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Re: Can capitalism be reformed?
by Alan Spector
22 April 2001 20:23 UTC
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Paul Riesz writes the following in reference to my comments:
 
> You and many of your ideological comrades would - of course - prefer
> more drastic solutions, but if past history gives us any clues, such
> extremist programs are bound up with dictatorial governments which
> sooner or later lead to the bloody excesses of Stalin and Pol Pot,
> since
> POWER CORRUPTS AND ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY.
 
-------------------------------------------------
 
That's real cute -- "you and your ideological comrades" . It kinda makes it sound like I (and my "ideological comrades") don't care about real live, flesh-and-blood humans, but rather are preoccupied with adhering to some rigid doctrine -- as opposed to those who support the liberal imperialists (albeit with some criticisms) who are supposedly concerned about "people" instead of ideologies. 
 
These are empirical questions, that can be discussed, if not settled, by evidence. Which has cost more human lives and created more suffering-- the bloody Chinese government and years of Communist Party rule, or the "peaceful" transition of Gandhi and his friends, and the continuing mass starvation, disease, child slavery, that has destroyed so many millions of lives there over the past fifty years? What might have happened in the world if there were no Soviet Revolution and a pro-fascist Tsarist Russia formed an alliance with Nazi Germany? And who created Pol Pot (I'll give you a hint: The massive U.S. destabilization of Indochina had just a little to do with it -- as well as significant U.S. govt. support for Pol Pot as an ally against the pro-Soviet forces.)
 
There is the unstated assumption, shared by conservatives and Keynesians alike, that with all its weaknesses, the capitalist model still guarantees more "freedom" from "absolute power" than the Marxist model. Tell that to the victims of capitalist-imperialism--from the victims of mass murderous coups and regimes from Chile to Indonesia to Iran, the Congo, Guatemala, Honduras, Argentina, and Greece, Palestine, South Africa and a hundred other places, to the many tens of millions more who die slower, more painful deaths from mass disease created by militarily enforced capitalism. (Forty thousand will die of (preventable) measles in Ethiopia alone this year....try mentally projecting that misery across the whole world to begin to get a better picture of the scale of capitalism's depredations.)
 
The supposedly "non-absolute power"  of the capitalists, including their willing partners, the pro-imperialist liberals and social democrats, and including "Lord" Keynes have been responsible for misery, suffering, and death that truly dwarf whatever happened in "Stalin's Russia." 
 
Until intellectuals and activists in the so-called "First World" understand this, they will continue to be, at best irrelevant, and at worst, partners in this miserable set of affairs.
 
Alan Spector
 
P.S. Of course Keynsian Economics, "priming the pump" (or saving the patient from blood loss shock by pumping in plasma, or taking a shot of caffeine to borrow some of tomorrow's heartbeats for today, or whatever metaphor you want to use) can have a short term effect of softening the crisis of capitalism for a while. But the fundamental question is whether capitalism can meet people's needs, and furthermore, whether those in power will EVER relinquish power without "drastic" measures being forced on them. It is not something that any of us look forward to, but right now, the "drastic" circumstances that many people are being forced to endure from the garbage dumps of Rio to the sex slave shops of Bangkok are just as "drastic" to them as the reality of "ideological-drastic" measures in the so-called "First World" might be to people there.
 
====================================================================
 
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Riesz" <priesz@itn.cl>
To: "Alan Spector" <spectors@netnitco.net>; <cj@cyberjournal.org>
Cc: "Fair Trade" <fair-trade@riseup.net>; "Haritatos Petros" <haritatos@athenian.net>; "Kohler Gernot" <gkohler@accglobal.net>; "Siegmund" <siegmund@thegrid.net>; "WSN" <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2001 4:23 PM
Subject: Re: Can capitalism be reformed?

> > To Alan Spector:
> > According to your last post, Keynesian policies are bound up with
> > exploitation of 3rd world countries.
> > To find out whether there is any logical foundation for this
> > assumption, let us consider his basic principles
> > As I see them, they can be resumed as follows:
> > 1. the economy needs investment both from the private and the public
> > sectors and
> > 2. in order to soften the business cycle, Governments must invest MORE
> > during recessions, in order to be able to employ people, who lost
> > their private sector jobs. To finance such investments, governments
> > must REDUCE their investments and SAVE during boom times.
> >
> > This has absolutely NOTHING to do with whatever exploitation of third
> > world countries might or might not have happened at any time.
> >
> > Keynesian policies were abandoned NOT because they had lost their
> > validity, but because politicians stimulated the economy NOT to soften
> > the business cycle, but before election in order to win them.
> >
> > At present there is great need to reintroduce Keynesian policies,
> > because so many well paying industrial jobs are being eliminated
> > through automation, relocation, outsizing and restructuring.
> > To have any chance for success, such a movement would have to
> > implement new checks and balances in order to prevent abuses and
> > excesses by unscrupulous politicians, while on the other hand find
> > ways to eliminate the worldwide domination by transnational
> > corporations.
> >
> > These are enormous (maybe almost superhuman) but nevertheless not
> > quite hopeless tasks, since at present so many people are willing to
> > act decisively AGAINST the present world order. What is therefore
> > needed is to channel such energies AWAY FROM PURELY NEGATIVE PROTESTS
> > into more POSITIVE movements towards a better world system; one that
> > would preserve the best features of private enterprise, while
> > reactivating an efficient public supervision.
> >
> > You and many of your ideological comrades would - of course - prefer
> > more drastic solutions, but if past history gives us any clues, such
> > extremist programs are bound up with dictatorial governments which
> > sooner or later lead to the bloody excesses of Stalin and Pol Pot,
> > since
> > POWER CORRUPTS AND ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY.
> > Regards                     Paul
> >
>
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