From: michael a. lebowitz (mlebowit@SFU.CA)
Date: Sun Sep 10 2006 - 16:39:38 EDT
At 12:45 10/09/2006, jerry wrote:
> One consequence of Marx's inability to write the proposed
>book on The State in the 6-book-plan is that it reinforced an unfortunate
>tendency among Marxists to downplay the theoretical and historical role of
>the state within the cmp. This has had unfortunate political consequences
>as well, including an unnecessarily wide divide among (most) anarchists
>and (most) Marxists. Yet another consequence of the "one-sided Marxism"
>which Mike L subjected to critique in his book _Beyond Capital_: we must
>go "beyond capital" not only to consider the subject (capitalism, not
>merely capital) from the standpoint of wage-labor but also to
>systematically consider the role of the state, trade, and the world
>market. Maybe Mike is
>going to write the sequels? Probably not -- he's already got a full plate,
>a hectic schedule, and other commitments.
True, the plate is overflowing. Actually, I did take a bit of a shot
at this in the following: 'Situating the Capitalist State,' published
in Antonio Callari et al, Marxism in the Post-Modern Age: Confronting
the New World Order (New York: Guilford Publishers, 1995). A slightly
revised version will appear in my Following Marx: the method of
political economy (Brill, 2007). The main focus is to look at the
concept of the capitalist state once we incorporate the side of
workers struggling for themselves and attempting to use the state as
their own agency. I noted, though: 'By the same logic, the concept of
the state itself as initially developed in Book IV must be
incomplete. The full and adequate development of the concept of the
capitalist state occurs only when the state is considered in the
context of the world market (the subject matter of the concluding
book) 'in which production is posited as a totality together with all
its moments' (Marx, 1973: 264, 273). I.e., the aspect that the state
takes on in the context of competing national capitals and
nation-states is essential to understanding the capitalist state.'
un abrazo revolucionario,
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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