[OPE-L:5888] Re: Re: communism

Paul Cockshott (wpc@CS.STRATH.AC.UK)
Tue, 23 Dec 1997 10:17:51 +0000

[ show plain text ]

Gerald Levy wrote:
> In the case of what we call public education, this was a reform
> which was supported not only by the working-class (and the peasantry in
> some countries), but also by a section of the bourgeoisie (and public
> education continues to be supported, albeit inconsistently and
> inadequately, by the majority of the ruling class).
That the bourgeoisie was forced to introduce such communist elements
to the economy remains a source or regret to its more class concious
members. Here the more ideologically aware elements call for the
replacement
of free public education with a fee system with vouchers to provide some
level of support for the poor. They are already in the process of
destroying
free university education.

> If public education
> is communist than are other reforms under capitalism, such as the
> abolition of slavery, communist as well? I think not.
>
Each has to be analysed in its particular character. Abolition of
slavery and its replacement by wage labour was a progressive bourgeois
reform. It replaced the slave mode of production by the capitalist
mode of production.