[lbo-talk] Paul Sweezy again

[Geoff Robinson]

The Theory of Capitalist Development was the first Marxist work I read. I 
remember being impressed by the first part of the work and then puzzled and 
perturbed by the second part. Ditto even more for Monopoly Capital (the 
Frankfurt school goes to Moscow). How could Sweezy have read Trotsky's 
History of the Russian Revolution and then sign the infamous 1937 statement 
to American progressives defending the Moscow trials? I am more inclined to 
be critical of fellow travellers than CP members like Dobb or Ronald Meek 
who were at least consistent. Irving Howe's critique of Sweezy in 
'Authoritarians of the Left" still stacks up fairly well as do Joseph 
Starobin's comments in American Communism in Crisis.

Dr Geoff Robinson
Lecturer Australian Studies & Politics
Faculty of Arts
Deakin University
Warrnambool
VIC 3280
Ph: 03 5563 3512
Fax: 03 5563 3534
Mobile: 0407 731 963
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