From International Socialism (1st series), No.59, June 1973, pp.24-25.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
From Rousseau to Lenin
(New Left Books, £3.75)
These essays contain some of the most brilliant insights of contemporary Marxist theory, the most important in the first two essays: Marxism as a Sociology and Bernstein and the Marxism of the Second International. The former demonstrates the unique role played by consciousness within the social relations of production of capitalism – how production is production of ideas as much as material use-values, and how the specific underlying reality of capitalism is social rather than mental or material. Colletti shows very well in his discussion of commodity fetishism how the shift from production of use-values to generalised commodity production, involves at the same time a change from the naturalistic reality of pre-capitalist societies to the uniquely social reality of capitalism. The consequences of this are clear. No conception of contemporary society will be adequate if it dissolves this social unity into mental (moral) or material (scientistic) parts, or if it fails to recognise that this social unity is itself a specific product of the historically limited epoch of capitalism. The former failure Colletti shows to be indelibly inscribed in the politics of the Second International, in the mirror ‘opposites’ of Bernstein’s voluntarism and Kautsky’s determinism. The latter error he unerringly pins on Weber and the left-Hegelianism of Marcuse, Adorno, etc who, instead of opposing the specific reality of capitalism, object to ‘the oppressive power of “facts” as such.’ However, Colletti somewhat overplays Rousseau’s and underplays Hegel’s contribution to Marxism. If there is a reason for this emphasis it certainly never emerges. On Lenin he is dull – typical of the Il Manifesto group he can show what is wrong with the Italian Communist Party’s Kautskyite politics alright, but offer no convincing alternative strategy for the proletariat.
He makes one important error, ‘assuming that an equal organic composition of capital in all branches of production ... is, of course, the condition for the validity of the labour theory of value ...’ (p.10). Marx says quite explicitly (Capital, vol.III, p.143) that ‘this proportion differs greatly in different spheres of production, and frequently even in different branches of one and the same industry’. But the overall value of this book is nonetheless quite outstanding. Make sure your library gets a copy if you cannot afford to buy it.
Last updated: 22.6.2008