Date: Wed, 24 Apr 1996 21:05:29 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: state capitalist theories


JEFF SPARROW wrote:

> But I was interested in the suggestion of earlier (or for that matter, 
> later) state cap theories. Can someone give me more information on these? 

I'll let someone else tackle that question. There are dozens of works on 
that topic in at least a half dozen languages.

In general, these theories differ in term of both the defining 
characteristics of capitalism and state capitalism and the period 
suggested for when the USSR became state capitalist.

On that later point, variations include:

- theories that suggest that the USSR was state cap beginning in 1917;

_   "                         "               "               with the NEP;


-   "                         "               "                 "      
     consolidation of state power by Stalin and Co.


-   "                         "               "                 " death 
     of Stalin and the rise of Khruschev.

That last variant is suggested by Maoists and is the most absurd and 
ahistorical (and Stalinist apologist) of the bunch.

All but the first have a very difficult time explaining the 
"counter-revolution."
 
>It 
>is a very strange book. It stakes out a line on the class nature of 
>Russia but seems very little concerned with the political consequences 
>of such a position, spending an awful lot of time talking about Hegel 
>and philosophy. 

The purpose of the book was not to explain the class character of the USSR.

Do you think it was "strange" that Lenin found time in 1917 to read 
Hegel's _Science of Logic_?

 > Does anyone know what happened to her 
>tendency, or indeed her?

Raya's dead.

Her tendency lives on - it's called "News and Letters" and publishes a 
newspaper by the same name. If you want a bibliography of her works, it 
will appear in the newspaper.

Jerry


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