OPE-L (was Re: Krugman on Marx)

[Louis Proyect]

Andrew Kliman wrote:
>To Louis Proyect:  Yes, the debate over Marx's value theory has
>profound political implications.  For instance, in the late
>1970s, Marx's "errors" were routinely pointed to in attempts to
>refute young militants who were challenging PCI policies and
>ideology.  And yes, value theory has a lot to do with that, since
>the PCI was pursuing pro-technology, pro-productivity, class
>collaborationism.
>

It seems to me that all the arguments pro-and-con value theory have been
made over and over and over again. The problem in the Italian Communist
Party was not one of intellectual confusion. Rather it was a class-based
retreat from revolutionary politics that was part of the Eurocommunist
phenomenon. If hadn't been for value theory deviationism, it would have
been something else. Being determines consciousness, not the other way around.

My only reaction to the gob of prose that I posted here was that it was so
technical as to be useless. I don't think the author's problem is that his
first language is Spanish. I have run into the same problem trying to read
other Marxist economists who rely on mathematical models.

My general impression of the value theorists I've run into on the Net,
including Jerry Levy and Alin Cottrell, is that they are not interested in
politics. I am not saying that this is the case for you, but I would say
that it seems to pervade the value theory subculture.

Louis Proyect

(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)