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The idea of combining some form of social equality with markets goes back to the very origins of socialist tradition and also underlies most of the proposals currently being presented as "alternatives" to the capitalist social order. However, taking as its axis the organic relationship between commodity circulation and capital, as revealed by Marx, it is possible to offer a critique of market socialism (choosing David Schweickart's version of Economic Democracy as a generic textual reference) to demonstrate its inconsistency as a project for social emancipation alternative to the capitalist mode of production. And this for reasons of: i) economy: due to market inefficiency in allocation, and its tendency toward social polarization; ii) politics: because markets prevent citizen self-government and block the free development of human capacities; and iii) ecology: the market is incompatible with a social metabolism that is sustainable with nature. The conclusion is that a market-based production structure is incompatible with the conscious, rational, and democratic regulation of the economy.

Cet inédit issu du fonds d'archives Henri Lefebvre est la retranscription d'une conférence prononcée en 1959 qui porte sur l'évaluation des enjeux des luttes paysannes, mal saisis selon l'auteur. Il est augmenté d'une présentation qui insiste sur l'inscription de ce thème dans un programme précoce qui, attaché à la question de la rente foncière dans la perspective des textes de jeunesse de Marx, alimentera la réflexion lefebvrienne sur les formes sociales comme fondements de la sociologie historique de Marx. Selon Lefebvre, les travaux incessants de Marx sur la dissolution de la propriété collective au cours de l'histoire et hors du contexte européen sont à la fois inaboutis et insuffisamment compris, alors qu'ils faisaient une place plus importante au socialisme paysan.

The immediate causes of the current crisis in socialism are the highly authoritarian and extremely hierarchical political and economic structures created by Leninism. Yet the collapse of state socialism also appears to be part of a more general crisis of socialism, a crisis that includes even its potentially more democratic variants. At the core of this broader crisis lies the diminishing appeal of the publicly owned enterprise, an institution that has always been central to the very definition of socialism, but whose economic advantages are called into question by the recent and rapid development of global markets in factors of production and especially in assets. Consequently, communism's demise by no means signifies a victory for either democratic socialism or even social democracy.

African Socialism represents the most comprehensive doctrinal and programmatic attempt to deal with the complex problems of the African continent. During the second decade of the second half of the twentieth century, in the effort to deal with those problems, African Socialism established itself as the ideological rationale for mass movements of solidarity in Ghana, Senegal, Tanzania, Guinea, and Mali. Outside the immediate confines of these countries, the influence of African Socialism has been impressive. Even countries as traditionally conservative as Ethiopia and Liberia have had to acknowledge its existence and in some cases adopt at least its vocabulary.

Begins with a description of Western socialism, or social democracy, identifying three key features, or ambitions. This "participatory" socialism, marked by democracy, regulation, & welfare, is deemed conventional, but a "natural" & adverse tendency toward authoritarianism & hierarchy is also seen to operate. Attention is given to "socialism-in-the-making's" political/moral character & social location in the contested spaces of civil society. D. Edelman

RECENT HISTORY HAS NOT BEEN KIND TO THE IDEAS OF SOCIALISM AND TRADITION. THE COLLAPSE OF COMMUNISM IN EASTERN EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION--"THE ONLY EXISTING SOCIALISM" ACCORDING TO SOME FRIENDS AND FOES ALIKE--SEEMS TO MAKE SOCIALISM AN OBVIOUS CANDIDATE FOR THE DUSTBIN OF HISTORY. IT IS WITHIN THIS HISTORICAL MOMENT THAT PEOPLE ON THE LEFT, WHO IN THE PAST HAVE DEFINED THEMSELVES UNHESITATINGLY AS SOCIALISTS AND AS PART OF A SOCIALIST TRADITION, FACE THE QUESTION OF WHETHER THEY ARE MISGUIDED IN CLINGING TO THAT IDENTITY AND TRADITION.