Re: Productive Forces, was Re: reply-part 2

[Waistline2@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated Tue, 26 Feb 2002  1:21:30 PM Eastern Standard Time, Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

>
>
> Waistline2@xxxxxxx wrote:
> >
> > >>
> > We demand change in society along the direction of the productive forces,
>
> No. Not true. _Many_ Marxists but by no means all put central emphasis
> on the "productive forces." Others argue that this proposition about the
> necessary growth of productive forces applies not to all history (and
> certainly not to socialism or communism) but only to capitalism. It is
> this drive to unleash the productive forces that turns capitalism into a
> destructive force. See esp. the works of Ellen Meiksins Wood, Edward
> Thompson, Raymond Williams, and Robert Brenner.
>
> Carrol



Acknowledged.

I - me personally,(it is incorrect to state "we" as if I represented the "marxist") desire change in society that conforms to and along the trajectory of the technical development that reflect the new qualitative change in the productive forces that makes an abundance of commodities availabe to all. I acknowledge my arrogance and mistake in assuming a posture that articulates anyones voice other than my own and those who I agree with. I will be more careful not to make this mistake in the future.

Everyone wants something different.

What makes captialism capitalism - in my opinion, (that is to say to me as an indivdual) is not the productive forces as an abstraction or merely a technical state of development - as the fundamental distinction of social production on the basis of the industrial infrastructure and all the properties this entail, but the the character of appropriation. I am aware that many do not agree with this focus on property relations.

You are correct. In the final instance I speak for myself only.

Melvin P.