Date: Sat, 04 Oct 1997 10:37:32 -0500 From: Michael Novick <mnovick-AT-laedu.lalc.k12.ca.us> Subject: Re: AUT: Goldner on Bordiga This analysis sounds very intriguing. How do I get Goldner's essay? Again, apologies for what at least some people have perceived as "bombing" the list. i don't understand why somebody didn't just say something politely earlier. --Michael At 02:31 AM 10/4/97 -0800, Rakesh Bhandari wrote: >I was happy to receive from Collective Action Notes Loren Goldner's essay >"Communism is the Material Community: Amadeo Bordiga Today." > >The focus of this essay is that what is at the historical basis of >bourgeois society--the capitalisation of agriculture and the release of >free labor power the foundation upon which the generalisation of the >commodity form ultimately depends--has been at the heart of what has passed >for Marxism and Communism: the history of all hitherto existing Marxism is >the history of the capitalisation of agriculture, so to speak! > > These regimes thus stand in the bourgeois statist tradition of enlightened >despotism which has looted and expropriated the peasantry [there is a book >on the theory of enlightened despotism by Leonard Krieger which I have not >read.] > > For Bordiga then the "Soviet" Union was a transition form to capitalism, a >stage (as it turns out) in the globalisation of capital. > >"In short, from enlightened absolutism in the 17th century to Communist >Parties in the 20th century, the problematic is that of the extensive phase >of accumulation--the transformation of peasants into workers. The ultimate >implication of this is that a society is only fully capitalist when a >trivial percentage of the work force is employed in agriculture, i.e. that >a society is only fully capitalist when it has moved from the >extensive/formal to the intensive real phase of accumulation. This means in >short that neither Europe nor the United States in 1900 were as capitalist >as the socialist movement thought they were., and that the classical >workers' movement, in its mainstream, was first and foremost a movement to >propel capitalism into its intensive phase...The connection between >agriculture and intensive accumulation in industry is the reduction of the >cost of food as a percentage of the worker's bill of consumption, creating >buying power for the consumer durables (such as the automobile) at the >center of 20th century mass production." > >1. Has what has passed as land reform in the post WWII "third world" also >been a stage in extensive accumulation, freeing peasants to become workers. >But then what of South Korea-- it is often argued that a redistribution of >land created many small holders with sufficient purchasing power to create >internal demand to stimulate industrial production. This has been the >manifest intent of land reform in India, though its real content may be >better understood as a form of extensive accumulation. I think Cyrus Bina >has made such an argument about the nature of the Shah's land reform >measures. > >2. More generally, what about these oppositions extensive/formal and >intensive/real? Especially this idea of the significance of the reduction >of the cost of food? How has this been really achieved. Are really so >workers in the most advanced capitalisms engaged in the food >sector--production of food maybe, but then why exclude the transportation >and distribution of food? How are we to understand intensive accumulation >as an epoch, no less? > >Comradely greetings, >Rakesh > > > > > --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu --- > > In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. Be PART of the solution -- People Against Racist Terror/ PO Box 1055/Culver City CA 90232-1055/310-288-5003/ Order our journal "Turning the Tide." mnovickttt-AT-igc.org Free Mumia Abu Jamal! Free All POW's and Political Prisoners! Abolish the Racist Death Penalty! --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005