ISBN: 1840141867 Capitalism and Class Struggle in the USSR A Marxist Theory Neil C Fernandez 1997 e-mail: [email protected] Table of Contents LIST OF FIGURES. v LIST OF TABLES. vi INTRODUCTION. 1 1 Aims. 1 2 The Theoretical Approach Adopted . 2 3 The Nature of Soviet Society. 7 4 The Class Struggle . 9 1 A COMMUNIST APPROACH. 13 1 Class Struggle and Communism. 14 2 Against Incorporation. 24 2.1 Capitalist Politics. 24 2.2 The Incorporation of Struggle . 29 3 Marxism and ‘Marxism’. 32 4 Summary . 34 2 SOVIET CAPITALISM: A CRITIQUE OF EXISTING THEORIES. 36 1 ‘State Capitalism’. 41 1.1 The Socialist Party of Great Britain’s Theory. 41 1.2 Council Communist Theories . 45 1.2.1 Rühle’s Theory . 45 1.2.2 Councilist Theory . 48 1.3 Buick and Crump’s Theory. 50 1.4 Wildt’s Theory. 53 1.5 The Johnson-Forest Tendency’s Theory . 57 1.6 Munis’s Theory . 60 1.7 Cliff’s Theory . 62 1.8 Bettelheim’s Theory . 65 1.9 Sapir’s Theory . 66 2 ‘Capitalism’ but not ‘State Capitalism’. 70 2.1 Gorter’s Theory . 70 2.2 Castoriadis’s Theory . 72 2.3 Bordiga’s Theory . 74 2.4 Chattopadhyay’s Theory . 77 3 Summary. 82 3 SOVIET CAPITALISM: A NEW THEORY. 85 1 Defining Capitalism . .87 1.1 Commodities, Wage-Labour, and Production for Profit . 88 1.2 Value, Abstract Labour, and Capitalist Money . .90 1.2.1 Value . 90 1.2.2 Value Growth . 94 2 Bureaucratic Capitalism in the USSR . 99 2.1 Bureaucratic Exchange-Value . 100 2.1.1 Consumption . 100 2.1.2 Distribution . 101 2.1.2a Producer Goods . 101 2.1.2b Consumer Goods Wholesaling . 104 2.1.3 Production . 105 2.1.3a The Means of Production . 106 2.1.3b The Form of the Product . 110 2.2 Labour-Power in the USSR: Its Purchase and Sale . 111 2.3 Production for Profit . 114 2.4 Value, Abstract Labour, and Bureaucratic Capitalist Money . 115 3 Soviet Capitalism: Its Specificity . 122 4 Summary . 124 4 THE CLASS STRUGGLE: A CRITIQUE OF SOVIETOLOGICAL THEORIES. 125 1 General Theories. .126 1.1 Politics: ‘Totalitarianism’ and Interest Groups. 126 1.2 Economics: Technical Development, Indicators, and Shortage. 129 2 The Working Class. 134 2.1 Descriptive Studies. 134 2.1.1 Thematic Studies: A Summary. 134 2.1.2 Two Diachronic Descriptive Studies. 137 2.2 Three Theoretical Positions. 139 2.2.1 The ‘Incorporated Worker’. 139 2.2.2 The ‘Social Compact’. 142 2.2.3 The ‘Historic Compromise’. 146 3 Summary. .148 5 THE CLASS STRUGGLE: A CRITIQUE OF ‘MARXIST’ THEORIES. 151 1 The ‘Degenerated Workers’ State’ . 151 2 ‘Capitalism’ . 154 2.1 ‘State Capitalist’ Theories. 154 2.1.1 The Leninist Theories of Munis and Cliff. 154 2.1.2 Bettelheim’s Theory and Related Work . .156 2.2 Other ‘Capitalist’ Theory. 159 3 The ‘Mode of Production Sui Generis’. 160 3.1 Early ‘Collectivist’ Theories. 160 3.2 East European ‘Dissident’ Theories. .162 3.3 Later ‘Collectivist’ Theories. 168 ii 3.4 Recent ‘Mode of Production’ Theory. 173 4 Summary. 177 6 THE CLASS STRUGGLE: A CRITIQUE OF EXISTING MARXIST THEORIES. 180 1 The Need for a Communist Theory . 180 2 Existing Marxist Theories . 182 2.1 The Johnson-Forest Tendency’s Theory . .183 2.2 Castoriadis’s Theory . 188 2.3 Ticktin’s Theory . 192 2.3.1 The Idea of Capitalist Decline . 192 2.3.1a ‘Current Decline’. .195 2.3.1b ‘Necessary Decline’ . 202 2.3.2 Soviet Political Economy and Class Struggle . 204 2.3.2a The Form of the Product and Control Over Labour. 204 2.3.2b The Issue of Class . 213 2.3.2c The Issue of Workers’ Power . .219 2.4 Chattopadhyay’s Theory . 227 3 Summary . ..