Re: Darwin and Marx

[Adam Rose <adam@xxxxxxxx>]

Louis writes:
>
> On Thu, 4 Jan 1996, Patrick Patterson wrote:
>
> > Louis as usual goes to the heart of the matter.
> >
> So what is the role of labor in a transitional socialist economy? Do we
> embrace Taylorism as Lenin did? Or do we choose another model?
>
> I don't have an answer yet. But these are exactly the kinds of questions
> I am considering as I plow ahead with my book "Computers and Socialism".
> Stay tuned.
>

The latest managerial philosophy is in theory anyway a move away from
Taylorism, isn't it ? In theory it merges "purging middle management" ,
multi-skilling , high technology, and the market.

Of course, what we actually get is completely different to the theory.
What has happened in the British Health Service is that there are more
non nursing staff employed to manage the market, and fewer nurse working
much harder.

I think a socialist society would make use of the latest capitalist management
theory in order to plan the economy. One criticism of capitalism is that the
division of labour is done irrationally because the relations of production
( the need for profit ) prevent it. So AIDS research for instance is kept
secret by the companies wishing to make a profit out of it.
Of course we would not be subservient to such theories but would use them
insofar as they helped us - the same, incidentally goes for any "market"s we
may have. So, we could do more effective AIDS research and
still put all the researchers on a three day week, if they so wished.

Adam.

Adam Rose
SWP
Manchester
UK


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