Mat Forstater wrote:

"Since when do Marxists and Sraffians suppress Marx or the study
of Marx?"

What is _Marx After Sraffa_?  What is the "transformation
problem"?  What is the "Okishio theorem"?  What's all the stuff
about "correcting" or "completing" Marx?   In the courses you took
in which "internal inconsistencies" or "logical errors" on Marx's
part were alleged, was equal time, or even any real consideration,
given to the literature which disproves the proofs of these
allegations, or otherwise presents the other side?  Was there any
balance on the faculty?  How about even debates with invited
speakers?

Is there any balance on the editorial boards of these people's
journals?  Do they try to make their conferences representative?

I am not impressed by the fact that Marx appears on someone's
reading list.  That's a fig leaf, and he's dead so he can't
challenge them.  Only living pro-Marx authors can.  Is that
challenge given a real hearing?

I will have a lot more to say about this, but I'd like to hear
your response first.

Andrew Kliman

-----Original Message-----
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Mathew
Sent: Sunday, March 03, 2002 4:27 PM
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Subject: [PEN-L:23411] RE: RE: Re: RE: Re: Some questions


Since when do Marxists and Sraffians suppress Marx or the study of
Marx?
All of my Marxist and Sraffian teachers (e.g., Shaikh, Gordon,
Garegnani, Eatwell) promoted the careful study of Marx.  They
always
provided logical and textual evidence for their interpretations
and
disagreements, though one might not be convinced by their
arguments.
I'll admit they were dogmatic (in differing degrees), but they did
not
suppress study of or discussion about Marx in the classroom or in
research.

Drewk writes:

The reason his work is part of an ideological attack on, and
effort to suppress, Marx's ideas in their original form is that
Roemer, like the rest of the Marxian and Sraffian critics of Marx,
DOES NOT pose his disagreements as disagreements.  He *doesn't*
say:  "here's what Marx thought, here's why I don't like it, or
here's the evidence against it, and here's my own view.  We have
our view; Marx has his."  That would be the honest, principled
thing to do.

Roemer & Co. instead say that Marx's own theories are
illegitimate, unworthy even of being seriously considered, not
even possibly correct.  They cook up false "internal
inconsistencies" that they and other then use to legitimate the
suppression of Marx's ideas from classrooms, bookshelves, and
journals, including journals of radical economics.


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