[lbo-talk] MR & "Third Worldism"

[Michael Dawson -PSU]

> Ulhas wrote:
>  > I haven't recently read Sweezy's work, but I think his Theory of
>  > Capitalist Development was an interesting text. But what is the
>  > contemporary relevance of the MR school, considering its espousal of
>  > "Third Worldism"?

MR may have opted for excessive emphasis on liberation via the 3rd World, or
maybe not.  But that political analysis is but one aspect of the MR
tradition -- the lesser one, I'd say.  If you haven't read Baran's
_Political Economy of Growth_, Baran and Sweezy's _Monopoly Capital_,
Braverman's _Labor and Monopoly Capital_, and John Bellamy Foster's
environmental work, you are truly ignorant of what MR stands for and has
achieved.

I know of no other left entity, other than Chomsky, that comes within a mile
of rivaling the MR contribution to explaining the working of capitalism,
both at the top and the bottom of the system.