>>> Max Sawicky <sawicky at epinet.org> 03/07/00 10:58AM >>>
. . . PPS: I've just asked Petchy what the Marxist theory of insurance was, and got a long explanation (apparently the Russian textbooks have only been translated into Spanish and Slovenian, so his paper is one of the few English lang. refs). It transpires that, according to the Critique of the GOtha Programme, insurance premium is the only form of surplus-value that persists under communism -- because the surplus held by society against risks has to, by its nature, be extracted before a crisis actually happens. . . .
what about surplus value for investment? Doesn't the state try to accumulate some capital? Only in a good way, of course.
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CB: Not "capital". Capital is a relationship in which the laborer is exploited. And "accumulation" of capital is the main goal of the exploiting capitalists in capitalism.
Socialism aims to develop social ownership of the basic means of production, so there are basic means of production "accumulated", but not in the sense that capitalists accumulate it as private property.
And the above is a theoretical issue, so arguments such as "the Soviet Union didn't actually do this", are not pertinent.
CB