Rethinking Marxism: Struggles in Marxist Theory

✍ Scribed by Steven Resnick; Richard D. Wolff

• Publisher: Autonomedia
• Year: 1985
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 474
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

From the introduction

"Marxist theory in general and Marxist economics in particular have
experienced a resurgence in the United States over recent years. Within and
beyond academic circles, Marxist analyses are developed, discussed and
debated. The depth and breadth of interest in the Marxist tradition of social
analysis may never have been greater in United States history. Nor has this
resurgence been significantly slowed by the current low ebb of organised
Marxist political party activity. Theoretical and practical processes develop
forever unevenly: a point Marx liked to emphasize.

So it may be a good time to step back from the prodigious productions of
Marxist analyses to gain some self-consciousness about how we got here and
where we seem headed. In dedicating this book to a major force that got us
here—Paul Sweezy, Harry Magdoff and the entire Monthly Review project—
we aim also to survey some major lines of inquiry now criss-crossing the
Marxist tradition. In this we place special but not exclusive emphasis on
economics.

Every contributor to this volume has been influenced in complex ways by our
honorees. We have all chosen to honor their powerful interventions in and
support of Marxist analytical work by an original contribution to the continued
growth and liveliness of the Marxist theoretical tradition. Many, although
hardly all, basic themes of Marxist theory are newly affirmed, modified,
contested or displaced in the essays here collected. Old debates are renewed
because they remain unresolved agenda priorities for Marxism. New debates
are defined and joined to clarify or improve Marxist positions. Certain essays
extend the reach of Marxist analysis into areas thought to be inadequately
comprehended by the Marxist tradition. "

Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School, New York. Wolff and Resnick are the authors of Economics: Marxian versus Neoclassical.

Stephen A. Resnick was Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
Introduction: Solutions and Problems—Stephen A. Resnick and Richard D. Wolff
1: The Crisis, the Third World, and North-South, East-West Relations—Samir Amin
2: From Civilization to Barbarism—Rosalyn Baxandall and Elizabeth Ewen
3: Reflections on Concepts of Class and Class Struggle in Marx's Work —Charles Bettelheim
4: The Labor Theory of Value and the Specificity of Marxian Economics—Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis
5: The Centrality of Money, Credit, and Financial Intermediation in Marx's Crisis Theory: An Interpretation of Marx's Methodology—James Crotty
6: Dialogue, Utopia and the Division of Labor: Reflections on Some Themes—by Harry Magdoff, Kim Edel and Matthew Edel
7: Sweezy and the Proletariat—Richard Edwards
8: A Marx, Keynes, Schumpeter Centenary and the Editors of Monthly Review—Andre Gunder Frank
9: Illusions of Liberation: The Psychology of Colonialism and Revolution in the Work of Octave Mannoni and Frantz Fanon—Elizabeth Fox-Genovese and Eugene D. Genovese
10: Value, Exchange and Capital—Donald J. Harris
11: The Theoretical Status of Monopoly Capital—Michael A. Lebowitz
12: On the Analysis of Advanced Capitalist Economy—David Levine
13: Marx and Engels on Commodity, Production and Bureaucracy—Ernest Mandel
14: State Power and Capitalist Democracy—Ralph Miliband
15: Capital, Crisis, Class Struggle—James O'Connor
16: The Politics of Intervention: The Italian Crisis of 1976—Cheryl Payer
17: A Marxian Reconceptualization of Income and its Distribution—Stephen A. Resnick and Richard D. Wolff
18: The Organic Composition of Capital and Capitalist Development—Bob Rowthorn and Donald J. Harris
19: Monopoly Capital vs. the Fundamentalists—Howard J . Sherman
20: Marx and Underdevelopment—Immanuel Wallerstein
21: Harry Magdoff and Paul Sweezy: Biographical Notes—Michael Hillard
22: Harry Magdoff and Paul Sweezy: Selected Bibliographies—Michael Hillard
Notes on Contributors