USSR

Mark Jones Jones_M at netcomuk.co.uk
Sat Jul 18 07:00:36 PDT 1998


Jim heartfield wrote:


> "This parallels a similar argument going on in lbo-talk, where the Left-
> Keynesian defenders of the former USSR defend it on the non-Marxian
> grounds of "technical efficiency", or the provision of "free" medical
> care (as if many capitalist countries did not have it). Nothing is said
> about what the workers may have wanted, probably for the very good
> reason that there was no way of finding out what they actually wanted."
> -

This is surely senseless. What does Lew, or James, suppose the workers wanted? Is anyone suggesting they want what they've got now? The problem Lew/James have is that their cheerleading for hurrah-capitalism and its 'progressive' potential (this is James's leitmotif), flies in the face of bitter realities. Why does a plurality of Russians hanker for the past, according to the polls?

Mark Jones http://www.geocities.com/~comparty



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