The next topic in our introduction to Marxism online class is
something of a calculated risk since it involves readings and
discussions of some fairly difficult questions around what has been
described as "crisis theory". Not only is some of the material pretty
challenging, I have to confess that it is an area that I don't
consider myself an expert in (as opposed to ecologythe next topic
after this one.)
I think it is worth going into since it is a hot topic on the Marxist
left, especially in the academy. It is also being referred to every
time there is a major convulsion in the international economy, such
as the one we are in now. Basically, you find an attempt to explain
something like the dot-com bust or the subprime mortgage fiasco of
today as a function of the capitalist system itself and specifically
its inherent tendencies to implode.
As I pointed out in my reference to Ernest Mandel's chapter on crisis
from his 1990 book on Karl Marx earlier in the week, you cannot find
much support for inherent tendencies toward crisis in the 3 volumes
of Capital itself. Marx was content to analyze the functioning of
capitalism in normal conditions, which was sufficient to condemn the
system when you keep in mind that child labor, 12 hour working days
and miserable wages characterized the system in its initial stages.
You didn't need an economic collapse to persuade workers to become
socialists. Factory work was radicalizing enough.
Over the next week or so, I intend to serve as a kind of guide to
some of the more important literature in this vein which I hope does
not end up as the blind leading the blind. As someone who has been
mystified in the past by the furious debates among people I all
regard as friends and comrades over these questions (Patrick Bond,
Leo Panitch, Doug Henwood to name a few), I figured that it was high
time for me to come up to speed and bring the rest of you along with me.
full:
http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2008/02/23/a-laypersons-guide-to-cri
sis-theory/
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