Re: [Marxism] Cuba perspectives, from Columbus to Castro (book review)

[Peter McLaren <mclaren@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sent:

Can you hear Marx tittering in Highgate?

If only socialists had studied Marx properly, they would have known all
along that capitalism would triumph. Meghnad Desai gets behind the
slogans in Marx's Revenge

Faisal Islam
Sunday May 19, 2002
The Observer

Marx's Revenge
Meghnad Desai
Verso £19, pp383

Practical jokes, last laughs and vengeance would have been more the
sphere of Groucho rather than Karl Marx. But Meghnad Desai argues that
the great thinker's most prominent legacy was a huge confidence trick.
Capitalism has now triumphed, it is 'the only game in town', statist
socialism is 'dead', and, yes, that is what Marx had said would happen
all along.

.....Whether it is called the market, or capitalism, or neoliberalism, it is
a tool that has not yet been harnessed fully for poverty alleviation. As
Desai points out, the market is a tool for eliminating scarcity. It is
departures from the free market, such as big subsidies for agriculture
in rich countries, that are doing most to solidify poverty. Even from a
tactical perspective, arguments expressed in the language of the free
market are listened to, whereas moral sentimentality about excessive
inequality is worthy but ineffective.

-----
Has anybody read this book?  This is the professor at the London School of
Economics who writes that Marx failed to see that capitalism can eliminate
scarcity as well as inequality. Who argues that as the most effective mode
of production for wealth creation, capitalism has been hugely successful for
increasing life expectancy, etc etc...it is the best arrangement for the
alleviation of poverty, etc etc...there is no rival mode of production as an
alternative...attempts at socialism have only ushered in barbarism and
bloodshed...or is anyone aware of any reviews of this book?
best
Peter 




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