>>> Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> 05/04/00 10:56AM >>>
Reese wrote:
> >Sorry to be predictable but which bits of Marx/Lenin are out of date?
>
>Which bits do you think are modern, mark?
I'm not Mark, but just off the top of my head I'd say the descriptions of factory life, though not literally accurate desciptions of lots of work today, are still fresh evocations of work under capitalism;
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CB: How about the abstract concepts of "cooperation" and "mechanization" which Marx uses to define the factory of industrial capitalism, as well as the concrete descriptions of factories ? Don't the abstract concepts have even more currency than the concrete descriptions of factories in the 1800's ?
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the stuff in the Manifesto about the revolutionary nature of capitalism (sorry, Lou Proyect);
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CB: How about the revolutionary role of the working class in moving beyond capitalism ? Isn't that as much or more the point than the revolutionary nature of capitalism ? I mean the point of the Manifesto. Or is that part not as valid as observations on revolutionary nature of capitalism ? ______
the analysis of the phenomenal categories of profit, interest, and rent originating in exploitation at the point of production is a timeless truth of capitalism;
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CB: Here , here ! Lets make this a maching song for demos.
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the need to expand, colonize, and transform every corner of the earth and every aspect of social life, ditto; the contradictorily liberating and oppressive nature of capitalism, megadittoes.
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CB: Megaditto, megaditto, capito was ok, but now its got to go.
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And the stuff about credit and joint stock companies in Vol. 3 of Capital is remarkably prescient, and better than most of the writing on the subject by subsequent Marxists.
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CB: What is the role of advanced financial theory in revolutionary action ?
CB