Paul Cardan is a pseudonym for Cornelius Castoriadis,
a French intellectual who passed away in 1997. His most important works were
written during the 1960's, when he led a small left-wing group called
Socialisme ou Barbarie (Socialism or Barbarism). Castoriadis gradually drifted
away from Marxism, and his group was dissolved in 1965. Castoriadis later
career is somewhat unclear to me, but he seems to have developed an interest in
Freudian psychoanalysis and written a curious book about the coming of World
War Three. A rather entertaining photo of the old man can be seen at Wikipedia.
"Modern capitalism and revolution" was written in 1960, translated to English in 1965 by another small leftist group, Solidarity, and re-issued in 1974 with a new preface by the author. (My copy doesn't list Black & Red as co-publisher, however, so it's possible that this is another edition than the one I have.)
Castoriadis argues that traditional Marxism has failed and have to be dispensed with. Modern capitalism can overcome its periodic crisis and even raise the real wages of the workers. Indeed, the rise of the wage levels are a necessary part of modern capitalism, since it gives the system the ability to expand through mass consumption. Capitalism can also create near-full employment, and even the unemployment benefits are substantially higher than previously. Meanwhile, the workers' organizations have been co-opted by the system and turned into instruments of capitalism. The working class has become apolitical and passive. Most people have retreated into their own private lives, and become consumers of mass produced trash. The general trend of modern capitalism is bureaucratization of all spheres of life: the factory, labour unions and political parties, recreation, consumption and culture. The state apparatus also expands. The worst example of this bureaucratization are the "Communist" nations, which Castoriadis denounces as capitalist, but the same process is at a fairly advanced stage even in the Western nations.
Still, Castoriadis believes that there is hope for a revolution. The fundamental contradiction within modern capitalism is between order-givers and order-takers. The order-takers are the new working class, and include both traditional blue collar workers, white collar workers, students and women. Traditional economic demands are no longer particularly useful. Instead, workers should fight for self-management at the point of production. (This sounds like an anarchist or anarcho-syndicalist demand.) Also, socialists should work for a revolution of everyday life in an anti-authoritarian direction. The revolt of youth and students against stifling morality and old-fashioned education are seen as a positive development. The goal is a libertarian socialist society with a network of workers' councils.
Today, Paul Cardan's book sounds just as anachronistic as the traditional Marxism it denounces, perhaps more so. The ability of the system to overcome its crises is shaky at best, unemployment figures are rising, and is doubtful whether all workers have gotten real wage increases. Traditional working class struggles were legion during the 1970's, 1980's and early 1990's. Meanwhile, globalization have created a vast, traditional working class in nations such as China, India or Brazil. While China (a weird state capitalist system) is successful, the most bureaucratic systems, such as the Soviet Union, have quite simply collapsed. The Internet and "flat organization" have created a less bureaucratic system. Postmodern capitalism? The only phenomenon correctly described by the author is the increasing tendency of many people to retreat into passive, private existence and become consumers of mass entertainment or useless products.
Castoriadis seems to have drawn all the wrong conclusions from the prolonged postwar boom after World War II. This boom has been somewhat shaky for decades, and might be just about to go bust at any time! Of course, it's always easy to criticize a book in hindsight. Still, it's difficult not to see the shortcomings 50 years later. One shortcoming should have been obvious already when the book was written: Castoriadis says virtually nothing about the Third World. In general, the New Left seems to have been Third Worldist, which is logical if you believe that the proletariat in the rich nations have been "bought off" and rendered passive. At this time, the Third World was teeming with left-wing and nationalist guerrillas (such as the NLF in Vietnam). Also, if the contradiction is between order-giver and order-taker, surely the "African peasants" mentioned in passing by Cardan are the ultimate order-takers or "wretched of the earth". Yet, our author seems to write off the entire Third World as of little interest, giving his book a curiously local feeling, even somewhat claustrophobic!
I don't doubt that Marxism needs to be superseded. However, it feels as if "Modern capitalism and revolution" was a step in the wrong direction...
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