Post on 17-Jan-2023
Rosa Luxemburg – her
contributions to political economyMichael R. Krätke Lancaster University
Institute for Advanced Studies International Institute for Social
History
What Rosa Luxemburg was … and what she was notRosa Luxemburg was a Marxist, not a Feminist!
Rosa Luxemburg was an economist, not a philosopher!
Rosa Luxemburg was a political activist, but also a teacher and a scholar!
Marx’ political economy was meant to be a critique of capitalism – and
of economic thought / economic theories Rosa Luxemburg – as all Marxists of the classical period – was of course
aware of the concept of commodity fetishism / money fetishism Marx had not finished the job - “Capital” is still incomplete, a work in
progress broken off In “Capital”, Marx has left several (crucial) problems unsolved – among
them the problem of accumulation (accelerated accumulation) What is Marx’ theory about: it is a “Theory of Capitalist Development”
(from the “laws of motion” to the “laws of development and change”) What is Marx’ theory about: a theory of the capitalist world economy Why is there stagnation in the Marxist camp? When will the Marxists
have to work on the unsettled questions of Marx’ critique of political economy?
How Rosa Luxemburg read Marx
Political Economy was a science still in the
making! Political Economy was far more than just the theory
of capitalism / or the theory of market economies! Political Economy was not Economics! Political Economy was not be subdivided in the
conventional way (in pure theory / applied theory) Political Economy was a social, political and
historical science – dealing with a social, political and historical subject
Political Economy should deal with the World Economy, not National economy(ies)!
How Rosa Luxemburg saw political economy
The core problem of political economy How is a capitalist economy possible?
When, how and why does a capitalist economy become impossible?
Marx’ great thesis: capitalist economies create self-destructive tendencies, undermining their own prerequisites!
Rosa Luxemburg’s major contributions Her doctoral dissertation on the “industrial development of Poland” Her journalism Her polemics ( Social Reform / Mass strike / Junius) Her “great work” – the “Accumulation of Capital” Her unfinished “Introduction to political economy” Her “Anti-Critique”
Origin: Rosa Luxemburg’s efforts to reformulate the “historical
tendencies of capitalist accumulation” (the last chapter of her textbook)
Following the example of Alexandr Bogdanov’s textbook (the history and logic of capital accumulation)
Combining macroeconomic analysis (even modelling) (section I), the history of economic thought (section II), the explanation of imperialism in general (causal link between capital accumulation and capitalist expansion on a world scale) (section III)
Further element (the best part of the book): the analysis of the methods and practices of imperialism - how the development of capitalism is enforced by the great capitalist powers onto non-capitalist regions / countries
It is not a theory of the “collapse” or “breakdown” of capitalism
The “Accumulation of Capital” of 1913
The debate on imperialism – and
Rosa Luxemburg’s silence
Rudolf Hilferding – and “Finance Capital” (1910)
Otto Bauer and the “Question of Nationalities” (1907)
The Tugan-Baranowsky debate – a debate on
crisis and growth (1901e.s.) The debate on international money and inflation
(1909 e.s.) (the first Marxist debate on monetary theory)
The debate on “revisionism” – actually a debate about the prospects of capitalist development in the advanced capitalist countries after the first Great Depression (1896 e.s.)
The debate on “imperialism” and the rise of “finance capital” (1898 e.s.)
Further Debates
Critics on all sides: Kautsky, Bauer, Eckstein, Pannekoek, Lenin, Conrad Schmidt, Sam de Wolff
Major criticism: The solution to the problem is already there – in Marx’s outline of the scheme of expanded reproduction
Pannekoek, Eckstein and others: Even her analysis of imperialism is wrong or inadequate
Methodological critique: Models are not analyses of real processes in historical time
The Luxemburg debate – the Attacks
The Anti-Critique – too late (written in 1915,
published in 1921) A strong polemic (rather unfair) – theoretically
weak, confusing issues (theory accumulation, theory of crisis, theory of business cycles, theory of capitalist development)
Rosa Luxemburg refuses modelling and confuses theoretical analysis and historical explanation
However: the debate goes on – thanks to the fight against “Luxemburgism” / thanks to the first (and only) Luxemburgist political economist – Fritz Sternberg
Rosa Luxemburg’s counter – attack
Rosa Luxemburg’s critique of Marx – thoroughly refuted!
Marxist Macro-economics: The dynamics of the capitalist accumulation (in a purely capitalist world) have been clarified
Marxist Theory of Crises has been advanced to an unpredented level of sophistication (during the 1930s)
Some unsettled questions of Marxian political economy have been (re)discovered and tackled
Capitalism and its Futures – A post-colonial capitalist world economy and an “imperialism” in new guises
The Luxemburg debate – results
Some stronger points: How the making of external markets worked (before 1914)
Destruction of “natural” (non-market, subsistence) economies Destruction of agrarian village economies and their markets Integration of occupied / annexed territories and peoples into the “national economy” of the colonial “motherland” International and domestic debt (imposed with the help of taxation) Militarism (permanent war economy Also in the colonies (standing colonial armies) Fazit: A very peculiar historical form of capitalist expansion !
Rosa Luxemburg: the limits of capitalism are
different from the “limits of capital” – internal and external limits of the capitalist mode of production
Rosa Luxemburg’s conventional thinking: three phases in the history of capitalism – early, mature and late capitalism (rise and fall) – organic analogy
The problem of the limits: What happens when capitalism is approaching them?
The problem of unequal development of different kinds and types of capitalism (Marx saw it clearly in the 1870s)
The Limits of Capitalism
Imperialism in Luxemburg’s times was different: the end of
“free trade”, the rise of the gold standard, the increase of rivalries between old and new industrial powers, the rise of NACs, the decline of the Pentarchy
New “empires”, different from the colonial empires of the 17th and 18th century: extensions of the homeland – transnational “national states”
The rise of “high finance” - the change of banking and financial transactions, the rise of transnational financial markets (with London as global hub, the £ as international reserve currency)
A fragmented world trade (colonial trade / inter- and intra-industry trade)
Expropriation of land and resources – plus foreign direct investment (because dispossession is not accumulation)
The peculiarities of “imperialism” then and now
Post-colonial times - true, but trivial Large (continental / transcontinental) free
trade zones (plus varieties of BTAs as their environment)
Hierarchy of rivalling international currencies (reserve currencies) - $ as “ money of world trade and world finance”
Transnational commodity chains / transnational value (production) chains
TNCs and MNCs (modification of international value, modifications of national and international rates of profit)
How Accumulation on a World Scale works today
Integration of International Financial Markets
(but still a clear Hierarchy) A world market for firms (buying and selling
capitalist corporations) – and a world market for land ( real estate) and resources
New forms of associated / integrated “Finance Capital”
Rising levels of indebtedness – transnational debt chains ( hinging upon US Treasury Bonds)
“Global governance” by great powers and gentlemen’s clubs
How Accumulation on a World Scale works today II
Marx was wrong: Only a part of the wealth of capitalist
nations consists of commodities! Transformation of previous non-commodities (public goods,
commons, products of subsistence labour, blocked exchanges / excluded goods and services) into commodities
Transformation of non-capitalist commodities into capitalist commodities
Transformation of luxuries into commodities of mass consumption
Transformation of leisure activities, family, community activities into commodities (paid services)
Credit and debt (creating and expanding effective demand for the non- or less propertied classes) is a crucial instrument
How capitalist expansion works – domestically
The Relevance of Rosa Luxemburg for a Revival of Political Economy A Revival is necessary
A Revival of that noble science of political economy is possible
Not without Marx and some enlightened Marxists
The revival is already in the making
But: it is a revival of political economy as an Interdiscipline! But: it is not feasible without another “critique of political economy”