From: Paul Bullock (paulbullock@EBMS-LTD.CO.UK)
Date: Thu Sep 23 2004 - 05:34:01 EDT
Rakesh, you certainly did insist that the bosses lock out was a 'strike',and accused Chavez of being just another populist... and ran him down.. Michaels points are something completely different. Petras's articles are usually quite on the mark...a recent one exposing the history of Carters Peace organisation / circus is really excellent.. But I do find that he doesn't dig deep enough at times and this can be misleading. Thus on Argentina he correctly pointed to the sectarianism that characterised the 'piqueteros', but without demonstrating why it arose, the social basis for its existence, the role of the police, the government etc... which then leaves an incomplete picture behind. In this sense, with another example, Michael is making a similar point. Nevertheless, I would rather we had many hundreds more of people like Petras, than those who pointlessly malign those like Chavez. Paul Bullock. ----- Original Message ----- From: "michael a. lebowitz" <mlebowit@SFU.CA> To: <OPE-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU> Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2004 6:47 AM Subject: Re: [OPE-L] Economist slips up over Venezuela > At 17:34 22/09/2004, Rakesh wrote: > > >>but ...thats the problem with happily quoting the millionaires > >>editorials so uncritically. > > > > > >I don't think I did. I did send an analysis by James Petras to which > >Michael L replied by pointing to Petras' criticisms of Cuba's recent > >economic policies. ? I don't think you had anything to say about it. ? > > Just for the record--- the 'Rectification' period began in 1986 and marked > a rejection of the exclusive emphasis on material incentives characteristic > of the Soviet economic model that had been installed and instead a focus on > a return to Che's ideas. Among other things, it involved the resurrection > of microbrigades, which had been discontinued as 'inefficient', and the > encouragement of voluntary labour. Petras' idiosyncratic analysis was that > the discouragement of work that was yielding bonuses but no use-values > (such a familiar characteristic of Soviet bonus structures) and the stress > on moral incentives was speed-up, wage-cutting and neoliberalism meant to > prepare Cuba to compete in the world market. My point was that I give his > interpretation of what is happening in Venezuela the weight it deserves. > michael > PS. the Rectification period unfortunately was supplanted by 'the special > period' once Cuba lost 80% of its trade. > --------------------- > Michael A. Lebowitz > Professor Emeritus > Economics Department > Simon Fraser University > Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6 > Office Fax: (604) 291-5944 > Home: Phone (604) 689-9510 > >
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Sep 24 2004 - 00:00:04 EDT