Re: Re: reparations

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

Sam Pawlett wrote:

> A certain tradition within Marxism. Its not capitalism that brought the
> benefits but people struggling for public health, social security etc.

But capitalism made possible the wealth and scientific knowledge that
people struggled over, and the partial socialization of production
that made socialism possible. This ambivalent attitude towards
capitalism seems to me one of the distinctive features of Marxism -
as opposed to romantic, moralizing, or utopian critiques of the sort
that Marx savaged. If you're going to embrace a romantic, moralizing,
or utopian critique, you might as well say so, instead of doing it in
the name of a purer Marxism - purer than Marx himself.

Doug