Re: [Marxism] If Marxism is a Science then its Predictions ShouldMatter...

["rrubinelli" <rrubinelli@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Come on, comrade O' Callaghan, it, the collapse, not transition, of the
USSR was a giant step backwards for the working class everywhere.  Life
expectancies declined dramatically, GDP imploded, preventable diseases,
i.e tuberculosis, soared, women were exported into the sex trade.

The first Gulf war was one more result, as was "turning" of Vietnam to
"free market" economics, the special period in Cuba...

This was no transition, this was no cyclical or even structural economic
contraction, it was collapse, counterrevolution.... the triumph of a
different class, the institution of a different, and devastating, social
relation of production.

Living in the former East Germany (I assume) as you do, then you should
also know that the billions in welfare payments made by the former West
have not "overcome"  the shuttering of manufacturing in the East, have
not mitigated the higher rates of unemployment in the  former East.

And no such billions in welfare payments were made in the former USSR;
the social structure, including the military, was basically torched.

rr

----- Original Message -----
From: "Einde O'Callaghan" <einde@xxxxxx>
To: "Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition"
<marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 3:53 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] If Marxism is a Science then its Predictions
ShouldMatter...


> This was primarily a reference to the social relations - and living as
I
> do in the former East Bloc I find that many workers, perhaps even the
> vast majority - including the unemployed - have a similar approach.
I've
> met nobody except for a very few members the former elite who would
> prefer to go back to the old system - so much for a "workers' state"
> rejected by the supposed ruling class!
>
> There is an old East European joke: "Capitalism is the exploitation of
> one man by another - Socialism is the other way round!"
>
> Einde O'Callaghan


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