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View Full Version : Maoism is Proudhonism in disguise



Tim Cornelis
24th August 2014, 21:21
I've for a while considered Stalinism quite similar to Proudhonism, the notion that when you change the conditions of market exchange and commodity production, either legally (as per Stalinism) or through remuneration via labour money (as per Proudhonism) somehow abolishes capitalism is common to both. But Maoism especially with its work point system is suspect.

Proudhonism seeks to establish socialism with commodity production but with labour money representing time.
Maoism does a very similar thing. It brings the means of production under state ownership, but control is not in the hands of the workers but in the hands of committees of Party bureaucrats and later army officers and red guards as well (often in conflict with each other and themselves). So workers continue to be divorced from the conditions of labour; there is no social control over the means of production, nor social ownership. The social character of labour was not immediate and not associated, and therefore the basis for the disappearance for the commodity form organically and automatically was non-existent. Instead, the workers receive 'work points' that are exchangeable for commodities. The implementation of work-points was entirely optional and did not follow organically from labour becoming immediate social labour, as it would have under social ownership. So in this regard, Maoism is very similar to Proudhonist logic. This may also be interesting in light of the anarchist influences on the Chinese Communist Party leadership, especially Mao and Li Dazhao (although it was more Kropotkin's influence than Proudhon). But I've never seen the comparison been made, so maybe I'm overlooking something that sets these two apart, making the comparison null.

So please some information, maybe you have seen the comparison before, or maybe you know why this comparison is flawed.

Tim Cornelis
24th August 2014, 22:24
Also interesting comments by Marx on labour money and banking. In these labour-money schemes, a bank gives out the labour money currency. Marx comments:


The bank would thus be the general buyer and seller. Instead of notes it could also issue cheques, and instead of that it could also keep simple bank accounts. Depending on the sum of commodity values which X had deposited with the bank, X would have that sum in the form of other commodities to his credit. A second attribute of the bank would be necessary: it would need the power to establish the exchange value of all commodities, i.e. the labour time materialized in them, in an authentic manner. But its functions could not end there. It would have to determine the labour time in which commodities could be produced, with the average means of production available in a given industry, i.e. the time in which they would have to be produced. But that also would not be sufficient. It would not only have to determine the time in which a certain quantity of products had to be produced, and place the producers in conditions which made their labour equally productive (i.e. it would have to balance and to arrange the distribution of the means of labour), but it would also have to determine the amounts of labour time to be employed in the different branches of production. The latter would be necessary because, in order to realize exchange value and make the bank’s currency really convertible, social production in general would have to be stabilized and arranged so that the needs of the partners in exchange were always satisfied. Nor is this all. The biggest exchange process is not that between commodities, but that between commodities and labour. (More on this presently.) The workers would not be selling their labour to the bank, but they would receive the exchange value for the entire product of their labour, etc. Precisely seen, then, the bank would be not only the general buyer and seller, but also the general producer. In fact either it would be a despotic ruler of production and trustee of distribution, or it would indeed be nothing more than a board which keeps the books and accounts for a society producing in common.

So we see that Marx description of the role of a bank in issuing labour money is very similar to how the command economy worked. It controlled the price mechanism, it was the general buy and seller of commodities, it controlled labour, it controlled distribution of consumer goods and of labour to different branches of production.

This is probably an irrelevant correlation, and without the same causality (the Stalinist and Maoist state's similarity to this hypothetical bank is not both due to labour-money presumably). But I think it's interesting to investigate whether there is something to it.

bropasaran
24th August 2014, 22:43
Proudhonism seeks to establish socialism with commodity production but with labour money representing time.
Just to point out that this is a

http://heritageaction.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Strawman.jpg

as big as the one pictured, maybe larger.

"Proudhonism" seeks to establish socialism by abolishing the capitalist notion of private property and replacing it with a system of economic relations based on the notion of possession.

"Bakuninism", that is, the standard revolutionary social anarchism, is in fact just 'Proudhonism' simplified[1] and made more resolute (being revolutionary instead of dual-power reformist).

1. As I explained here: http://www.revleft.com/vb/collectivist-anarchism-vs-t190232/index.html?p=2783226#post2783226

Why is this important? Because "Proudhonism" is socialism, whereas Marxism is state-capitalism.

Redistribute the Rep
24th August 2014, 22:53
Just to point out that this is a

http://heritageaction.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Strawman.jpg

as big as the one pictured, maybe larger.

"Proudhonism" seeks to establish socialism by abolishing the capitalist notion of private property and replacing it with a system of economic relations based on the notion of possession.

"Bakuninism", that is, the standard revolutionary social anarchism, is in fact just 'Proudhonism' simplified[1] and made more resolute (being revolutionary instead of dual-power reformist).

1. As I explained here: http://www.revleft.com/vb/collectivist-anarchism-vs-t190232/index.html?p=2783226#post2783226

Why is this important? Because "Proudhonism" is socialism, whereas Marxism is state-capitalism.

Well that last part is a bit unsubstantiated, don't you think?

Tim Cornelis
24th August 2014, 23:05
Just to point out that this is a

http://heritageaction.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Strawman.jpg

as big as the one pictured, maybe larger.

"Proudhonism" seeks to establish socialism by abolishing the capitalist notion of private property and replacing it with a system of economic relations based on the notion of possession.

"Bakuninism", that is, the standard revolutionary social anarchism, is in fact just 'Proudhonism' simplified[1] and made more resolute (being revolutionary instead of dual-power reformist).

1. As I explained here: http://www.revleft.com/vb/collectivist-anarchism-vs-t190232/index.html?p=2783226#post2783226

Why is this important? Because "Proudhonism" is socialism, whereas Marxism is state-capitalism.

As always, bropasaran:

http://cdn.riveraveblues.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/miss-the-point2.jpg?e06feb

Did you explain why this is a strawman? No. It seems that you made a knee-jerk response, what appeared to you, as a criticism of Proudhonism -- even though it wasn't. You should learn that an interpretation of something is not equal to a strawman. Anyway, you say ""Proudhonism" seeks to establish socialism by abolishing the capitalist notion of private property and replacing it with a system of economic relations based on the notion of possession." Which of course does not address the question of commodity production and labour-money. It's unrelated from this.

Bakuninism? Where did this come from -- this is even more unrelated. And incidentally, Bakuninism is not mutualism simplified. Bakuninism correctly rejects the operation of competitive markets and commodity production.

"Because "Proudhonism" is socialism, whereas Marxism is state-capitalism."

Of course, in all the times you said this you could not substantiate once why this is true. And while I don't have an interest in discussing this here, Proudhonism does not reject the concept of private property per se, but brings it under collective possession.

helot
24th August 2014, 23:08
"Proudhonism" seeks to establish socialism by abolishing the capitalist notion of private property and replacing it with a system of economic relations based on the notion of possession. That applies to all of anarchism tbh. There is the difference though, Proudhon did advocate exchange of the products of labour and a form of labour-money.



"Bakuninism", that is, the standard revolutionary social anarchism, is in fact just 'Proudhonism' simplified[1] and made more resolute (being revolutionary instead of dual-power reformist). i think simplified is completely the wrong word tbh. We have taken the good bits of Proudhon, the basis, but we've improved and elaborated upon it.





Oh and can we not talk of 'Proudhonism' and 'Bakuninism'? It's just silly.



As for the OP... i think it's unfair to compare mutualism and maoism. The differences are there even if we think they're both shit.

Trap Queen Voxxy
24th August 2014, 23:48
Tim, why can't 'commodity production' exist under Socialism?

Zoroaster
25th August 2014, 00:41
Why is this important? Because "Proudhonism" is socialism, whereas Marxism is state-capitalism.

Hey, bropasaran, you do understand that not all Marxists support the state and money exchange, correct? Because I sure as hell don't, but according to you, that doesn't matter, because I'm a Marxist, and as a result, I support state capitalism. That's a huge fucking straw man.

bropasaran
25th August 2014, 00:52
Well that last part is a bit unsubstantiated, don't you think?
It's as substantiated as was Tim's claim about Proudhon, interesting you don't react to that. Anyways, as I have pointed out many times, Marx's anti-socialism is obvious to anyone who looks at his work rationally, without any biases in favor of Marx or the mainstream myths and the official doctrine and dogma (marx = socialism) - he advocated nationalization, he thought that workers are incapable of running production without managers commanding them, and he was delusional to the point of thinking that parliamentary elections would be the instrument of the emancipation of the proletariat.


Did you explain why this is a strawman?
Sure, when you explain your ridiculous claim about Proudhon.


Which of course does not address the question of commodity production and labour-money. It's unrelated from this.
Which of course has nothing to do with your claim that as per "Proudhonism" remuneration via labour money abolishes capitalism.


And incidentally, Bakuninism is not mutualism simplified. Bakuninism correctly rejects the operation of competitive markets and commodity production.
In which it follows mutualism, just does it in a different (simpler) way. As I have explained in the message link to which I provided in my previous post here.


That applies to all of anarchism tbh.
Well Proudhon was the first anarchist thinker.


There is the difference though, Proudhon did advocate exchange of the products of labour and a form of labour-money.
So did Bakunin.


i think simplified is completely the wrong word tbh.
Check out the link I gave in the previous post.


We have taken the good bits of Proudhon, the basis, but we've improved and elaborated upon it.
Which is what I have said many times. Not counting it's multiple precursors, socialism as a proper school of thought came into existence in 1820s in Britain, where Thomas Hodgskin formulated the labor theory of property, postulating that capitalism should be abolished, workers emancipated from bosses and rentiers. Proudhon in 1840s made three contributions- refined the idea and gave what can be called 'labor theory of possession'; correlated it with the notion of libertarianism in the sense of opposition to the state and positions of authority in general (it is interesting that both Hodgskin and some of the thinker who were precursors to socialism had a sentiment close to such an idea); and insisted on necessity of people forming non-market mutual aid organizations [both political and economic] to make socialism viable (Hodskin was a free-marketeer, which Proudhon wasn't, contrary to popular myth, mutualism is a type of "social anarchism", just like anarcho-collectivism and anarcho-communism). To this Bakunin gave two contributions, he tweaked Proudhon's ideas on non-market production, and replaced his dual-power reformism with revolutionarism. These five tenets constitute the standard ideology of the revolutionary social anarchism which was always favored by near total majority of the anarchist movement, which is why I have under my username, "Proudhonism-Bakuninism", phrased as a jest referencing Marxism-Leninism.


Tim, why can't 'commodity production' exist under Socialism?
Could be because in the vulgar-marxist hodgepodge of labels and slogans commodity production = capitalism.


Hey, bropasaran, you do understand that not all Marxists support the state and money exchange, correct? Because I sure as hell don't, but according to you, that doesn't matter, because I'm a Marxist, and as a result, I support state capitalism. That's a huge fucking straw man.
As a rule Christian don't believe or practice all stuff that Jesus preached, but that doesn't mean that those things they ignore disappeared from the Gospels. Only when they do it, it's hypocrisy, buy when I do it, it's "not being dogmatic". Well, if we aren't dogmatic, we shouldn't label ourselves by thinker's names. The very concept of Marxism belongs in history together with organized religions. Proudhonism, too, would belong there, if it were a real thing.

Zoroaster
25th August 2014, 01:09
http://hummingbird-forum.s3.amazonaws.com/3214d816715025f558fc903b844472d78afdc4aaddce.jpg

I'm sorry, I can't take this serious. Good Christ.

bropasaran
25th August 2014, 01:15
http://pathogenomics.bham.ac.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/You-Cant-Handle-the-Truth.jpg

You can't handle the truth!

Art Vandelay
25th August 2014, 01:24
Tim, why can't 'commodity production' exist under Socialism?

Because commodities presuppose a market within which they can be exchanged.

Trap Queen Voxxy
25th August 2014, 02:07
Because commodities presuppose a market within which they can be exchanged.

Ok, so, there will no longer be, say a Barbie doll or hair gel? I'm confused.

Art Vandelay
25th August 2014, 02:31
Ok, so, there will no longer be, say a Barbie doll or hair gel? I'm confused.

No of course not (as in yes these things will still exist).But commodities, at least in the marxist sense, are defined by the fact that they are exanged on a market, ie: a commodity presupposes the existence of a market. In other words, these products will continue to exist, but due to the fact they are not being exchanged, their character will have fundamentally changed.

Trap Queen Voxxy
25th August 2014, 02:41
No of course not (as in yes these things will still exist).But commodities, at least in the marxist sense, are defined by the fact that they are exanged on a market, ie: a commodity presupposes the existence of a market. In other words, these products will continue to exist, but due to the fact they are not being exchanged, their character will have fundamentally changed.

So, in turn, their production will not stop under Socialism so there again, why is Tims so turned on by this 'no commodity production under Socialism' kick? Whether or not they are to be exchanged in a market or what have you seems irrelevant, primarily because what's being discussed is just its literal production. A I understand it; maybe I'm wrong, idk.

Art Vandelay
25th August 2014, 03:16
So, in turn, their production will not stop under Socialism so there again, why is Tims so turned on by this 'no commodity production under Socialism' kick? Whether or not they are to be exchanged in a market or what have you seems irrelevant, primarily because what's being discussed is just its literal production. A I understand it; maybe I'm wrong, idk.

Whether or not they are exchanged in a market is what is absolutely key, not whether or not said specific item is produced.

consuming negativity
25th August 2014, 05:20
but control is not in the hands of the workers but in the hands of committees of Party bureaucrats and later army officers and red guards as well

These things aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.

Brutus
25th August 2014, 09:22
So, in turn, their production will not stop under Socialism so there again, why is Tims so turned on by this 'no commodity production under Socialism' kick? Whether or not they are to be exchanged in a market or what have you seems irrelevant, primarily because what's being discussed is just its literal production. A I understand it; maybe I'm wrong, idk.

A commodity is not simply a product (like hair gel, or a barbie doll), but something produced for the market. A commodity economy necessarily implies private ownership, as someone will have to own the factory, machines and so on, to produce these goods for the market. Wherever private ownership and commodity production exists, there will be a struggle for buyers and competition amongst sellers. This is why Tim is saying this, because the commodity economy is the primary feature of capitalism.

Tim Cornelis
25th August 2014, 13:37
As for the OP... i think it's unfair to compare mutualism and maoism. The differences are there even if we think they're both shit.

Yes there are differences, but there is this one resemblance which is quite striking in its outward appearance at least: labour-money based on commodity production. I'm wanting to know whether this similar outward appearance is just coincidental, or whether the underlying logic is the same -- in which case we can dismiss Maoism as Proudhonist.


It's as substantiated as was Tim's claim about Proudhon, interesting you don't react to that.

The only claim I made was that Proudhonism advocates labour money and commodity production at the same time. You have not addressed this. You replied with an unrelated issue of possession and private property according to Proudhon.



Anyways, as I have pointed out many times, Marx's anti-socialism is obvious to anyone who looks at his work rationally, without any biases in favor of Marx or the mainstream myths and the official doctrine and dogma (marx = socialism) - he advocated nationalization, he thought that workers are incapable of running production without managers commanding them,

I have repeatedly asked you where Marx said such a thing. I have also repeatedly pointed out that Marx described socialism as being based on the free and equal association of producers, which is fundamentally opposed to the concept of managers commanding workers (which would be neither free or equal) and that under such conditions the immediate producers would continue to confront their conditions of labour as alien property, and therefore, that this would constitute private property, according to Marx. So your claim, for which you have repeatedly failed to provide a source for, stands in direct contradiction with what Marx wrote.

I have also pointed out that nationalisation by a workers' state is nationalisation done by the revolutionary working class (which is social ownership), and has nothing in common with state ownership by a bourgeois state (which is private ownership).



Sure, when you explain your ridiculous claim about Proudhon.


Which of course has nothing to do with your claim that as per "Proudhonism" remuneration via labour money abolishes capitalism.

You are correct. Proudhon didn't claim labour money would be sufficient for the abolition of capitalism, by his definition of capitalism, (and in addition proposed that self-managed enterprises would continue commodity production). From the perspective of Marxism, that is in essence his claim. My research question was directed at Marxists, though implicitly, as my question presupposes the upholding of a Marxist paradigm.

So please get out of this thread if you don't want to address my question from the perspective of Marxism.



Could be because in the vulgar-marxist hodgepodge of labels and slogans commodity production = capitalism.

And who are you to school people on Marxism?

No, commodity production is not equal to capitalism. Commodity production arises when the social character of labour cannot be expressed directly, in association. Therefore, commodity production is a necessary product of private labour.


Tim, why can't 'commodity production' exist under Socialism?

commodity production is not equal to capitalism. Commodity production arises when the social character of labour cannot be expressed directly, in association. Therefore, commodity production is a necessary product of private labour.

(unfinished text) Jossa cites Marx saying that workers in cooperatives are 'their own capitalists' (p. 16), but 'refutes' this by saying “Vanek's LMF [Labour Managed Firms] – a firm that self-finances its investments entirely with loan capital and strictly segregates labour incomes from capital incomes.” Which he immediately follows up with, without justification, “the workers of such firms can hardly be described as 'their own capitalists'.” And why not? Jossa provides no explanation as to why workers in cooperatives would be capitalists according to Marx, and he provides no reason why and how this trick of segregating types of income would then cancel out the categories within the dynamics of workers' cooperatives that make the workers their own capitalists in the first place. He merely postulates this. These self-managed firms, even if supplemented by state planning (as in 'socialist' Yugoslavia), is self-managed capitalism. He envisions still, that these “democratically managed cooperatives” firms produce commodities (p. 20), however as, somehow, “free choices made by workers in association”. Note that he misrepresents what 'association' is. (explanation). As Marxist scholar Paresh Chattopadhyay explains, “in a society of generalised commodity production, where products result from private labours executed in reciprocal independence, the social character of these labours - hence the reciprocal relations of the creators of these products - are not established directly.” And therefore “Their social character is mediated by exchange of products taking commodity form.” It is only where social labour is indirect, that products need to assume the form of commodity in market exchange. As such, “With the inauguration of the [socialist mode of production] there begins the process of collective appropriation of the conditions of production by society” therefore “with the end of private appropriation of the conditions of production there also ends the need for the products of individual labour to go through exchange taking the commodity form. In the new society individual labour is directly social from the beginning. In place of exchange of products taking the commodity form”,1 consequently in socialism, as Peter Hudis explains, “Production is now geared for use, not for augmenting value. Indirect social labor, based on the value-form of mediation, is replaced by direct social labor, based on “transparent” interpersonal relations between the producers.”2
Peter Hudis:
A very different situation exists under capitalism, where individual labor is*not*directly part of the sum total of actual labor. The amount of value created by an individual unit of labor is determined by an abstract, social average that exists apart from the subjectivity of the laborer—socially necessary labor time. In capitalism it is not actual labor time but “currently necessary labor*time*that determines value” [MECW 28, p. 73]). An individual hour of labor therefore counts only as*indirectly*social. It cannot be otherwise so long as value production exists. Yet once value production is abolished individual labor exists “as a*directly*constituent part of the total labor” since labor is no longer governed by socially necessary labor time … The replacement of indirect social labor by direct social labor signifies the abolition of capitalist value production."

So we see Tadayuki Tsushima explain that " In a word, labor is not manifested as value or in the value-form. Why is this?

He says there are "altered circumstances"; i.e. society has already become a society of communal labor where the means of production are commonly owned. This is because "no one can give anything except his labor, and because, on the other hand, nothing can pass to the ownership of individuals, except individual means of consumption." The law of value can only arise in a society where the linkage of social labor is carried out through the private exchange of the products of private labor." In the case of socialism, however, there is no such exchange of products. No individual has things of equivalent value. This is because already "no one can give anything except his labor" For example, no individual possesses anything akin to a product of individual labor. The products are directly social products, and no individual has a product for exchange. What can be given is only their own labor, and what they can possess is merely the given individual means of consumption distributed by society."

https://www.marxists.org/subject/japan/tsushima/labor-certificates.htm



These things aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.

Control by Part bureaucrats and control by producers is not mutually exclusive? Of course they are. In one scenario party bureaucrats manage production on behalf of the workers; in the other scenario workers manage production under their own control.

helot
25th August 2014, 14:39
Yes there are differences, but there is this one resemblance which is quite striking in its outward appearance at least: labour-money based on commodity production. I'm wanting to know whether this similar outward appearance is just coincidental, or whether the underlying logic is the same -- in which case we can dismiss Maoism as Proudhonist.


I'd probably go with coincidental but im not too familiar with Maoism to be adamant about it. It doesn't seem to me that Maoism was influenced by Proudhon, as you point out Kropotkin was the more known but it can't have come through Kropotkin as that'd be rejecting what he took from Proudhon while also rejecting his criticisms of Proudhon.


So i'd err on the side of coincidence due to their separate rejections of communism.

May be we can look at it as from the conditions of China and France at the time. Neither had a sizeable proletariat, peasantry was the norm.

Tim Cornelis
25th August 2014, 17:14
Hmm. I should've phrased that differently. It may be that the similar outward appearance is coincidental, it may also be that the underlying logic is also coincidentally the same, or that the underlying logic is entirely different. Maoism doesn't need to have been consciously influenced by Proudhonism, I mean, in order to reproduce Proudhonist logic.

John Nada
25th August 2014, 21:22
Was Maoist state capitalism consciously or subconsciously influenced by Proudhon? Or did Proudhon accurately predict socialism's construction in China?

Tim Cornelis
25th August 2014, 21:28
Was Maoist state capitalism consciously or subconsciously influenced by Proudhon? Or did Proudhon accurately predict socialism's construction in China?

Well, there was anarchist influence on Chinese 'communism', but this was more Kropotkin's ideas, so the first seems unlikely. Subconscious influence? Not sure what that would be. But what seems a more likely scenario is that they reinvented the wheel of Proudhonism independently of Proudhon IF we can actually say that Maoism's logic of work-points based on commodity production is the same as Proudhon's labour-money based on commodity production -- which is not proven, but I will look into that. That none of the great thinkers in Marxism appear to have suggested it tells me, probably not. But still, following up on unlikely hypotheses can advance research anyway.

bropasaran
25th August 2014, 22:34
The only claim I made was that Proudhonism advocates labour money and commodity production at the same time.
You claimed that "Proudhonism" wants to abolish capitalism by "labor money", which is a lie.

It wants to abolish capitalism by abolishing the capitalist notion of private property and system of economic relations based on the notion of possession which translated into establishment of workers' control over production and abolition of all rentiering, which means abolition of bosses and rentiers, which means abolition of exploitation.


I have repeatedly asked you where Marx said such a thing.
I have quoted it multiple times, he held that "all labour in which many individuals co-operate necessarily requires a commanding will to co-ordinate and unify the process, and functions which apply not to partial operations but to the total activity of the workshop, much as that of an orchestra conductor."

Your routine of positing argumentum ad nauseam as an answer to what I write is getting tiring. It's seems like that's the only thing you can say, to lie that have "repeatedly" answered me, and you get away with it because the myths you propagate are popular and it's easier for people to continue to accept them then to consider the truth that I talk about.

Kill all the fetuses!
26th August 2014, 09:18
I have quoted it multiple times, he held that "all labour in which many individuals co-operate necessarily requires a commanding will to co-ordinate and unify the process, and functions which apply not to partial operations but to the total activity of the workshop, much as that of an orchestra conductor."

What a dishonest idiot you are, proving that at every possible opportunity that you get! In the same chapter Marx goes on to viciously denounce the authoritarian nature of capitalist supervision, which arises from the antagonistic nature of private property.

When you have many people working in a workshop, you must have some sort of management to coordinate that work. He is not talking about the capitalist sort of management, which he goes on to denounce, but about the management chosen by the workers to coordinate the work process. I can't understand how ideologically blinded and idiotic one must be to disagree with that. The Spanish Anarchists did exactly that, i.e. chose people democratically to unify and coordinate the process of production across different fields and then across different communes. They did so, because they recognized the necessity of such work and because they aren't as fucking lunatic as you are.

Did the Anarchist peasants protest about that? Did they view it as a authoritarian imposition on their will? Did they think they were merely choosing their own masters? Of course not! They understood that that sort of administrative work, work of coordination and unification of work-process in order to avoid misunderstandings and waste is necessary. They understood that technically they could come every hours or so to discuss how the work-process should be coordinated and unified or they could choose a recallable delegate to do exactly that sort of thing in order to avoid wasting time. They naturally and inevitably chose the latter.

You obviously aren't interested in a meaningful discussion; you merely go on to quote out of context and talk slander and rubbish over and over again. It seems you were banned once and someone has already called you to get banned for all of this. I add my signature as well.

Tim Cornelis
26th August 2014, 11:26
Your routine of positing argumentum ad nauseam as an answer to what I write is getting tiring. It's seems like that's the only thing you can say, to lie that have "repeatedly" answered me, and you get away with it because the myths you propagate are popular and it's easier for people to continue to accept them then to consider the truth that I talk about.

This is highly ironic.

Die Neue Zeit
26th August 2014, 13:31
I've for a while considered Stalinism quite similar to Proudhonism, the notion that when you change the conditions of market exchange and commodity production, either legally (as per Stalinism) or through remuneration via labour money (as per Proudhonism) somehow abolishes capitalism is common to both. But Maoism especially with its work point system is suspect.

A Russian comrade stated that "Stalinism" is most similar to Duhring-ism, not to Proudhonism. Proudhon stressed cooperatives too much, but Duhring did not.

Nonetheless, I see nothing wrong with promoting in countries where the working class is a demographic minority the notion of total state-capitalist development without any bourgeoisie at all, by overhauling the conditions of commodity production (including market exchange) legally and by introducing alternative remuneration schemes, because this "socialist" development can be achieved by all the popular classes.

Collective Reasons
27th August 2014, 05:09
When you say that Proudhonism advocates a form of "labor money," what are you thinking of? Can you point to anything in Proudhon's own writings that it would be accurate to call "labor money"?

bropasaran
28th August 2014, 17:52
In the same chapter Marx goes on to viciously denounce the authoritarian nature of capitalist supervision, which arises from the antagonistic nature of private property.

When you have many people working in a workshop, you must have some sort of management to coordinate that work.
You just made my point. Capitalist authoritarianism is bad, but *our* authoritarianism is bad. Self-management is impossible, there *need* to be masters to command us. Workers will be able to chosse those masters, so those are *good* master, not like those bad capitalist ones.

Tim Cornelis
28th August 2014, 18:31
Again being disingenuous. Kill all the fetuses! "you must have some sort of management to coordinate that work." Your response: "Capitalist authoritarianism is bad, but *our* authoritarianism is [good]. Self-management is impossible". You do realise that all most of the workers' cooperatives have this "authoritarian" structure right? You appear to wrongly assume that "self-management" is synonymous with mutual adjustment.

http://www.analytictech.com/mb021/coordi3.gif

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Mintzberg#Contribution_to_organization_theor y

Mutual adjustment is not applicable to all forms of organisation.

Of course, an 'anarchist' society will have 'direct supervision' of sorts too (the authoritarian structure you loathe). Fire marshals, captains of ships.

"Workers will be able to chosse those masters, so those are *good* master, not like those bad capitalist ones."

Anarchists too advocate mandated recallable deputies or delegates, so anarchism is authoritarian now?

Look up the organisational structure of the Landless Workers' Movement on wikipedia, would you consider this structure to be "authoritarian"?

Collective Reasons
28th August 2014, 19:42
Seriously, I would love for one of the critics of "Proudhonism" to show me Proudhon's "labor money," or else show me the "Proudhonists" who advocated an actual labor currency. I would particularly love to see specific examples from Proudhon in the period after 1846 and The System of Economic Contradictions, either from the period in the late 1840s when he was primarily concerned with credit or from his mature work in the 1850s and 1860s.