[PEN-L:29367] RE: Re: Reform-ism

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

Title: RE: [PEN-L:29365] Re: Reform-ism

Despite working indirectly for the Roman Catholic Church, I don't read (or speak!) Latin. The Penguin edition translates this as "The tale is told of you." What it says to me in context is that Germans of Marx's day can learn a lot about their future from what was happening in England at the time. This isn't saying that Germany would be exactly like England. But a lot of it turned out to be the same.

As I understand it, "stageism" says that there's only one road (from pre-capitalism to capitalism to socialism) and that all we can do is speed things up or slow things down or go backward on that road. It seems to me that Marx wasn't saying that here: instead, he saw Germany as going in that direction, so that it could learn from English experience. That's different from saying "there is no alternative."

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Perelman [mailto:michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Monday, August 12, 2002 1:39 PM
> To: pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [PEN-L:29365] Re: Reform-ism
>
>
> The stageism I had in mind was the "De te fabula narratur." 
> [I can type
> in Latin]
>
> Marx, as we have discussed numerous times, also supported
> reforms without
> reformism.
>
> On Mon, Aug 12, 2002 at 06:28:06PM +0200, Jurriaan Bendien wrote:
> > Michael, what do you mean when saying "Marx began Capital
> with a stageist
> > flourish" - are you referring to the 1859 Preface ?  I
> think Stedman Jones
> > must be correct in stressing the importance of campaigning
> for reforms, but
> > he is surely wrong in saying that the "only alternative" is
> reformism. It
> > doesn't follow. If Marx didn't work out the premises for a feasible
> > socialism/communism, then presumably that's a challenge for
> us to do today.
> > Peculiar how somebody who liked to bash Friedrich Engels
> winds up arguing
> > for reformism.
> >
> > J.
> >
> >
>
> --
> Michael Perelman
> Economics Department
> California State University
> Chico, CA 95929
>
> Tel. 530-898-5321
> E-Mail michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>