Russell Jacoby did an excellent study on the German social Democratic Party, which used Marx's "prediction," to justify inaction because the inner workings of capitalism would make organization unnecessary.
On Sat, Aug 13, 2011 at 12:11 PM, D. T. Cochrane <dtc at yorku.ca> wrote:
> So when Marx wrote the following:
>
> "capitalist production begets, with the inexorability of a law of Nature,
> its own negation."
>
> in Vol. 1 of Capital, he didn't mean it?
>
>
> On Sat, Aug 13, 2011 at 12:07 PM, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
>
>> On 8/13/2011 12:32 PM, ken hanly wrote:
>>
>>> I somehow had the idea that this would happen only if the working
>>> class organized to make it happen. What is being destroyed is the social
>>> safety net and all the gains that social democracy achieved earlier.Would
>>> Marx consider the UK rioters part of the lumpenproletariat? Cheers k hanly
>>>
>>> Yes. Marx never claimed that capitalism would destryo itself. He did
>> claim that it produced its own grave diggers, the working class. He did
>> _not_, however, claim that the victory of that class is certain. He was no
>> utopian Progressive, believing that onward and upward was built into the
>> structure of history.
>>
>> Carrol
>>
>> ______________________________**_____
>> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/**mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk<http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk>
>>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
530 898 5321 fax 530 898 5901 http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com