From: michael a. lebowitz (mlebowit@SFU.CA)
Date: Sat Mar 25 2006 - 12:01:57 EST
At 05:47 25/03/2006, Jerry cited Rob Althusser's critique of Chris Arthur:
>In order to have a
>coherent theory of capital's inner logic, we must assume that
>labour power has been securely commodified. The reason Arthur
>has a problem with this is that he wrongly thinks that such an
>assumption must deny all subjectivity to workers, and because
>he thinks that the class struggle that is so present in
>history must for some reason be diminished if it is not also
>given a central position in systematic dialectics. This latter
>concern, I believe, stems from inadequate attention to
>articulating the relations between systematic and historical
>dialectics as distinct levels of analysis....
and he asked:
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>
>Do others on the list recognize this as a critique that could be extended
>to others? How can/should it be answered?
Yes, this is familiar. Rob and I went out it in the History
of Economic Ideas following his review of my book there in 2003; the
subsequent exchange was in 2004.
You answer it by recognising explicitly that Rob's starting
point is not CAPITAL at all but the Uno-Sekine amalgam of
neo-classical economics and eclecticism, 'the pure theory'. In my
response to his review, I cited Sekine's description of "this liberal
utopia, in which the existing resources are optimally allocated for
the production of all use-values" where workers "enjoy a historically
feasible standard of living in a state close to full employment", and
I noted that nothing in the 'pure theory' (purified of what, you may
ask) would make a neoclassical economist uneasy--- as long as the
term 'positive non-wage income' were to be substituted for
'exploitation'. I concluded (HEI, XII, 2, 2004):
>There is no dispute between Albritton and me as to what needs to be
>explained. Rather, we differ on whether Marx's attempt to explain
>historical movement logically and theoretically should be scuttled
>in favour of the Uno-Sekine-Albritton combination of a general
>equilibrium model and eclecticism under the rubric of stages theory.
>Whereas I retain Marx's focus on revealing 'the economic law of
>motion of modern society' and his dialectical understanding of
>'every historically developed form as being in a fluid state' (Marx,
>1977: 92, 103), Sekine's 'dialectic of capital' stresses that
>'capitalism possesses a consistent system of logic' and that it only
>'ceases to exist when external conditions become sufficiently
>unfavourable to the operation of its logic, as they did after the
>War of 1914' (Sekine, 1984: 96). Here, as elsewhere, Albritton's
>position is quite clear: he accepts Sekine's 'dialectic of capital'
>as superior to Marx's Capital and, indeed, perfect; accordingly, he
>proposes that 'Marxian Political Economy can revive itself by
>creatively developing levels of analysis and by integrating aspects
>of poststructuralist theories of subjectivity.'
> The enormous gap between the two perspectives on the
> link between theory and history in Marx becomes manifestly clear in
> Albritton's response to my proposal that latent within Marx's
> political economy of the working class, the alternative logic
> within capitalism, one can see the elements of the society of free
> and associated producers, communist society. Characteristically,
> rather than examining my evidence and reasoning, Albritton declares
> this to be 'theory as wish-fulfillment and not a theory as rigorous
> analysis of capitalism' and proceeds to erupt in Althusserian
> outrage over 'humanism' and 'essentialism'. There's no surprise
> here--- the Uno-Sekine conception of pure capitalism at its very
> core rejects any suggestion that capitalism contains the seeds of
> its own destruction; its purpose is to present capitalism 'as if it
> were a self-perpetuating entity' (Uno, 1980: 125).
> In the Uno-Sekine view, pure capitalism is a solid
> crystal, an organism that is not constantly engaged in a process of
> change (Marx, 1977: 93).
cheers,
michael
Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6
Currently based in Venezuela. Can be reached at
Residencias Anauco Suites
Departamento 601
Parque Central, Zona Postal 1010, Oficina 1
Caracas, Venezuela
(58-212) 573-4111
fax: (58-212) 573-7724
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