From: Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM
Date: Thu Nov 18 2004 - 08:47:56 EST
Riccardo wrote: > >- her attitude: Marx as an author to be criticized and developed with > >an open spirit Rakesh replied: > This is simply an abuse of RL's own spirit; she fought her whole life > against those revisionists who criticized and developed Marx in what > you are calling an open spirit. She would have wanted above all else > to be saved from friends whom you claim are developing Marx in an > open spirit. Luxemburg's critique did not condemn 'revisionists' per se for attempting to revise Marx's theories but rather for being *reformists*. The issue was *reform vs. revolution* not whether there were elements of Marx's theory which needed to be criticised and/or developed. > >- her questions: she saw problems on monetary aspects and effective > >demand to which others were blinded > The problem today is the reduction of the Marxian critique to > problems of monetary aspects and effective demand, that is making > Marx fit within > a Keynesian or Kaleckian framework. Is it? I thought the problem today was reform, in the form of support for bourgeois political parties or social democracy, vs. revolution. > > and not to see in the transformation problem > >something fundamental for Marxism> > Which is to say that she never found any need to go beyond > Hilferding's reply to Bohm Bawerk, and did not understand the nature > of von Bortkiewicz's criticism? No, it means she had a keen political judgment and concentrated on the most important political and theoretical tasks of her day. Aren't we glad that she published "Reform or Revolution?" rather than a paper on the TP? > Oh I don't think she would have been very happy at all about the way > in which she was used by the post Keynesian left! > I can't imagine she would have been happy about her appropriation by > the left technocrat Kalecki and statist socialist Robinson. I think she would have had harsher criticisms for all those Marxians for whom Marxism is merely an intellectual pursuit and an academic career. In solidarity, Jerry
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