File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/97-02-17.213, message 98


From: "Rosser Jr, John Barkley" <rosserjb-AT-jmu.edu>
Subject: Re: M-I: Barkley Grins (Was: Actually Existing Stalinism)
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1997 17:33:32 -0500 ()


     Unfortunately Louis G. does not disprove or even 
dispute seriously any arguments that I have made.
     1)  He is on record as denying that there is even such 
as a category as "Stalinist."  Thus, it is irrelevant to 
even discuss whether or not DPRK is Stalinist.
     2)  Yes, DPRK has had very bad weather, and, as I have 
noted earlier, actually had superior agricultural 
production to ROK in the mid-1980s.  I also noted that DPRK 
was in much better shape in the early 1960s than was ROK, 
which was coming out of rule by a corrupt flunky (Rhee).
     3)  Indeed, much of the problem with the DPRK is its 
"socialism in one country" juche philosophy, which Hwang is 
now disavowing after having helped create it.  Even when 
DPRK had better ag than ROK, the latter ate better because 
it imported food from elsewhere.  It was able to do so 
because it had (and has) an internationally competitive 
industrial base.  The DPRK's command planned socialist 
industrial base is in bad shape, as LNG admits, and is 
unable to sell anything abroad to buy food.  Thus, bad 
weather becomes a famine and not just a nuisance.
     Bottom line:  The problem is systemic, and it is the 
system of Stalinism.
Barkley Rosser 
On Fri, 14 Feb 1997 19:12:40 -0500 (EST) Louis R Godena 
<louisgodena-AT-ids.net> wrote:


> 
> Barkley writes:
> 
> >     I am wondering if any of the fans of the Stalin 
> >Society or of the old boy himself, have any comments on the 
> >latest development coming out of the last Actually Existing 
> >Stalinist regime on the face of the earth.  
> 
> Once again,  Barkley displays that heavy footed irony and rapier wit that
> has made him a holy terror around James Madison University.    He "wonders"
> indeed!!     Does the purported or real defection of a DPRK stalwart,  Hwang
> Yang Jop,  tell us anything at all about the merits of Barkley Rosser's
> political analysis?    No,  it does not.    Not in the least.    Any more
> than the defections of elite personalities from any country,  east or west,
> give us more than a perhaps illusory glimpse of the nature of this or that
> State or political party.    
> 
> And Professor Rosser knows it.  
> 
> What,  then?    Barkley knows,  like everyone else,  knows that there is a
> dire economic situation existing in the North.    Two successive years of
> poor harvests and a myriad of other factors have led to near-famine in some
> areas.    Changes within the ruling party and a declining industrial base
> (which,  according to *Financial Times*,  is only now beginning to be
> reversed) have only made matters worse.    A similar situation existed on
> more than one occasion in the south since 1953 (near famine conditions
> existed outside Seoul and a few major cities in the early 1960s,  for
> example).    Yet,  this does not prove or disprove that the Pyongang regime
> is "Stalinist" or not;  one does not have to rule on such a model to
> experience famine.    Nor does doing so guarantee widespread hunger -- quite
> the contrary.    The Stalinist regimes of eastern Europe (I will demur in
> arguing who made more people more unhappy more often,  leaving that,  as it
> were,  to the jocular professor) proved quite remarkable at feeding
> literally hundreds of millions amidst the devastation following World War II.
> 
> So,  what is the point?   Merely to prove that Professor Rosser,  like
> professors everywhere in the rarefied world of monkey-see-monkey-do craven
> one-upmanship that plagues their lot,  has to be proven "correct"?    Again
> and again and again?    Stick to your analysis,   Barkley.    And stop
> wondering.
> 
> Scholarship is its own reward.
> 
> Louis Godena            
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>         
> 
> 
> 
>      --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

-- 
Rosser Jr, John Barkley
rosserjb-AT-jmu.edu




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