[lbo-talk] Russia (was kvetching...)

[andie nachgeborenen]

As socialists we are not supposed to like a
politically authoritarian, kleptocratic, wildly
inegalitarian capitalist system that substitutes
arbitrary force force for reliable rule of law and
accords working people some goodies but no power. We,
or most of us, didn't like Stalinism either. At the
same same, no one is "rubbishing" Russia's economic
growth, but trying to understand it. So far its
defenders here have said nothing to refute the
empirically supported hypothesis advanced by Anderson,
urged by me and Doug, among others, that it's based on
raw material export, not industrial development. Even
if that lasts forever, which isn't likely, it portends
a future in which Russia looks like lots of other
underdeveloped countries the industrialized world
exploits for their resources -- a thin glaze of
expensive Western chains imported for the benefit of a
compliant comrador class while the rest of country
suffers. Say why it ain't so. In contrast, China,
whose social and economic syste, I also dislike, is
developing a serious industrial base of its own. As
Anderson observes, after centuries of condescension,
Russia look to end up as the junior partner in this
arrangement with the Asian giants. That's even if if
oil prices remain stratospheric and Sbarro's (ik!)
spreads thoughout the land. Sweet victory? I don't
think so.

--- Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com> wrote:


> 
> --- James Heartfield <Heartfield at blueyonder.co.uk>
> wrote:
> 
> I think that strong desire has something to do with
> trying to deny that progress is possible with a
> socio-political-economic system that they don't
> personally like. :)
> 
> > 
> > I think the strong desire that commentators like
> > Perry Anderson have to 
> > rubbish Russia's growth is what needs explaining.
> I
> > remember that not so 
> > long ago a lot of people wanted to prove that
> > China's growth was peripheral. 
> > (The otherwise very perceptive Michel Chossudovsky
> > wrote analyses of the 
> > Special Economic Zones as a return to the
> > concessionary zones.) Is this what 
> > was meant by "kvetching"?
> > 
> 
> Lyubo, bratsy, lyubo, lyubo, bratsy, zhit!
> 
> ËÞÁÎ, ÁÐÀÒÖÛ, ËÞÁÎ, ËÞÁÎ, ÁÐÀÒÖÛ, ÆÈÒÜ!
> 
> 
>  
>
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