Re: [OPE-L] exploitation and consumption

From: Dogan Goecmen (dogangoecmen@AOL.COM)
Date: Sat Jun 09 2007 - 08:27:40 EDT


Hi Jerry,



you are making three points here.



1st: There are Marxist writers like Kautsky who do not pay attention to
citculation. (I did not read this book by Kautsky. So you may be right.)

2nd: Marx is only partly reposible for this. 

3rd: Marx wanted grasp the totality. If this is what you want to say I agree with you.



However, if this is true why do we call people like Kautsky "ortadox
Marxists". Is it not more appropriate to call them revisionist because
they revise and leave someting out that is so essential to Marxian
theory? 



Concerning the second point I do not agree with you. In his famous
"Preface" to the Critique of political economy Marx talks about social
formations as totalities and how they change from one formation to the
other. Marx talks there economic structures and how they relate to
political superstructures.The term relations of production there must
be taken in its most broad sense, including production and circulations
spheres alike.



Marx's phrase "I am not a Marxist" is reported by Engels to have been
expressed by Marx in relation to French Marxists who had almost nothing
to do with Marx's theory. (By the way: the expressions "Marxist" and
"Marxism" were coined by Anarchists) This is the context in which Marx
said I am not a Marxist.



Best,

Dogan
 


 

-----Ursprüngliche Mitteilung----- 
Von: Jerry Levy <Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM>
An: OPE-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU
Verschickt: Sa., 9. Jun. 2007, 13:14
Thema: Re: [OPE-L] exploitation and consumption










Addendum:  Let's not forget that since it was first written the _Manifesto
of
The Communist Party_  was more widely read and more influential than
all of the other writings by Marx and Engels (... combined?)   In a very
real
sense, it came to express for most Marxists what Marxism meant and there
wasn't an emphasis on the role of  circulation and consumption for
capitalism in
that popular, but early, work of Marx and Engels.

In solidarity, Jerry


> 1. Already during Marx's time there was an effort to simplify, popularize,
> and schematize his thought.  Recall his famous quip:  "I am not a
> Marxist".
>
> 2. The emphasis on production -- rather than grasping the unity of
> the production and circulation processes under capitalism --   has
> a basis in some of Marx's own writings, e.g. the famous "Preface"
> to _A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy_.
>
> 3.  Volume 2 of _Capital_ was published in 1884 and had less of
> an impact on  post-Marx Marxists than Volume 1.



 


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