A brief note on a Memorial Meeting: Paul Sweezy (1910-2004) on March 5, 5:00 PM, Constitution Club, New Delhi, organized by Social Scientist. The journal, Social Scientist, edited by the distinguished economist, Prabhat Patnaik, and that has among its editorial board, advisors and contributors, India’s finest left economists and historians, organized at very short notice, a memorial meeting remembering Paul Sweezy. The meeting was chaired by Sunanda Sen. The main speakers were Aijaz Ahmed, B N. Ganguly, Sitaram Yechury, Utsa Patnaik and Prabhat Patnaik. The audience was largely composed of teachers, scholars, writers, and left political activists.
Aijaz Ahmed set the tone with an account of the life and times of Paul Sweezy, focusing on the political and the personal. Born in 1910 in NYC, son of a vice president of First National Bank, then part of the J. P. Morgan financial empire, Paul attended Philips Execter and Harvard University, and, an academic year at the London School of Economics, where he was exposed to Marxism. There were some light moments later on when B N Ganguly wondered about this apparent LSE effect, what with the conservative economist Hayek’s then strong presence there. Aijaz went on to trace Sweezy’s trajectory – return to Harvard, the publication of The Theory of Capitalist Development in 1942, wartime service, his return again to Harvard in 1945, his resignation from Harvard on the realization that he was certain to be denied tenure because of his Marxist reputation, despite the great right wing economist Schumpeter being strongly in his favor.
Aijaz went on to trace the evolution and growth of the MR and the MRP – the funding from close friend F O Matthiessen which helped translate Leo and Paul’s intentions into reality, the Einstein article, and how in 1952 the MRP came to publish the journalist I F Stone’s Hidden History of the Korean War, when no mainstream publisher would touch it. Aijaz’s discussion of the witch hunt of the McCarthy period and how Paul and Leo were harassed, especially the Sweezy vs. New Hampshire case – Sweezy’s subpoena and his recourse to a First Amendment (guarantees of freedom of expression) defense in questioning the very legitimacy of the purge, Paul’s famous statement of defiance of the Attorney General’s (of New Hampshire) inquiry into his politics and his associations – were of particular interest.
Aijaz briefly referred to the classics of the MR school - Sweezy’s Theory of Capitalist Development, Baran and Sweezy’s Monopoly Capital, Harry Magdoff’s The Age of Imperialism, and Harry Braverman’s Labor and Monopoly Capital - and their wide influence in progressive circles. He particularly commended the MR school for its focus on the contradictions between imperialism and the national liberation movements in the third world.
B N Ganguly discussed Sweezy’s contribution to economics. Sweezy’s treatment of Marx’s theory of value in Theory of Capitalist Development was unsurpassed even today in terms of its clarity. In Ganguly’s view, this book still remains the best text in Marxist economics. He hailed Monopoly Capital as a breakthrough in understanding the US social order. Baran and Sweezy’s analyses of the business behavior of the big corporations, how the surplus got divided up and used, and the tendency to stagnation were particularly singled out.
Prabhat Patnaik gave an excellent account of Paul’s contribution to Marxist thought. Paul’s recognition of the radical ideas in Keynes’ economics, his extension and theoretical refinement of under-consumption theory in Rosa Luxemburg, his emphasis of the imperialist imperative of state military expenditure for the viability of the capitalist system. He recalled the Marshall Lectures that Paul gave at Cambridge on the topic of monopoly capital, referring to Joan Robinson’s remarks after the lectures that although she didn’t agree with him on various counts, Paul was truly ‘a saint’. Prabhat also remarked that although he had never seen the younger Paul Sweezy, Paul was a very handsome man.
Utsa Patnaik recalled the debate on the transition from feudalism to capitalism sparked off by Sweezy’s review of Maurice Dobb’s Studies in the Development of Capitalism. She now felt that in her classroom lectures she had been somewhat unfair to Sweezy’s position that emphasized the role of trade and the relations between the towns and the countryside. This was an opportunity to correct her characterization of Sweezy’s position as “circulationist”, since some of her students who had attended those lectures were in this gathering to remember Sweezy. She also recalled with fondness and in light humor how when in her youth at Cambridge a group of socialist feminists of which she was a member asked her to give them an exposition of Marx’s theory of value, she could think of no better a source to prepare the presentation than Sweezy’s Theory of Capitalist Development. When she came in for much praise after her exposition, she recalled, the credit she got from her feminist comrades should have been Sweezy’s.
Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) really touched the gathering when he said that while we should be celebrating Sweezy’s long and productive life, the occasion was also a sad one, because in today’s most difficult times, we and the people need persons like Sweezy more than ever. Sweezy used his great intellect in the service of the people.
Bernard D’Mello related how when he was feeling very discouraged at the neo-liberal turn of the Economic & Political Weekly, he suggested to Paul that it may be useful to socialist publishers if Paul were to write in some detail about how MR was/is managed. He then read out Paul’s reply: “ …Every situation is unique in so many particulars that generalizations may be more misleading than helpful. But of course some things are of enduring importance. Those responsible – editors and a close circle of contributors, consultants, and advisers – must be united by a deep commitment to a shared understanding of Marxism as an uncompromising critique of capital and capitalism. From that, I think, much else follows.”
Tilak D Gupta, author of the MR piece on “Recent Developments in the Naxalite Movement in India” (September 1993) spoke briefly, also on behalf of Subhash Aikat and Cornerstone Publications involved in the Indian re-print of MR, of Paul Sweezy’s generosity, enthusiasm and full support to this effort, and that of the MR collective too.