What did Marx write on the prospect of political and economic transition
between capitalist and communist society?
Quote
The question then arises: What transformation will the state undergo in
communist society? In other words, what social functions will remain in
existence there that are analogous to present state functions? This question
can
only be answered scientifically, and one does not get a flea-hop nearer to
the problem by a thousand-fold combination of the word 'people' with the
word 'state'.
Between capitalist and communist society there lies the period of the
revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this
is
also a political transition period in which the state can be nothing but
the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat. (End quote)
Taken from Section IV., Critique of the Gotha Program, here presented is
Marx definitive statement on the revolutionary dictatorship of the pro
letariat.
II.
Marx does in fact investigate the economic content of transition Between
capitalist and communist society . . . a political transition period in
which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the
proletariat.
He does this is section 1, subtitle: 3.
The emancipation of labor demands the promotion of the instruments of
labor to the common property of society and the co-operative regulation of the
total labor, with a fair distribution of the proceeds of labor.
In this section Marx unravels the meaning of economic - not political,
transition to communist society based on the state of development of productive
forces and the value relations as both existed at the time of this
writing. One should read this section for themselves.
Critique was written April or early May, 1875 and has in mind the state
of development of means of production at the front curve of industrial
capital development as opposed to the back of the curve in the colonies and
less developed countries, still struggle under political feudalism.
III.
If one agree with Marx formulation of the political content of the period
of transition between capitalist and communist society, which in plain
American English is called the organization of the proletariat as ruling
class, discourse tend to fall on the issue of the economic content of this
transition, which is determined - in my opinion, by the degree of development
of means of production and decay of the value relation.
Revolution in the means of production and the rise of a technology regime
evolving in antagonism with the OLD mode of exchange (DIVISION OF LABOR) -
based on commodity equivalents, define the economic content of our current
period of transition.
The political form of the state remains as Marx stated: a political
transition period in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary
dictatorship of the proletariat.
What has changed qualitatively, is the durability of the commodity form
itself.
Waistline
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