Critique and theory

05Sep11

Not sure if I’ve linked to these Libcom items already:

From El Viejo Topo: interview on “curtailing economic growth” – Anselm Jappe

An interview with Anselm Jappe about “curtailing economic growth” (“decrecimiento” in Spanish), a tendency that is becoming increasingly popular in certain circles in Europe, which he characterizes as “a reformism that wants to be authentically radical” but which is doomed to failure unless it challenges the logic of commodity production.

From El Viejo Topo: Interview on “Curtailing Economic Growth” – Anselm Jappe

El Viejo Topo (VT): To what do you attribute the “boom” in the discussion about curtailing economic growth?

Anti-Imperialism and the Iranian Revolution

Arya Zahedi looks at the problems associated with anti-imperialist ideology during the Iranian revolution to cast light on struggles against the Islamic regime today.

The question of anti-imperialism has been much debated on the revolutionary left–particularly during most of the twentieth century.

The economic lie – Max Nordau

This article traverses the entire field of political economy in its theory and practice, advancing many startling paradoxes and propositions.

source: Chapter 5 of  The conventional lies of our civilization (1883). It was translated by Rocker into Yiddish.

A discussion about primitivism and the future society

A letter exchange about primitivism between Green Anarchist and Steve from Hastings in response to an article in Subversion issue 22 (currently unavailable online) from 1997.

Rick Kuhn: An introduction to Henryk Grossman

Henryk Grossman’s discussion of economic crises was designed to complement his Leninist understanding of politics. For Grossman, as for Marx, the fundamental contradiction of capitalist production is between the unlimited scope for expanding the output of use-values and restrictions imposed by the framework of producing profits. The increasing weight of capitalists’ outlays on dead compared to living labour, which is the only source of new value, gives rise to the system’s tendency to break down and, hence, to economic crises. Deep financial crises can only be understood in the context of developments in production and particularly movements in the rate of profit. The initial widespread hostility to Grossman’s development of Marxist economics can mainly be explained in terms of the logics of Social-Democratic and Stalinist politics.

Filed under: critique and theory   |  3 Comments
Tags: Anselme Jappe, Anti-imperialism, Arya Zahedi, economic growth, economics, Green Anarchist, iran, Max Nordau, Primitivism