Comrades
Both Charles and Javad have raised pertinent questions. Classical Trotskyism argued that the USSR was a degenerated workers' state. Ygael Gluckstein (Tony Cliff) is the principal exponent that the USSR was a state capitalist state from the 1920s in his book State Capitalism in Russia. There have been others who held similar views, such as the Secretary of Trotsky, Raya Dunayevskaya. I also recall (but cannot substantiate) that Kautsky held similar views. I further recall, but cannot substantiate,that between about 1950 and 1954 the Yugoslav revisionists also dubbed the USSR as state capitalist. The latter views are unsatisfactory as they cannot substantiate the case that the means of production and labour power were commodities,that surplus value was being produced which was being transformed into profits. The Cominform in their paper plausibly were able to argue that after 1949 Yugoslavia had developed into a capitalist state. The writings of Hoxha did the same. I do not think it is incumbent on a particular comrade to defend the view that the USSR after 1953 was converted into a capitalist state. While this may not be a burning political question it is a fundamental question of ML Political Economy. Rather the comrades who do not accept this theory would have to give their critique of that school of ML political economy which has argued this case. There are numerous articles by H. Mara, Hasan and others in the journal "Albania Today" written over decades on this question which need to be read and studied and evaluated. The time has gone that this literature can be ignored by the followers of Brezhnev and Company. There are the books by W>B> Bland and Martin Nicolas on the Restoration of Capitalism in the USSR which were written in the 1970s. There are the writings of the Irish Communist Organisation on this question which were circulated in the 1960s. There are no writings in English, to the best of my knowledge, by Mao or the CPC, on the political economy of the restoration of capitalism inthe USSR. The available writings suggest that the Chinese after were quite happy with the developments in the USSR after 1953 and were busy applying the ideas of "Market Socialism" to China itself. The book "Fundamentals of Political Economy" published in the period of the cultural revolution and which has come in several English language editions does not seriously address the issue under discussion. Vijay On Sun, 17 Feb 2002 Javad Eskandarpour wrote : > Comrades, > > Charles states the following: "I'd be more interested > in why Mao and Enver > Hoxha used the terms state capitalist and social > imperialist in relation to > the Soviet Union since being Marxist-Leninists, I > consider them more > significant than the Trotskyite Yeager Glukstien > (a.k.a. "Tony Cliff")". > > Since if one does not to be "accused" of falsification > of Enver Hoxha' > ideas, it is logical to ask supporters of Enver Hoxha > to explain what they > understand by "social-imperialism" instead of their > silence on this question > under the pretext of either there are more important > things to discuss ( > that nobody knows what), or the non-existence of the > USSR as if the > non-existence of the former USSR were a necessity not > to discuss anything > related to the history of the former USSR, especially > in view of their past > characterization of "the revisionist" Soviet Union as > "social-imperialist", > and their present explanation of the collapse of the > former USSR due to this > "social-imperialism"! > Javad > > > > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Charles F. Moreira" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2002 10:56 AM > Subject: Re: [MLL] Comment on the hunger strikes in > Turkey > > > > Comrades, > > > > Jaakko wrote:- > > > > > > > > That is exactly what I've also always emphasized > in the discussions > with > > > my comrades and also with the Trots(who in Finland > are followers of Tony > > > Cliff). Many seem to adopt these ideas (state > capitalism & social > > > imperialism) for not scientific but for emotional > reasons. > > > > > > -Jaakko > > > > I'd be more interested in why Mao and Enver Hoxha > used the terms state > > capitalist and social imperialist in relation to the > Soviet Union since > > being Marxist-Leninists, I consider them more > significant than the > > Trotskyite Yeager Glukstien (a.k.a. "Tony Cliff"). > > > > Also, while we're all talking about why socialism > collapsed in the Soviet > > Union and Eastern Europe, we must also ask why did it > collapse in China > and > > Albania. > > > > Fraternally > > > > Charles > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxist-le- > ninist-list > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxist-leni- > nist-list _______________________________________________ Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxist-leninist-list
