Lenin in Essen

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Mon Feb 12 11:02:57 PST 2001



>Yoshie:
>
>To sum up, while the mode of economic
>integration has changed since Lenin's days, we have & will not return
>to the days of "laissez faire" mythologized by anarcho-capitalists --
>calls for "free trade" & "deregulation" notwithstanding; the
>capitalist world economy is more socialized than ever.
>
>********
>
>Laissez-faire never existed. It is a legal impossibility.
>
>Ian

True. Anarcho-capitalists are utopian. The state (with its police, army, regulatory apparatus, etc.) is _absolutely necessary_ for the expanded reproduction of capitalism _at any stage_. That said, there is an important difference of degrees, not of kinds. "Mercantilism" -- "laissez faire" -- "monopoly" -- "neoliberalism." As Lenin says, we shouldn't forget "the conditional and relative value of all definitions in general, which can never embrace all the concatenations of a phenomenon in its complete development" (Lenin, "Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism," _Marxism: Essential Writings_, ed. David McLellan, Oxford: Oxford UP, 1988, p. 154). Each term merely captures the dominant tendency, salient feature, and/or "cutting edge" of new development. Unless you keep this fact in mind, all theoretical terms become useless.

Yoshie



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list