21 Stcentury Marxism

7/26/2019 21 Stcentury Marxism

1/5

21stCentury Marxism

Paul Cockshott

In certain respects the situation of Marxism in the early 21stcentury has much in commonwith that in the late 19thcentury. In both cases Marxism is faced with a world in which

the capitalist mode of production dominates. During what Hobsbawm called the shorter2thcentury!" the period from 191# to 199" world politics centered round the epochal

struggle between capitalist and socialist economic systems" and that reality ga$e to

Marxism a %uite different character than in its first period 19#&'191#. In historical termsthen" we are some 1( years into the 21stcentury.

In each period Marxism has had to address itself to the theoretical and political

challenges of the moment. )he 19thcentury addressed two main problems*

1+ )he constitution of the proletariat as a class and thus as a political party ' ,)heManifesto of the -ommunist arty 1&+

2+ )he criti%ue of bourgeois political economy and the establishment of a politicaleconomy of labour ' ,-apital 1&/(+

-ertain %uestions were only touched on the form of a future communist society ,-riti%ue

of the 0otha rogram+ and the political form of the rule of the woring class ,)he -i$il

ar in 3rance+.

If we loo at the 2thcentury we see a %uite different set of %uestions being addressed.

How were communist ideas to be propagated ,hat is to be Done" 192+ 4 How was thecommunist mo$ement to actually tae power ,)he 5tate and 6e$olution+4 7nce the

re$olution had taen place how was the economy to be re'organised ,)he 8ew

conomics" 192/+4 How were re$olutions in societies that were not yet fully capitalist totae place ,hy is it that 6ed olitical ower can exist in -hina 192&+4 :fter the

re$olution how was the danger of counter're$olution to be combated ,Documents of the

5hanghai ;eft 19/(+4

In retrospect one can see that the mid 19(s represented the high water mar of the

socialist tide. hilst the


2/5

5o today we are faced with a whole new set of %uestions. )he general

intellectual>ideological en$ironment is much less fa$ourable to socialism than it was in

the 2thcentury. )his is not merely a conse%uence of the counter're$olutions thatoccurred at the end of the 2thcentury" but stems from a new and more $igorous assertion

of the classic tenets of bourgeois political economy. )his re'assertion of bourgeois

political economy not only transformed economic policy in the est" but also preparedthe ideological ground for counter re$olutions in the ast.

)he theoretical preparation for the turn to the free maret that occurred in the 19&s hadbeen laid much earlier by right wing economic theorists lie Haye and 3riedman. )heir

ideas" seen as extreme during the 19?s and /s gained influence through the

proselytising acti$ities of organisations lie the Institute for conomic :ffairs and the:dam 5mith Institute. )hese groups produced a series of boos and reports ad$ocating

free maret solutions to contemporary economic problems. )hey won the ear of

prominent politicians lie Margaret )hatcher" and from the 19&s were put into practice.

5he was gi$en the liberty to do this by a combination of long term demographic changesand short term con@ectural e$ents. ithin Aritain" labour was in short supply" but across

:sia it had become super abundant. ere capital free to mo$e abroad to this plentiful

supply of labour then the terms of the exchange between labour and capital in the =Bwould be transformed. ;abour would no longer hold the stronger bargaining position.

)he con@unctural factor maing this possible was the surplus in foreign trade generated

by 8orth 5ea oil. Hitherto" the worers who produced manufactured exports had beenessential to national economic sur$i$al. ith the money from the 8orth 5ea" the

manufacturing sector could be allowed to collapse without the fear of a balance of

payments crisis. )he deliberate run'down of manufacturing industry shran the socialbasis of social democracy and weaened the $oice of labour both economically and

politically.

)he success of )hatcher in attacing the woring class mo$ement in Aritain encouragedmiddle class aspiring politicians in the ast lie Blaus and presaged a situation in which

Hayeian economic doctrines would become the orthodoxy. )hatcher!s doctrine )I8:"

)here Is 8o :lternati$e" ,to capitalism+ was generally accepted.

)he theoretical dominance of free maret economic ideas had by the start of the 21st

century become so strong" that they were as much accepted by social democrats and self

professed communists" as they had been by )hatcher. In policy maing circles theyremain unchallenged to this day. )hey owe dominance both to class interests and to their

internal coherence. )he capitalist historical pro@ect too as its founding documents the

Declaration of the 6ights of Man" and :dam 5mith!s ealth of 8ations. )ogether these

pro$ided a coherent $iew of the future of Aourgeois or -i$il 5ociety" as a self regulatingsystem of free agents operating in the furtherance of their pri$ate interests. )wo centuries

later when faced with the challenge of communism and social democracy" the more far'

sighted representati$es of the bourgeoisie returned to their roots" restated the original-apitalist Manifesto" and applied it to current conditions. )he labour mo$ement by

contrast had no such coherent social narrati$e. Beynes!s economics had addressed only


3/5

technical issues of go$ernment monetary and tax policy" it did not aspire to the moral and

philosophical coherence of 5mith.

)he external economic and demographic factors that originally fa$oured the turn to themaret are gradually weaening. ithin the next 2 years the $ast labour reser$es of

-hina will ha$e been largely utilised" absorbed into capitalist commodity production.0lobally we are returning to the situation that estern urope had reached a century ago*

a maturing world capitalist economy in which labour is still highly exploited but isbeginning to become a scarce resource. )hese were the conditions that built the social

cohesion of classical social democracy" the conditions that ga$e rise to the I and then

-I7 in :merica" and led to the strength of communist parties in estern uropecountries lie 3rance" Italy and 0reece post 19#?. e see in 5outh :merica this process

in operation today.

)hese circumstances set 21stcentury Marxism a new historical pro@ect* to counter andcriti%ue the theories of maret liberalism as effecti$ely as Marx criti%ued the capitalist

economists of his day.

)he historical pro@ect of the world!s woring classes can only succeed if it

promulgates its own political economy" its own theory of the future of society. )his new

political economy must be as morally coherent as that of 5mith" and must lead toeconomically coherent policy proposals" which if enacted would open the way to a new

post'capitalist ci$ilisation" @ust as those of 5mith opened the way to the post feudal

ci$ilisation.

21stcentury Marxism can no longer push to one side the details of how the non'maret

economy of the future is to be organised. In Marx!s day this was permissible" not now.e can not pretend that the 2thcentury ne$er happened" or that it taught us nothing

about socialism. In this tas 2thcentury estern critical Marxists lie -liff" Aettleheimor Aordiga will only tae us so far. hilst they could point out weanesses of hitherto

existing socialism" it did this by comparing it to an ideal standard of what these writers

thought that a socialist society should achie$e. In retrospect we will see that these trends

of thought were a product of the special circumstances of the cold war" a stri$ing for aposition of ideological autonomy neither Moscow nor ashington!" rather than a

programmatic contribution to Marxism. )he $ery psychological detachment that such

writers sought" deflecting from their own heads the calumnies directed at the =556"pre$ented them from positi$ely engaging with the problems faced by historically existing

socialism. It is only if you en$isage being faced with such problems oneself" that onewould come up with practical answers*

CIt is not the critic who counts* not the man who points out how the strong manstumbles or where the doer of deeds could ha$e done better. )he credit belongs to

the man who is actually in the arena" whose face is marred by dust and sweat and

blood" who stri$es $aliantly" who errs and comes up short again and again"because there is no effort without error or shortcoming" but who nows the great

enthusiasms" the great de$otions" who spends himself for a worthy cause who" at


4/5

the best" nows" in the end" the triumph of high achie$ement" and who" at the

worst" if he fails" at least he fails while daring greatly" so that his place shall ne$er

be with those cold and timid souls who new neither $ictory nor defeat.E,-itiFenship in a 6epublic" 6oose$elt+

Instead we must reco$er and celebrate the ad$ances in Marxist political economy thatarose from the 6ussian experience* the method of material balances used in preparing the

? year plans and systematised as Input 7utput analysis by ;eontief the method of linearprogramming pioneered by Bantoro$ich the time diaries of 5trumlin.

In the 19thcentury Marx!s -apital was a criti%ue of the political economy that

underlay Aritish ;iberalism. 21stcentury Marxists must perform a criti%ue of neo'liberal

political economy comparable in rigour and moral depth to Marx!s 19thcentury criti%ue.In particular we must engage with and defeat the ideas of the :ustrian school* Aoehm'

Aawer" Mises" Haye" whose ideas now constitute the eystone of reaction. 5o$iet

Marxism felt strong enough to ignore the then" and the response in the est came in themain from non'marxian socialists lie ;ange and Dicinson. If we are to reconstitute

socialism as the common'sense of the 21stcentury G as it was the common'sense of themid 2th" then these are the ideas that must be confronted.

In attacing them we should not hesitate to use the ad$ances in other sciences Gstatistical mechanics" information theory" computability theory. :nd" to re'establish

5cientific 5ocialism there must be a definiti$e brea with the speculati$e philosophical

method of much of estern Marxism. e ha$e to treat political economy and the theoryof social re$olution lie any other science.

e must formulate testable hypotheses" which we then asses against empirical data.

here the empirical results differ from what we expected" we must modify and retest our

theories.

)o understand this new form of Marxist science consider the debate on the so'calledtransformation problem!. )here was" in the 2thcentury" a huge and pointless literature

attempting to rebut Aoehm Aawer!s criticism of Marx!s theory of prices of production.

)he net result of this debate was only to detract attention from the labour theory of $alueand Marx!s analysis of exploitation. )he e$entual breathrough" in the 19&s" against this

:ustrian criti%ue of Marxism came from two mathematical logicians 3ar@oun and

Macho$er. )heir wor )he ;aws of -haos!" was to my mind the most original

contribution to Marxist theory of the late 2 thcentury. )hey used methods deri$ed fromstatistical mechanics to show that the assumption of a uniform profit rate" shared by Marx

and Aoehm Aawer" was erroneous" and that in reality the classical labour theory of $alue

,-apital $ol I+ operates. )his was then confirmed by the empirical in$estigations of5haih and others.

)his willingness to learn from other sciences and use them in the struggle against the

reigning ideology can be seen in the wor of eters who brought the ideas of the

computer pioneer use into play in order to $alidate the possibility of rational socialistplanning. e see again in eters" what was e$ident in 5haih and Macho$er" a re'

assertion of the importance for Marxism of the labour theory of $alue. hereas for

5haih and Macho$er its role is causal in explaining the actual dynamics of capitalism.


5/5

3or eters it becomes both a moral principle and an organising concept for the future

socialism.

)he theoretical ad$ances I refer to" occurred as the 2thcentury ga$e way to the 21st.

21 Stcentury Marxism

Documents

Transcript of 21 Stcentury Marxism