Published: Science & Society, vol. 31, no. 1, 1967. pp. 108-114. Transcription/Markup: Micah Muer, 2018.
Rosa Luxemburg, by J. P. Nettl. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1966. $20.20. Vol. I, pp. xvi, 450; Vol II, pp.
viii, 451-984.
While J. P. Nettl had to convince himself “of having good reasons for
writing this book,” the work itself more than justifies his own motives
for doing so. It is far more than a biography, and reveals, through Rosa
Luxemburg’s life and work, a whole historical period which, far from
belonging to the irrevocable past, still determines the present and the future.
It would be futile to attempt an inventory of these two volumes filled, as they
are, with events, people, and i... (From: Marxists.org.) Published: Science & Society, vol. 24, no. 3. 1960. Pp. 266-269. Transcription/Markup: Micah Muer, 2018.
The Spartacus Uprising and the Crisis of the German Socialist Movement: A Study of the Relation of Political Theory and Party Practice, by Eric Waldman. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1959. $6.00. Pp. 248.
Forty years have passed since the Spartacus days in Berlin. Four
decades of political and imperialistic struggles embroiling the entire
world have reduced the Spartacus week to an apparently insignificant
incident. Yet, the Spartacus movement retains historical importance, for
its defeat signaled the early exhaustion of the feeble
world-revolutionary wave in the wake of the First World War. Waldman's
book do... (From: Marxists.org.) Published: Science & Society, vol. 38, no. 2. 1974. Pp 220-223. Transcription/Markup: Micah Muer, 2018.
Theories of Value and Distribution Since Adam Smith:
Ideology and Economic Theory, by Maurice Dobb. Cambridge
University Press: New York, 1973. $12.50. Pp. 295.
According to Marx, the vulgarization of classical bourgeois economy
was unavoidable. In France and in England, he wrote in the preface to
Capital:
The bourgeoisie had conquered political power.
Thenceforth, the class-struggle, practically as well as theoretically,
took on more and more outspoken and threatening forms. It sounded the
knell of scientific bourgeois economy. It was thenceforth no longer a
question, whether this theorem or that was true, but wh... (From: Marxists.org.) Published: in International Council Correspondence Vol. 1, no.8, May 1935, pp 1-6. Source: Antonie Pannekoek Archives Transcribed: by Graham Dyer
To Marxism, the determining contradiction in present-day society lies in the
contradictory development of the social forces
of production within the existing relations of production, or, otherwise
expressed, between the increasingly socialized character of the productive
process itself and the persisting property relations. In all forms of society,
the general advance of humanity has been expressed in the development of the
productive forces, i.e. of the means and methods of production, enabling ever
greater amounts of use articles to be produced with an ever diminishing amount
of dire... (From: Marxists.org.) Published: Proletarian Outlook, vol. 5, no. 5, pp. 5-10. November 1939. Source: The Internet Archive. Transcription/Markup for Marxists Internet Archive: Micah Muer, 2018.
It is claimed that something essential happened in 1935. "Rugged
individualism" was replaced by a new "social conscience" on the part of
the people and their government. The pleasant word "profit" disappeared
behind the still more pleasant word "security". The New
Deal was going to change things, until everybody would be able
to smile as sweetly as the President. And the magic of words almost
succeeded in bringing this about. Now again, however, all faces are
sour. Words, ideas, hopes cannot forever compensate for actual needs.
The bluff, the make-believe is ... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: Kurasje Archive; First Published: in Root and Branch #6, 1978; Transcribed: by Andy Blunden, for marxists.org 2003.
It will soon be sixty years since the mercenaries of the
German social-democratic leadership murdered Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. Although they are mentioned in the same breath, as they both symbolized the radical
element within the German political revolution of 1918, Rosa Luxemburg’s name carries
greater weight because her theoretical work was of greater seminal power. In fact, it can
be said that: she was the outstanding personality in the international labor movement
after Marx and Engels; and that her work has not lost its political relevance despite the
changes the capitalist system and the ... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: Science and Society, Fall 1972, Vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 258-273. Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt;
SOMEHOW, AND FOR REASONS known only to himself, Paul A. Samuelson cannot
leave Marx alone. His latest concern[1] in this respect is an attempt to have the last word in
a long-drawn controversy regarding the relation between value and price in the
Marxian system. He acknowledges right from the start that the criticism made by
Böhmm-Bawerk and others, namely that Marx was not able to sustain the
theory of value as presented in Volume I of Capital and abandoned it
in favor of a price theory in Volume III, cannot be made because of the fact
that the third volume was completed prior to the publication of the first.
Samuelson insi... (From: Marxists.org.) Published: in International Council Correspondence Vol. 1, no.6, March 1935, pp 9-18. Source: Antonie Pannekoek Archives Transcribed: by Graham Dyer
I
Anyone unfamiliar with politics who strolls into a workers’ meeting (leaving
out of consideration the gatherings of the unemployed) is surprised by the fact
that the larger part of those present is not to be numbered among the most
impoverished stratum of the proletariat. The best organized workers are, of
course, those who belong to the so-called labor aristocracy, which takes a
social position between the middle class and the genuine proletariat. These
trade-unionist organizations espouse the direct vital interests of their
members, bringing to them immediate advan... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: Western Socialist, Boston, USA, September 1946; Transcribed: by Adam Buick; Proofed: and corrected by Geoff Traugh, August 2005.
The Road to Serfdom. By Friedrich A. Hayek, University of Chicago Press, 1944 (250 pp.; $2.75).
Full Employment in a Free Society. By William H. Beveridge. W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 1945. (429pp; $3,75).
Both these books are dedicated to the “socialists of all
parties.” Hayek wants to discourage them, Beveridge tries to offer
encouragement. Both writers speak in the name of science and deal with the
reality of, and the need for, capitalistic planning. But what appears to Hayek
as the road to serfdom seems to Beveridge the highway to a free society.
Russia and Germany pro... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: Kurasje Council Communism Site; Transcribed: by Andy Blunden.
The question of organization and spontaneity was approached
in the labor movement as a problem of class consciousness, involving the relations of the
revolutionary minority to the mass of the capitalistically-indoctrinated proletariat. It
was considered unlikely that more than a minority would accept, and, by organizing itself,
maintain and apply a revolutionary consciousness. The mass of the workers would act as
revolutionaries only by force of circumstances. Lenin accepted this situation
optimistically. Others, like Rosa Luxemburg, thought differently about it. In order to
realize a party dictatorship, Lenin concerned himself first of all with questions of
o... (From: Marxists.org.) Review of Stalin and German Communism. A Study in the Origins of the State Party. By Ruth Fischer, Harvard University Press, 1948, 687 pp., $80; Source: Western Socialist, Boston, USA, March-April, 1949; Transcribed: by Adam Buick.
The postwar situation with the new imperialist rivalries brought forth an
American boom in anti-bolshevik literature. The latest of several big volumes,
starting with Trotsky’s Stalin biography is Ruth Fischer’s work on
the relationship between Stalin and the German Communist Party. To deal with
Stalinism in this manner us particularly apt, as the competition between
America and Russia concerns control over other countries. The
“rape” of smaller nations by greater powers is a mod... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: Western Socialist, Boston, USA, January-February, 1951; Transcribed: by Adam Buick. Stalin’s Frame-Up System and the Moscow Trials. By Leon Trotsky. With a Foreword by Joseph Hansen. Pioneer Publishers, New York, 1950. (144 pp., $1.00).
This booklet, published on the tenth anniversary of
Trotsky’s assassination, contains Trotsky’s closing speech at the
Hearing of the Dewey Commission of Inquiry first printed by Harper &
Brothers in 1937. In his foreword, Joseph Hansen finds this reminder of the
Moscow Trials particularly apt because of the series of trials of prominent
Communists, such as Rajk and Kostov, since the end of the second world war.
“Without knowing the truth about the Moscow trials,&rd... (From: Marxists.org.) Review of Eastern Menace, The Story of Japanese Imperialism. Published by the Union of Democratic Control, London. Source: International Review, New York, November 1936; Transcribed: by Adam Buick; Proofed: and corrected by Geoff Traugh, July 2005.
This document is addressed to the British “public,”
which is to be warned against the wiles of Japanese imperialism. It
aims to influence British policy (by which yellow imperialism was
“half supported and half feared”) so that the English may
come out openly against Japan. The latter, we are told, “is
organizing a Yellow Empire with the avowed policy of ending the rule of
the white man in the East, and if she does fight Russia, the war will
probably invol... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: Western Socialist, Boston, USA, July 1947; Transcribed: by Adam Buick. Hammer or Anvil. The Story of the German Working-Class Movement. By Evelyn Anderson (207pp.; V. Gollancz, London).
This short history of the German labor movement from the time of
Bismarck’s anti-socialist laws to its extinction under the Hitler regime
deals with both the political and trade-union aspects of the movement and is
written from the same point of view that prevailed in those organizations.
There is little criticism and what there is is directed only to the late phases
of the movement. Some errors of fact appear here and there with regard to
issues that are of no real importance. For instance, Liebknecht is said to have
been the only m... (From: Marxists.org.) Published: in International Council Correspondence Vol. 1, no.1, October 1934, p 16. Source: Antonie Pannekoek Archives Transcribed: by Graham Dyer
The present strike wave is characterized by defeats and betrayals. The
workers suffer defeats because of their insufficient and treacherous
organizations on the one hand, and because the capitalist class and its state
cannot permit a victory to the workers on the other. Capitalism in the period of
general crisis, must combat to its fullest extent any attempt by the workers to
improve their conditions. Victory for the workers would mean endangering the
position of capitalism. Every strike is practically lost in advance.
But this does not exclude the necessity of workers fighting ev... (From: Marxists.org.) Published: Root & Branch: The Rise of the Workers' Movement, 1975. Pp. 173-207. Source: Archive.org Transcription/Markup: Micah Muer, 2019.
The origins of the war in Indochina are to be found in the results
of the Second World War. Waged in Europe, Africa, and East Asia,
World War II turned America into the strongest capitalist power in
both the Atlantic and the Pacific areas of the world. The defeat
of the imperialist ambitions of Germany and Japan promised the
opening up of new imperialist opportunities for the United States,
which emerged from the conflict not only unimpaired but enormously
strengthened. America's opportunities were not limitless, however;
concessions had to be made to the Russian wartime ally, which for... (From: Marxists.org.) Published: in International Council Correspondence Vol. 1, no.1, October 1934, p 15. Source: Antonie Pannekoek Archives Transcribed: by Graham Dyer
According to the Militant (#37) the organizational unity of the
groups is close at hand. The political bargainers are almost sure to put their
deal through to the satisfaction of all concerned. The membership of both groups
will be very happy, and they will be proud of a larger and more important
organization. The Trotsky bodyguard will easily forget that only yesterday the
Musteites were fakirs and political scoundrels. The Muste crowd will soon agree
that Trotsky on the same side with their "American Lenin", the former and
present Priest Muste, is not so bad. Together they will fi... (From: Marxists.org.) Published: in International Council Correspondence Vol. 1, no.2, November 1934, pp 24-26. Source: Antonie Pannekoek Archives Transcribed: by Graham Dyer
Two years ago, in relation to Sinclair and the Eisenstein movie,
Thunder Over Mexico, the critics already tried to point
out that his ideology was of a fascist character. With his attitude
towards the cutting up of the movie, he had lost his prestige as a
socialist and was considered on the road to the class enemy. A good
business man, however, is not necessarily also a fascist, and the noise
about Sinclair’s perversion soon died out.
He ran for governor several times on the Socialist ticket, and now
he enters the Democratic Party with his Epic Platform (End Poverty In... (From: Marxists.org.) Published: Science & Society, vol. 23, no. 4 (Fall, 1959), pp. 289-297. Transcription/Markup: Micah Muer, 2018.
Marx based his theory of capital accumulation on the labor theory of
value and surplus-value, although he was fully aware that commodities
rarely are exchanged at their value. This “contradiction,”
of which so much is made in anti-Marxian theory, he resolved for himself
by pointing to the competitive market mechanism which, in his view,
transforms values into prices of production. Actually, of course, there
is no way of discovering the commodity price in its value, or, by a
reverse procedure, to discover its value in its price. There is no
observable “transformation” of values into prices a... (From: Marxists.org.) Published: Science & Society, vol. 23, no. 1. Winter 1959. Pp. 27-51. Transcription/Markup: Micah Muer, 2018.
Notes on Joseph M. Gillman’s The Falling Rate of Profit: Marx’s Law and Its Significance to Twentieth-Century Capitalism (New York, 1958).
The interest shown by readers of SCIENCE & SOCIETY in the article by
Jacob Morris on Joseph Gillman’s The Falling Rate of Profit
has led the editors to invite the opinions of economists on the questions
discussed in Dr. Gillman’s book. Their comments will be published
beginning with this issue.—Editors.
Marx’s theory of capital development evolved out of his criticism of
the value theory of laissez-faire capitalism. In order to yield
re... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: The Modern Quarterly, Fall 1938, pp. 16-20. Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt Proofed: by Jonas Holmgren
The Questions
Did the Bolshevik Revolution achieve its proletarian objectives?
Is the dictatorship of the proletariat consonant with Party Dictatorship?
Can a proletarian State arise on the basis of the wage system, managed by a
Party-State? What constitutes the abolition of capitalism?
Does Lenin’s thesis that in the imperialist epoch the proletariat
alone can lead a revolution to complete the “Bourgeois task” claim
validity in view of the course pursued by Cardenas in Mexico, Kemal Pacha in
Turkey, etc.?
Viewed in retrospect, did the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks retard the
World Prolet... (From: Marxists.org.) Published: in International Council Correspondence Vol. 1, no.1, October 1934, pp 1-9. Source: Antonie Pannekoek Archives Transcribed: by Graham Dyer
In communism, the process of production is no longer a process of capital
expansion, but only a labor process in which society draws from nature the means
of consumption which it needs. No longer are values produced, but only articles
for use. As an economic criterion, the necessity of which is undeniable, since
both production and the productive apparatus must be made to conform to the
social need, the only thing which can still serve is the labor time employed in
the production of goods. It is no longer the 'value' but the calculation in
terms of use articles and the immediate l... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: Modern Monthly, Vol. IX. No.5. September, 1935, pp. 267f Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt;
The Questions
What will you do when America goes to war?
Will your decision be altered if Soviet Russia is an ally of the United States in a war with Japan?
Would a prospective victory by Hitler over most of Europe move you to urge United States participation in opposition to Germany to prevent such a catastrophe?
1.
Personally, I take neither pleasure nor interest in going into any war whatever; still, to declare oneself against war seems to me silly and useless. One has to set material forces against it, not mere attitudes, and anyone who fails to take part in shaping those forces is also not against war, however much he may prote... (From: Marxists.org.) Published: in International Council Correspondence Vol. 1, no.3, December 1934, pp 18-22. Source: Antonie Pannekoek Archives Transcribed: by Graham Dyer
The New Deal is no harbinger of a “new social order”, nor is its apostle,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, self-proclaimed Messiah for the “forgotten man”, the
really unselfish and public-spirited individual he is portrayed.
Roosevelt’s election was engineered, just like all other previous elections,
by a group of individuals whose economic interests required urgent governmental
aid.
The fall of 1932 saw the complete collapse of American industry and a rising
tide of agrarian discontent. The current occupant of the White House, Herbert
Hoover, place... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: Kurasje Archive; Written: by Paul Mattick in 1967. Later it was included in The New Left: A collection of essays ed. Priscilla Long. Boston: Porter Sargent, 1969. In 1978 it was included in Anti-Bolshevik Communism Merlin Press, London, 1978, ISBN: 0 850 36 222 7/9. The e-version of this text was delivered by Kavosh Kavoshgar for Kurasje. Transcribed: by Andy Blunden, for marxists.org 2003.
According to socialist theory, the development of capitalism implies the polarization of
society into a small minority of capital owners and a large majority of
wage-workers, and therewith the gradual disappearance of the proprietary middle
class of independent craftsmen, farmers and small shop-keepers. This
concentration of productive prop... (From: Marxists.org.) Published: in International Council Correspondence Vol. 1, no.7, April 1935, pp 7-18. Source: Antonie Pannekoek Archives Transcribed: by Graham Dyer
We have received the following theses from Prague, as reported by Neue
Front No. 20. They are issued under the title Revolutionary Marxism and
Socialist Revolution by a group of revolutionary marxists “who
organizationally belong to the German Social Democracy”. Their conception of the
way that leads to socialism is here expressed. Our criticism follows.
1. The experience of all revolutions during and since the War has shown that
a reformist and opportunistic policy leads to the defeat of the working class.
The preliminary work for the socialist revolution, the winning ... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: pamphlet published by the United Workers Party, 1604 N. California Ave, Chicago, Ill. (libcom.org). Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt;
PREFACE.
In a period of world-wide crisis constantly deepening; during a
process of general and absolute pauperization of the working-class
through-out the world; in the face of the imperialistic tendencies towards
a new world scale butchery; with the sight of the march of fascism
covering the globe before us; in spite of the temporary triumph of the
capitalist forces on the grave of a once powerful international labor
movement, after the most serious defeat of international Communism, the
UNITED WORKERS PARTY OF AMERICA presents this small pamphlet to all
serious revolutionists, to help ... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: One Big Union Monthly, Nov. 1937, pp. 32-4; Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt; Proofed: and corrected by Jonas Holmgren
To those readers who are already acquainted with Trotsky’s
ideas and the publications of his movement, his present book will be a
disappointment as it contains little new material. In this review we
shall therefore limit ourselves to those portions of the volume which
indicate that even in the mind of the party-intellectual changes do
take place. But, it must be said, even such changes as Trotsky sees are
only matters of emphasis – an effort to adapt his
“theoretical line” to the new situation which has obviously
contradicted previous postulates of his theory.
Any serious student... (From: Marxists.org.)