You are in > Archives » Headlines » June 2007
June 2007
Was Marx right?
On 11th July, a panel of scholars and political activists will convene to discuss Andrew Kliman’s new book, Reclaiming Marx’s ‘Capital’: A Refutation of the Myth of Inconsistency. The book claims to refute longstanding charges that 'Capital', Karl Marx’s major economic work, is internally inconsistent.
It was in London that Karl Marx wrote his great work 'Capital', in which he sought not just to condemn the capitalist system, but to explain it. ‘Economic’ categories, appearing as inhuman things with a mind of their own – prices, money, interest rates – were for Marx the disguised form of relations between people. His theory explains not just why they rise or fall but their social meaning: who gains, who loses and who rules. Further, that the process of capitalism gives the workers, who are the real creators of wealth, the opportunity to overturn this order and found a better one.
Such a theory could not go unchallenged- and for many years the assertion has prevailed that key elements of Marx's work are flawed.
Speakers at the London event will include Martin Graham, a member of the Economic Committee of the Communist Party of Britain; Chris Harman, editor of the International Socialism journal; Michael Roberts, a columnist at marxist.com; Alan Freeman, an economist at the University of Greenwich; and David Black, an editor of the Marxist-Humanist journal Hobgoblin. Kliman, a professor of economics at Pace University in New York, will respond to their comments.
‘What makes the myth of inconsistency important’, Andrew Kliman said recently, ‘is that Marx’s theories couldn’t possibly be correct if they were actually inconsistent. Looking at the evidence, we might think, “Well, he offered cogent explanations of capitalism’s recurrent economic slumps, the perpetuation of unemployment, poverty, and inequality in the midst of great wealth”, and so forth. But we would just be deluding ourselves; internally inconsistent arguments simply can’t be right. So the myth of inconsistency has served as the main justification for the censorship of Marx’s critique of political economy and present-day research based upon it.’
One argument of Marx’s that has been dismissed as inconsistent for more than a century is his theory that labor-saving technological progress tends to depress profitability and lead to economic crisis. Another is his theory that the exploitation of workers is the ultimate source of all profit, interest, dividends, and rent. In Reclaiming Marx’s ‘Capital’, Kliman notes that many Marxist economists have been among those who have charged that Marx was inconsistent. ‘This is a main reason why my book and its arguments are so controversial’, he stated recently.
The discussion of Reclaiming Marx’s ‘Capital’ will take place in Room B104 of the Brunei Galley, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), near Russell Square, and begin at 6 pm. Copies of the book can be purchased at the event for £12, 1/3 off the list price.