{"id":18881,"date":"2012-04-30T12:00:08","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T11:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=18881"},"modified":"2012-04-29T17:09:08","modified_gmt":"2012-04-29T16:09:08","slug":"there-are-marxists-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2012\/04\/there-are-marxists-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThere Are Marxists in India?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Economist Prabhat Patnaik on the Global Crisis<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

After an engaging half-hour interview with India\u2019s pre-eminent Marxist economist during a conference at New York University, I told a friend about my one-on-one time with Prabhat Patnaik.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are Marxists in India?\u201d came the bemused response. \u201cI thought India was the heart of the new capitalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, we hear about India mostly as a rising economic power that is challenging the United States. While there certainly are no shortages of capitalists, there are still lots of Marxists in India, as well as communist parties that have won state elections. Patnaik represents the best thinking and practice of those left traditions \u2014 both the academic Marxism that provides a framework for critique of economics, and the political Marxism that proposes public policies \u2014 which is why I was so excited to talk with him about lessons to be learned from the current economic crisis.<\/p>\n

In the interview, conducted during a break in the NYU Institute for Public Knowledge\u2019s \u201cFutures of Finance<\/a>\u201d conference,\u00a0 I asked Patnaik two main questions: First, is there a \u201cgolden age\u201d of capitalism to which we can return? Second, can we ever expect ethical practices from the financial sector of the global capitalist economy? Before explaining why his answer to both questions is \u201cno,\u201d some background.<\/p>\n

Prabhat Patnaik started his academic career in the UK, earning his doctoral degree at Oxford University and then teaching at the University of Cambridge. He returned to India in 1974 to teach at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi until his retirement in 2010. He\u2019s the author of several influential books, including The Value of Money<\/em>, published in 2008. Patnaik-the-politician served as Vice-Chairman of the Planning Board of the state of Kerala from 2006-2011 and is a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He regularly writes on economic issues in the Party\u2019s journal and addresses trade union meetings.<\/p>\n

In the United States, where people believe Marxism was buried under the rubble of the Berlin Wall and communism can only mean Soviet-style totalitarianism, his political affiliations would guarantee a life on the margins. But India\u2019s political spectrum is considerably wider, and left ideas have a place in the national political discourse there. On the world stage, Patnaik brings an unusual perspective: An experienced economist with a history of political organizing; an Indian who is engaged in the political debates of the West; a leftist who is not afraid to critique the weaknesses of the left tradition.<\/p>\n

The quixotic quest for a \u201cgolden age\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ever since the financial meltdown of 2008, there\u2019s been more and more nostalgia in the United States \u2014 especially among liberals \u2014 for the immediate post-WWII period, the so-called \u201cgolden age\u201d of capitalism during which profits and wages rose, and unemployment was low. This was the achievement of Keynesianism, the philosophy that unwanted market outcomes can be corrected through monetary and fiscal policy designed to stabilize an otherwise unstable business cycle. Primarily through \u201cmilitary Keynesianism\u201d \u2014 massive spending on wars and a permanent warfare state \u2014 the U.S. government helped stimulate the economy when it went into inevitable periods of stagnation. That worked until about the mid-1970s, when growth started to slow.<\/p>\n

Whether or not that system was good for everyone (lots of people in the Third World, for example, were not particularly happy with it), the question remains: Can we go back to that strategy? Patnaik says that golden age was necessarily short-lived, as the pressure for global investment pushed nations to give up the ability to impose controls on capital. This globalization of finance made national Keynesian policies less relevant. At about the same time, steep increases in the price of petroleum generated even more capital in the oil states, which went looking for investment opportunities around the world.<\/p>\n

Globalization \u2014 this concentration of capital moving freely around the world \u2014 meant that no single nation-state could go up against international finance. And with the global flow of goods, the large \u201creserve army of labor\u201d (the unemployed and under-employed) in places like China and India meant that workers in the advanced industrial countries had less leverage. So productivity continued to rise, but wages stagnated. Patnaik said it\u2019s important to see the contemporary crisis in that historical context.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe collapse of the housing bubble in the United States is certainly part of the problem but not the root cause of the problem today,\u201d he said. \u201cThe immediate crisis it touched off helps make the underlying problem visible.\u201d<\/p>\n

If this financialization of the global economy, which has put so much power in so few hands, is at the heart of the problem, the question is clear: In the absence of a global state, who is going to control international finance capital?<\/p>\n

If capital is going to be concentrated, can we at least make it behave?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the power of finance capital can\u2019t be diminished, is there a way to at least make it follow some sane rules to prevent the worst from happening again? Short answer: No.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to understand that capitalism is a spontaneous system, not something that is always necessarily planned or controlled,\u201d Patnaik said. Because the reward for ignoring, evading, or getting around rules is so powerful, the attempts to make capitalism follow ethical norms are bound to fail.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeynesianism worked in a specific time and place, but capitalism escaped Keynesianism,\u201d he said. New rules will suffer a similar fate, absent a force as strong as international finance capital to enforce the rules.<\/p>\n

Although Patnaik often talks in detail about the complex workings of the global economy, he also articulates simple truths when that kind of straightforward analysis is needed. In doing so, he often draws on aspects of Marx\u2019s analysis that the world tends to forget.<\/p>\n

To make the point about the futility of talking about ethical norms in capitalism, Patnaik pointed to Marx\u2019s insight that a capitalist is \u201ccapital personified.\u201d Here\u2019s the relevant passage from the first volume of Marx\u2019s Capital<\/em>:<\/p>\n

[T]he possessor of money becomes a capitalist. \u2026 [A]nd it is only in so far as the appropriation of ever more and more wealth in the abstract becomes the sole motive of his operations, that he functions as a capitalist, that is, as capital personified and endowed with consciousness and a will.<\/p>\n

What Marx described as \u201cthe restless never-ending process of profit-making\u201d and \u201cboundless greed after riches\u201d reminds us that as actors on the economic stage we are less moral agents and more \u201ccapital personified,\u201d relentless in our restlessness and bound to believe in an illusory boundlessness. Society might be able make some moral claims on people with wealth if they were merely working in capitalism, but it\u2019s more difficult to find common moral ground with \u201ccapital personified.\u201d<\/p>\n

What should people fight for?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If we can\u2019t go back to business as usual, and there\u2019s no reason to expect that new rules will solve our problems, what kinds of solutions are possible? Patnaik said that neither of the two most obvious responses to the financial crisis \u2014 creating a surrogate global state to impose controls on finance, or \u201cdelinking\u201d a nation\u2019s economy from the global finance system \u2014 are in the cards now. Even though capitalism is in deep crisis, resistance to capitalism is not nearly strong enough to produce movements that could make that possible.<\/p>\n

Given his intellectual roots and political affiliation, it may seem surprising that Patnaik argues for organizing to bring back of the liberal welfare-state policies that developed in the advanced industrial countries during the post-war period when Keynesian economics ruled.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is not about going back, which is impossible,\u201d Patnaik said. \u201cWe have to go forward with new ideas.\u201d The call for a more robust social safety net (protecting workers\u2019 rights, unemployment insurance, social security, health insurance, etc.) isn\u2019t new, but such policies can be a step toward new ideas, a transitional measure, he explained. Rather than making those policies the final goal, as part of a more-or-less permanent accommodation with capitalism, they should be seen as a stepping stone toward radical change.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can work toward a reassertion of welfare state policies, not as an end but as a vehicle toward greater justice, as a way of making visible the inherent limitations of capitalism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In additions to the limitations of capitalism, there also are ecological limitations we can\u2019t ignore, he said, which means the goal can\u2019t be raising India and China to material standards of the United States. Patnaik recognizes the need to adjust older socialist goals to new realities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world simply has to be refashioned,\u201d both in the Third World and in advanced capitalist countries, and specifically in the United States, Patnaik said, which means experiments in alternative ways of living that are not based on material measures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis really is a spiritual\/cultural question, about what it means to live a good life,\u201d he said, which should not be seen as foreign to socialism. \u201cMarxism shouldn\u2019t be reduced to productionism. The goal of socialism has always been human freedom, which is about much more than material wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGandhi talked about the ethical demands of nature, but I don\u2019t like that phrase, being a socialist and anthropocentric,\u201d Patnaik said with the hint of a grin. \u201cBut we do have to live within the limits of nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

The role of Marxism<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is easy to misjudge Patnaik from first impressions. Unlike many intellectuals, Patnaik does not immediately thrust himself into a discussion, and he\u2019s soft-spoken both in conversation and from the podium. But when he does speak, his passion for justice comes through loud and clear. And, while Patnaik identifies very much as a communist, he also is quick to poke at some of the tradition\u2019s platitudes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just came from the (Communist) Party Congress, and I keep reminding everyone that they have to give up notions of a one-party State, of democratic centralism (the Leninist notion that party members are free to debate policy but must support the final decision of the party),\u201d Patnaik said. \u201cDemocratic centralism always leads to centralism.\u201d<\/p>\n

If leftists reject the current dominance of finance in the world, Patnaik said it\u2019s important to reject any suggestion that a single perspective or party should dominate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hegemony of finance throttles democracy. The hegemony of finance beats you into shape,\u201d he said. If the goal is to resist that kind of hegemony, then the approach of the old communist movement simply isn\u2019t relevant, Patnaik said, but socialist principles are more relevant than ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny resistance has to be about opening up alternatives, opening up critical thinking to imagine those alternatives,\u201d he said. \u201cThe only way to challenge that global regime is mass mobilization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patnaik has no off-the-shelf solutions to offer, and it\u2019s difficult to reduce his thinking to slogans. At the age of 66, when many people hold on tightly to what they believe will work, Patnaik doesn\u2019t hesitate to say, \u201cIt\u2019s time to invent.\u201d<\/p>\n

__________________________<\/p>\n

Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin. <\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 uts.cc.utexas.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While there certainly are no shortages of capitalists, there are still lots of Marxists in India, as well as communist parties that have won state elections. Patnaik represents the best thinking and practice of those left traditions \u2014 both the academic Marxism that provides a framework for critique of economics, and the political Marxism that proposes public policies \u2014 which is why I was so excited to talk with him about lessons to be learned from the current economic crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-socialism-marxism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}