Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 01:35:26 +1000
Subject: Re: AUT: MBM/shortall/rubin?


Rakesh Bhandari wrote:
> 
> Angela,
> If I remember correctly, Shortall's crisis theory is based on the
> devaluation of existing fixed capital on which interest is still owed by
> the introduction of cost-cutting technical change? Isn't this similar to
> Brenner's argument, though Brenner emphasizes that such destructive
> competition comes from without--that is, through  international rivalry?
> But I share your enthusiasm about Shortall's and Postone's books.
> best, rakesh
> 
>      --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---


paul: 

apologies for not giving full info on shortall. i had wrongly assumed
that somewhere in the history of the list, these books had been
discussed.  
by the way, i am neither an academic nor do i have a phd.  anyway, the
academics that i do know here barely get any time to read.  they are
heavily under the pressures of 'efficiency targets' and such-like.

rakesh: i do not recall this as shortall's position, but not having a
copy of the book, i'd need to go borrow/copy it to re-read on this
point.  it did strike me at the time however, as more in line with
rubin's analyses of marx (essays on marx's theory of value, 1972, black
and red press) than negri's (in mbm).

here is negri on rubin: "the theory of surplus value - as isaac rubin
has already shown - thus becomes the dynamic centre, the dynamic
synthesis of marx's thought, the point where the objective analysis of
capital and the subjective analysis of class behaviour come
together...but even this is insufficient" (MBM, p9)  negri goes on to
argue the relation between crisis and subjectivity, elaborating on a
previous statement: "the unity of the constitution and the strategic
project of the working class" (p8).

this is where i part company with negri's analyses.  the notion of a
"strategic project of the working class" is the projection of destiny, a
form of identity politics indeed writ large onto a collective figure,
and relies for its coherence on the assumption that the working class
and a certain political trajectory are indissoluble or that they are not
truly working class.

harry: this would then be a partial response to your insistence upon
references.  though i was also trying to talk about negri in ways which
made the reception of such positions a matter for discussion.

i'll get round to responding at greater length on this and other issues
you raised later, though i think i have already said what my problems
with subjectivism are.  i was asking if you had any problems with such a
position.

angela


     --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---