At 11:29 16/11/2006, Louis wrote re an exchange he's been having with David S:
To begin with, I certainly understand the need for markets after a
revolution takes place. However, my objection is not to inexorable
realities dictated by the relationship of class forces in a given
moment in time but in wasting time writing blueprints for how future
socialist societies should implement them. From my perspective,
Schweickart's market socialism is as much of a utopian schema as
Parecon or any other such attempt at crystal-ball gazing. If a
powerful capitalist nation like Japan has a socialist revolution, it
is conceivable that a planned economy can be implemented with no
concessions to NEP-like mechanisms.
I'm afraid, Louis, that the story is worse than you think.
David was here in Caracas as a guest of Centro Internacional Miranda
last month (along with, at different points, Al Campbell, Robin
Hahnel and David Laibman); all are authors in a Spanish collection of
essays (drawn basically from old Science & Society pieces on
socialist economics) for which CIM is doing a Venezuelan edition.
David S. supplemented his original S&S article for this volume, and
then for his talk here supplemented it further--- further in the
direction of capitalism, that is. In this latest incarnation, he
pleads the case for having an entrepreneurial capitalist class. No
problem, though, because in competing with his democratic firms,
they'd have to compete for workers (forgetting that he had previously
stressed there was neither a labour market nor a capital market in
his model--- there, in fact, are both) and thus would have to provide
worker-management, etc. Abusing my position as Chair (as is my wont),
I pointed out, among other things, that these capitalists are
competing in the product market, that they do so by increasing
exploitation, and that the effect would be the same as occurred in
Mondragon and the state-owned industries in China--- they are forced
to emulate the capitalist firms in order to survive.
David did not on this occasion talk about his view of
China's economy. We'll have Marty Hart-Landsberg and Paul Burkett to
fill in the gap, though--- assuming, among other things, favourable
results in the 3 December election.
cheers,
michael
Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6
Currently based in Venezuela.
NOTE NEW PHONE NUMBERS
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