Ebook: Capitalism and Class Struggle in the USSR: A Marxist Theory

The critical considerations of the various "Marxist" theories of Soviet capitalism are looked at in this book. The theory of Soviet capitalism constitues an important contribution to the overall Marxist critique of exchange-value and money; and it will assist the classist critique with the identification of important targets on which to concentrate the fire of critique in relation to the development of capitalism at a global level. The various "Marxist" theories are considered in what they say about the working class and its struggle. Special attention is paid to the strengths and weaknesses of Marxist works by Castoriadis, Dunayevskaya and James, Ticktin and Chattopadyay. In the final chapter, Marx's concepts of the reproduction of labour-power and the relationship between small-scale circulation and capital accumulation, which Negri has shown to be of such importance, are taken up with particular gusto in context of the USSR. The categories of relative and absolute surplus value are considered in a Soviet context in specific relation to the distinction between productivity growth and labour intensification, and in relation to class antagonism.