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Struggle on Many Fronts - Communists and Capitalism
Prabhat Patnaik’s “The Communists and the Building of Capitalism“, evidently an ideological and polemic-ridden article, makes some interesting points particularly in the context of the debates about espousing of capitalist principles by Communist governments in India. This would be relevant to the situation in Nepal as the Maoists have clearly won the recent election. Similar dilemmas of ‘democracy’ exist elsewhere too.
Does the fact of communist-led state governments operating within a capitalist system and hence playing host to private investment, necessarily entail that the communists have abandoned socialism? The media reactions to statements by some West Bengal communist leaders would suggest that the answer is a clear “yesâ€. But this is a non-sequitur. It is worth examining the issue theoretically, even if it involves restating certain bread-and-butter theoretical propositions.
……….Since the conditions for such a social revolution take time to mature, all communist parties must work within the capitalist system for long stretches of time, bringing theory to the working class and helping it through its struggles to prepare itself for the task of leading this revolution.
All this however presupposes that the democratic revolution, which the bourgeoisie had led historically, has been more or less completed, so that a socialist revolution has come on the agenda. But in societies where the bourgeoisie appears late on the scene, it proves singularly incapable of completing the democratic revolution itself, and instead makes common cause with feudal and pre-bourgeois elements, since it is afraid that any attack on pre-bourgeois property could well encompass an attack on bourgeois property as well. This compromise, which was evident in the case of pre-revolutionary Russia, incorporates a compromise with imperialism as well in the context of third world societies.
April 19th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Capitalism needs war or the threat of war to maintain full employment - Karl Marx. Marx was right… Now we have Mr. Bush’s / Neocon’s gift : “The Trillion $ War”… whose costs are distributed “evenly” across the world ! Indeed, the world is flat, Mr. Freidman ! There is an immedaite need to address the FOOD SECURITY BLANKET program. All men are equal, but in capitalism, everyone has access to “institutions”, just as the poor have access to the “Ritz” Hotel. Reaganomics / Thatcherism… and after 20 years we see the situation today. This is the beginning of the DEMISE of capitalism ! College-Fees in Millions, Hospital BIlls in Millions… ever thought of such a scenario ? People will kill each other for a peice of bread. FOOD RIOTS are on the way. Mr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India… must first think about FOOD… (RICE/WHEAT/DALS/ COOKING OIL/KEROSENE)… Electricity (Nuclear Energy) can wait… Mr. Singh. Do not lose focus on the ROTI and CHAVAL…. Cuz if you do… then there will be severe FAMINE in India that would lead to food-riots. There is already a history… half a million people died in the Bengal Famine only 70 years ago ! Remember the speeches made by Leaders in the Constituent Assembly then… History is repeating itself. FOOD… FOOD… and FOOD… Prices must be kept under a tight leash. We can wait for another century, before we convert India into a super-power… Right now half of Indians are hungry… and suffer from mal-nutrition. FAMINES and FOOD RIOTS are COMING.
India… Pakistan and Bangladesh should immediately sit down to address this issue… otherwise the holocaust would be even worse than 1947. Hunger would lead to internal IMPLOSION… and that HUNGER HOLOCAUST would be worst than a nuclear holocaust.