At 09:03 AM 4/6/01 -0400, you wrote:
>At 9:28 AM +0100 4/4/01, Mark Jones wrote:
>>Underlying that process of historical dissolution of
>>"actually-existing socialism" throughout eastern Europe was
>>something else, and still more fundamental: the emergent
>>world-systemic crisis of late capitalism, of which the "socialist
>>world" (and ESPECIALLY highly dependent formations like the FRY)
>>had long been subordinate parts.
>
>At 12:06 PM -0700 4/4/01, Macdonald Stainsby quoted Michael Parenti:
>>" In the late 60's and early 70's, FRY leaders... committed a
>>disastrous error. They decided to borrow heavily from the West in
>>order to simulataneously expand the country's industrial base, its
>>export production and its output of domestic consumer goods. [...]
>>this created a huge debt for Belgrade. And the massive debt began to
>>develop its own interest fed momentum."
>
>Perhaps, it's worthwhile to re-examine what happened in the 60s &
>70s. Instead of considering the FRY leaders' choice as a "disastrous
>error," we should see it as an expression of the FRY's subordination
>to the world capitalist economy.
>
>Yoshie
I second that. Not being an historian, I don't have the depth and breadth
of detail to actually conclude whether the "errors" of Titoism, which
obviously accelerated the dissolution of the socialist project, were just
that--accelerators--or as some would claim, the causative agents in a
project that might have actually succeeded. I don't want to confuse
causation with determinism, but I am struggling with the question of
whether there was and is an element of inevitability built into the
development paradigm, combined with encirclement, that made it a lost
battle from the beginning. This doesn't strike me as a merely academic
question, but a vitally important one for revolutionaries today, so when
the battle is resumed we might at least make new errors which is the
essence of progress I think, instead of repeating the old ones.
Stan
"Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom"
Psalm 90
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