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On 05/11/2014 6:41 AM, Andrew Pollack wrote:
Actually Trotsky was focused on the contradiction between the forces
and relations of production (and associated norms of distribution),
i.e. how the inadequacy of the former hamstrung efforts to move beyond
bourgeois forms of the latter
Re-read the paragraphs cited (which are at:
http://secure-web.cisco.com/1T8fTAHyq5pV9brQIPkCoAZn95na5mki9nA_Eh_KQcJAzZjEZKE80xKsnEMJJbKx5NFoz7geXnQFbN03U_uvlLZgfhOYwttetL6wf2Be4522DKlvL7p4SLzHvXPEthZZvNTkh0qnf97fegmLZDLtS89VjWr6H_cR2_MuaQDLrBUG5U1IhXt1wBvNerlkHuLP05Ujq_CPWkqiG5jKO3y3XEw/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.marxists.org%2Farchive%2Ftrotsky%2F1936%2Frevbet%2Fch09.htm
)
That contradiction was also the main one pointed out by Mandel.
Hi Andrew,
Too busy to enter at this time the Good Trotsky, Bad Stalin swamp,
and my brief comment was, of course, peripheral to Louis' interest in
Ukrainian matters which started the thread. My point was very simple:
both Stalinists and Trotskyists shared the Histmat perspective which
focused upon primacy of the growth of [presumably neutral-- unlike those
Marx stressed in Capital] productive forces as opposed to the character
of the relations of production. As Marx knew, productive forces do not
drop from the sky.
I'm in the process of completing a new book for Monthly Review
Press ['The Socialist Imperative: From Gotha to Now'] in which I touch
upon these matters. Here, eg, is a brief somewhat related passage from
one of the chapters:
In the Histmat formula, subordination of the old relation of
distribution focuses upon the development of the productive forces in
socialism. Rather than talk explicitly about the character of the
relations of production, that standard interpretation follows Lenin’s
insistence in /State and Revolution/ that “an enormous development of
productive forces” in the socialist stage is the prerequisite for the
new relation of distribution. Until the labor of people has become “so
productive that they will voluntarily work /according to their
ability/,” the “socialist principle” of equivalent exchange must be
safeguarded by the state and, indeed, requires “the /strictest/ control
by society /and by the state/ of the measure of labour and the measure
of consumption” (Lenin, 1965: 112-16).
Apparent here is the law of Histmat specific to socialism (Soc-law):
/the law of necessary correspondence between the level of productive
forces and the relation of distribution/. Those who cite this law, too,
can draw upon Marx’s statement in the /Critique/ that “Right can never
be higher than the economic structure of society and its cultural
development conditioned thereby” because they misinterpret “economic
structure” to mean the level of productive forces rather than the
relations of production (Marx, 1962: 24).[1] <#_ftn1> The relations of
production themselves? Conjured away. They are the missing term, the
vanishing moment; and, accordingly, we are left with two inferences from
Soc-law: (a) if distribution relations go beyond what the productive
forces justify, there will be disaster and (b) reliance upon the
existing distribution relations is essential for the development of the
productive forces.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] <#_ftnref1> As one of many examples of this use of this sentence,
see Francisco Soberon[then President of the Central Bank of Cuba] in
December 2005 (Soberon, 2005).
And now, after that commercial break, back to the book!
in solidarity,
michael
--
---------------------
Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6
Home: Phone 604-689-9510
Cell: 604-789-4803
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