What does the working class know? A Report on the Left Forum

Originally Uploaded June 7th, 2018

This report from the Left Forum for 2018 attempts to synthesize two panels, one from the Platypus Affiliated Society and the other from the International Marxist Humanist Organization. Peter Hudis’ disagreement with the late Moishe Postone leads to the question- “Do we need a dictatorship of the proletariat?” or “What does the working class know?”

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[eubique]

Got completely distracted by the 8bit Floral Shoppe.

[elisennesh]

Wouldn't the Left Forum tell us what the Left knows, rather than what the working class knows?

[tasfa]

I don't think it's right to call the dictatorship of the proletariat "capitalist production with redistribution by the state". In what sense was it capitalist? Maybe an argument can be made about workplace democracy and direct ownership, but at the same time, production wasn't in the service of a market economy but rather to fulfill social needs under planning, the state wasn't exactly fulfilling the role of the capitalist in the sense that it wasn't moved by the profit motive and that has huge impacts (from what is produced, to how it's distributed, to the incentive to accentuate exploitation and the deterioriation of conditions in order to extract as much profit as possible, etc), in the same sense there wasn't a bourgeois class meddling in the government, making sure their interests were taking priority, work was distributed in a way that guaranteed full employment and no reserve army of labour, there were pioneering rights when it comes to daily hours, holidays and vacation time, etc. To reduce all of that to redistribution, the same way we talk about taxes and social services in capitalism sounds dismissive and kinda disonest, frankly. It may not fulfill all your dreams about what socialism could be, but it definitely isn't mere capitalism with redistribution. Not to mention there was a degree of worker control and ownership, depending on the time period and field.

And I may have misunderstood the video, but it seemed to me like it's suggesting we should understand socialism as something other than a matter of relations of production, but it doesn't really hint at what it should be instead. Did I miss something?

[mattgilbert]

1:36 is that Cutrone?

Yeah it's been a tough 5-6 years. I've gone half-blind and totally grey myself.

[kneeblock]

Virtual reality staging areas for the new game.

[farrider]

How dare we thinking about disturbing our narcissistic balance ?
Let's keep it like that. Crumbs of bread for the workers and employees and the 🍰for those in power.
Vote Trump for more of this😂