Marxism, the Millennium and Beyond

Marxism, the Millennium and Beyond

Also by Mark Cowling APPROACHES TO MARX (co-editor with Lawrence Wilde) DATE RAPE AND CONSENT THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO: New Interpretations (editor)

Marxism, the Millennium and Beyond Edited by Mark Cowling Principal Lecturer in Politics University of Teesside and Paul Reynolds Senior Lecturer in Politics and Sociology Edge Hill College

Editorial matter, selection and Chapter 1 Mark Cowling and Paul Reynolds 2000 Chapter 6 Bob Jessop 2000 Chapter 11 Mark Cowling 2000 Chapter 12 Jonathan Hughes 2000 Chapter 13 Paul Reynolds 2000 Chapters 2 5, 7 10, 14 and 15 Palgrave Publishers Ltd 2000 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2000 978-0-333-80166-6 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2000 by PALGRAVE Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE is the new global academic imprint of St. Martin s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ISBN 978-1-349-42127-5 DOI 10.1057/9780230518766 ISBN 978-0-230-51876-6 (ebook) This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Marxism, the millennium and beyond / edited by Mark Cowling and Paul Reynolds. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Communism History 20th century. 2. Communism Philosophy. I. Cowling, Mark. II. Reynolds, Paul. HX44.5.M384 2000 320.53'2 dc21 00 042062 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00

Contents List of Table and Figures Preface Acknowledgement Abbreviation: Marx and Engels, Collected Works Notes on the Contributors vii viii ix x xi 1. Introduction: Marxism at the Millennium and Beyond? 1 Mark Cowling and Paul Reynolds Part 1: Towards a Feasible Socialist Politics 2. What do Socialists Want? 29 Alan Carling 3. The Ethical Marxism of Erich Fromm 55 Lawrence Wilde 4. The Ethical Post-Marxism of Alasdair MacIntyre 74 Kelvin Knight 5. Habermas on Theory and Political Practice 97 Peter M. R. Stirk Part 2: Marxism and the State 6. Recent Developments in State Theory: Approaches, Issues, Agendas 119 Bob Jessop 7. Marxism, Liberalism and State Theory 146 Paul Wetherly 8. Class Struggle and Revolution in Eastern Europe: The Case of Poland 161 Rick Simon v

vi Contents Part 3: Developing Marxist Politics at the Millennium 9. Trotsky, Trotskyism and the Future 183 Hillel Ticktin 10. Democratic Marxism: the Legacy of Hal Draper 199 Alan Johnson 11. Femininities: a Way of Linking Socialism and Feminism? 221 Mark Cowling 12. Development of the Productive Forces: An Ecological Analysis 236 Jonathan Hughes Part 4: Marxism and Post-Marxism 13. Post-Marxism: Radical Political Theory and Practice Beyond Marxism? 257 Paul Reynolds 14. The Post-Marxist Critique of Marxism: The Case of Agnes Heller 280 Simon Tormey 15. Not Dead Yet : Marxism and Political Theory in the Era of Post-Communism 299 Michael Levin Index 311

List of Table and Figures Table 2.1 Four forms of reciprocity 39 Figure 3.1 Fromm s notion of social character as intermediate between material basis and ideas (Lawrence Wilde) 58 Figure 12.1 Ecological impact of the labour process ( Jonathan Hughes) 237 Figure 12.2 Basic types of fettering ( Jonathan Hughes) 244 vii

Preface This collection has its origins in the 1998 Political Studies Association Marxism Specialist Group Annual Conference, which was held at Edge Hill College in September 1998, on the theme of Marxism, Millennium and Beyond. Thanks to Professor Alistair McCulloch, Head of Research at Edge Hill for his support for the conference, and the conference staff at Edge Hill for the smooth operation of the conference over the two days. Thanks also to the College, who subsidized some delegates attending the conference. Paul Reynolds would like to thank Claire Robinson for her assistance in preparation of parts of the collection and for her intervention on his chapter on post-marxism. Mark Cowling would like to thank the Research Committee of the School of Social Sciences at the University of Teesside for providing teaching relief, some of which was used in the production of this volume. Both editors would like to thank the staff at Macmillan, particularly our commissioning editor Alison Howson, and our copy editor Linda Auld, for their friendly help. We would also like to thank our contributors, who provided high quality manuscripts in good time. This volume is the fourth edited collection produced by the PSA Marxism Specialist Group. If you might be interested in joining it, contact Mark Cowling at the University of Teesside, email cmcowling@yahoo.com viii

Acknowledgement The editors wish to thank Cambridge University Press for permission to use Jonathan Hughes chapter, Development of the Productive Forces: An Ecological Analysis, an expanded version of which will appear as Chapter 3 of his Ecology and Historical Materialism (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2000). ix

Abbreviation Quotations from K. Marx and F. Engels, Collected Works (London, Lawrence & Wishart, 1975 ) are abbreviated to, for example, C.W., Vol. 5, pp. 50 52. x

Notes on the Contributors Alan Carling teaches Politics at the University of Bradford. He is the author of several articles on analytical Marxism and of Social Division (London, Verso, 1995), and a founding editor of Imprints. Mark Cowling teaches Politics at the University of Teesside. He convenes the Political Studies Association Marxism Specialist Group and edits its annual journal Studies in Marxism. Previous books are Approaches to Marx (edited with Lawrence Wilde), (Milton Keynes, Open University Press, 1989) The Communist Manifesto: New Interpretations (editor) (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1998), and Date Rape and Consent (Aldershot, Ashgate, 1998). Jonathan Hughes teaches political philosophy at the University of Manchester. His book Ecology and Historical Materialism is forthcoming in 2000 from Cambridge University Press. Bob Jessop is Professor of Sociology at the University of Lancaster. His books include: Traditional Conservatism and British Political Culture (London, Allen & Unwin, 1974), The Capitalist State: Marxist Theories and Methods (Oxford, Robertson, 1982), Nicos Poulantzas: Marxist Theory and Political Strategy (London, Macmillan, 1985), State Theory: Putting the Capitalist State in its Place (Cambridge, Polity, 1990), editor of Karl Marx s Social and Political Thought: Critical Assessments (4 vols), (London, Routledge, 1990). Alan Johnson teaches Politics and Sociology at Edge Hill University College. He is currently working on a book on Hal Draper and has published and researches on socialist politics and popular protest. Kelvin Knight teaches Politics at the University of North London. He is the editor of The MacIntyre Reader (Cambridge, Polity, 1998). Michael Levin teaches politics at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is the author of Marx, Engels and Liberal Democracy (London, Macmillan and St Martin s Press, 1989), The Spectre of Democracy: The Rise of Modern Democracy as Seen by its Critics (London and New York, xi

xii Notes on the Contributors Macmillan and New York University Press, 1992) and The Condition of England Question: Carlyle, Mill, Engels (Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1998). Paul Reynolds teaches Politics and Sociology at Edge Hill University College. He is currently writing on the political economy of industrial policy and alternative economies, radical politics at the end of the twentieth century, with particular reference to the politics of sexuality, and the application and critique of contemporary social and political theory. Claire Robinson is currently completing a PGCE in Further and Adult education with a view to taking up postgraduate studies in community responses to social deprivation and the politics of film. Rick Simon is lecturer in European Politics at Nottingham Trent University. He is a member of the editorial collective of Labour Focus on Eastern Europe. Peter Stirk teaches Politics at the University of Durham. His is the editor or author of five books on European integration, and of Max Horkheimer: A New Interpretation (Hemel Hempstead, Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1992). Hillel Ticktin directs the Centre for the Study of Socialist Theory and Movements at the University of Glasgow. He edits Critique. Simon Tormey teaches Politics at the University of Nottingham. His chapter is part of a substantial project on Agnes Heller. He is the author of Making Sense of Tyranny: Interpretations of Totalitarianism (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1995). Paul Wetherly teaches at the Metropolitan University of Leeds. He has published several articles on Marxism and edited Marx s Theory of History: The Contemporary Debate (Aldershot, Avebury, 1992). Lawrence Wilde is Professor of Political Theory at Nottingham Trent University. He is the author of Marxism and Contradiction (Aldershot, Ashgate, 1989), Modern European Socialism (Aldershot, Dartmouth, 1994), Ethical Marxism and Its Radical Critics (Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1998), and co-editor with Mark Cowling of Approaches to Marx (Milton Keynes, Open University Press, 1989).