Suchergebnisse

THE END OF MARXISM CAN COME ONLY WITH THE END OF CAPITALISM. IN ORDER TO BECOME MODERATE, SOCIALISM HAD TO PASS THROUGH REVISIONISM AND REVISIONIST DISCOURSE WAS VERY IMPORTANT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIALIST THOUGHT. THE PUBLIC DEMAND FOR A REMAKE OF HISTORICAL MARXISM MAKES ITSELF FELT AT EVERY STEP. THIS ARTICLE ARGUES THAT IF PEOPLE DO NOT COPE WITH THE TASK, THEIR LIVES WILL HAVE NEITHER MEANING NOR JUSTIFICATION.

THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT ACCEPTED THE BASIC PRINCIPLES AND ADVICE OF THE IMF DECISION-MAKERS. THESE DECISIONS RESULTED IN THE CURRENT CHAOS WHICH HAS NOT ONLY LED TO THE TOTAL COLLAPSE OF THE RUSSIAN ECONOMY, BUT ALSO IS BRINGING THE WHOLE WORLD ECONOMY CLOSER TO RECESSION. GOVERNMENT BORROWING BECAME A SORT OF DRUG TO WHICH THE RULING ELITES BECAME ADDICTED AND THE SCREWS WENT ON GOVERNMENT SPENDING, INCLUDING PUBLIC INVESTMENT. THERE WAS ALSO MISUSE OF THE FUNDS PROVIDED BY INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSITUTIONS. TODAY A CRISIS OF THE ELITES IS UNFOLDING. THE WEST NEEDS TO LEAVE RUSSIA IN PEACE.

Explores the comprehensive failure of neo-liberal candidates in the Russian elections and considers the new alignments in the run-up to the presidential election scheduled for June 1995. (Original abstract-amended)

THIS ARTICLE IS ONE OF A COLLECTION WHICH APPEARED AT THE END OF 1992 AND IN THE EARLY MONTHS OF 1993, BUT HAVE LOST NONE OF THEIR POLITICAL IMPORTANCE AND RELEVANCE. THE ARTICLE IS A RESPONSE TO THE "REFOUNDING" OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY. IT ILLUMINATES THE ENORMOUSLY COMPLEX ISSUES FACING THE REBORN RUSSIAN CP BUT MORE PARTICULARLY SHEDS LIGHT ON THE PROBLEMS OF TACTICS AND STRATEGY WITH WHICH OTHER RECENTLY FOUNDED LEFT PARTIES HAVE TO DEAL IN DEFINING THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CPRF. THE AUTHOR CAUTIONS THAT DESPITE DIFFERENCES IN THE WAY IN WHICH THE POLICIES OF THE CPRF ARE BEING DETERMINED, THEY DO NOT WANT TO CLOSE THE DOOR ON COLLABORATION WITH COMMUNISTS.

THE AUTHOR DESCRIBES THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL REALIGNMENT UNDERWAY IN RUSSIA DUE TO THE DRIVE FOR MARKETIZATION AND PRIVATIZATION.

BORIS KAGARLITSKY, FOUNDER OF THE RUSSIAN SOCIALIST PARTY AND DEPUTY TO THE MOSCOW CITY COUNCIL SPOKE AT THE NEW YORK MARXIST SCHOOL /BRECHT FORUM ON THE PROCESS OF RECAPITALIZATION IN THE EX-SOVIET UNION. KARAGLITSKY DESCRIBES THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE CURRENT PRO-MARKET, PRO-CAPITALIST FERVOR IN THE EX-SOVIET UNION--ESPECIALLY PREVALENT AMONG INTELLECTUALS AND JOURNALISTS. HE ATTRIBUTES THIS DEVOTION TO THE IMAGE OF A UTOPIAN WESTERN CAPITALISM TO ITS ROOTEDNESS IN AN IMAGE OF COMMUNISM PROPOSED BY KHRUSCHEV AND TO THE NORMAL PROCESS OF EXTRAPOLATION FROM AN EMPIRICIST REGISTERING OF THE SURFACE PHENOMENA OF WESTERN AND EASTERN SOCIALIST SOCIETIES. HE ARGUES THAT ENTHUSIASM FOR CAPITALISM HAS WANED CONSIDERABLY SINCE 1991 AMONG THE WORKING CLASS AS THE POPULATION EXPERIENCES UNEMPLOYMENT, INFLATION, AND SOCIAL INSECURITY.

THAT SOCIALISM IS "IN TRANSITION" TODAY IN RUSSIA AND IN THE OTHER FORMER REPUBLICS OF THE SOVIET UNION IS MADE EVIDENT BY BORIS KARGARLITSKY'S ANALYSIS OF THE LITHUANIAN ELECTIONS. THE BIG QUESTION IS WHETHER THIS "TRANSITION" IS LEADING TO A COMPLETE RUPTURE WITH SOCIALIST STRUCTURES AND PRINCIPLES, OR IS INSTEAD MARKED BY FIDELITY TO SOME OF THE ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM EVEN WHILE BREAKING FREE OF THE KINDS OF CENTRALIZED "COMMANDIST" FORMS OF ORGANIZATION THAT HAD CHARACTERIZED SOVIET POLITICS AND LABOR UP TO THE ERA OF THE GORBACHEV REFORMS. THE OPPOSITIONAL STANCE TAKEN BY MANY TOWARDS THE YELTSIN-LED GOVERNMENT SUGGESTS THAT THERE ARE STILL STRONG CURRENTS OF SOLIDARISTIC AND SOCIALIST THINKING IN RUSSIA TODAY.

Explains the strength of pro-capitalist views, welcomes the scope for public opinion, and salutes the emergence of working-class opposition to 'market Stalinism' favoured by technocratic reformers. Calls for practical alternatives as the Party faces probable defeat in a new round of Republican elections. (Abstract amended)

THE AUTHOR CONSIDERS THE PLACE OF MARXIST IDEOLOGY AND THE POSITION OF THE LIBERAL INTELLIGENTSIA IN GORBACHEV'S SOVIET UNION.

Traces the dramatic dialectic of change opened up by 'perestroika' and compares it with the bureaucratic stagnation of the Breshnev era. (PFB)