Re: White and Luxemburg. Was: (OPE-L) New Dialectics and Critical Realism

[Paul Zarembka <zarembka@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Paulo,

Thanks for your interest.  Elsevier Science is moving toward having each
contribution separately on-line, but it isn't there yet.  I can either
mail you a hard-copy or provide an immediate pre-final version (which of
course doesn't include those last minute clarifications/corrections
authors do).  In either case, I'll respond to inquires privately so that
no copyright issues could be at stake.

Paul

*************************************************************************
Vol.21-Neoliberalism in Crisis, Accumulation, and Rosa Luxemburg's Legacy
RESEARCH IN POLITICAL ECONOMY, Zarembka/Soederberg, eds, Elsevier Science
********************** http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PZarembka


On Thu, 18 Mar 2004, Francisco Paulo Cipolla wrote:

> Paul, is your article on "Accumulation of Capital: its definition.." available
> online?.
> Paulo
>
> Paul Zarembka wrote:
>
> > Chris,
> >
> > Thanks for your review of White's work and I have obtained James White's
> > reply; it is attached.  Did both appear in *Studies in Marxism*?
> >
> > I share White's understanding of what Luxemburg was trying to accomplish,
> > against your dismissal of her work on accumulation of capital.  In fact,
> > I'll up the stakes.
> >
> > Marx started *Capital* with "Commodities" and goes forward as we all well
> > know, never really getting to history until the end of *Volume 1*.  Yet,
> > around the time that the first edition of *Capital* was published, he
> > became more and more deeply drawn into the historical question and the
> > question of the penetration (or lack thereof) of capitalism into
> > pre-capitalist society.  As White says,
> >
> >    "It emerged [from White's investigations] that what Marx was interested
> > in at that time was the action of capital on non-capitalist societies,
> > traditional agrarian communities. He began this line of inquiry not with
> > Russia, but with his native Germany, using mainly the works of Maurer. But
> > the country where the peasant agrarian commune was most in evidence was
> > Russia, and it was to that country that he naturally turned his
> > attention."
> >
> > Compare Luxemburg's *Introduction to Political Economy*.  She doesn't get
> > to "Commodity Production" until her six chapter!  Her long third chapter
> > is "Elements of Economic History: Primitive Communism" and used some of
> > the exact same source materials as Marx was reading.  (Marx, Luxemburg and
> > White all read Russian.  Incidentally, half of Luxemburg's third chapter
> > is now translated into English in *The Rosa Luxemburg Reader*, edited by
> > Peter Hudis and Kevin B. Anderson, Monthly Review, 2004, pp. 71-110.)
> > Luxemburg goes on to feudalism and the guilds.
> >
> > In other words, Luxemburg's project became in fact what White says Marx
> > was moving toward in his late years!  Pretty amazing, no?  I think
> > Luxemburg came to this on her own, although apparently she did have access
> > to some of Marx's unpublished materials.
> >
> > Where I might depart from White is that I think the problem with
> > accumulation of capital as the extension of capitalism is already a
> > problem in *Volume 1* of *Capital*, while White thinks it arises from the
> > interface of *Volume 1* with *Volume 2*.  My argument appears in
> > "Accumulation of Capital, Its Definition, A Century after Lenin and
> > Luxemburg", *R.P.E.*, Vol. 18, pp. 183-241, and is also mentioned in my
> > comment on Sayer's review of White.
> >
> > Another comment.  In my view, you over-estimate the cogency of Lenin's
> > economics.  For my own evaluation, see my article last year in *Science
> > and Society*, "Lenin, Economist of Production: A Ricardian Step
> > Backwards".  The more carefully I read Lenin's economics, the less
> > 'marxist' it became and I wouldn't use it as a standard anymore.
> >
> > In any case, I prefer your review of White's *Karl Marx and the Origins of
> > Dialectical Materialism* because you clearly respect the work, in spite of
> > disagreements.  I hadn't known of it before and am glad that White is
> > receiving increasing attention.
> >
> > Paul
> >
> > P.S. I notice some typos in White:
> >
> > a. "Manuscript I of the second draft written in 1865": actually refers to
> > Manuscript I of Volume 2.
> >
> > b. The first edition of Capital was 1867, not 1868.
> >
> > **************************************************************************
> > Vol.21: Neoliberalism in Crisis, Accumulation, and Rosa Luxemburg's Legacy
> > RESEARCH IN POLITICAL ECONOMY, Zarembka/Soederberg, eds., Elsevier Science
> > *********************** http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PZarembka
> >
> >   ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >                  Name: Arthur.doc
> >    Arthur.doc    Type: Microsoft Word Document (application/msword)
> >              Encoding: BASE64
>
>
>