Which Side Are You On?

The Communist University gathers this evening to discuss excerpts from “Value, Price and Profit” by Karl Marx. Our aim is to discover the meaning of “surplus value”, which is the heart of Marx’s explanation of how capitalism works. A CU subscriber sent a link to the Post-autistic Economics Review. You can get it by e-mailing “subscribe” to pae_news@btinternet.com . It is an on-line magazine that criticises “Neo-classical” (marginal theory of value) economics mercilessly and humourously, but from a “pluralist” point of view. Marx published “Capital” in 1867. The “Neo-classical revolution” that followed in 1870 (of Jevons in England and others in Austria and Switzerland) was not a revolution. It was a reaction. The authors of this magazine are looking for third and fourth positions (i.e what they call "pluralism"), which they will not find. Nevertheless their demolition of neo-classicism is very clear and useful. Next week’s session (July 14) has been scheduled for solidarity with Cuba but as yet we have no specific programme for that day. We must discuss the question this evening and decide what to do with the time. South African Communist Party General Secretary Dr Blade Nzimande has issued a straightforward condemnation of Israeli aggression against the defenceless population of Gaza and the West Bank in the form of an open letter to the Israeli ambassador to South Africa. See the link below. As a contribution to the difficult discussion of post-revolutionary culture in South Africa, here linked below is Lenin’s short, sharp correction of Lunacharsky during the debate around the “Proletcult” movement. The Proletcult organisation was cut loose from the Soviet communist party soon after. South Africa will not escape having to face these general types of question, arising afresh in our present and different specific conditions. Click on these links: SACP open letter to the Israeli Embassy in South Africa (800 words) On Proletarian Culture, Lenin, 1920 (926 words)