I am a left communist, just a certain tendency of left communism (Bordigism). I agree with a lot of left communist ideas, such as being against national liberation movements, agreeing with Gorter's open letter to Lenin, disagreeing with popular frontism and the united frontism of Trotsky, being against participating in bourgeois parliaments and trade unions, etc. That is an interesting point about sell of labor power that I did not think about! I would say that too many characteristics of capitalism were missing for the society to be genuinely "state capitalist".
How consistent though is your position with Left Communism? I know the ICC are very big on the State Capitalist theory. You make the point about sale of labour. Could it not be argued that there was forced sale of labor? I don't think forced obligation to work prevents a society from being Capitalist, for instance in WW2 unmarried women were conscripted into the workforce, they had to work. Ticktin does strongly argue that many characteristics of private Capitalism were missing. I'm not convinced though that this meant society was not Capitalist since workers did still collect some sort of wage.
As for the whole bourgeoisie thing, Ticktin addresses this in the case of the Stalinist period of the Soviet Union. A class is a collectivity, and Stalin was an individual. Post-Stalin, though, you could argue that they were a class, but I would say they were a coordinator class like DNZ would argue. I wouldn't say that post-Stalin it was state capitalist. It was closer to it, but some essential things such as the selling of labor power was absent.
I'm holding, lol
Hold on. I'll be back.
Sorry, I am really busy. Work is giving me a hell of a lot of hours. Anyway, I like your responses. As for the "world competition" thing that is inescapable until world revolution and would exist until the lower stage of communism can be established and the world revolution achieves success. While I agree that it is "capitalist" it does not in itself show state capitalism existing. As for the "profit" thing Ticktin was talking of the Soviet Union in a general and abstract sense, not at a specific time. To be continued...
Please talk to me Brosa
Overall an interesting talk. I've re-evaluated my view to the belief that USSR became State Capitalist only with the rise of Khrushchev. Pre-Khruschev its difficult to say. I think Tiktin does a good job of dismantling the degerate workers state view. Bonapartist perhaps? ?
WWhen addressing the idea of a degenerate worker's state Tiktin refers to how the privleged elite did extract surplus product. My point here is that whilst they may not have constituted a traditional bourgeoisie does this extraction of surplus product, coupled with their unaccountability to the workers make them a de facto bourgeoisie? I think it does. A good point Tiktin makes towards the end of the talk is that the elite cannot be considered a class collective in the Stalinist era because they kept killing each other. This is a good point. Consequently I don't think the Stalinist era can be called State Capitalist. Tiktin does make some reference to how Khrushchev got rid of Stalin's henchmen in order to secure the positions of the party elite. I think this is where the elite became a class. Consequently I maintain that 1956 onwards the UASR was state capitalist. Tbc...
...Secondly Tiktin mentions the abscense of the profit motive however I do remember that Khrushchev did speak of "socialist profits" and that the USSR produced goods solely for export, presumably to make a profit. I don't know how widespread the profit motive was so perhaps Tiktin has a point here. Another point Tiktin makes is the voluntary sale of labour power, here I must concede that he has a point when he refers to how people would have to work or be accused of parasitism. Tiktin also mentions that the Ruble didn't function as money and that queues were the main form of distribution especially with cars, but how widespread was this in regard to everyday things? Again, like the profit question I'm not sure. To be continued...
