> On Jan 26, 2026, at 07:38, hari kumar via groups.io > <[email protected]> wrote: > > it is a jump far too far to say: > "As far as I can tell, concept of "freeing" productive forces comes from a > sentence that Marx inserted in the 1859 Preface to a Critique of Political > Economy". > Along with David's note of Engels' writings, I think it is reasonable to say > that the whole thrust of 'Capital 'Volume 1 is along those lines. Plucking a > single page or quote under-cuts the arguments of the book itself. Probably > that does not need too much defence as a statement... But may well need it > if some find that objectionable. >
I'm with you on this journey, Hari, but I am in currently in two ecosoc classes at the moment and that's proven to be one too many until I finish the readings. I think the fetters question and the Marxist theories of productive forces are vital to ecosocialism. I plan to re-read those chapters in v1 that putatively flesh out the "fetters" idea. This question is important to what Ben is writing, I expect. My opposition to his title is its implicit assumption that productive forces are somehow independent or alien to social relations rather than shaped by them. Marx's theory of subsumption is that social relations shape productive forces, and I claim they're shaped into perverse forms that are impediments to socialism and to ecological survival. I write this knowing that Lenin was a big fan of Taylorism and the big "C" Communists expected to outgrow the hostile capitalist nations that surrounded the USSR. IMO, rather than freeing productive forces, we will need to destroy, retire, or constrain most fossil-based production, which includes everything from fertilizer manufacturing to the US space force. A lot of our productive forces in the US need to remain incarcerated. What am I missing? Mark -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#40387): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/40387 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/117439078/21656 -=-=- 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]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
