Socialism and Commodity Production: Essay in Marx Revival

by Paresh Chattopadhyay

Overview

"Socialism" is a word that is now habitually taken to refer to a particular social system that prevailed in different parts of the globe during the twentieth century. This system was defined primarily by single-party rule with public (mainly state) ownership of the means of production along with a centrally planned economy. Its material base was generalised commodity production. The spokespersons of this system claim that this socialism was derived from Marx.

Paresh Chattopadhyay's Socialism and Commodity Production argues the falsity of this claim. On the basis of a comprehensive study of Marx's own texts, as well as a detailed engagement with a wide variety of theorists of socialist economics, it shows that Marx's socialism constituted an "Association" of free individuals in which private ownership, the commodity, wage labor and the state have no place.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781642590500
Publisher:	Haymarket Books
Publication date:	09/03/2019
Series:	Historical Materialism
Pages:	302
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Paresh Chattopadhyay, State Doctorate in Economic Sciences (1964), University of Paris, has published many articles, as well as the book The Marxian Concept of Capital and the Soviet Experience (Praeger, 1994; translated into Japanese in 1999). He is Professor of Political Economy in the Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Quebec in Montreal.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Preface

Prologue

Twentieth-Century Socialism

Socialism as Minority Rule

Lenin's Role

The Relevance of Marx

A Caricature of Marx's Socialism

1 On Socialism: Association of Free Individuals

(Pre)conditions of Socialism

Associated Mode of Production

Ownership Relation

Exchange Relations

Distribution/Allocation

Labouring Individual under Socialism

2 Commodity Production

From Commodity to Capital

Paradoxes and Contradictions

On the Value Form

Commodity Circulation: Possibility of Crisis

3 Simple Commodity Production

The Problem

Discussion after Engels

The Critics

Criticisms Discussed

Conclusion

4 Commodity Production and Socialism in Marx's Followers

The First Followers: August Bebel and Karl Kautsky

Marxians after Kautsky

5 On Socialist Accounting

The Labour Process

Point of Departure

How to Proceed

Labour Time: Neglected Aspects

Labour Time and Non-labour Time

Socialist Accounting Framework

On Planning and the Unit of Calculation

6 Anarchist Communism

Peter Kropotkin

Carlo Cafiero

Anarchism and Marx: The Relation

7 Concerning Guild Socialism

Introduction

Guild Socialism as Democracy

Distribution and Allocation in Guild Socialism

Consumers and Producers

Transformation of the Existing Society

Ambiguities and Contradictions

8 On Market Socialism

Origin of Market Socialism

The Competitive Solution

Criticisms

Feasible Socialism

Analytical Market Socialism

Market Socialism Proper

Market Socialism - &'Marxian'

Market Socialism is Capitalism

9 The Problematic of a Non-capitalist Road to Socialism

Capital's Positive Contribution

The Controversy

Controversy Continued

Further Considerations

Epilogue

Illusion of the Epoch: Twentieth-Century Socialism

Preliminaries

Nature of Twentieth-Century Socialism

The Party-State

The Fundamental Question

References

Index

Editorial Reviews

'There are few things in the world as complicated as capitalism, and that has made it very easy for friends and foes of Marx alike to downplay or omit completely important parts of his analysis ... Yet, the potential of capitalism to evolve into communism is scattered all over Marx's writings, early and late, and is an essential part of his thinking ... Paresh Chattopadhyay is one of the few scholars who does justice to this dimension of Marxism, and he — and his latest work — deserve our closest attention and thanks. Highest marks!' — Prof. Bertell Ollman, Dept. of Politics, NYU

From the Publisher