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Louis descends into his crotchety old deflection mode here. The issue of *planning *and the almost universally failed attempts under "real existing socialism" to make it work is essential to analyze or you shouldn't call yourself a socialist. The totally misused term of *productivism* is further nonsense since Marx was that, quite so in fact, despite all the protestations from the editors and writers at Monthly Review. And *expansion* of the productive forces can really only mean one thing, now matter how much green spray paint you put on it. A "missreading" my ass. What sophism! No matter, this is the the *rift *created between science and the Left since the days of the Vietnam War. I have no doubt that Louis will be defending anti-vaxxers next...at least that would consistent. [Oddly, Trotsky's infatuation will all things science based was a good thing, not a bad thing, and this was no less true for science in the first 10 years of the Russian Revolution. Louis might want to look around because the ENTIRE left was pro-nuclear energy until this rift occurred into the 1970s. But that is another story...] If one has followed Andy Pollack's writings on this subject (and this book he reviewed has yet to review himself!) is about the tools that can be used for central planning a communist society based on the *metaphor* of what has already been shown to occur with extremely large, essentially logistics-to-retail industry created by the working class and owned and driven by Imperialism. In case you were wondering it has nothing to do with Louis' deflection over one of the author's views toward..."geoengineering" (seriously?) or "productivism". Andy has written *extensively* on this question here on this list years ago when he brought to our attention the technological transition that allowed, say, a Toyota plant in Oakland to maintain almost zero inventory with parts being manufactured globally "just on time" via the advent of "business-to-business" software aka, "B2B". This dovetails neatly with Joe Allen's own articles on Logistics and why socialists should organize inside this industry (trains, trucks, airlines, shipping) as the key "choke point" of modern day Imperialism. Joe, who was an ISOer and retired Teamster activist when he wrote this, is now a member of DSA. The article is here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/02/logistics-industry-organizing-labor/ probably the best article I've read in the last 15 years written from a truly Marxist perspective. Another excellent article is by Kim Moody and two other writers "Seizing the Choke Points": https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/10/choke-points-logistics-industry-organizing-unions . These articles are congruent with and are strongly supported by the book the review article [*Yes, a Planned Economy Can Actually] *in *Jacobin* by Leigh Phillips & Michal Rozworski, wrote about: *The People’s Republic of Walmart**: How the World’s Biggest Corporations are Laying the Foundation for Socialism. *For those actually interested in pondering the issues of actual socialist organization of the economy, both the review article and the book are worth the read. Right-on to editors of *Jacobin *for ignoring the peanut gallery cat-calls and drunken responses found here far too often. Again, prior to the 1960s the "Left" broadly speaking was quite pro-science and wrote and discussed it. Now? We got Louis and Jill Stein. David Walters _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
