MARXISM 21

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MARXISM 21 VOL. 17

Municipal Socialism for the 21c

A Case of Socialist Urban Politics: The Experiment of Local Socialism of the Greater London Council
This paper explores the case of the radical Greater London Council(1981~1986) and its socialist strategy. The radicals in London emerged from the new wave of shop steward movement that had involved in diverse community actions, New Left intellectual movement, diverse social movement and the Labour left within the Labour Party based on the mentioned new tendencies. The socialist Greater London Council attempted to provide public services grounded in participatory democracy and, further, to intervene into private sector economy according to the criteria of social usefulness.
(Youngpyo Seo)

The Capitalistic Government Policy Experiment of Democratic Socialist Party: The Evaluation of Policy of DSP/The Left focused on the Social and Economic Policy and Establishing Process of Berlin’s Red-Red State Government
The red-red coalition government in Berlin is an capitalistic experiment of democratic socialist project. The establishment of the coalition is the consequence of circumstance coercion (Sachzwang) without any other alternative for the DSP and the consequence of the subjective selection with a long preparation for the DSP. The significant points of the experiment lie on financial-privatization policies and social-labor policies. The result of the experiment with that policies is not only weakening of anticapitalistic ideology but also strengthening of capitalistic real political character of DSP.
(Byungkee Jung)

Glocal Agora and Basic Income
Mitchell concretizes the concepts ‘social space’ and ‘the right to the city ’ of Henri Lefebvre and the concept ‘spatiotemporal utopianism’ of Harvey with the struggle to make public spaces of justice. He focused on a more open, more just, more egalitarian society and urban public spaces, especially for the excluded homeless people in urban spaces. But the concept ‘public spaces’ is too unclear to understand open common spaces where everybody freely and equally may enjoy these spaces, because ‘the public’ includes the meaning of the administrative disposition by specific political communities or their representatives with a specific sovereignty hence the possibility of privatization of public spaces for a specific individual or group. Therefore, it is needed that open and sustainable utopian common spaces are to conceptualize with another terminology.
(No-Wan Kwack)

A Criticism on the Theory of Falling Rate of Profit from a Methodological Perspective
According to Marx, the law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall(TRPF) is to be regarded as a law that corresponds to the level of abstraction of ideal average, whereas the presentation of periodical crises belongs to that of real competition. Because of misunderstanding about the methodological difference between the two levels of abstraction, the theory of falling rate of profit failed to distinguish the declining tendency of the general rate of profit and the sudden fall of market rate of profit in crises. It is a fundamental fallacy of the theory of falling rate of profit that periodical crises are explained in terms of the declining tendency of the general rate of profit.
(Seong-Gu Kim)

Information Goods Value Controversy : A Critique on the Problem of Extra Surplus Value and Ground-Rent
In this paper, we review the discussions of ‘Information Goods Value Controversy’ on the problems of extra surplus value and ground-rent, under the proposition that the value of the digital information commodity is determined only by the magnitude of labor necessary to copy it. The argument which tries to include extra surplus value as a component of value or price of the digital information commodity cannot be conceptually maintained. Also the argumentthat the surplus profit which some software corporations obtain is extra surplus value generated by high productivity has very weak evidence even under the premise of value per version. And if we accept the proposition of value per copy, it cannot be maintained.
(Sungyoon Kang)

The PWC’s Political Track, Its Meanings and Limits
This article aims to research for the political track of the Power of Working Class(PWC), which was dissolved in February, 2009, and its meanings and limits. This process, on the other hand, is also roundabout reviews of two antagonistic critics against the PWC, so-called ‘anti-legal utopians’ and ‘anti-Revolutionary middle-roaders.’ To attain these aims, this article critically examines, especially 2002 and 2007 presidential election propositions of the PWC, and the meanings of the construction of ‘the socialist working-class party,’ which is being promoted by political activists, mainly descendants of the PWC.
(Kwangil Lee)

The memory of Comintern and the actual politics
The book Comintern was recently translated, which covered from 1919 comintern foundation, to 1943 Comintern dispersion. The purpose of this article is to help restructure the history of Comintern, reviewing the book critically. This article revealed the principal issues, comparing an introduction to Comintern which has been introduced and several articles. I tried to insist that Leninism had nothing to do with Stalinism, emphasizing the difference between Leninist Party and Stalinist Party, Democratic Centralism and Bureaucratic Centralism. Current political position is different depending on how we interpret Comintern. Therefore we should study Comintern profoundly to deepen problem awareness.
(Kyu-jin Choi)

Prospects for Marxist Political Economy
This paper examines the prospects for Marxist political economy. It does so by confining itself to the western academic scene, emphasising that such prospects are brighter than for a long time in light of the dual retreat from the extremes of both neo-liberalism and postmodernism. This reflects a renewal of interest over the past twenty years in the material and systemic realities of contemporary capitalism, an interest that will be reinforced by the global crisis.
(Ben Fine)

Neoliberalism in Crisis : A Marxist Analysis
This article argues that the current global crisis is a crisis in neoliberal capitalism, although this is not - yet - a crisis of neoliberalism. The article examines five aspects of financialisation in order to locate neoliberalism and the crisis historically. These include the financialisation of capital accumulation, the global economy, the state, ideology, and the reproduction of the working class. The crisis is then contextualised in terms of the contradictions of these aspects of neoliberalism. The article concludes with a review of the key limitations of neoliberalism, and the challenges and alternatives open to the left at this juncture.
(Alfredo Saad-Filho)

China, Capitalist Accumulation, and the World Crisis
The consensus among economists is that China’s post-1978 market reform policies have produced one of the world’s greatest economic success stories. Some believe that China is now capable of serving as an anchor for a new (non-U.S. dominated) global economy. A few claim that the reform experience demonstrates the workability (and desirability) of market socialism. This paper is critical of these views.
(Martin Hart-Landsberg)

Towards a Marxian Politics of the Exception: Marx reread through the concepts of praxis, poiesis and theoria
The aim of this article is to rethink the relationship between ‘politics’ and ‘the economy’. By passing through the classical categorization of human activity into praxis, poi?sis and the?ria (production, politics and theory) the article attempts tooutline how Marx goes beyond this schema, which persits in bourgeois thinking and economistic Marxism alike. On a Marxian basis it is suggested how production, politics and theory can be thought of as different aspects of the same ordered and ordering social process, rather than as separate spheres.
(Bue Rubner Hansen)