Marxism Isnt Dead Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Marx Essays

ABSTRACT: I defend the continued viability of Marx's critique of capitalism against Ronald Aronson's recent claim that because Marxists are 'unable to point to a social class or movement' away from capitalism, Marxism is 'over' 'as a project of historical transformation.' First, Marx's account of the forced extraction of surplus labor remains true. It constitutes an indictment of the process of capital accumulation because defenses of capitalism's right to profit based on productive contribution are weak. If generalized, the current cooperative movement, well advanced in many nations, can displace capitalism and thus counts as the movement Aronson challenges Marxists to point to. It will do this, I argue, by stopping capitalist exploitation, blocking capital accumulation, and narrowing class divisions. But in defending Marx by pointing to the cooperative movement, we have diverged from Marx's essentially political strategy for bringing about socialism onto an economic one of support for tendencies toward workplace democracy worldwide. Why isn't Marxism dead? Many anti-Marxists and even some Marxists say it is. As proof, anti-Marxists point to the failure of the Soviet model of socialism, that is, an undemocratic government controlling the means of production, replacing markets with bureaucratic planning of production and distribution. (1) But on Marx's view undeveloped countries like czarist Russia with a minority working class were in no position to lead what was to be in any case a global change from an interdependent world market to socialism "as the act of the dominant peoples 'all at once' and simultaneously." (2) If anything the USSR's failure proved Marx right! (3) In the end Marx envisioned not government control... ...F. and Whyte, K.K., Making Mondragon: The Growth and Dynamics of the Worker Cooperative Complex (Ithica: ILR Press, 1988). (20) Robert Fitch, "In Bologna, Small is Beautiful," The Nation, May 13, 1996. (21) Grassroots Economic Organizing Newsletter (GEO), #16 and #17, Winter-Spring 1995. (22) GEO, #12, Fall 1994. Many other countries have deep cooperative traditions, including the UK, France, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Indonesia, India, Chile, and Argentina. (23) This finding was a summary of forty-three economic studies by David Levine and Laura D'Andrea Tyson, "Participation, Productivity, and the Firm's Environment," in A. Blinder, editor, Paying for Productivity: A Look at the Evidence (Washington D.C.: The Brookings Institute, 1990), pp. 205-214. (24) "Inaugural Address of the Working Men's International Association," (1864) in Tucker, p. 518. Marxism Isn't Dead Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Marx Essays ABSTRACT: I defend the continued viability of Marx's critique of capitalism against Ronald Aronson's recent claim that because Marxists are 'unable to point to a social class or movement' away from capitalism, Marxism is 'over' 'as a project of historical transformation.' First, Marx's account of the forced extraction of surplus labor remains true. It constitutes an indictment of the process of capital accumulation because defenses of capitalism's right to profit based on productive contribution are weak. If generalized, the current cooperative movement, well advanced in many nations, can displace capitalism and thus counts as the movement Aronson challenges Marxists to point to. It will do this, I argue, by stopping capitalist exploitation, blocking capital accumulation, and narrowing class divisions. But in defending Marx by pointing to the cooperative movement, we have diverged from Marx's essentially political strategy for bringing about socialism onto an economic one of support for tendencies toward workplace democracy worldwide. Why isn't Marxism dead? Many anti-Marxists and even some Marxists say it is. As proof, anti-Marxists point to the failure of the Soviet model of socialism, that is, an undemocratic government controlling the means of production, replacing markets with bureaucratic planning of production and distribution. (1) But on Marx's view undeveloped countries like czarist Russia with a minority working class were in no position to lead what was to be in any case a global change from an interdependent world market to socialism "as the act of the dominant peoples 'all at once' and simultaneously." (2) If anything the USSR's failure proved Marx right! (3) In the end Marx envisioned not government control... ...F. and Whyte, K.K., Making Mondragon: The Growth and Dynamics of the Worker Cooperative Complex (Ithica: ILR Press, 1988). (20) Robert Fitch, "In Bologna, Small is Beautiful," The Nation, May 13, 1996. (21) Grassroots Economic Organizing Newsletter (GEO), #16 and #17, Winter-Spring 1995. (22) GEO, #12, Fall 1994. Many other countries have deep cooperative traditions, including the UK, France, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Indonesia, India, Chile, and Argentina. (23) This finding was a summary of forty-three economic studies by David Levine and Laura D'Andrea Tyson, "Participation, Productivity, and the Firm's Environment," in A. Blinder, editor, Paying for Productivity: A Look at the Evidence (Washington D.C.: The Brookings Institute, 1990), pp. 205-214. (24) "Inaugural Address of the Working Men's International Association," (1864) in Tucker, p. 518.