Ernest Almond

Ernest Mandel 1970

Ernest Mandel (born April 5, 1923 in Frankfurt am Main ; † July 20, 1995 in Brussels ) was an influential Marxist economist , theorist of socialism and - at times together with Michel Pablo - a leading member of the Fourth International . From 1970 until his retirement (1988), Mandel taught at the Vrijen Universiteit in Brussels. When he was to be appointed professor of political economy at the Free University of Berlin in 1972 , the interior minister at the time, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, banned him from entering the country, who was described as one of the "people behind the unrest of May 1968 in France". In 1977, Mandel became a member of the PEN Center Germany . For his lectures in Cambridge on the long waves of capitalist development , he received the Alfred Marshall Prize of the university in 1978. Measured by the distribution of his numerous books, he is the most successful Belgian author of the 20th century after Georges Simenon and Hergé .

The main focus of Mandel's theoretical work included the contradictions of contemporary capitalism, the chances for the emergence of revolutionary mass movements, the problems of socialist strategy and the preoccupation with the bureaucracy and the Stalinist developments in the Soviet Union and other real socialist countries.

In political terms, Mandel, as one of the protagonists of Western European Trotskyism, was critical of both the “Moscow Orthodoxy” and the Communist parties in Western Europe, seeing himself as a representative of an undogmatic “open Marxism”.

Life

Childhood and youth

Mandel's parents, Henri and Rosa Mandel, were Jewish emigrants from Poland. Henri Mandel was involved in the Spartakusbund of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht , one of his friends was Karl Radek . Soon after Ernest Mandel's birth in Frankfurt am Main, the family moved to Antwerp .

Ernest Mandel grew up in a humanistic - socialistic family home. Over the years he got to know numerous friends and relatives of his father who had fled from Nazi Germany (and later also from Austria) to neighboring Belgium before political or racist persecution , many of them to the cosmopolitan Antwerp, which was numerically one at that time had a significant Jewish community and a large emigrant colony.

Almond was introduced to the classics of literature and music from childhood and learned several languages ​​at an early age. Through his father, he became familiar with the writings of the Marxist classics very early on.

Repelled by both social democracy and Stalinism, and under the influence of the Spanish Civil War , the high school student Mandel began to be politically active in one of the small Trotskyist organizations active in Belgium , the PSR ( Parti Socialiste Révolutionnaire ), from around 1937 and became active in 1938 their member. The PSR was at that time the Belgian section of the 1938 by Leon Trotsky proclaimed and his followers Fourth International .

After the Second World War began and Belgium was occupied by German troops in 1940, Mandel had to break off his studies, which had just begun at the Université Libre in Brussels, in autumn 1941 , as the university was closed by the occupying forces. In December 1941, Ernest Mandel went illegally and from then on worked in the anti-fascist Resistance , wrote leaflets and articles, including for the illegal pamphlets of his father (e.g. Het Vrije Woord ), who also found his way through as an illegal worker . Although arrested several times, for example in December 1942 and March 1944, and imprisoned in Belgian prisons, he was able to flee twice and was finally liberated in April 1945 by the Allies from the Flossenbürg concentration camp , to which he had been deported in 1944 .

In the times when he was free, Mandel undeterred continued his underground political work; In 1942 he was elected to the Political Office of the PCR ( Parti Communiste Révolutionnaire , as the PSR was now called). In November 1943 he traveled illegally to Paris , where in February 1944 he took part in a secret conference of European Trotskyists.

After the Second World War

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Ernest Mandel (1982)

At the end of the Second World War, Mandel was already playing an important role in the Fourth International. In 1944 and 1945 Mandel's first articles appeared in Belgian Trotskyist magazines and internal bulletins, as well as in the French Quatrième Internationale , the organ governing the Fourth International. From 1946 his name or his pseudonyms appeared more and more frequently in American and other international Trotskyist press organs.

From 1943 to 1995 Mandel was a member of the highest governing bodies of the Fourth International without interruption and was soon considered the best-known supporter of Trotskyism - alongside Isaac Deutscher .

In the 1950s, Mandel propagated the tactic of so-called entryism , which sought the Trotskyists' entry into the social democratic, socialist or communist mass parties in their respective countries, with the aim of building a decidedly left-wing tendency in these parties and, in the long term, the majority of the party for to win revolutionary Marxism. Practicing entryism himself, Mandel became a member of the social democratic PSB ( Parti Socialiste Belge ) in 1950 .

In addition to his commitment in connection with the establishment of the Fourth International and his activities in its Belgian section, Mandel devoted himself primarily to journalistic activities in the 1950s and 1960s. He wrote for the Belgian newspapers Le Peuple (1954–58) and La Wallonie (1958–66), for the Paris newspaper L'Observateur (or Franceobservateur ) and the Amsterdam Het Parool . As a journalist, Mandel mainly dealt with social and economic policy, but also domestic and foreign policy. Many of Mandel's articles also appeared in left-wing socialist , independent magazines and newspapers that were located on the fringes of Social Democracy, as well as in so-called “entristian” organs. These papers, which appeared under the aegis of a socialist or social democratic party, did not openly pass themselves off as Trotskyist, but were heavily influenced by Trotskyists or were helped to shape them. This included the weekly La Gauche, published in Brussels, and its Flemish counterpart Links until 1964, of which Mandel was one of the founders (1956/1958), editors and regular authors.

After the PSB at a party congress in 1964 declared its participation in La Gauche and Links incompatible with membership in the party, Mandel and other radical lefts left the PSB . Mandel remained editor-in-chief of La Gauche , which read beyond the organized supporters of Trotskyism and later became an organ of the reorganized Belgian section of the Fourth International.

In Belgium, Mandel devoted himself in the second half of the 1960s to the establishment of small left-wing socialist parties in Flanders and Wallonia, which eventually reunited in 1970/71 to form the Belgian section of the Fourth International . In the 1960s, Mandel was strongly committed to anti-capitalist structural reforms , to workers' control of production and to federalist structures in Belgium, which was shaped by the contrast between Flanders and Walloons (cf. Flemish-Walloon conflict ). From 1954 to 1963 Mandel was also a member and expert in the study commission of the Belgian Federation of Trade Unions FGTB ( Fédération Général du Travail Belgique ) and a close collaborator of the popular and influential Walloon trade union leader André Renard . Both played an important role in the Belgian general strike at the turn of 1960/61 and in the Belgian trade union movement at that time.

In 1962, Mandel resumed the economics studies in Brussels and Paris, which he had broken off in 1941 due to the war and the occupation of Belgium, and graduated from the École pratique des hautes études of the Paris Sorbonne in 1967 with a diploma ( license ). Despite immense national and international political activities, he continued his studies and received his doctorate in 1972 at the Free University of Berlin with the work The Late Capitalism - Attempt at a Marxist Explanation . Because of the entry ban imposed on him by the social-liberal federal government at the time, the responsible doctoral committee had to travel abroad, to Brussels, to take Mandel's final examination.

In the 1960s, Ernest Mandel also appeared more and more internationally outside of the university environment, to which his book publications made a significant contribution. Through his numerous publications, lecture tours, seminars and public debates, he had a lasting influence on the student movement that flourished around 1968 .

From October 1970 until his retirement on September 30, 1988, Mandel was a member of the academic teaching staff of the VUB ( Vrije Universiteit Brussel ), first as a lecturer and later as a full professor . There he gave lectures and organized seminars on Marxist economics and political structures; from 1985 to 1988 he was also director of the VUB's Centrum voor Politicologie .

For his Alfred Marshall -Vorlesungen in Cambridge , he received the 1978 Alfred Marshall Award of the University of Cambridge .

In the late 1960s and 1970s, the governments of some western countries banned Mandel from entering the country and banning lectures. He was not allowed to enter the USA, France, Germany, Switzerland and Australia for years. In 1972, the then Interior Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher forbade him to enter the FRG ; In 1973 he applied in vain for a professorship at the University of Osnabrück, which was just being founded . It was not until 1978 that the entry ban was lifted again.

He was only allowed to travel to the Eastern Bloc countries from 1989, with the exception of Yugoslavia , where he took part in several conferences of socialist scholars in the 1970s and 1980s. Mandel's anti-bureaucratic Marxism provided orientation for numerous opposition socialists in Eastern Europe. For Klaus Wolfram, for example, a member of a conspiratorial socialist opposition group in East Berlin from 1975–1977, which was later betrayed by one of its members to the Stasi, Mandel was "the most important living theorist" at the time.

Several famous debates with well-known Marxist theorists, such as the “planning debate” with Che Guevara and Charles Bettelheim on the organization of socialist economies, also testify to the recognition and importance of Mandel ; with Paul Sweezy , Hillel Ticktin , Alec Nove on the nature of the Soviet bureaucracy. Further discussions centered on topics such as the market economy versus the planned economy , the theory of state capitalism or the future of socialism after the collapse of the real socialist regimes in Eastern Europe. Mandel also conducted widely noticed public debates with political actors such as Gregor Gysi , Felipe González and Joop den Uyl .

From the late 1960s onwards, Ernest Mandel had become one of the best-known representatives of revolutionary Marxism (or an undogmatic version of Trotskyism) on the international stage due to his political and scientific activities. His books and articles have been translated into many languages ​​and achieved large editions. He has also become a featured guest on debates, public debates, and television talk shows.

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Mandel's first important work, the two-volume Marxist Economic Theory , was published in French in 1962 and in German in 1969, in the wake of the student movement, by Suhrkamp Verlag in Frankfurt . The book aims to create a connection between economic theory and economic history . It emphasizes the embedding of capitalist society in the history of class society and commodity production .

In his dissertation, published in 1971, and his main work, Der Spätkapitalismus , Mandel develops the ideas summarized in Marxist economic theory and tries to explain the current epoch of capitalism after the Second World War - late capitalism - from the general laws of motion of capital . Mandel also refers to a theory of the “ Kondratiev cycles ” in capitalism developed by Russian and Marxist theorists ( Nikolai Dmitrijewitsch Kondratjew ) at the beginning of the 20th century . He continued this theory in his book The Long Waves in Capitalism , published in English in 1980 and in German in 1983 .

The book Ein Schöne Mord , published in 1987 in German and originally published in 1984, is one of the rest of his work . Social history of the crime novel ( Meurtres exquis. Histoire sociale du roman policier , English Delightful Murder. A Social History of the Crime Story ). As a passionate crime reader, he regards the success of crime fiction as a social phenomenon and tries - based on the dialectical method of Karl Marx and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel - to get to the bottom of it. In doing so, Mandel shows that the changes in the genre of the detective novel reflect the development and conditions of real society.

From his journalistic activity of the last years of his 1992 published book projects power and money ( Power and Money ) out, where he his theories on the bureaucracy summarizes. There Mandel deals with the function of bureaucracies in capitalism and socialism, the reason for their emergence in the organizations of the labor movement and the question of how the bureaucracy could be avoided in a post-capitalist, communist society.

Critique of Contemporary Capitalism

Laws of Capitalism

Ernest Mandel saw himself as a representative of an orthodox Marxist criticism of capitalism. As such, the capitalist mode of production is basically characterized by 10 lawful properties:

1. Law of Value : Capitalism is generalized production of goods. Goods always have a price that is expressed in money and they can only be acquired through money. The prices of goods fluctuate around an axis that is ultimately determined by value. This is an expression of theproduction costs measurablein abstract human labor .
2. Capital accumulation law : The capitalists are in competition with each other. This forces profit maximization and capital accumulation, since otherwise the individual capitalist would not be able to assert himself in the competition.
3. Law of surplus value : The only fundamental source of profit is surplus value. From this arises the need of the capitalists to get a maximum of surplus value from the labor force. The main means for this are wage cuts, increasing the number of working hours, the intensification of work and increasing labor productivity.
4. Law of equalization of profit rates : Profits are proportional to the total capital expended. The capital is composed differently in the various branches. Therefore the profits can be very different from the surplus value directly created in the production of the corresponding commodities. However, macroeconomically and in the longer term, the total price of production is equal to the total value of the goods produced.
5. Law of the concentration and centralization of capital : competition ultimately leads to the restriction of competition. The phenomenon of market control by monopolies and oligopolies arises . Nevertheless, the law of value prevails in the long term.
6. Tending to rise in the organic composition of capital : Capitalism has a tendency towards permanent technological renewal because capitalists have an interest in reducing their production costs. " Living work " is represented by dead work; H. replaced by products of past work. This creates a trend towards automation of production.
7. Law of Determination of Wages by the Class Struggle : The relationship between surplus value and wages is not only determined by the market, but also by “moral” or “historical” factors. Essential for this are the needs that are considered to be socially indispensable - a factor that is subject to historical changes. This basket of goods, in turn, is determined by the results of the class struggle and by the balance of power between labor and capital. The fluctuations in the “ reserve army ” are decisive for this balance of power .
8. The tendency of the average rate of profit to fall: the increase in the organic composition of capital (ratio between expenditure on “dead” and “living” labor) leads to a tendency towards a fall in the rate of profit (ratio of surplus value to total capital spent). This tendency to fall in the rate of profit can be compensated for by counter-trends, the most important of which is the increase in the rate of surplus value. But in the long run the rate of surplus value cannot grow in proportion to the increase in the organic composition of capital, and the other counter-tendencies also weaken over the long term.
9. Law of the cyclical character of capitalist production : Since competition is presupposed in capitalism, fluctuations in production and periodic crises are inevitable. Crises can be caused by the fact that production rises faster than effective (solvent) demand, or that the average profit rate falls. The regularly occurring capitalist crises are at the same time overproduction and underconsumption crises.
10. Tendency to collapse : There is no purely economic law according to which capitalism should collapse; nevertheless more and more violent convulsions (wars, revolutions, counter-revolutions) are likely as a result of the contradictions of this system, so that humanity is drifting towards the alternative: general disintegration of civilization or socialism.

For Mandel, the development of capitalism is essentially the function of the development and the relationship between six “basic variables”. They are functionally related to one another, but still have a relative autonomy in the sense that they can all "partially and periodically play the role of independent variables.":

1. the organic composition of capital - as a whole and in both divisions I and II (production of means of production and production of consumer goods )
2. the distribution between fixed and circulating capital in constant capital (in total and in both divisions I and II)
3. the development of the rate of surplus value
4. the development of the rate of accumulation
5. the development of the turnover time of capital
6. the exchange relations between departments I and II

Historical-genetic approach to criticism

Mandel was a representative of a historical-genetic representation of the Marxian basic categories, which he expanded into a history of the development of capitalism.

In his view, a pure use-value production still prevailed in natural economy . The following epoch of " simple commodity production " was a time of transition in which exchange did not yet penetrate the whole of society. The beginning of the social division of labor meant that the producers were already producing various goods that they exchanged among themselves. This is how farmers bought the craftsmen's products and vice versa. The money still functioned as a medium of exchange (WGW); one sold to buy.

This changed with the advent of traders as a separate profession. They bought in order to sell, that is, to have more money after the exchange than before (GW-G '). Without the achievement of the difference (G'-G), i.e. a surplus value, the trading activity would have been pointless from the point of view of the dealer. The increase of the given value by a surplus value was synonymous with the conversion of money into capital .

The starting point of the capitalist mode of production was the separation of the producers from their means of production, the monopolization of these means of production by the capitalist class, and the emergence of a class of people who could only live by selling their labor to this bourgeoisie.

The monopoly of the means of production became possible as they became more and more complex and expensive. With the industrial revolution a class emerged that could no longer acquire any means of production, was condemned to be dispossessed and could only sell its labor. According to Mandel, this class is more numerous today than ever before.

Long wave theory

The theory of long waves advocated by Mandel served him as a model to explain the phenomenon of long-term industrial growth in capitalism, which is incompatible with the Marxist assumption of a long-term decline in the rate of profit.

In contrast to normal capitalist business cycles, in which both the turns into depression and recovery correspond to the internal laws of the capitalist economy, according to Mandel the turn into a long wave with an expansive basic tendency must be explained by extra-economic (“exogenous”) factors . While the long wave with a basic depressive tendency does not, in purely economic terms, contain the conditions for the transition to an expansive basic tendency, the reverse is very well the case: long waves with an expansive basic tendency always result in those with a stagnant-depressive tendency.

In Mandel's explanatory model, technological revolutions alone are not able to trigger epochs with an expansive basic tendency. In the time of long waves with a stagnant-depressive basic tendency, a “reserve” of technical innovations emerges which, however, are not fully introduced into the production process. Only the change in the economic climate and the correspondingly increased profit expectations lead to massive investments with the purpose of applying these innovations in production.

An economic cycle with longer and more pronounced phases of boom and shorter and less pronounced crises, which are perceived as "recessions", is typical of expansionary waves. In the case of a stagnant-depressive wave, this is the other way around.

As part of a long wave with a stagnant-depressive tone, investments are made in research - the main goal is technological breakthroughs in favor of radical cost reduction; the typical investments are then investments in rationalization. Capital expenditures, which serve the massive application of new technologies in the production process, generally only begin about ten years after the beginning of an expansive long wave.

The new technologies initially have a "renewal character" and raise the average profit rate; thereafter, in the long period of their generalization, they lower or keep the average rate of profit low. At the same time, every revolution in the organization of work corresponds to an attempt to break the resistance of employees to raising the rate of surplus value (the rate of exploitation).

According to Mandel, the long waves are essentially due to the long-term fluctuations in the rate of profit. In order to establish it empirically, he mentions two decisive indicators: industrial production and export growth. On this basis he identified eight long waves with an alternating stagnant-depressive and expansive tendency:

1. 1793-1825: Long wave with an expansive tendency, age of the industrial revolution . Replacement of manual labor by machines in Department II (weaving, spinning) v. a. in Great Britain. Falling wages with increasing rate of surplus value. Expansion of the world market (South America).
2. 1826-1847: Long wave with a stagnant-depressive tendency, surplus profits declining due to the spread of machine production in Department II. Spread of the capitalist mode of production to Western Europe (Belgium, France, Rhineland).
3. 1848-1873: Long wave with an expansive tendency, surplus profits through mechanization of department I, there “gigantic machines” (Marx), sudden increase in the required capital in department I. Revolutions, conquests and the discovery of the Californian gold fields enabled a qualitative expansion of the capitalistic one World market.
4. 1874-1893: Long wave with a stagnant-depressive tendency, surplus profits declining because machine-made machines (Department I) are widespread.
5. 1894-1913: Long wave with an expansive tendency, monopoly capitalism and classical imperialism: division of the world among the developed capitalist industrial countries, increase in capital exports to the underdeveloped countries, decrease in the relative prices of raw materials. The rate of growth in the organic composition of capital slowed, and the technological revolution by generalizing electrification in the rich industrial countries made possible the increased production of relative surplus value.
6. 1914-1939: Long wave with a stagnant-depressive tendency, causes: disruption of world trade through the First World War , further narrowing of the capitalist world market through the October Revolution in Russia.
7. 1940 (for Europe from 1948) to 1967: Long wave with an expansive tendency. Fascism and National Socialism led to the smashing of the labor movement in the respective countries. The Second World War , the “ Cold War ” that followed, and the McCarthy era in the USA meant further huge setbacks for the organized labor movement. This allowed sensational increases in the rate of surplus value (up to 300%). The organic composition of capital slowed down - due to cheaper access to Middle East oil, a further drop in raw material prices and the cheaper elements of fixed capital. Still increasing living standards of workers. Lower prices for consumer goods such as cars , televisions , kitchen appliances such as refrigerators, etc. through mass production . Beginning of the Third Industrial Revolution ( nuclear energy , semi-automation , computers ). Surplus profits also through semi-automatic production of durable consumer goods (Department II) with massively increasing minimum capital requirements. Increasing importance of research and development for profit realization in industry.
8. Since 1968: Long wave with a stagnant-depressive tendency .

Crisis theory

Cyclical crises

While earlier economic crises were essentially shortage crises due to a lack of consumer goods, according to Mandel the crises characteristic of capitalist production are characterized by an overproduction of goods and an overaccumulation of capital. They take a cyclical course with stages of recovery, upswing, boom, crisis and depression, which are repeated at certain intervals. In Marxist economic theory , Mandel lists 17 cycles of the capitalist world economy from 1816 to 1958. The cyclical course of the capitalist economy does not mean, however, that things simply repeat themselves in an eternal cycle. Rather, every overcoming of a crisis is associated with changes compared to the previous cycle.

Mandel tried to synthesize the classical models to explain the capitalist overproduction crises . Proponents of the disproportionality theory ( Michail Tugan-Baranowski , Rudolf Hilferding ) had seen the cause of the periodic crises in the inability of capitalism to create the necessary balance between the various “departments” of production (production of means of production and production of consumer goods). Supporters of the underconsumption theory ( Karl Kautsky , Rosa Luxemburg , Nathalia Moszkowska , Fritz Sternberg , Paul Sweezy ), on the other hand, saw the decisive problem in the fact that, due to the increasing organic composition of capital, the purchasing power for the acquisition of means of production rises more strongly than the mass purchasing power for consumer goods, which means some of the consumer goods produced remain unsaleable. Proponents of the over-accumulation theory ( Otto Bauer ) took the position that insufficient surplus value production was the cause of capitalist crises.

According to Mandel, all three explanatory models contain correct elements for a theory of the cyclical crises of capitalism, which must be integrated into Marx's theory of the falling tendency of the average rate of profit.

During a strong upswing, a lot has to be invested in Department I, the means of production, which creates a disproportion between the two departments. The additional means of production are sometimes only available for production after a certain delay; when they enter production, they increase the production capacity of both departments by leaps and bounds. Even if the output in Department II, consumer goods, then grows more slowly than that in Department I, the high investment and profit rates mean that the solvent demand for consumer goods does not keep pace. A growing overproduction in department II or underconsumption is the result. Since the introduction of new means of production goes hand in hand with new technology, the organic composition of capital increases at the same time, which pushes the rate of profit down, especially since under conditions of the boom the rate of surplus value cannot be increased sufficiently to compensate for this. This leads to over-accumulation , since part of the capital can no longer achieve the average profit when investing productively.

Ultimately, crises have a "restorative" function for the capitalist system, since they represent an adjustment of prices to the actually fallen values. According to Mandel, the law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall does not provide the direct explanation of the overproduction crisis, but only shows the disharmony and discontinuity in the system of specifically capitalist growth, which necessarily takes place in phases of upward and downward movements in the average rate of profit.

Collapse theory

Mandel advocated a theory of the necessary "collapse" of the capitalist mode of production. He took over the position represented by Henryk Grossmann , that the tendency of the rate of profit to fall from a certain point in time of capitalist development is accompanied by the end of the growth of the mass of surplus value and that it finally begins to fall. In late capitalism , he tried to show that the increasing automation of manufacturing processes is associated with an ever increasing displacement of living work from the production process.

Mandel assumed that increasing automation would result in a "fourfold combined 'breakdown crisis'":

1. a crisis of falling rate of profit
2. a crisis in the realization of the value of the use-values ​​produced
3. a social crisis
4. a crisis of specific forms of capital destruction that threaten not only the survival of human civilization but even the physical survival of humanity.

Even the change in the “post-industrial” age towards the increasing replacement of production by services did not change anything about these prospects for Mandel. Rather, the trend towards replacing services with goods and also in the service sector to push back the living labor force through technological innovations is characteristic.

The crisis-ridden developments of capitalism could lead to general decay as well as a turn towards solutions of cooperation, solidarity and social equality. All in all, Mandel saw in the working class , understood in a broad sense, the potential for the implementation of a worldwide socialist perspective, the necessity of which to prevent further unpredictable global catastrophes represents the quintessence of his conclusions from the investigation of the crisis tendencies of capitalism.

Late capitalism

For Mandel, the category of “ late capitalism ” describes the new, economically expansive phase of the capitalist economic and social order after the Second World War. For him, the main feature of this period is the increasing internationalization and concentration of capital. It is also characterized by an acceleration of technological renewal and a shortening of the turnover time of fixed capital. This creates a growing pressure for large corporations to plan their costs and their investment decisions in the longer term and to use the state for these purposes. In order to be able to calculate wage costs better, there is increasing pressure for long-term collective bargaining agreements by employers' associations and unions, with the state acting as moderator. The state takes over entire areas of production as required, if they are not profitable in the given phase, in order to rehabilitate them and later return them to the direct control of large capital. In addition, the state is increasingly playing a role in guaranteeing the profits of the large monopolies. Using the classic means of controlling interventions, he acts as a client in order to enable the financing of such profits from tax money. This is particularly evident in the arms industry, which is expanding spectacularly in the wake of the East-West conflict .

A fundamental problem with these developments lies in the tendency towards permanent inflation , especially credit money inflation . Arms production increases the amount of money in circulation and increases purchasing power without introducing corresponding goods into circulation. The national debt here is just a substitute for monetary inflation, both of which occur in practice often simultaneously. Public debt is complemented by massive private debt. The new “ consumption model” is essentially based on consumer credit , which is the basis for the private bankruptcy of a growing number of wage earners.

Late capitalism differs from classical imperialism mainly in that the profit striving of the large capitalist corporations is no longer satisfied by making extra colonial profits . Rather, the lion's share of the surplus value on which capitalist profits are based is achieved through the exploitation of wage labor in the rich capitalist industrialized countries themselves.

This change is directly related to the late capitalist trend towards permanent technological renewal and the constant revolutionization of the production process, initially following on from the technologies and product lines developed for the Second World War with the help of state contracts, whereby the technological revolution that is particularly characteristic of late capitalism is electronics .

Worldwide inequality

An essential motivation for Mandel's criticism of the existing capitalist society is the finding of extreme worldwide social inequality . It has a direct influence on the quality of life - right down to the differences in child mortality . The inequality in the countries of the “ Third World ”, which has arisen as a result of the negative dynamics of imperialism and neocolonialism , is particularly noticeable . It does not simply mean lagging behind the developed capitalist countries, but intervenes in the fate of many millions of people.

Economic causes

Law of Unequal and Combined Development

Referring to Trotsky's law of uneven and combined development and Lenin's theory of imperialism , Mandel introduces the theory of a development tendency of capitalist production in the imperialist and monopoly capitalist age, which contradicts Marx's thesis that the more industrially developed countries show the less developed countries their future. With the disappearance of free competition in the capitalist world market , it no longer favors the industrialization of colonial and semi-colonial countries, but rather it slows it down. Mandel highlights three essential factors that caused the change in the international capitalist economy:

• The mass production and high productivity in the imperialist countries managed sales prices with those less developed countries could no longer compete. The original economy of these states, such as handicraft and manufacturing, was thus deprived of its basis.
• Excess capital in the imperialist countries was used to set up productions in colonial and semi-colonial countries that did not compete with the imperialist industry, but rather supplemented it. This mainly resulted in the exploitation and extraction of raw materials .
• The domination of the economy by foreign capital intertwined the old ruling class with foreign capital, and thus supported it, in contrast to the development in Western Europe and the USA, where the relations of rule were radically reshaped in bourgeois revolutions.

In most of the underdeveloped countries, a social structure with mixed forms of feudal, semi-feudal, semi-capitalist and capitalist elements can be recognized, the development of which is determined by foreign capital. The population of these countries is largely made up of poor peasants who are subject to different degrees and different compositions of exploitation by semi-feudal and semi-capitalist conditions, usurers , traders and tax collectors.

Exchange relationships

According to Mandel, the worsening of the terms of trade between the typical third world goods and the typical goods of the industrialized capitalist countries contributes to the worsening of inequality .

The exchange relations are only an expression of a comprehensive problem, namely the unequal exchange between the economies of the capitalist industrial countries and the poor countries. For Mandel, the unequal exchange can be explained by the transfer of Marx's theory of labor value to international trade . It basically has two sources:

1. the fact that on the world market the work of the industrialized countries is considered more intensive, i. H. more productive than the underdeveloped
2. the fact that there is no equalization of the rates of profit on the world market, d. This means that different national production prices ( average profit rates ) coexist

Precisely because of the difference in commodity values ​​and labor productivity in the individual countries, Marx's law of value forces the backward countries to specialize in the capitalist world market, which is unfavorable for them . If they try their hand at the production of high-quality industrial goods, they are doomed to sell them at a loss on the domestic market, since the difference in production costs to those of industrialized nations becomes too great.

Historical manifestations

From “classical” imperialism to neocolonialism

For Mandel, the current global inequality goes back to the era of “classical” imperialism (from the 1890s). During this time the export of capital took the place of the export of goods in the large industrial and financial enterprises of the capitalist metropolises . The modernization of the colonial and semi-colonial countries was blocked twice by a combination of capitalist and pre-capitalist exploitation :

1. The dependent countries were forced into an "economy complementary to the imperialist countries". They had to limit themselves to the production and export of raw materials and agricultural products, whereby the exclusive cultivation of one product often shaped these economies. The prices of these products were determined by the world market , which was controlled by the big corporations and big banks . This led to the progressive ruin of the small producers, to misery and chronic unemployment. The internal market of these countries became very limited, which was an additional obstacle to industrialization .
2. The colonial powers mostly retained the traditional owning classes of the dependent countries in their old social position. These operated a semi-feudal exploitation of the peasants: the basic rent became very high, the peasants became increasingly indebted and were exposed to usury .

After the Second World War, this system could not be continued unbroken. Due to the boom of the liberation movements in the colonies, the formation of the Indian nation state, the revolutions in Indonesia and Vietnam, and above all the victory of the Chinese Revolution , the colonial powers were led to gradually give up direct political control of their colonies. This cleared the way for the dominance of the USA, which replaced the old colonial powers. The old colonies became politically independent, but their direct domination was only indirect: imperialism was transformed into neo-colonialism. There remained an economic, financial and, very often, military dependency, which continued to hinder the path to economic development and general social modernization.

Limited industrialization processes after World War II

After the Second World War, some countries in the “Third World” saw the beginning of industrialization and modernization in two waves. The first wave extended mainly in Latin America from 1935 to 1955; the second began in the 1970s, in a number of Asian countries, in Brazil, South Africa, Egypt and Iraq. The bearers of this incipient industrialization process included a new coalition of the modernist wing of the military hierarchy, a nascent native monopoly bourgeoisie and a few multinational corporations .

This industrialization process of the colonial countries undermined one of the pillars of the old colonial system: the role of the backward countries as sales markets for consumer goods. Therefore, the export of capital goods increasingly replaced the earlier export of consumer goods, since the capitalist countries still needed the underdeveloped countries as safety valves for the periodic capitalist overproduction crises. The increased export of capital goods led to a changed division of labor in the world economy, with parts of the "Third World" becoming suppliers of certain light industry products (textile goods, leather goods, canned food, etc.) for rich countries.

In these developments in the direction of industrialization, Mandel saw no possibility for the countries of the “Third World” to catch up with the rich industrialized countries within the framework of the capitalist world system. These countries remained dependent on imperialism - especially in technological and financial terms, but also in terms of trade and the military.

Debt crisis

According to Mandel, the most important cause of the so-called “ third world debt crisis ” was capital's search for investment opportunities or for alternatives to investment in industrial production in the rich industrialized countries. Since the oil-importing third world countries were no longer in a position to import goods worth mentioning due to the consequences of the “ oil crisis ”, the redistribution of funds was definitely in the interests of the capitalist system. In particular, it was about the reinvestment of the petrodollars , which after the oil shock of 1973 had swollen the investments of some US and British banks. The banks then offered money to third world countries - at higher interest rates than was customary in the rich industrialized countries, adjusted for inflation, but in the hope that the economies of the semi-industrialized countries would flourish and thereby make them solvent.

The debt crisis was accelerated by the growing willingness of the big banks to take incalculable risks in order to maximize profits quickly. Only part of the borrowed money was productively invested; a significant part was invested directly in the metropolises by members of the owning classes of the Third World countries concerned, thus increasing the flow of capital flight . Recently, new loans began to serve to finance the debt service itself.

For the “imperialist” countries, the consequences of the increasing indebtedness of the third world countries were ambiguous. While the speculative capital organized by the creditor banks profited from the debt repayments in particular, the capital invested in industry and the export economy suffered as a result . According to Mandel, this also explains the nuances in the politics of the various capitalist powers. While the USA and Great Britain acted as tough advocates of the creditors, Germany and other EU countries pushed for a "softer" attitude, especially for Latin America, because this was more in line with their interests.

Criticism of the bourgeois parliamentary democracy

For Mandel, democratic freedoms are valuable to the working class and should be defended by it; but for him the bourgeois- parliamentary democracy of the modern type is ultimately a political system for maintaining the rule of the bourgeois class.

Due to the principle of indirect democracy only a few thousand people's representatives take part in the administration and the vast majority of citizens are excluded from such participation. Political equality is a purely formal and not a real equality, since the exercise of many democratic rights (e.g. founding a newspaper, buying television time) requires the appropriate financial means.

Basically, bourgeois democracy is a purely political democracy. But such is useless if it goes hand in hand with an ever increasing economic and social inequality: “Even if the poor and the rich had exactly the same political rights, the latter retained their enormous economic and social power, which the poor inevitably enjoy would submit daily life to the rich, including in the practical application of political rights. "

In addition, Mandel states that the weight of the electoral law and parliament in the bourgeois-democratic republics is declining over time. To the extent that universal suffrage is conquered by the working masses and workers' representatives move into parliament, the emphasis will inevitably shift from parliament to the permanent state apparatus . With regard to its composition, its organization and power mechanisms, this is in complete agreement with the middle and large bourgeoisie. In addition, the representatives of the state apparatus and the bourgeoisie are inextricably linked ideologically, socially and economically. The representatives of the state apparatus are therefore also personally interested in the defense of private property and in the undisturbed progress of the capitalist economy. Above all, however, the state is tied to capital for its financing. Any anti-capitalist policy would lead to an immediate clash with the financial and economic sabotage of the entrepreneurs: "'Investment strike', capital flight, inflation, black market, curbing of production and unemployment would be the consequences of such sabotage."

The repressive functions of the bourgeois state can, in normal times, recede for the mass of dependent workers, because the normal functioning of the capitalist economy and society leads to the predominance of bourgeois ideology and the intactness of class rule. This is different, however, in times of crisis, when it becomes clear that the state "is ultimately just a group of armed people in the service of the rulers".

Fascism theory

Mandel turned against “bourgeois” theories of fascism such as Ernst Nolte's , which ultimately sought the basis of fascism in human nature and not in the capitalist mode of production. Psychological factors such as the latent willingness to aggression have always existed in people, but this does not provide any explanation for the contemporary outbreaks of massive violence, the specific features of which are tied to contemporary society, its structures and technical means.

According to Mandel, all attempts to explain fascism with certain national mentalities suffer from a similar deficiency. Between 1920 and 1945, fascism gained a foothold in many imperialist countries, each with their own characteristics. Characteristics such as discipline and subservience are typical for Germany, but not for Italy and cannot explain the success of fascism there.

Mandel also criticized theorists from the ranks of the Social Democrats who cite left-wing radicalism as the main cause of fascism , which terrified the petty bourgeoisie and drove them into the arms of the National Socialists. In the years before the National Socialists came to power, the credibility of a “moderate” policy in harmony with the institutions of the bourgeois-democratic state decreased more and more.

An economist explanation of fascism, which was widespread in the social democracy and which identifies the economic crisis and unemployment as the main causes of the rise of fascist movements, should also be shortened. The economic and social situation in itself does not yet decide which direction radicalization will take. Dealing with the economic crisis leaves the underlying structural crisis of the political system and the growing loss of credibility of its institutions untouched.

Mandel's own fascism theory is very close to that of Trotsky. The driving force behind the emergence of fascism was the interest of certain parts of big business. With reference to Trotsky, he names six elements of fascism in which the interplay of objective and subjective factors is expressed. Each element has a certain autonomy, but only in their internal context can they explain the emergence, victory and decline of the fascist dictatorship:

1. Fascism is an expression of a severe structural crisis in the capitalist mode of production. Its function is to bring about a sudden and drastic improvement in the conditions for the utilization of capital.
2. Fascism fulfills and at the same time negates the tendency inherent in imperialist monopoly capital to come to authoritarian to totalitarian forms of rule in the event of severe disturbances of the social balance within the framework of the “normal” bourgeois-parliamentary forms of rule. Fascism realizes this tendency while at the same time politically expropriating the bourgeoisie.
3. In contrast to military dictatorships and similar forms of authoritarian rule, fascism can only crush the workers' movement with the support of a large mass movement.
4. The mass base of fascism is the petty bourgeoisie, threatened with social decline, whose radicalization is fueled with nationalist and only apparently anti-capitalist demagogy and directed against the labor movement.
5. Fascism is successful when it succeeds over a certain period of time in changing the balance of power in its favor and to the detriment of the labor movement. With the intimidation and demoralization of the labor movement, the mass of the petty bourgeoisie and the declassed are drawn over to fascism.
6. After it seized power, fascism “bureaucratised” itself, merged with the heads of the state apparatus and pushed back the mass movement. He drops his "anti-capitalist" elements and shifts to foreign policy. Growing national debt and devaluation ultimately leave no other way out than to unleash wars of conquest.

Bureaucracy criticism

Bureaucracy in the Labor Movement

The bureaucracy is not a class of its own, but a part of the working class from which it is emerging under certain conditions and to the obstacle it is for Mandel.

The development towards a bureaucracy begins with the establishment of large trade union and political mass organizations with the formation of “apparatuses” (staffs of full-time functionaries ). For Mandel, such devices are fundamentally justified, since otherwise the individual worker would be much more exposed to the bourgeois ideology.

The deeper reason for the bureaucratisation of workers' organizations is what Mandel called the “dialectic of partial achievements”. By this he understands the contradictory interaction of positive and negative effects of the achievements of the labor movement in capitalistically organized societies.

The positive achievements of the workers' organizations include a wage level that goes beyond the subsistence level, reduced working hours, social protection provisions, social security systems , etc. In a situation where a lot has already been achieved for the workers, according to Mandel, the Marxist principle is, “The proletarians have nothing to lose than their chains, ”no longer applicable. It is now a matter of weighing up in each new action whether “the action envisaged does not involve the risk of losing what has already been achieved instead of achieving positive profit”.

The negative effect of these achievements is to hold on to what has been achieved. This leads to the identification of “the bureaucratic individual with the organization, whereby this identification becomes the deeper cause of a conservative behavior that can come into sharp conflict with the interests of the labor movement.” Conservatism is ultimately based on this “identification of ends and means” “Of the reformist as well as the Stalinist bureaucracies”.

The end point of such bureaucratisation is ultimately a “complete change in political orientation” and “conscious integration into civil society”. Instead of the systematic confrontation between the working class and the capitalist class, a “social partnership” between labor and capital and a “common interest” are postulated - especially against competitors at home and abroad.

For Mandel, this contradiction is inextricably linked with the development of the labor movement in the epoch of the disintegration of capitalism and the transition to a socialist society. Its dissolution consists in the gradual withering of the bureaucracy "by creating the best objective and subjective conditions that will cause the slow disappearance of the germs of this bureaucratization present throughout society and in the labor movement in the present historical phase."

For Mandel, one of the means of creating the conditions for the withering of the bureaucracy is professional revolutionaries . In order to prevent these from moving away from the workforce, they would have to return to the factories after a certain period of time and be replaced by other proletarians, who could then also have the experience of professional revolutionaries.

Dual character of the trade unions

For Mandel, under capitalist conditions, unions basically have a dual character. They are not "system-breaking", since for the wage earners they are not a means to abolish capitalist exploitation, but only to a more tolerable exploitation. They should raise wages, not abolish wage labor at all.

At the same time, however, the unions are also not “conforming to the system”. Under favorable conditions, they are able to raise the market price of the commodity labor and stop the fall in real wages. In this way, they enable the organized mass of the working class to exceed a minimum of consumption and needs, with which “class organization, class consciousness and growing self-confidence can only arise on a broader scale and create the preconditions for a system-breaking struggle of broader masses in the first place”.

With the dawn of “late capitalism” in the 1940s, the union bureaucracy was increasingly integrated into the state apparatus. Because of the higher planning and cost pressure, the union leadership was more and more involved by big business in committees of state and semi-state economic control. It was to be made to refrain from the struggle for substantial wage increases and social improvements, even if the economic conditions were favorable.

Ernest Mandel sees the danger that “vertical unions” will develop that agree to worsening wages and working conditions “in the interests of the company”. Such unions would "then quickly cease to be a real union at all" and become part of the state administrative apparatus with the special task of administering the "commodity of labor".

Mandel, on the other hand, calls for the unions to be democratized. Before making any important decision, the union leadership must “inform” and “question” the membership, whereby the rights of minorities are to be preserved as far as possible.

Stalinism

Stalinism as a bureaucracy problem

Mandel criticized the reduction of the problematic of Stalinism to the peculiarities of the person Stalin as a "shallow thesis of the 'cult of personality' that explains nothing". He also vehemently opposed the view that Stalinism was in continuity with the revolutionary Marxist and communist tradition, Lenin and Bolshevism. There was a radical break between the two, since almost the entire generation of the Bolsheviks who were leading in Lenin's time had fallen victim to the Stalinist terror.

Mandel, on the other hand, saw Stalinism as a political expression of the rise and consolidation of the bureaucracy in the Soviet state, with Stalin as an embodiment of the special interests of this bureaucracy.

The starting point for the rise of Stalinism (1923) was for him the international situation from the end of the First World War. It was marked by a series of defeats for the working class in the world revolutionary process. The failure of the German revolution in 1923 ( Hamburg uprising ) as the preliminary end point of the revolutionary possibilities in Germany since the November Revolution of 1918 marked a turning point from Mandel's point of view. Only then did Stalin begin to advocate the slogan of “building socialism in one country ”. For the rising bureaucracy, it was the adequate expression of their need for “peace and order”, for the maintenance and consolidation of what had been achieved, in contrast to the uncertain world-revolutionary dreams, the realization of which would have called their privileged position and their power into question. For Mandel, these conservative instincts were the same as those of the workers' bureaucracies in general, except that in this case the bureaucracy relied not only on trade union and party organizations, but on the means of power of a state apparatus that was increasingly fused with the party apparatus.

With increasing bureaucracy, the party and state bureaucracy merged. The special interests of a layer of administrators in the administration, army and factories largely determined economic and international politics. The interests of this bureaucracy were enforced by means of the secret services and a repression that rose sharply at its height in the second half of the 1930s.

Disintegration of Stalinism

For Mandel, the “crisis of Stalinism” came about as a breakdown of a Russian-Soviet “national messianism” into many communist “nationalisms”.

For Mandel, Tito's break with Stalin in 1948 marked the beginning of this development . For a short time, Mandel saw this as an opportunity to use the differentiation in the world communist movement that resulted from the break in order to build new non-Stalinist parties. The adaptation of the CPJ leadership to the Western powers in the context of the “ Cold War ” put an end to this. For a long time, however, the “Yugoslav model” retained a special meaning despite all the restrictions, in particular due to the greater freedom of expression and the self-administration of the companies by the workforce.

The Chinese Revolution was also initially received with enthusiasm by Mandel. He interpreted the Cultural Revolution as a revolution against bureaucratic, conservative and restorative tendencies. Chinese foreign policy praised Mandel primarily for its support for anti-colonial liberation struggles. This assessment changed with the beginning of the so-called " ping-pong diplomacy " and the " three worlds theory " of Mao , in which the Maoist leadership declared the Soviet Union to be the "main social-imperialist enemy".

Another milestone in the break-up of Stalinist monolithism was the Cuban revolution for Mandel . In contrast to the self-restraint of the revolution in the sense of the Stalinist “stage theory” and “ peaceful coexistence ”, the Guevarist - Castist tendency advocated the advancement and international expansion of the revolution.

The changes in the communist parties in the West - especially in the Western European capitalist countries - were another building block for Mandel in the crisis of Stalinism. As soon as these communist parties gained mass adherence in the working class, a conflict arose for them between their ties to the Soviet Union and their independent social roots. This is how mass communist parties emerged in the 1970s, claiming to determine their policies independently and independently of the Soviet Union. The most acute expression of this process was " Eurocommunism ".

In the Soviet Union itself, for Mandel, the crisis of Stalinism manifested itself primarily in the contradictions of bureaucratic planning. On the one hand, the efficiency of the economy should be increased and waste should be reduced by appropriate incentives for the factory directors. On the other hand, such measures created special bureaucratic interests. As factory directors became more autonomous in their decisions, unemployment and other grievances reappeared. Liberalization and reactive measures to return to the command economy in the narrower sense replaced one another.

The recurring mass revolts in the Soviet sphere of influence - Hungary and Poland / Posen (1956), Prague Spring (1968), Poland (1970) - interpreted Mandel as the gradually worsening crisis of Stalinism and as the beginnings of a "political revolution" to create a socialist council democracy.

Socialist strategy

Objective and subjective conditions of the socialist revolution

For Mandel, the objective prerequisites for a socialist revolution on a world scale had been in place since the First World War: the large enterprise had become the basis of production, the social division of labor had reached a high level, the mutual dependence between people was largely realized and the objective weight of the The working class had grown by its numerical strength.

For Mandel, the obstacle to a socialist revolution was the level of subjective conditions. Under “normal” conditions of modern bourgeois society, the working class persists in its role as an object of exploitation; In the feeling of being inferior to the class opponent, it remains caught up in its fragmentation into competing individuals in bourgeois ideology. However, there are always periodic outbreaks in which the chance is given to change the subjective conditions: "One of the main aspects of direct action by the masses, their broad demonstration and strike movements, is the raising of their level of consciousness by raising their self-confidence." This creates the possibility of a “psychological revolution which is indispensable for the victory of a socialist revolution”.

Mass strike and self-organization as the germ of the new society

For Mandel, the democratic “self-organization” of the working class represents the bridge to socialist council democracy, which is supposed to take the place of the bourgeois state. The prototypical form of self-organization is the strike committee, its highest form the workers' councils. An important requirement for these organs of self-organization is their openness. They must not exclude anyone and must also include those who are unionized and politically unorganized.

In order to be able to transform strike committees into workers' councils ("soviets"), it is necessary for Mandel that the means of production and national wealth be permanently taken into possession. Ultimately, this is not possible without eliminating the power of the capitalist state, which can only be achieved through conscious and centralized action. No “chain link” should be left out if the penalty is for failure.

According to Mandel, the "opposite side" is trying to turn the revolt with the help of the union apparatus in the direction of "class collaboration", "co-determination" or "co-administration". Any co-responsibility of the workforce for capitalist-run companies should be rejected, however, since this can only lead to class collaboration if the ownership structure remains unchanged.

Mandel continues to reject any participation in the management of capitalist companies (for example via “people's shares”), since this only leads to identification with company interests, which are ultimately always designed to intensify competition among dependent employees. Rather, it is important to assert collective solidarity and the rights to life of all working people against the individual profitability of the individual company. Ultimately, a gradual conquest of “economic democracy” is impossible without the overthrow of bourgeois state power and the expropriation of big business.

Strategy of Transitional Demands

So that the partial successes wrested from the bourgeoisie are not again undone by measures such as price increases, tax increases, intensification of work, etc., the working class must be made to adopt so-called "transitional demands" as the goal of their ongoing struggles. As an example, Mandel cites a “sliding wage scale”, the automatic adjustment of wages to price developments, and a “sliding working time scale”, ie the requirement to shorten general working hours “until everyone has work”.

A consistent realization of these transitional demands would, according to Mandel, contradict important characteristics of the capitalist system. The ultimate aim of them is to bring about a revolutionary crisis by making the workers "question the capitalist system both practically and consciously."

Role of trade unions

For Mandel, the trade unions not only play a strategic role in the struggle of the dependent workers in capitalism, but also in the defense of their interests under the conditions of a society in transition to socialism. The trade unions are supposed to direct their struggle towards the “socialist end goal”. Nonetheless, Mandel advocates independent trade unions - even in the event that capitalism has already fallen and a socialist council democracy exists. Trade unions should organize themselves as unions in which all dependent employees can organize themselves regardless of their political affiliation and opinion.

Class consciousness and revolutionary avant-garde party

For Mandel, the special features of the socialist revolution result in the need for “revolutionary avant-garde parties”. Socialist class consciousness had to be brought into the working class "from outside", since it could not arise spontaneously there under the conditions of existence of capitalism. The acceptance of the Marxist theory is conditioned by the proletarian class struggle, but not its “mechanical product”. Rather, it follows its own logic and "only gradually" connects to this class struggle through a long and complex process.

Although Mandel values ​​the spontaneous mass action very highly, he is of the opinion that it is not in a position to develop the entire program of the socialist revolution on its own and to centralize its forces in the decisive moments in such a way that its success is guaranteed . Ultimately, behind every meaningful action there were conscious forces, left-wing union activists, revolutionary groups and driving forces. The function of the avant-garde party is to coordinate the action of these vanguard elements in the broadest sense.

Mandel names four peculiarities of the socialist revolution that distinguish it from all previous revolutions in history and on the basis of which an "automatic" or purely "spontaneous" success of the socialist revolution is unthinkable:

1. it is carried out by a class of society that previously had no economic wealth
2. its goal is a deliberately planned upheaval in society and not the restoration of previous conditions
3. it can only be realized by means of a long-lasting upheaval in all social relationships
4. it is international and universal

Criticism of reformism

Mandel does not reject the struggle for reforms, provided that they ultimately keep the revolutionary goal in mind. For him, renouncing the struggle for reforms on the pretext that a real and sustainable solution to the problems can only be had through the socialist upheaval is “utopian and reactionary at the same time”: “Utopian because it forgets that the workers - if they are becoming more and more fragmented and demoralized by their inability to defend their standard of living, their jobs, their freedoms and basic rights - unable to equip a social class with the wealth and political experience that the modern bourgeoisie has, to face. Reactionary, because it objectively serves the cause of the employers to lower wages, to maintain massive unemployment, to suppress the trade unions and the right to strike if the workers allow themselves to be reduced to slave status without resistance. "

At the same time, Mandel criticizes the reformist strategy that refrains from revolutionary changes . It is characterized by the fact that it tries to win majorities in the bourgeois parliaments by means of electoral successes and, based on this, through government participation or by assuming government responsibility through gradual changes, to overcome capitalism. Ultimately, this strategy would not achieve reform, but rather set the working class back materially and morally. The more the depressive tendency of capitalism prevailed again in the past, the less the parties that had emerged from the labor movement implemented reforms in the government to improve the situation of dependent employees.

Conception of socialism

For Mandel, the goal of socialism is a comprehensive liberation process and the realization of humanistic ideals, whereby in the end there should be a “new person” who can give himself to his own self-realization without material constraints in solidarity with other people.

For Mandel, essential characteristics of perfect socialism are the final disappearance of social classes , the withering out of the commodity and monetary economy , the free general satisfaction of basic needs and the withering away of the state. This state of development can only occur when the non-capitalist world already dominates the globe.

The socialist economy

Mandel repeatedly placed particular emphasis on the material foundation of socialism. A form of society that aims to overcome competition and the " fight of all against all " is unthinkable for him as long as people do not have the practical experience that society reliably meets their basic needs. The new way of life can therefore only be a result of a new way of production and distribution.

Approaches in Capitalist Society

Mandel already sees approaches in capitalist society, the development of which in a post-capitalist society is an essential feature in the construction of socialism.

One example is the so-called " social wage ", which includes all goods and services that society makes available to its members free of charge or for a symbolic fee (e.g. school lessons, health services, use of public parks, museums, Libraries, sports and recreational facilities).

In a post-capitalist society, the “social wage” can be a model for an economy whose declared aim is to meet everyone's needs. However, it is only a germ of the economic form to be striven for, since the publicly distributed goods and services bear the hallmarks of a society of relative scarcity and their quality often leaves something to be desired. In a long process of further development of productive forces, the scope and quality of the goods and services made available free of charge by society could be increased and the distribution system could take on a socialist character.

Improved goods accumulation

In his first major economic work, Marxist Economic Theory , Mandel assumes that the existing level of productive forces at the beginning of the 1960s would allow the elementary needs of the entire world population to be satisfied without additional expansion of industry.

To do this, however, all forces would have to be concentrated on building agricultural machines, food production, clothing, housing and health, and a considerable part of global production would have to be directed to poor countries.

However, in order to provide all people with a standard of living that corresponds to today's horizon of needs, which is to be striven for according to Mandel, a multiplication of the production of goods is necessary, which is to take place after the abolition of capitalism in a transition period of "socialist accumulation".

Sources of Improved Accumulation

This means that Mandel needs to discuss the sources of this “accumulation”. Mandel examines them separately for the level of the world economy and the industrialized countries on the one hand, and the poor countries on the other.

According to Mandel, the world economy is the ideal framework for socialist accumulation. In this context, the international division of labor could be used rationally in order to make optimal use of the existing resources. Furthermore, it is quite possible for Mandel to accelerate the rhythm of accumulation, including the industrialization of poor countries, and at the same time to raise the level of consumption worldwide through the rational use of all resources, because there is a “huge unproductive consumption fund”, namely armaments expenditure.

In the industrialized countries a new upswing of the productive forces is possible with a simultaneous increase in the standard of living by eliminating the waste and destruction characteristic of capitalism. For these countries, Mandel names five "sources of socialist accumulation":

1. Full utilization of the existing productive forces (labor instruments and labor), which under capitalism periodically lie idle
2. Eliminate spending on extravagant luxury and harmful or demoralizing consumption (alcohol, gambling)
3. Reduction of distribution costs by eliminating trade profits, middlemen and skyrocketing advertising expenses
4. Eliminating the barriers caused by the capitalist system of competition and the rationality limited to individual companies: patent systems, trade secrets, delaying the introduction of innovations through the influence of monopolies, destruction of values ​​when companies and industries go under
5. Release of the creative creativity of the workers, whose subordinate role in the capitalist enterprise largely prevents the development of these facilities.

For the Third World, “industrialization without tears” is possible within 30 or 40 years. The industrialized countries would not have to forego anything, but simply switch armaments production to civilian production. In the poor countries, industrialization could begin without detours using the latest technological advances. Furthermore, the elimination of nation states would save considerable costs.

Mandel is against the thesis of the “vicious circle of misery”, according to which the underdeveloped countries are poor because they only have a low investment fund, and vice versa. The misery of the underdeveloped countries is less due to an insufficient surplus product, but rather to the poor use in terms of economic growth. Mandel counts - with reference to Paul A. Baran - four components of the social surplus product that are largely lost for accumulation in poor countries:

1. the part of the social surplus product appropriated by the large landowners
2. the part of the surplus agricultural product appropriated by traders and usurers
3. the part of the social surplus product carried out by foreign companies
4. that part of the social surplus product appropriated by the " rag bourgeoisie " (representatives of organized crime ) and the state apparatus.

"Maximum" and "optimal" accumulation rate

Mandel defends himself against the idea that the greatest possible growth can basically be achieved through the greatest possible restriction on consumption - which was one of the sources of error in the Soviet model of the Stalin era. He differentiates between “maximum” and “optimal” accumulation rate. It is true that unproductive expenditure (for example for a bloated administrative apparatus, for well above-average remuneration for top employees, for the army and armaments) should be limited to the maximum; However, wage or consumption expenditure by the working people should not be equated with unproductive expenditure. Accordingly, Mandel rejects the earlier Soviet dogma of the priority given to the development of the producer goods sector. Only the voluntary renunciation of consumption, which occurs by one's own decision, guarantees the identification of working people with the economy they manage themselves, which in turn is an important factor for productivity.

The role of technology

The assessment of technology changed in Mandel's work. The focus of his interest in the early 1960s was the so-called “ third industrial revolution ”, the use of nuclear energy and the introduction of electronically controlled machines.

For Mandel, the productive use of nuclear energy was the answer that human ingenuity had found to the problem of the dwindling energy sources . It could already significantly reduce the industrialization costs of certain underdeveloped countries today. However, for safety reasons, “a pronounced public control is indispensable”. The introduction of electronically controlled measurement and control systems enables a very extensive elimination of human labor from the immediate production process, including maintenance and control. Mandel draws the euphoric conclusion that current technology has "thus found an 'absolute' answer to the oldest objection to a socialist economy: 'Who should do the unpleasant, repulsive or unhealthy work in it?' Today the answer is clear: all this work can be done by machines. "

In late capitalism , written ten years later than Marxist economic theory , Mandel was much more distant from a generally widespread belief in technology. While approvingly mentioning the work of Leo Kofler on this subject, he criticizes “technical rationality” as a defining ideology of contemporary capitalism. This proclaims "the ability of the existing social order to gradually eliminate its susceptibility to crises, to solve its contradictions" technically ", to integrate rebellious social classes and to avoid explosions."

Belief in the omnipotence of technology, according to Mandel, combines with other elements to form a late capitalist ideology that tends to be inhuman, social Darwinist , hostile to education and that considers human beings to be incorrigible and fundamentally lazy, replacing the early bourgeois belief in the ability of individuals to develop.

Despite his criticism of "technical rationality", Mandel always stuck to the importance of technology for a future socialist society. It is a matter of developing other technologies and using a combination of economic, social and natural “costs” as a benchmark for investment decisions - which is only possible with global planning. In this sense he also classified the ecological discussion: “The ecological discussion comes to the conclusion that mankind cannot afford the luxury of private profit, that is, capitalism, as the engine of economic growth. From the standpoint of the long-term interests of the human species, it leads to condemnation of irresponsible growth, but not to condemnation of growth in general. "

Mandel's fundamentally positive attitude towards technical progress was also expressed in his relationship with the ecological movement , with which he had a split relationship. He saw in it partly reactionary tendencies, irrational hostility to progress and technology, which he interpreted as part of the ideological setback in connection with the transition to the long wave with a stagnant tone.

Withdrawal of the goods and money economy

For Mandel, the development towards a socialist society caused the merchandise and money economy to wither. However, this cannot be linear. In the transition society from capitalism to socialism, an increase in the standard of living even leads to an expansion of the goods and money economy; only in socialism could this be pushed back, to the extent that the “social wage” increases. Instead of skimming off the surplus money indirectly (through taxes, etc.), it is more rational to take it step by step out of the economic cycle and replace it with the new direct method of distribution. In the course of time, consumers would then be less and less faced with the choice of what to spend their budget on, but rather what type of consumption they would like to turn to and what they would like to spend their time on.

Through automation, living work is being displaced from the production process in the production area, and wages are therefore playing an ever less important role in production costs. A lot could also be automated in the area of ​​services, while the areas in which this is only possible to a limited extent - Mandel mentions above all health and education - would have to be made accessible regardless of money income.

Change in work and leisure life

For Mandel, the transition to socialism presupposes a radical reduction in working hours (20-hour week) and a corresponding increase in free time , which is also based on progress in productivity. Above a certain threshold, the use of free time would change dramatically - from passive consumption of mass-produced entertainment to the creative creation of culture. People would be able to develop from the passive object of the products and calculations of others to increasingly self-determined, productively active subjects.

In addition to shortening working hours, overcoming the division of labor is of great importance to Mandel . In addition to the possibility of doing many different kinds of activities, this means above all the removal of the separation of mental and physical work or their mutual integration. Only in this way can the alienation from work be lifted and human self-development can be realized.

As for social wages, Mandel already sees germs in the existing capitalist society. In her, the relative increase in leisure time brought about an explosion of creative activities out of pure hobby. These testified to the desire to balance the monotony of professional activities with different, unselfish and free activities. The workers instinctively tried to "find their personality again, which the economic life based on the division of labor necessarily had to mutilate."

Limits to growth

Despite the binding of the socialist vision to the material requirement of relative “abundance”, Mandel emphasizes the limits of non-capitalist growth and defends himself against the idea of ​​an endlessly growing production of goods based on the alleged limitlessness of human needs, which would be incompatible with the transition to distribution. Against the argument that human needs are limitless, Mandel puts forward the thesis that historical experience rather shows an “astonishing stability” of these needs: “food, clothing, housing […], protection against wild animals and the weather , the desire to adorn oneself and to train the muscles of the body, the preservation of the species - these are half a dozen basic needs that have apparently not changed as long as homo sapiens existed and that still make up the largest part of consumer spending today " .

In a socialist economy, there is no objective compulsion for Mandel to continue growing. In such a system, the extent of investment in relation to production for current consumption is a matter of free decision by the citizens.

The council democracy

Socialist council democracy is the result of the class struggle of the organized and politically conscious working class. It is intended to immediately prepare communism as “the real history of humanity”.

For Mandel, basic democratic forms of self-organization of the workers, such as strike committees, form the seeds of council democracy . These can already be observed in capitalist society, for example, in local general strikes. Such germ forms could then not only develop in one factory, but in all factories in a city, a region, a country. Territorial workers 'councils would then emerge as the basic cells of the future workers' state or “soviet”.

Mandel always emphasizes the democratic character that the transition to council democracy must have in order to be successful. This also applies to the state, which emerges from the conquest of political power by the working class, since it must run the economy efficiently and do justice to the emancipatory goal.

Requirements of council democracy

Two decisive prerequisites for the functioning of a socialist democracy are the drastic shortening of working hours and the practical experience of the masses that their decisions are actually implemented and lead to the expected results. Only both together can prevent the masses from sinking into apathy after a short period of revolutionary upswing and from having nothing to counter the danger of bureaucratization.

The shortening of the working hours gives the employees the time in which they can take care of administrative matters and train them further. The reduction in working hours "creates time to acquire new qualifications, it forms, so to speak, the infrastructure of the ongoing process of self-education of the working people, which is the basis for building a classless society".

Without real opportunities for co-determination, people would remain passive "in order not to get caught up in a dilemma of growing efforts with ever lower marginal utility for their own lifetime, for their real purpose in life".

Features of council democracy

Council democracy should be more democratic than the state based on parliamentary democracy, because it creates the material basis for the exercise of democratic rights by everyone. In contrast to bourgeois democracies, the competence of the councils that govern them should not only include political decisions, but also, above all, overarching economic decisions. Mandel in no way excludes errors, but is of the opinion that mistakes made democratically can best be corrected.

Council democracy is strongly shaped by the element of direct democracy, in that the masses of workers organized in workers' councils are drawn to the direct exercise of power. Its character, which was initially still a state, should begin to wither as soon as it emerges, as large areas of social life are transferred to the self-administration of the citizens concerned (post, mass media, health, education, culture, etc.).

Parties and political organizations should play an important role in this. This also includes revolutionary avant-garde parties, whose leading role, however, should not be institutionalized. The principle of one-party rule is wrong, since both the internal stratification of the working class and the constant emergence of new questions require a multitude of groupings which are reformed on various occasions.

Representatives of bourgeois positions should also have the freedom to articulate themselves in the system of socialist council democracy. They should only be fought with ideological and political means, not administratively or with coercive means. Only proven acts to overthrow the socialist council power should be violently suppressed.

Mandel continues to advocate abolishing the border between legislative and executive power. In public life, the formation of a new caste of administrative bureaucrats should be countered by limiting the salaries of officials and introducing the principle of rotation .

The administration is to be decentralized as far as possible; only important overarching decisions should be made centrally, such as the distribution of resources in a given country.

The general arming of the working masses, the elimination of the standing army, the election of judges and the complete publicity of all events should guarantee "that no minority is put in a position to exclude any group of working people from the exercise of democratic freedoms." but the military self-defense of the workers' states should be ensured. Mandel advocates a militia system in which the ranks in particular have to be abolished and replaced by elected commanders.

Effect and criticism

As a tireless propagandist of a socialist alternative to capitalist society based on council democracy and self-administration, as well as to the Stalinist bureaucratic dictatorship , Mandel exerted his greatest influence in the sixties and seventies of the 20th century (see above, section “Life”). While in the wake of the world-historical turn of 1989/90, like the entire tradition of revolutionary Marxism and socialism, it threatened to be temporarily forgotten, in the course of the worldwide emergence of the movement against capitalist globalization ( globalization criticism ) there is also a renaissance of interest in life and Watching Ernest Mandel's work.

In the Marxist theory debate, Mandel was primarily criticized for his "historicist understanding of the 'critical genetic method' of Marx". As early as 1970, a collective of authors around Veit Michael Bader and Joachim Bischoff stated in a review of Marxist economic theory that Mandel "in contrast to Marx wants to derive historically the contradictions resulting from the logical analysis of exchange relationships". They criticized Mandel's thesis of an “immediate identity of economic theory and economic history” as “inability to maintain methodological abstractions for the purpose of investigating individual moments” and as empirical “sticking [...] to appearance”.

In the context of the Marxist debate on the derivation of the state , Mandel continued to be criticized by representatives of the New Marx Reading for his "exclusion of the genetic method" to explain the emergence of the state.

Paul Mattick criticized that Mandel saw the law of value “not as a key to understanding capitalist development”, but as “a kind of natural law that must also be given precapitalist validity”. Mandel did not derive capitalist development and its crises "from the law of value, but vice versa: he seeks confirmation of the law of value in the external manifestations of capitalist accumulation."

A later criticism claimed that Mandel misrepresented the basic concepts of Marx's economic criticism such as value, abstract labor and capital in his “Marxist economic theory”. This misrepresentation would show a bourgeois understanding of work, which also shaped his ideas about the future.

Fonts (selection)

Only the place of publication of the current German edition is mentioned. The year in round brackets refers to the year of the first edition in German. The title and year of publication of the first original edition are also given in brackets. The titles are sorted according to the year of their first appearance in the original edition.

• Marxist economic theory , Cologne 2007 (1962) (French: Traité d'économie marxiste , 1962)
• Origin and development of the economic theory of Karl Marx , Frankfurt a. M. and Vienna 1968 (French: La formation de la pensée économique de Karl Marx , 1967)
• The bureaucracy , Frankfurt a. M. 1976 (1970) (French: De la bureaucratie , 1967)
• Lenin. Revolution and politics. Essays by Paul Mattick , Bernd Rabehl , Juri Tynjavow and Ernest Mandel, Frankfurt am Main, 1970.
• The role of intelligence in the class struggle , Frankfurt a. M. 1975 (1970)
• Late capitalism. Attempt of a Marxist declaration , Frankfurt a. M. 1972
• Introduction to Marxism , Cologne 2002 (1979) (French: Introduction au Marxisme , 1975)
• Controversies about "Das Kapital" , Berlin 1991 (1976)
• Critique of Eurocommunism. Revolutionary alternative or new stage in the crisis of Stalinism? , Berlin 1978
• The long waves in capitalism. A Marxist declaration , Frankfurt a. M. 1983 ( Long Waves of Capitalist Development. The Marxist Interpretation , 1978)
• Revolutionary Marxism Today , Frankfurt a. M. 1982 (English: Revolutionary Marxism Today , 1979)
• together with Johannes Agnoli : Open Marxism. A conversation about dogmas, orthodoxy and the heresy of reality , Frankfurt a. M./New York 1980
• Karl Marx - The Topicality of His Work , Cologne 2018 (Frankfurt a. M. 1984)
• Nice murder. Social history of the crime novel , Frankfurt a. M. 1987 (French: Meurtres exquis. Histoire sociale du roman policier , 1984)
• The position of Marxism in history , Frankfurt a. M. 1989 (French: La place du marxisme dans l'histoire, Montreuil , 1986)
• The Second World War , Frankfurt a. M. 1991 (English: The Meaning of the second world war , 1986)
• October 1917: coup d'état or social revolution. In defense of the October Revolution , Cologne 1992 (French: Octobre 1917 - coup d'État ou révolution sociale?, 1992)
• Trotsky as an alternative , Berlin 1992
• Power and money. A Marxist theory of bureaucracy , Neuer ISP-Verlag, Cologne 2000 (1994), ISBN 3-929008-73-4 (English: Power and Money: A Marxist Theory of Bureaucracy , 1994).

literature

• Manuel Kellner : Against capitalism and bureaucracy - on Ernest Mandel's socialist strategy . Neuer isp-Verlag, Karlsruhe / Cologne 2009 (= Wissenschaft & Forschung 22), 464 pages, ISBN 978-3-89900-022-1 (dissertation, as PDF )
• Jan Willem Stutje: Rebel between dream and action. Ernest Mandel (1923-1995) . VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2009, 480 p., ISBN 978-3-89965-316-8 (biography)
• Gilbert Achcar (ed.): Justice and solidarity. Ernest Mandel's contribution to Marxism . Neuer isp-Verlag, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-929008-44-0
• GIM / RKJ: The Mandel case. Documents and analyzes. Hamburg 1972 (on the professional and entry ban)
• Winfried Wolf : Dangerous Marxist and Visionary - On the tenth anniversary of Ernest Mandel's death. No obituary. In: Junge Welt , August 20, 2005, page 10, online text ( Memento from December 1, 2005 in the Internet Archive )

criticism

• Paul Mattick : Critique of the Neo-Marxists , Frankfurt a. M., 1974, pp. 132-188 ( online )
• David North : Ernest Mandel 1923-1995: A Critical Assessment of His Role in the History of the Fourth International , Labor Press Books 1997, ISBN 1-875639-14-4

Web links

• Literature by and about Ernest Mandel in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Ernest Mandel  in the German Digital Library
• Ernest Almond
• Ernest Mandel Archive at marxists.org
• Texts by Ernest Mandel on International Viewpoint (English)
• Bibliography on Ernest Mandel by Wolfgang and Petra Lubitz, to be found on The Lubitz Trotskyana Net (English)
• Lecture by Ernest Mandel on the "long waves" of capitalist development

Videos

• Ernest Mandel: A Revolutionary Life (10 parts)
• Talk with Dagobert Lindlau from July 3, 1987 in " 3 to 9 " ( part 1 , part 2 )

Remarks

1. ↑ See Jan-Willem Stutje: Ernest Mandels kleine oorlog. Revolutionaire socialisten in bezettingstijd , 1940-1945, in: Bijdragen tot de Eigenijdse Geschiedenis, in: Cahiers d'histoire du temps présent , No. 12 (2003), ders .: Ernest Mandel in Resistance: Revolutionary Socialists in Belgium, 1940-1945 ( PDF ).
2. ↑ See François Vercammen: Biographie d'Ernest Mandel (1923–1995), in: Ernest Mandel, Le troisième âge du capitalisme , Paris, p. 549
3. ↑ Jan Hoff: Marx global. On the development of the international Marx discourse since 1965. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-05-004611-2 , p. 76
4. ↑ Short report in SPIEGEL 22/1973
5. ^ Report in DIE WELT on July 17, 1975 on page 3
6. ↑ Christian Hufen: "What we wanted was democracy with public property ." Interview with Klaus Wolfram. In: Jungle World . No. July 29 , 10, 2007 ( jungle.world [accessed March 30, 2019]).
7. ↑ See Mandel Delightful Murder. A Social History of the Crime Story , London 1984, p. VI
8. ↑ See Mandel Delightful Murder , p. 134
9. ↑ Cf. Kellner: Against Capitalism and Bureaucracy - On Socialist Strategy in Ernest Mandel , p. 37 ff.
10. ↑ Mandel: Introduction to Marxist Economic Theory , p. 37
11. ↑ "WGW": goods-money-goods
12. ↑ See Mandel: Introduction to Marxist Economic Theory, pp. 35ff; Mandel: Marxist Economic Theory , Frankfurt am Main 1972 (paperback edition in 2 volumes), pp. 140ff
13. ↑ See Mandel: Introduction to Marxist Economic Theory, pp. 135ff; Mandel: On the situation and future of socialism , in: Gilbert Achcar (Hrsg.): Gerechtigkeit und Solidarität. Ernest Mandel's contribution to Marxism , Cologne, pp. 233–269, pp. 261ff
14. ↑ See Mandel: The Long Waves in Capitalism. A Marxist Declaration , p. 17
15. ↑ See Mandel: The Long Waves in Capitalism. A Marxist Declaration , pp. 30f
16. ↑ See Mandel: The Long Waves in Capitalism. A Marxist Declaration , pp. 46ff.
17. ↑ See Mandel: The Long Waves in Capitalism , p. 10, Mandel: Spätkapitalismus , pp. 123-125
18. ↑ Most Marxist authors give 1975 as the year of the change
19. ↑ See Mandel Marxist Economic Theory, pp. 403ff
20. ↑ See Mandel Marxist Economic Theory, p. 426ff
21. ↑ See Mandel Marxist Economic Theory , p. 426
22. ↑ See Mandel: Controversies about "Das Kapital" , p. 245
23. ↑ See Mandel: Controversies about "Das Kapital" , p. 247
24. ↑ Kellner: Against Capitalism and Bureaucracy , p. 56
25. ↑ See Mandel: Controversies about "Das Kapital" , p. 282ff
26. ↑ ^{a b} See Mandel: Controversies about “Das Kapital” , p. 293
27. ↑ See Mandel: Introduction to Marxism , p. 50
28. ↑ See Mandel: Controversies about "Das Kapital" , p. 293ff
29. ↑ See Mandel: Introduction to Marxism, p. 75ff., Mandel: The Marxist Theory of the State, p. 606ff
30. ↑ See Mandel: Marxist Economic Theory, pp. 665f
31. ↑ See Mandel: Marxistische Wirtschaftstheorie , pp. 602ff; Mandel: Late Capitalism , 71f; Almond: The relationship between north and south. Arguments for global citizenship and solidarity , in: Inprekorr No. 352, pp. 16-19
32. ↑ Cf. Mandel: From social inequality to a classless society , p. 6; Mandel: Introduction to Marxist Economic Theory, p. 14f
33. ↑ Mandel: The relationship between north and south. Arguments for Global Citizenship and Solidarity, p. 18
34. ↑ Cf. Trotsky: History of the Russian Revolution, February 1931, pp. 16-18
35. ↑ "The industrially developed country shows the less developed country only the picture of its own future." Marx: Das Kapital , MEW 23, p. 12
36. ↑ Mandel: The late capitalism. An attempt at a Marxist explanation , p. 324f
37. ↑ Mandel: The late capitalism. Attempting a Marxist Explanation , p. 69
38. ^ Mandel 2001: The relationship between north and south. Arguments for Global Citizenship and Solidarity , p. 17; Mandel: Revolutionary Marxism Today , pp. 85f
39. ↑ ^{a b} Mandel: The relationship between north and south. Arguments for Global Citizenship and Solidarity, p. 17
40. ↑ See Mandel: Debt Crisis: A Ticking Time Bomb , in: Jeffrey Bortz / Fidel Castro / Ernest Mandel / Winfried Wolf : Debt Crisis. A time bomb is ticking in the Third World , Frankfurt am Main, 75–94, p. 78ff.
41. ↑ See Mandel: Debt Crisis: A ticking time bomb , p. 80ff.
42. ↑ See Mandel: Debt Crisis: A Ticking Time Bomb , p. 87.
43. ↑ Mandel: Introduction to Marxism , p. 112
44. ↑ Mandel: Introduction to Marxism , p. 110f
45. ↑ Mandel: Introduction to Marxism , p. 114
46. ↑ See Mandel: Introduction to Trotsky's Fascism Theory, in: Leon Trotsky: Schriften über Deutschland , Vol. 1, Frankfurt am Main 1971, pp. 9-52 (here: 16f)
47. ↑ See Mandel: Introduction to Trotsky's Fascism Theory, p. 18
48. ↑ See Mandel: Introduction to Trotsky's Fascism Theory, p. 27
49. ↑ In this context, Mandel cites the example of the leading Belgian social democrats Paul-Henri Spaak and Hendrik de Man , who, despite their measures to stimulate the economy and curb unemployment, were unable to prevent the right-wing extremist movement from gaining strength in their country. Cf. Mandel: Introduction to Trotsky's Fascism Theory, pp. 28 ff.
50. ↑ See Mandel: Introduction to Trotsky's Fascism Theory, pp. 21 ff.
51. ↑ See Kellner: Against Capitalism and Bureaucracy , p. 181
52. ↑ Mandel: Die Bureaukratie , p. 18
53. ^ Mandel: Die Bureaukratie , p. 9; see. Almond: power and money. A Marxist Theory of Bureaucracy , pp. 71 f.
54. ^ Mandel: Die Bürokratie , p. 10 f.
55. ^ Mandel: Die Bureaukratie , p. 10
56. ↑ Mandel: Die Bureaukratie , p. 14
57. ↑ Mandel: Die Bureaukratie , p. 11
58. ^ Mandel: Die Bürokratie , p. 21
59. ^ Mandel: Revolutionary strategies in the 20th century. Political Essays , Vienna 1978, p. 26 f.
60. ↑ Mandel: Revolutionary Strategies in the 20th Century. Political Essays , Vienna 1978, p. 276 f.
61. ↑ Mandel: Revolutionary Strategies in the 20th Century. Political Essays , Vienna 1978, p. 278 f. See also system-compliant trade unions? , in: trade union monthly books , vol. 21 (1970), no. 6, pp. 359–369.
62. ↑ Mandel: Solzhenitsyn or the unresolved Stalinism , in: E. Mandel / R. Medwedjew / P.Grigorenko: Revolutionary or bourgeois criticism of the Soviet Union , Frankfurt am Main, 6-14 1974, p. 7), where he relates this criticism to Alexander Solzhenitsyn
63. ↑ Mandel: Solzhenitsyn or the unresolved Stalinism , p. 11
64. ↑ See Mandel: Introduction to Marxism , p. 128 f.
65. ↑ See Mandel: Introduction to Marxism , p. 127ff
66. ↑ The term “national messianism” comes from Trotsky, cf. Kellner, Against Capitalism and Bureaucracy , p. 226
67. ↑ See E. Germain (i.e. Ernest Mandel): La Révolution Chinoise . In: Quatrième Internationale , May / July 1950, pp. 14ff and E. Germain: La Révolution Chinoise - Nature et perspectives de la Chine de Mao Tse-Toung . In: Quatrième Internationale , January 1951, pp. 16ff.
68. ↑ See Mandel: Introduction to Marxism , pp. 142 ff.
69. ↑ ^{a b} Mandel: Introduction to Marxism , p. 149
70. ↑ Mandel: Introduction to Marxism , pp. 148f.
71. ↑ See Mandel (Ed.): Workers' control, workers' councils, workers' self-management. An anthology , Frankfurt am Main 1971, p. 14f
72. ↑ See Mandel (Ed.): Workers' control, workers' councils, workers' self-management. An anthology , pp. 25f
73. ↑ Mandel: Introduction to Marxism , p. 146f
74. ↑ See Mandel: Revolutionary strategies in the 20th century. Political Essays , Vienna 1978, p. 282
75. ↑ See Mandel: Trotsky als Alternative , Berlin 1992, pp. 125f
76. ↑ Cf. Mandel: Lenin and the problem of proletarian class consciousness , in: Lenin. Revolution and Politics , Frankfurt am Main 1970, pp. 149–205, p. 150
77. ↑ See Mandel: Lenin and the problem of proletarian class consciousness , pp. 172ff
78. ↑ See Mandel: Lenin and the Problem of Proletarian Class Consciousness , p. 151
79. ↑ Mandel: Introduction to Marxism . P. 104.
80. ↑ Mandel: Introduction to Marxism . P. 101.
81. ↑ See Mandel: Introduction to Marxism , p. 170
82. ↑ Mandel: Marxist Economic Theory, pp. 831f.
83. ↑ Mandel: Marxist Economic Theory , p. 769
84. ↑ Mandel: Marxist Economic Theory , p. 769
85. ↑ See Mandel: Marxist Economic Theory, pp. 775f
86. ↑ See Mandel: Marxistische Wirtschaftstheorie , pp. 778ff
87. ↑ See Mandel: Marxistische Wirtschaftstheorie , pp. 774ff
88. ↑ See Paul A. Baran: The Political Economy of Growth, New York 1957, pp. 163-200
89. ↑ See Mandel: Marxist Economic Theory, pp. 782f
90. ↑ See Mandel: Marxist Economic Theory, p. 786ff
91. ↑ See Mandel: Marxist Economic Theory , p. 764
92. ↑ See Mandel: Marxist Economic Theory , p. 766
93. ↑ See Mandel: Marxistische Wirtschaftstheorie , pp. 766f
94. ↑ Cf. Leo Kofler: Technologische Rationalität im Spätkapitalismus , Frankfurt 1971, p. 74
95. ↑ Mandel: Der Spätkapitalismus, S. 445f
96. ↑ See Mandel: Der Spätkapitalismus , p. 450
97. ↑ Mandel: Karl Marx - The actuality of his work , p. 181
98. ↑ Kellner: Against Capitalism and Bureaucracy , p. 179
99. ↑ Mandel: Marxist Economic Theory, pp. 844f.
100. ↑ Mandel: All power to the councilors. Confession of a notoriously unwavering leftist , in: Karin Benz-Overhage / Wolfgang Jüttner / Horst Peter (eds.): Between Council Socialism and Reform Project. Reader for the 70th birthday of Peter von Oertzen , Cologne 1994, 19–26, p. 20
101. ↑ See Mandel: Marxistische Wirtschaftstheorie , pp. 856ff.
102. ↑ See Mandel: Marxistische Wirtschaftstheorie , pp. 867f.
103. ↑ Mandel: Marxist Economic Theory, pp. 837f.
104. ↑ See Kellner: Against Capitalism and Bureaucracy - On Socialist Strategy in Ernest Mandel , p. 159
105. ↑ Mandel: workers' control, workers' councils, workers' self-government. An anthology , Frankfurt am Main 1971, p. 14
106. ↑ Mandel: workers' control, workers' councils, workers' self-management, p. 15f
107. ↑ Agnoli, Johannes / Mandel, Ernest: Open Marxism. A conversation about dogmas, orthodoxy and the heresy of reality , Frankfurt am Main / New York 1980, p. 138
108. ↑ Agnoli, Johannes / Mandel, Ernest: Open Marxism. A conversation about dogmas, orthodoxy and the heresy of reality , pp. 138f
109. ↑ Agnoli, Johannes / Mandel, Ernest: Open Marxism. A Conversation on Dogmas, Orthodoxy and the Heresy of Reality , p. 139
110. ↑ Mandel: Marxist economic theory. P. 801 f.
111. ^ Cf. Fourth International: For council democracy and workers' self-government. Frankfurt am Main 1985, p. 56 ff.
112. ↑ Mandel: Revolutionary Marxism Today , p. 35
113. ↑ Mandel: Introduction to Marxism , pp. 116f, p. 95f
114. ↑ See Fourth International 1985, p. 64
115. ↑ Ingo Elbe : Marx in the West. The new reading of Marx in the Federal Republic since 1965 , Berlin 2008, p. 399
116. ^ Bader, Veit Michael / Bischoff, Joachim / Ganßmann, Heiner / Goldschmidt, Werner / u. a. (1970): “Marxist Economic Theory” - A Textbook of Political Economy? In: The argument. Journal for Philosophy and Social Sciences 57, pp. 216–227 (here: pp. 219–222)
117. ↑ Ingo Elbe: Marx in the West , p. 399
118. ^ Paul Mattick: Critique of the Neo-Marxists , Frankfurt a. M., 1974, p. 134
119. ^ Paul Mattick: Critique of the Neo-Marxists , p. 140
120. ↑ Klaus Winter: E. Mandels "Marxist Economic Theory" Part 1: Value and Capital. Retrieved September 11, 2019 . 
121. ↑ Klaus Winter: E. Mandels "Marxist Economic Theory" Part 2: The Capitalist Mode of Production. Retrieved September 11, 2019 . 
122. ↑ The critical theory of an uncritical Marxist. Retrieved September 11, 2019 .