-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Doug asks: 'But how can anyone not be part of the world capitalist economy these days? Should Venezuela stop selling oil?' That was Samir Amin's position, 'decoupling' he called it. But it was not Lenin's. He thought that the USSR ought to seek to continue to be a part of the international division of labour, exchanging goods for western technology, but should at the same time resist a free market. That would establish a direct relationship between Russian farmers and western purchasers, bypassing 'socialist industry' in the cities, and reducing Russia to a breadbasket. Lenin's mechanism was the state monopoly on international trade.
^^^^^^^^^ CB: I think it was termed peaceful co-existence and competition of nations with different social systems, i.e. lets see which system works better under peaceful conditions. Natch, imperialism went whole hog for war for the next 70 years once it "heard" that.
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