If anyone want to review Lebowitz's views on this or any other point see https://michaelalebowitz.com/
On Tue, Jan 6, 2026 at 11:38 AM Tom Walker via groups.io <lumpoflabor= [email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, Jan 5, 2026 at 07:36 AM, hari kumar wrote: > > you and JBF claim that the Bolivarian attempt at socialism was a good > model. I was disagreeing. > > I am seriously wondering if anyone on marxmail is interested in a story > that I find fascinating. hari seems to have thought that the story boils > down to me claiming the Bolivarian model was good when in fact the Soviet > model, 1917-1953 was better. That wasn't my point. But, to put my point in > context of hari's counter-claim, I will say that there is indeed more to > learn today from the aspirations and failures of the Bolivarian model than > there is to perpeturally rehashing the minutiae of the Moscow Trials. > > This is the point I am trying to make. > > Marx's *Grundrisse* was first published in the USSR 1939 but most copies > were "recycled" as insulation or toilet paper. It was finally republished > in 1953 and gradually led to several reassessments of Marx's analysis in > *Capital*. Istvan Meszaros was one of the scholars who contributed to > this reassessment, along with Moishe Postone, Andre Gorz, Martin Nicolaus, > the Italian Operaistas, and others. Many writers, including Antonio Negri > and Aaron Bastani, for example, made wild speculations based on, > particularly, the "fragment on machines" in notebook VII of the > *Grundrisse*. Meszaros was not one of the goofballs but conducted serious > analysis of the late 20th century conjuncture in relation to the insights > offered by the *Grundrisse*. > > Hugo Chavez was deeply impressed with Meszaros analysis but Meszaros's > writing is notoriously difficult (one might say ponderous?) and he enlisted > Michael Lebowitz help in translating Meszaros's ideas into concrete policy > proposals. Although he professed great respect for Meszaros's thought, > Lebowitz disagreed with one key aspect of it, so his "translation" > reflected his views on that issue rather than Meszaros's. Lebowitz's > "revisionism" may or may not have had any substantive consequence for the > fate of the Bolivarian revolution. It does, however, have consequences for > our historical understanding of that revolution. Moreover, in my view, it > also has very important implications for the prospects of social revolution > going forward. > > That was the point I was trying to make. No one replied to my post but > hari, who thought my point was that the Bolivian revolution was better than > the Russian revolution. So I am left with the impression that my further > documentation of these matters would not be of interest to marxmail > subscribers. If I am mistaken and you want the next installments of this > story, please let me know offlist. > > > <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail> Virus-free.www.avg.com <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#40050): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/40050 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/117080199/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
