Rob Schaap:
>Did Marx expressly forbid market socialism, or something? I musta missed
that
>bit. And why was Lenin's 'war communism' in such dramatic need of
reappraisal
>(as, er, predicted by the mensheviks) in 1921? Was the NEP not a necessary
>and overdue return to sanctioned small-holder-based markets? Did Lenin not
>tell the 10th Congress " ... unrestricted trade ... will be inevitable ...
>because it conforms to the economic conditions ... we must satisfy the middle
>peasantry economically and go over to free exchange"? Did he not insist on
>concessions to foreign capital, aid for co-operatives, and the leasing of
>state factories to private persons? Did he not say of 'war communism'
>"experience has proved that we were wrong" - that "transitional stages
were necessary"?
>
>Now, I know this is 2001 and that wasn't, but ain't there just a vague
>possibility Lenin and Henwood are closer than either might like to admit
on this?
We can't use "war communism" or the NEP as a guide to the kind of socialism
that will develop in the US or any other advanced capitalist country. The
problem with market socialism is that it is detached from its use in
countries like Yugoslavia or Nicaragua by people like Alec Nove and turned
into a kind of blueprint. Socialist economies develop not on the basis of
blueprints, but pragmatism mixed with revolutionary partisanship on behalf
of the most oppressed and exploited layers of society. I have seen the most
extraordinary kind of self-delusion on the market socialism question. Jim
Lawler, for example, is fixated on Lenin's pamphlet "On Cooperation" which
mentions in passing that socialism might take decades to develop. This
becomes a formula for supporting things like United Airlines, Mondragon,
etc. As Marxists, our main contribution must be the explanation of what's
wrong with capitalism and why socialism--in general terms--makes more sense.
Louis Proyect
Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
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