Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 11:52:17 -0500
From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood-AT-panix.com>
Subject: Re: M-TH: Re: Political earthquake in France


Robert Malecki wrote:

>A bit back you were bragging about you and Mandel..If I remember correctly
>you said that Mandel thought you were a Keynesianite...What was that all
>about besides name dropping of one of the biggest fake Trotskyist assholes
>that came out of WW2--Mandel?

Mandel may have made some questionable political judgments, but he was a
fine political economist. All you Sparts who denounce him could never write
a book like Late Capitalism. Some of you couldn't even read it and file a
reliable book report.

What Mandel said was that I was "too post-Keynesian" for his taste. Read
what I have to say about Keynes and see if you agree.

>What is Keynes too me?
>
>Sweden before the destruction of the Soviet Union.. Which was the historic
>compromise between the Swedish bourgeoisie and the Social democracy. didn't
>work very well for the working class and created and permantized the
>pro-capitalist social democratic bureaucrat.

There are a lot worse societies imaginable than that of classic Swedish
social democracy: the virtual elimination of poverty, the removal of the
sting of unemployment, the partial socialization of the labor market, and
very substantial progress in liberating women. Of course, it was all
dependent on skimming the cream of the capitalist world economy, but so is
the US, and ours is one of the most brutal societies in the northern
hemisphere.

I never understand why you hardcore Trots so passionately hate social
democracy out of one side of your mouth, yet call for a defense of the
welfare state against cutbacks. If there's something worth defending, there
must be something good about it, however less than perfect.

Doug




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