USSR
At the source of The Critique of Political Economy - Paresh Chattopadhyay
Paresh Chattopadhyay's review of a collection of Marx and Engels' notebooks.
"Karl Marx - Exzerpte und Notizen: Sommer 1844 bis Anfang 1847" in Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels "” Gesamtausgabe (MEGA) vierte Abteilung. Band 3. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1998, pp. 866.
Reviewed by Paresh Chattopadhyay*
The Contradiction of Trotsky - Claude Lefort
The Contradiction of Trotsky
By Claude Lefort
From the Analysis of Bureaucracy to Workers Management - Castoriadis
From the Analysis of Bureaucracy to Workers Management
Cornelius Castoriadis
How does one characterize such a regime from a Marxist point of veiw? Sociologically speaking it was clear that it should be defined in the same way as the Russian regime. And it is here that the weakness and the absurdity of the trotskyist conception became evident.
The Bolsheviks and workers' control: the state and counter-revolution - Maurice Brinton
A remarkable pamphlet by Maurice Brinton exposing the struggle that took place over the running of workplaces between workers and the new state in the Russian Revolution.
In doing so not only does it demolish the romantic Leninist 'history' of the relationship between the working class and their party during these years (1917 - 21) but it also provides a backbone to understanding why the Russian revolution failed in the way it did.
What was the USSR (Part IV)? Towards a Theory of the Deformation of Value
The fourth and final article in Aufheben's series on the USSR, dealing with the Trotskyist analysis of the USSR as a "degenerated workers' state".
So our saga on the nature of the USSR draws to a close.
What was the USSR? Part III
In the previous articles we examined various Trotskyist and neo-Trotskyist positions on the nature of the USSR.
We now turn to the theories of the less well known but more interesting Communist Left, who were among the first revolutionary Marxists to distance themselves from the Russian model by deeming it state capitalist or simply capitalist.The Russian Left Communists' critique remained at the level of an immediate response to how capitalist measures were affecting the class, whereas in both the German/D
What was the USSR? Part II: Russia as a Non-mode of Production
Having disposed of the theory of the USSR as a 'degenerated workers' state', Ticktin's theory presents itself as the most persuasive alternative to the understanding of the USSR as capitalist
Its strength is its attention to the empirical reality of the USSR and its consideration of the specific forms of class struggle it was subject to. However, while we acknowledge that the USSR must be understood as a malfunctioning system, we argue that, because Ticktin doesn't relate his categories of 'political economy' to the class struggle, he fails to grasp the capitalist nature of the USSR.
What was the USSR? Part 1: Trotsky and State Capitalism
The Russian Revolution and the subsequent establishment of the USSR as a 'workers' state', has dominated political thinking for more than three generations.
In the past, it seemed enough for communist revolutionaries to define their radical separation with much of the 'left' by denouncing the Soviet Union as state capitalist. This is no longer sufficient, if it ever was. Many Trotskyists, for example, now feel vindicated by the 'restoration of capitalism' in Russia.
Hungary '56 - Andy Anderson
Andy Anderson's pamphlet, written in 1964 and published by Solidarity is invaluable as a guide to the events of the Hungarian uprising of 1956.
The demands for economic and political self-management were common to many revolutions of the past, but were unique in that they occurred in the context of the 'Communist' USSR, and after Stalin's regime had ended.
Re-published by AK Press 2002
ISBN: 0 934868 01 8
"We shall drag the blood-soaked Hungarian mud on to the carpets of your drawing rooms.
