>>CB: Here's what you call "deleted" included. It doesn't differentiate between "class struggle" and "class antagonism", as you claim; or rather class struggle goes on because of class antagonism. Class antagonism means the interests of the antagonistic classes are irreconcilable. Class antagonism means that one class is exploiting the other.<<
WL: Very well put. Class antagonism means "society moving in class antagonism." Antagonism is a specific form of resolution of contradiction. I beg to differ. Antagonism does not mean "one class is exploiting the other." Antagonism means a specific form of resolution of contradiction. In contradictions that are not resolved on the basis of antagonism, each stage in the development of the contradiction - each quantitative stage of its growth, is also a partial resolution of the contradiction. This is not true in contradictions resolved as antagonism. Class conflict means the conflict between classes. The conflict between primary class of a social system drives the system through its various quantitative boundaries and does not produce a qualitative change from one social system to the next. It is not like the serf overthrew feudalism or the nobility. The class conflict between serf and nobility cannot overthrow the qualitative definition that makes them who they are. The same applies to workers and capitalist. Antagonism explains the abstract movement that leads to the downfall of the bourgeois mode of production. Of course antagonism is differentiated in Theories of Surplus Value in the chapters dealing with the crisis of overproduction. The exposition describing the externalization of opposites could not be clearer. I reprinted the entire passages on Marxmail perhaps three years ago. Waistline _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [email protected] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
