Re: [OPE-L] on the political economy of the working class

[glevy@xxxxxxxxx]

> On the question of critique and political economy, for what it's worth,
> there's a passage from p. 202 of Beyond Capital:
> The critique of the political economy of capital is completed only by
> the  realisation of the political economy of the working  class--- a
> communist  society. As long as producers are not their own mediator,
> the mystification  of everyday life and the alienation of human beings
> from their own powers  continue:
>         The veil is not removed from the countenance of the social
> life-process, i.e. the process of material production, until  it
> becomes production by freely  associated men, and stands under their
> conscious and planned control (Marx,  1977: > 173).

Hi Michael L,

The realm of critique for Marx extended far beyond the critique of
political economy:

"If we have no business with the construction of the future or with
organizing it for all time, there can still be no doubt about the task
confronting us at present:  the  _ruthless critique of the existing
order_, ruthless in that it will shrink neither from its  own discoveries,
nor from conflict with the powers that be." (Marx to Ruge, September,
1843;
(full letter:
<http://eserver.org/marx/1843-letters.to.arnold.ruge/1843.09-ruthless.critique.txt
>

Note that he wrote this in 1843.  Did his perspective on the *scope*
of critique change in later years?

What are the implications for the critique _of_ Marx and Marxism?  Will
the "ruthless" critique extend into a socialist society?  Does it "whither
away"?

In solidarity, Jerry