I guess you have "state capitalist" model in your mind, which you
mistakenly attribute to Marx's CM.. On the contrary, In CM, Marx endorses
"state socialist" model.
Moreover, Marx criticizes the state capitalist (social democratic) model
in the Gotha program, saying that universal free education was not a
progressive achievement in the party program for it was already
practised under some bourgeois regimes. You need to abolish
capitalism to liberate education, not to liberate education to abolish
capitalism.
in any ase, we had a hot discussion on wsn on this issue a while ago. we
comrades argued that what was practiced in Russia was socialism. it was
"real" and "existing" socalism, not a utopian one, unlike the bourgeois
ideolog way of denying empirical evidence and distorting reality. Austin
and Spector comrades made very balanced and objective comments about
soviet russia. I will ask Austin's permission to post his message.
bye,
Mine
>What is in the CM's platform is fairly practical, and as has >already
been noted by me, some of it is standard in most >most modern economies
(e.g. progressive income tax),
>Barkley wrote: >So, was this utopian or not? We certainly did >not see
any withering >away of the state, not in the former USSR, not in the PRC,
not anywhere
Lenin argued that anarchists misinterpreted "withering away of the state"
in a very utopian way. Accordingly, they also misinterpreted Marx. Thus
you are reading Soviet union under the influence of anarchist perspective
and utopionism. What Marx had in mind was a socialist state, even though
he did not explicitly articulate in that way. In his time, the only
approximation to this model was Paris Commune, and Lenin's interpretation
of the state derives from this model.
It is a big mistake to say that MArx does not have a theory of state, and
then romanticize him. In the _Communist Manifesto_ Marx outlines the
features of a socialist state:
1. abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to
public purposes.
2. a heavy progressive and graduated income tax.
3.abolition of all rights of inheritance.
4. centralization of credit in the hands of the STATE, by means of a
national bank with state capital and exclusive monopoly.
5 centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands
of the state.
6. extension of factories and instruments of production owned by teh
state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, the improvement of
the soil generally in accordence with a common plan.
7. equal liability of all to labour..
8. combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries. gradual
abolution of the distinction between town and country; by a more
equable distribution of the population over the country.
9. free education for all children in public schools.abolition of
children's factory in its present form. combination of education with
industrial production.
Mine Doyran
Political Science
Phd student
SUNY/Albany
