Re: Economics of Communist Society

[Mneillft@xxxxxxx]

I fine "Ecofeminism" by Maria Mies and Vandanna Shiva to be a powerful and
valuable book.  I think it has some serious flaws as well, particularly
Shiva's arguments which I read as flat-out opposition to all technology
developed under capitalism (if that is not her view, then such is to be found
in other of her writing); and her complementary support for pre-capitalist
formations that I am unpersuaded were so wonderful (even if capitalism
underdeveloped and otherwise made the bad worse) -- it leaves me wondering
about a viable program that comes from her ideas, centered on her Indian
 religious conceptions of nature. That said, it is powerful because there is
an important critique of capitalism in her work and support for conceptions
of development that make a lot more sense than capitalism. Currently she is a
board (or whatever title) member of the International Forum on Globalization,
which I'm very critical of and view as representing a new effort at social
democracy (though they have a mountain of information about the miseries of
neoliberalism) -- the Forum is international  and they've held some
well-attended events in the US (I was at one in DC, so got a strong sense of
the operation, which only deepened my criticism).  I have not read her other
work, save a short piece or two on the battles against dams and the WB/IMF in
India a few years ago.

While writing, I've only followed the discussion thread cursorily, mostly
because I've been too busy.  It seems it has largely focused on means of
distributing fairly that which the working class produces. As such, it
strikes me as a discussion several steps beyond where it should start.
 Issues such as how to decide what to produce in the first place have not
been adequately addressed (IMHO).  The discussions retain a kind of
nationalistic air -- so how to deal with the consequences of capitalist
underdevelopment and distorted (over?) development on a planetary basis have
thus not been addressed (someone, perhaps Harald, touched on this question
much earlier).   If we find some means of deciding what should be produced,
considerations of environment, etc., included, and what kinds of repairs need
to be made over what time span, and how much time 'we' want to work, then
issues of distribution flow from that . To me, the discussion has focused on
distribution too quickly.  Probably I really have been too cursory in my
reading -- if so, apologies and <never mind>

Monty Neill
mneillft@xxxxxxx


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