Showing papers in "Critique in 2011"

The Bolsheviks in Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd

Abstract: Alexander Rabinowitch: The Bolsheviks in Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd Bloomington & Indianopolis, Indiana University Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780253220424 (paper back) Richard Mulli...

A Marxist Interpretation of the Dystopian Society in the African Novel

Abstract: This essay attempts an evaluation of the African novel with the postulates of Marxism. With this interest, we probe into the worlds of two less canonized novelists within the aesthetic canon of African fiction, Nigeria's Biyi Bandele-Thomas and Lekan Oyegoke. Both writers have in their respective works exhibited artistic fervour for showing the dystopian Africa as it is. Their fictional exemplars capture the despicable Nigerian societies either under a military regime or in the hands of corrupt politicians. As both authors want us to believe, the eras of money-seeking leaders in Nigeria have been incontrovertible factors further relegating the country to the political and socio-economic background in world politics. The essay thus makes clear the Marxist initiative of the alienation between the haves and the have nots of African societies.

The Communist Movement in the Arab World

Abstract: Tareq Y. Ismael: The Communist Movement in the Arab World London/New York, Routledge, 2005. ISBN13: 978-0-415-54621-8 Around 1980, quite a few books and articles about Arab communist parties were p...

Karl Marx on Technology and Alienation

Abstract: Amy E. Wendling: Karl Marx on Technology and Alienation Houndmills, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009 ISBN: 13:978-0-230-22440-7 (hardback) Marx's concept of alienation is traditionally understood as deriva...

Revolutionary Emancipation ‘From Below’ in Colombia: A Response to Skocpol

Abstract: Much theoretical study related to the subject of revolution has grappled with the role or question of the state. In this vein, Theda Skocpol's work has become an important reference of analysis. Under the premise that revolutions are less facilitated by the marginalised and more an occurance by competing predominant groups by those already in – or thirsty for – power, Skocpol argues that those ‘from below’ have little significant relation to the overall outcome of social transformation. This position is of importance when concerning the revolutionary conditions alive in Colombia and the role of the rural-based peasant-led insurgency therein. The following article critiques Skocpol's structural approach through an examination of the social composition of Colombia's most radical social movement and the Colombian state's nonexistent presence within the countryside. The work suggests that a ‘from below’ theoretical approach more accurately characterises the dynamics of radical social change within rural Colom...

Stalin and the Great Terror: Politics and Personality in Soviet History

Abstract: The article analyses the different ideas, theories and views on Stalin's Great Terror. It outlines the different views, across the spectrum, around the politics, history and political economy of the purges and Stalinism. It considers Stalin's personal role in a process which was driven by forces which Stalin himself did not understand. It argues that, even within the context of an irrational society, the Great Terror was itself irrational. The abolition of the market during the First Five-Year Plan led to the inability of the Soviet elite effectively to plan the economy and Stalinism has to be seen in this context. This, however, does not provide a sufficient explanation for the peculiarities of the Great Terror itself, and the impact of Stalin's character must be taken into consideration.

Le mari enceint : construction familiale et disposition corporelle

Abstract: A partir de l'autobiographie de Thomas Beatie, un homme transgenre qui a mis au monde ses enfants et qui a ete mediatise sous l'expression "l'homme enceint", l'article s'attache a saisir cette experience inedite d'engendrement et la maniere dont elle a ete comprise.

Free Association versus Juridification

Abstract: The last months of the outgoing Labour government and the creation of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition have brought the question of the anti-union laws back into prominence. The recent, as it were ‘traditional’, left position on the issue is to call for the repeal of Thatcher and post-Thatcher anti-union laws. In practice, Labour left MPs and trade union leaderships have been promoting a much more limited body of technical amendments to the current legislation that would leave most of it in place. A minority view among pro-union lawyers is that what is needed is legal change to bring in a positive legal right to strike. This article argues that what is needed is neither merely the repeal of post-1979 laws, nor a ‘positive right to strike’. The basis of the argument is that below the statute law is ‘common law’ unlawfulness of trade unions; and that this ‘common law’ unlawfulness is the product of severe judicial bias in the ‘leading cases’ in the early 18th and late 19th–early 20th centuries. I...

The Philosophic Foundations of Marx's Theory of Globalization

Abstract: Marx designs Capital as a spiral commodity circuit [C(‘) … C’] where the commodity is simultaneously an ‘element’ and a ‘set’ that consists of kinds of commodity as its ‘element’. Money excludes itself from its owner who excludes (sells) and includes (purchases) the commodity, but money's final cause is itself (money … fund … interest). Money includes itself that excludes itself, which corresponds to B. Russell's ‘empty set’. Marx recognized money's dualistic attribute as ontologically characteristic of capitalism. Marx solved the dilemmas of Aristotle and Hegel, referring to Epicurus, Spinoza and Kant. Marx's logic fits even to ‘Bobius band’.

The Arab Spring: The Revolution at the Doors of Europe

Abstract: The Arab Spring of 2011—the revolutionary process that started in Tunisia and Egypt and expanded across North Africa and the Middle East—is the product of the interaction of the current world capitalist crisis with the historically accumulated contradictions in the region. The dialectic of the universal and the particular, of world crisis and social revolution is the key to a materialist understanding of the events under way. The Western imperialist powers try to block and defeat the revolution in this strategic region by means of war (Libya), repression by local despots (Bahrain, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Syria) or by manipulating the ‘democratic transitions'. The revolution in the Middle East to be victorious has to develop as a permanent revolution. Its fate is tied to the emerging social revolutionary struggles in the crisis ridden Europe.

Marx and Engels' Critique of Democracy: The Materialist Character of their Concept of Autonomy

Abstract: The philosophical background to Marx and Engels' concept of democracy has not been seriously analysed by the research community thus far. Rather than focusing on one aspect of Marx and Engels' understanding of democracy, this article attempts to clarify the overall development of this concept in their political theory. By providing supporting textual evidence in order to generate a precise understanding of the value-laden meaning of their use of the term ‘democracy’, it for the first time links democracy with the materialist character of their philosophy. In their thinking, autonomy obtains a materialistic character, meaning it is strongly connected to the conditions of society's reproduction and thus to the question of property. Democracy for Marx and Engels was a moment of social practice, the social form taken by the most important social relationship, capital, and is therefore, like other social forms, a process. At the end of the paper, I differentiate my understanding of what Marx and Engels bring t...

‘Can “It” Happen Again: The Limits of Money Artistry’

Abstract: This article takes issue with two of the most enduring articles of faith of postwar capitalism: (1) the belief that the crisis-prone nature of the latter can be managed by means of ‘money artistry’, that is, by the manipulation of money, credit and (government) debt; and (2) the assertion that such actions are beneficial for society as a whole and, in particular, for the working majority of the population whose ‘welfare’ is thus attended to by government action. Starting with an analysis of theoretical attempts to reform capitalism by tinkering with money and financial institutions, the paper challenges the crisis-management paradigm which enshrines Big Government's deficits and Big Bank's ‘extra-market refinancing’ as perpetual props of the ‘unstable’, unemployment-ridden economy, and considers the case for an ongoing ‘permanent crisis’ of US capitalism.

The Choice of Economic Systems in the Rawlsian Original Position

Abstract: Rawls's consideration not to include the choice of economic systems as part of a theory of justice is inconsistent with his comments on redistribution and the political effects of economic inequality. When Rawls's discussion of economic systems and his discussion of economic inequalities is examined, it is apparent that the selection of economic systems is a pertinent topic for a theory of justice. The propensity for the primary social good of self-respect to be satisfied can be affected by the selection of economic systems. Rawls has incorrectly determined the selection of economic systems to be unimportant if different economic systems can be more advantageous to the satisfaction of self-respect than others. When socialism and Rawls's version of regulated capitalism are compared, socialism is a maximin solution, and accordingly will be selected by people within the original position under the veil of ignorance.

Towards a ‘Revolutionary Reformist’ Strategy: Within, Outside and Against the State

Abstract: This article seeks to develop some broad principles and guidelines for a strategy of socialist transformation. The method adopted in this paper rests on the judgement that such principles may be extrapolated from an analysis and critique of the major failings of the two most established and historically influential socialist strategic approaches, namely reformism and Leninist revolutionary socialism. Accordingly the article begins, after a brief discussion of the necessity of renewed and reinvigorated strategic thinking on the radical left, by subjecting the reformist and Leninist strategies to critique. Some general guidelines in relation to the necessary shape of a more adequate strategic approach are elicited from this analysis. The article then moves on to outline the ideas of Boris Kagarlitsky in relation to socialist strategy as advanced in The Dialectic of Change. It is argued that Kagarlitsky's strategy accords closely with the guidelines developed earlier in the paper and that a slightly modified...

Marx's concept of fettering: a critical review

Abstract: The idea that capitalist society is plagued by insoluble ‘contradictions’ is such a commonplace textbook treatment of Marx that its precise meaning is often overlooked. Teaching Marx to undergraduate social science students over the last ten years has made the need for more clarity on this issue a pressing pedagogical concern for me. This article explains, to a non-specialist audience, the link between Marx's political economy and his materialist conception of history, using his neglected concept of ‘fettering’ to make sense of the role which contradictions play in the process of social and political change. Although ‘fettering’ had a specific meaning for Marx, I acknowledge that there may be sound reasons for advancing a more flexible interpretation of the concept, so long as it is handled in a careful and rigorous way. By drawing on the notions of ‘relative fettering’ and ‘use fettering’, I suggest that the concept can be prised free from its narrow productivist origins in order to demonstrate Marx's relevance to the broader public critique of the social and environmental irrationalities of modern capitalism.

Entering a Theoretical Void: The Theory of Social Fascism and Stalinism in the German Communist Party

Abstract: The German Communist Party slogan ‘Social Fascism is Socialism in word, Fascism in deed’1 demonstrated a dramatic ideological shift in the Comintern's parties. The term ‘social fascism’ was introduced to the German party shortly after the failed German revolution of 1923 and the subsequent period of relative stabilization, and by 1929 was being propagated as a theory. What is so remarkable about the term, and its development into a ‘theory’ is how the fluctuations in its popularity were mirrored by the power struggles taking place within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Comintern. The victory of the German hardliners and the transformation of social fascism into a theory directly coincided with Stalin's consolidation of power. The consequences of the theory, that is the creation and purging of enemies, the atmosphere of fear that ensued, and the shift away from Marxism were precursors to Stalinism as an ideology. This article will examine the metamorphosis of the term of social fascism into a ‘...

Divide and Rule: Privatisation in Poland and the Working Class

Abstract: Contrary to what has been assumed implicitly by lawmakers, by no means all shareholders (notably the rank-and-file employees), of the newly privatised companies are real co-owners of the share capital. In order to address this question, we need sharper analytical tools than those used in the conventional analyses of the subject. Put differently, a set of criteria identifying the types of economic ownership associated with shareholdings of a different size must be developed. Privatisation converts workers into merely formal owners of share capital, while real ownership is vested in management. Employee ownership is vulnerable to success as well as to failure. If the firm is prosperous and profitable, increasingly valuable shares will encourage their sale to outside investors. On the other hand, the worker, like the average person, is induced to sell his shares when the price declines as he is usually not in a financial position where he could afford to take a loss on his investment. In addition, the mechan...

Owen, Blair and Utopian Socialism: On the Post-Apocalyptic Reformulation of Marx and Engels

Abstract: This article argues for utopianism, an activity which has all too often been denigrated by socialists. Its starting point is Donnachie and Mooney's article for issue 35(2) of Critique on the connection between Robert Owen and Tony Blair, in which their shared utopianism is viewed as a key element in their class collaborations and flight from the reality of capitalism's voracities. Whilst I do not argue against most of the criticisms made of Owen and Blair, I take issue with the implied anti-utopianism of Donnachie and Mooney's critique, a position they draw on from Marx and Engels. In contrasdistinction I argue that Marx and Engels (in spite of themselves) were great utopians, that utopianism needs to be seen as a broad method of social investigation (being counter-revolutionary as well as revolutionary but ground worth fighting for—not just a flight of fancy), and that socialism is and always has been impoverished by attempts at discursive closure or, as the dystopian Zamyatin would put it, Fantasiectomy...

Iran's Tudeh Party: A History of Compromises and Betrayals

Abstract: This article looks at Iran's Tudeh Party and its relationship with the Soviet Communist Party from the 1930s to 1980s. Russia's extensive geographical border with Iran and the influence of Russian communism on Iranian migrant workers gave a special significance to Soviet policy towards Iran. Studying the history of Iran's Tudeh Party gives an insight into the role of Stalinism in the region, the negative effects of which are still visible today. This article will explore Soviet instructions to abandon communism for the sake of ‘the survival of the Socialist camp’; the dismantling of Iran's Communist Party in favour of a broad front (the Tudeh or Mass Party); the imposition of socialism from above after a military invasion; the condemnation of Mossadegh as a CIA agent and the Tudeh Party's inactivity during the CIA's coup in 1953. The article also discusses the rebellion of students and intellectuals, especially the Fedayeen, against the Tudeh Party and the shortcomings of their courageous, although ultima...