[Debate] {Disarmed} Beyond Tweets: Michael Lebowitz on Actually Non-Existing Socialisms

Wed Jul 11 10:37:37 BST 2012

Yup, I know this, Companyero Paramata, and I think I have recommended Links
on the Debate list as providing a model for information, ideas, theory and
strategy, as well as for the general tone of discussion on matters of
concern to socialists worldwide.

Pw

On Wed, Jul 11, 2012 at 11:12 AM, glparramatta <
glparramatta at greenleft.org.au> wrote:

> Lots by Michael Lebowitz here: http://links.org.au/taxonomy/term/419
>
>
> On 11/07/2012 6:51 PM, peter waterman wrote:
> > *Peter sez:
> >
> > *Bearing in mind the recent exchange about Cuba, I have copied and
> > below posted a puff for a book on the state socialisms that notably
> > collapsed c. 1989.
> >
> > I haven't read the book, and must express my doubts about the
> > 'achievements' in health, education, and popular culture (possibly
> > read backwards from the Cuban exception), that ML apparently expresses.
> >
> > But I happen to have met Michael both in a workshop on unionism and in
> > several informal chats thereafter. As someone who 1) lives in
> > Venezuela, 2) is associated with a state-funded thinktank there, and
> > 3) is certainly committed to a deepening of a socialist process there,
> > he was nonetheless openly critical about the nature of the
> > state-approved unions in the country at that time.
> >
> > Although stronger on political-economy, perhaps, than on history and
> > culture, ML is certainly someone to be taken seriously.
> >
> > *Now read on...*
> >
> >
> >     More on /The Contradictions of “Real Socialism”: The Conductor and
> >     the Conducted/
> >
> > By *Michael A. Lebowitz*
> > The Contradictions of “Real Socialism”
> > <http://monthlyreview.org/press/books/pb2563/>
> > Paperback, 192 pages
> > ISBN-13: 978-1-58367-256-3
> > Cloth (ISBN-13: 978-1-58367-257-0)
> > *Forthcoming August 2012*
> >
> > Price: $15.95
> >
> > What was “real socialism”—the term which originated in
> > twentieth-century socialist societies for the purpose of
> > distinguishing them from abstract, theoretical socialism? In this
> > volume, Michael A. Lebowitz considers the nature, tendencies, and
> > contradictions of those societies. Beginning with the constant
> > presence of shortages within “real socialism,” Lebowitz searches for
> > the inner relations which generate these patterns. He finds these, in
> > particular, in what he calls “vanguard relations of production,” a
> > relation which takes the apparent form of a social contract where
> > workers obtain benefits not available to their counterparts in
> > capitalism but lack the power to decide within the workplace and society.
> >
> > While these societies were able to claim major achievements in areas
> > from health care to education to popular culture, the separation of
> > thinking and doing prevented workers from developing their capacities
> > as fully developed human beings. The relationship within “real
> > socialism” between the vanguard as conductor and a conducted working
> > class, however, did not only lead to the deformation of workers and
> > those elements necessary for the building of socialism; it also
> > created the conditions in which enterprise managers emerged as an
> > incipient capitalist class, which was an immediate source of the
> > crises of “real socialism.” As he argued in /The Socialist
> > Alternative: Real Human Development/, Lebowitz stresses the necessity
> > to go beyond the hierarchy inherent in the relation of conductor and
> > conducted (and beyond the “vanguard Marxism” which supports this) to
> > create the conditions in which people can transform themselves through
> > their conscious cooperation and practice—i.e., a society of free and
> > associated producers.
> >
> > */From the author’s preface:/ *
> >
> >     /This is not a book for those who already know everything
> >     important there is to know about “Real Socialism.” For those
> >     fortunate souls who have inherited or adopted the eternal verities
> >     of particular political sects on the left, empirical footnotes
> >     that strengthen their claim to leadership are the principal tasks
> >     of scholarship. As a result, the central question about this book
> >     for them is likely to be, “Is he with us or against us?” In short,
> >     is this book good for the chosen?/
> >
> >     /I presume, however, readers who begin with questions rather than
> >     answers. What was this phenomenon known as “Real Socialism,” or
> >     “Actually Existing Socialism,” a concept created in the twentieth
> >     century by the leaders of countries in order to distinguish their
> >     real experience from merely theoretical socialist ideas? What were
> >     its characteristics? How was this system reproduced? And why did
> >     it ultimately yield to capitalism without resistance from the
> >     working classes who were presumably its beneficiaries? /
> >
> > Where fresh insights are rare, indeed, Michael Lebowitz provides a
> > bundle of them. Although no one will (or perhaps should) agree with
> > everything here, the book provides rich material for badly-needed
> > discussion.
> >
> > —*Paul Buhle*, author, /Marxism in the United States/
> >
> > ‘The owl of Minerva only flies at dusk’—it was Hegel’s old maxim that
> > seemed confirmed when in 1991 the /Socialist Register/ published
> > Michael Lebowitz’s article on the nature of ‘real socialism’ amid its
> > very demise. This new book takes off from there, but its wings are
> > buoyed by Lebowitz’s work since then, from /Beyond Capital/ to /The
> > Socialist Alternative/. The profound understanding in this new book of
> > why twentieth-century attempts at constructing socialism failed must
> > be an essential element in the socialist renewal emerging amid the
> > first great capitalist crisis of the twenty-first century. It thus
> > appears that the old wise owl also flies at dawn.
> >
> > —*Leo Panitch*, editor, the /Socialist Register/
> >
> > If we want socialism for the twenty-first century, we need to
> > understand why the ‘real’ socialisms of the last century so often
> > ended in capitalism. In this book, Lebowitz shows, theoretically and
> > historically, that the socialism practiced in the Soviet Union and
> > Central Europe was doomed because vanguard relations of production
> > weakened the working class, ensuring that it would have no primary
> > role in the battle ultimately won by the logic of capital (represented
> > by managers) over the logic of the vanguard (represented by the
> > party). We must, he concludes, reject vanguard Marxism and embrace a
> > Marxist vision of socialism in which, from the beginning, the full
> > development of human capacities is actively promoted. There is a lot
> > to learn here.
> >
> > —*Martin Hart-Landsberg*, professor of economics, Lewis and Clark College
> >
> > One doesn’t have to agree with all the theses presented in Michael
> > Lebowitz’s latest book in order to acknowledge that this is a major
> > contribution to the international debate on Socialism of the
> > Twenty-First Century. Drawing lessons from the dramatic failure of
> > so-called “Real Socialism,” he argues, with powerful and persuasive
> > logic, that a new society, based on values of solidarity and
> > community, cannot be created by a state standing over and above civil
> > society: only through autonomous organizations—at the neighborhood,
> > community, and national levels—can people transform both circumstances
> > and themselves.
> >
> > —*Michael Löwy*, co-author, /Che Guevara: His Revolutionary Legacy/
> > (with Olivier Besancenot)
> >
> > What would Marx have thought had he lived to see the Soviet Union?
> > Nobody has interpreted Marx to greater advantage to answer this
> > question than renowned Marxist scholar Michael Lebowitz, who explains
> > in /The Contradictions of ‘Real Socialism’/ why Marx would not have
> > been pleased!
> >
> > —*Robin Hahnel*, professor of economics, Portland State University
> >
> > A riveting exploration of what can be learned from the first attempts
> > to create socialist systems, specifically the period from 1950 through
> > the 1980s. Lebowitz convincingly demonstrates that the distortions of
> > the model developed in the Soviet Union and copied in eastern European
> > countries (‘real socialism’) were caused by setting in motion two
> > contradictory forces—ending up with the worst aspects of both capital
> > and leadership and control by a ‘vanguard.’ He examines the
> > development of ‘real socialism’ as a complex system, with the various
> > parts explained and scrutinized in their interactions and
> > interrelations as part of the system. Required reading for those
> > interested in avoiding diversions and pitfalls in a post capitalist
> > alternative—on the path to creating a system under social, instead of
> > private, control in which the goal is meeting everyone’s basic needs
> > and encouraging and allowing the full human development of all.
> >
> > —*Fred Magdoff*, professor emeritus of plant and soil science,
> > University of Vermont; co-author, /What Every Environmentalist Needs
> > to Know About Capitalism/ (with John Bellamy Foster)
> >
> > We need this well-written book to understand that socialism did not
> > die with the fall of the Berlin Wall.
> >
> > —*François Houtart*, Executive Secretary of the World Forum for
> > Alternatives
> >
> >
> > Pw
> >
> >
> > --
> > *1.* Contribute to Journal Special on 'New Worker Movements
> > <
> http://www.interfacejournal.net/2011/06/call-for-papers-volume-4-issue-2-for-the-global-emancipation-of-labour-new-movements-and-struggles-around-work-workers-and-precarity/
> >'!
> > *2. Blog:* http://www.unionbook.org/profile/peterwaterman
> > *3. EBook 2011, 'Under, Against, Beyond - Essays 1980s- 1990s*s
> > <http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/under-against-beyond/>
> http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/under-against-beyond/
> >
> > *4.* WorkingPaper *2012*: 'Emancipatory Labour Studies'
> > <http://www.iisg.nl/publications/respap49.pdf>:
> > *5.* Draft EBook 2012: 'Recovering Internationalism - Essays 2000-10'
> > (draft):
> > http://www.scribd.com/doc/82125289/ReCovIntComp-A-2
> > http://www.scribd.com/doc/82129474/ReCovtIntComp-B-2
> > *6. *Essay 2012: 'The 2nd Coming of the World Federation of Trade
> > Unions':
> > <
> http://www.unionbook.org/profiles/blogs/peter-waterman-the-second-coming-of-the-wftu-updated
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Debate-list mailing list
> > Debate-list at fahamu.org
> > http://lists.fahamu.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/debate-list
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>

-- 
*1.* Contribute to Journal Special on 'New Worker
Movements<http://www.interfacejournal.net/2011/06/call-for-papers-volume-4-issue-2-for-the-global-emancipation-of-labour-new-movements-and-struggles-around-work-workers-and-precarity/>
'!
*2. Blog:* http://www.unionbook.org/profile/peterwaterman
*3. EBook 2011, 'Under, Against, Beyond - Essays 1980s-
   1990s* s <http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/under-against-beyond/>
http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/under-against-beyond/
*4.* WorkingPaper *2012*: 'Emancipatory Labour
Studies'<http://www.iisg.nl/publications/respap49.pdf>
:
*5.* Draft EBook 2012: 'Recovering Internationalism - Essays 2000-10'
(draft):
     http://www.scribd.com/doc/82125289/ReCovIntComp-A-2
     http://www.scribd.com/doc/82129474/ReCovtIntComp-B-2
*6. *Essay 2012: 'The 2nd Coming of the World Federation of Trade
Unions': <http://www.unionbook.org/profiles/blogs/peter-waterman-the-second-coming-of-the-wftu-updated>
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