At 4:54 PM -0500 12/10/04, Doug Henwood wrote: >Too often, Marxists think capitalism is just one quarter away from >serious, even terminal, crisis.
At several points in history (the revolutionary wave of 1848, the "long depression" after 1873, the Russian Revolution, the period from the Great Depression to the beginning of the Red Purge and the Cold War, and the late sixties and early seventies), probably a lot of socialists believed that capitalism was in crisis and that they could soon help usher in a new socialist stage of history, and it made sense for them to believe so. In-between those crises, I don't think they did. In any case, I doubt that many of today's remaining Marxists actually believe that "capitalism is just one quarter away from serious, even terminal, crisis." I can't think of anyone in Solidarity, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, the International Socialist Organization, etc. who thinks like that. If capitalism were close to such an earth-shaking crisis, why bother supporting Kerry (like FRSO) or Nader/Camejo (like the ISO and Solidarity)? -- Yoshie ^^^^^^ CB: Yea, I'm trying to think of a Marxist on these lists or elsewhere who thinks capitalists are one quarter or 40 quarters from collapsing themselves into socialists. Can somebody _name_ a Marxist who thinks that capitalists will collapse "on their own" without a massive ( tens of millions ), class-conscious and organized group of workers to overthrow them ? All Marxists I've ever heard speak on the issue hold that a big economic crisis in capitalism only provides an opportunity ( and danger of fascism) for a communist movement to take state power, not that the capitalists on their own, because of a crisis , would turn to socialism. I think the "Marxist" who think capitalists will automatically turn themselves into socialists is one of those "Marxists" who Marx was not one of. Keynes seems to be one who thinks the financiers will be generous and somehow substantially ameliorate their own system. As far as a "serious crisis", wasn't there a serious crisis in Southeast Asia in 1998 ? Doesn't seem like we leftists should be covering up the crises that capitalism is having.
