Marx's Theory of Economic Crisis
The politicians and the mainstream press paint the crisis as an anomaly, a departure from the ordinary functioning of the capitalist mode of production, which they claim provides the best possible system of production for the largest number of people.
They portray the crisis as the result of a lack of regulation, of knowledge, and an excess of greed. The assumption here is that the fundamentals of capitalism are sound, but that it has gotten "out of control" or "away from how things should be functioning."
Karl Marx, describing capitalism during the second half of the 19th century, saw capitalism not only as a barbaric, dehumanizing guarantor of inequality, but also as a system of production that tends toward periodic crises as a result of its fundamental characteristics. In other words, his analysis of capitalism saw crises as a part of the normal functioning of things, and posited that in order to get rid of crises we must get rid of capitalism and replace it as socialism.
Study Group
Thursday, 10/2, 7pm
UMass Campus Center Room 903
Join us as we discuss Stuart Easterling's article "Marx's Theory of Economic Crisis" from issue #32 of the International Socialist Review. The aim of the discussion is to equip ourselves with a better understanding of the current economic crisis, and of capitalism more generally, to bring us closer to the day when we can replace this irrational system with socialism, one based on meeting human need.
