Re: [OPE-L] Keynes and Marx (German)

From: cmgermer@UFPR.BR
Date: Mon Jan 01 2007 - 16:34:57 EST


Dogan,

Thank you for your reply. I must say that I liked your short paper about
Keynes very much (and also the paper about the meaning of justice in the
struggle for socialism) and I fully agree with your assessment of
Keynesianism and with the need, for Marxists, to develop a strong critic
of it. The theoretical class struggle is as essential as the practical
political struggle. About Keynes' theory, it has also to remember that it
was taken by reformist Marxists and socialists in Europe who abandoned the
revolutionary struggle and chose the way of minority participation in
bourgeois governments after WW I, as a justification for their position.
In addition to that, Keynes' theory seemed to offer them a 'program of
reforms', which they desperately needed, since the revolutionary socialist
movement did not provide them with one and they had been unable to
elaborate it.

The last two sentences of your paragraph below are particularly
iluminating in this respect:

Doch nach  der
>>> Oktoberrevolution half all das nicht mehr. Da musste  eine
>>> konservative Theorie mit einem linken 'Anschein' erfunden  werden.
>>> In der Wirtschaftstheorie entspricht der Keynesianismus  diesem
>>> Bedürfnis.

Claus Germer.


>
>
> It is also necessary to take into account the circumstances of the  class
> struggle at the international level. Doing so, it is possible to  argue
> that the alliance you suggest was not directed against finance capital
> but
> against the (revolutionary) socialist movement worldwide, at a time  when
> the USSR had defeated nazism and the communists in the countries  occupied
> by the Nazi army had been among the main forces that fought the  invadors.
> Communism all over the world and the Communist parties in many  Western
> European countries increased very significantly their political
> influence.
> Thus, it was highly necessary for the capitalist class to coopt  their
> workers.
>
>
> Claus,
>
> I find your remarks above extreemly interesting. This is exacly the point
> that explains the success of Keynesianism. This is also the point I was
> trying
> to make in the passage below.
>
>
>>>
>>> Der Keynesianismus, der ein englisches Produkt  ist, ist auch in
>>> diese Tradition einzuordnen und sein Verhältnis zum  Marxismus ist
>>> im Lichte dieser Entwicklung zu sehen. Seinerzeit  musste schon der
>>> zynische liberale John Stuart Mill, der zuerst die  in England
>>> geboren Idee des Sozialismus, zum Fremdkörper erklärte,  musste
>>> unter dem Druck der Straße, ohne seinen eklektisch liberalen  Geist
>>> aufzugeben, an Marxismus Zugeständnisse machen. Doch nach  der
>>> Oktoberrevolution half all das nicht mehr. Da musste  eine
>>> konservative Theorie mit einem linken 'Anschein' erfunden  werden.
>>> In der Wirtschaftstheorie entspricht der Keynesianismus  diesem
>>> Bedürfnis.
>
> Cheers
> Dogan
>
>
>
>


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