Angelus:
> So how would you describe King Leopold's Congo?
When you say "describe," do you mean "describe" in the
sense of "capitalist" or "not-capitalist"?
This is not a useful way of proceeding.
What about Venezuela? capitalist or not? Cuba?
China? How about further out on the periphery:
Afghanistan? Sudan?
Cuba abolished capitalism in the early 1960s, but this is not the
case with the other countries you cite.
You might claim to reject "definitional" notions of
capitalism, but posing this sort of "how would you
describe x" question is still within that sort of
logic.
I am far more interested in providing a class analysis of Cuba than
in labeling it, especially in comparison with a country that at one
point could have been falsely understood as "socialist". Here are
links to articles I have written on Cuba and Algeria, in both cases
serving as a rebuttal to the State Capitalists:
http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/state_and_revolution/cuba.htm
http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/state_and_revolution/algeria.htm
I also have something on capitalism in China that is admittedly
lifted from Burkett and Hart-Landsberg:
http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/state_and_revolution/SocialismChina.htm
Of course, if you'd prefer to cite swaths of the Grundrisse, be my
guest. I much prefer to look at concrete cases.
