Two American theoreticians discuss how socialist and ecological goals can be combined. How can we use our resources in a more economical way? Do cars and shopping malls really constitute human needs?
Category Archives: Periodical
No. 39 | (Autumn 1998)
The independence of the intelligentsia, the unbiasedness of experts and the neutrality of advisors are common assumptions used in everyday discourses but comprehensive research finds facts seldom supporting them. Articles in this issue of Eszmélet cast light on the fact that intellectual work is embedded in the society and politics. Science that though to be rational has an obvious failure: the proper handling of the relationship between society and nature, recognising the size of damage that present societies cause to the ecosystem and thus how unsustainable these societies are. Summarising the problems also gives a guideline for progressive environment policy actions.
Table of contents
- James Petras : A Marxist critique of Post-Marxist intellectuals
- Kapitány Ágnes, Kapitány Gábor : The guild
- Krausz Tamás : From expertise to the lack of experience
- Andor László : The Aczel-syndrome
- Frici Milton : Economic advisors
- Márkus Péter : The World Bank and Hungary
- Új Európai Baloldali Fórum : Proposal for green taxes
- Heltai László : GDP and te lack of eco-logic
- Christoph Spehr : The eco-trap and the abolition of the North
- Heltai László : Alternative economic indicators
- Gille Zsuzsa : Discipline and recycling
- James O’Connor, Victor Wallis : Ecological socialism and human needs
A Marxist critique of Post-Marxist intellectuals
A number of former Marxist intellectuals have made efforts to get rid of assumed or actual ideological limitations in order to modernise their views. According to the US critique of Post-Marxists the outcome of these efforts is often contradictious, murky and leads nowhere.
The guild
Intellectuals view themselves as the vanguard of modernisation, while their actual behaviour bears a number of feudalistic marks. Since an essential ingredient of the existence of intelligentsia is to develop the society in an intellectual sense, this layer cannot reach any form of "class power" under conditions of capitalism.
Revolution, counterrevolution and working class in Russia
The author compares the role of workers and the labour movement in the 1917 and the 1991 historical periods. In his conclusion he suggests that the contemporary disorganisation and political weakness of the working class is a legacy of the bureaucratic system and a consequence of the selfdestructive reforms of "perestroika". In the long run, he he counts with teh perspective of a strengthening labour movement in Russia.