIO, the breakaway > federation from the American Federation of Labor. And generally > speaking it was a period of a great deal of not very sophisticated > theoretical work, but a good deal of ferment and interest. And that > was the context in which I became a self-educated Marxist. I had had > a normal neoclassical training, but as a Marxist I had a problem of > mostly teaching myself, and of course in conjunction with trying to > absorb traditions, German particularly, and the European tradition. > > "It was during that period that I gradually wrote, over several > years, The Theory of Capitalist Development, which was started more > or less as an effort of self-clarification. I was teaching from about > 1935 or 1936 a course on the economics of socialism, which we > interpreted in two ways. One, as the economics of a socialist > society. And two, as the economic theories of socialist movements. > And in the latter, of course there were many socialist traditions, > Christian socialism, Fabian socialism and so on, and Marxist. And I > tried to raise the level of treatment of Marxism in that course, and > in graduate courses and seminars, and found that it was a long hard > struggle to overcome the traditions and inhibitions of a neoclassical > training. I don't know. I can't say I was terribly successful in the > early stages. It took me a long, long time before I could accept the > Marxist labor value theory because I was totally accustomed to the > type of thinking of marginal utility price theory, and so on. And I > couldn't for a long time, I couldn't see how there could be another > kind of value theory with totally different purposes. That took > years. The Theory of Capitalist Development was finished soon after > the war started, and was published just a few months before I went > into the U.S. army. Now by that time, I think I could call myself a > Marxist, with a reasonable background in the modes of theoretical > reasoning and a grounding in the classical texts. But it didn't come > quickly by any means." > > This interview was conducted by Sungur Savran, visiting scholar in > economics, and E. Ahmet Tonak, professor of economics at Simon's Rock > of Bard College, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts on March 20, > 1986. > > Interview & photo: > http://www.simons-rock.edu/~eatonak/sweezyinterview.html
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