Socialism and Commodity Production: Essay in Marx Revival

Download or read book Socialism and Commodity Production: Essay in Marx Revival written by Paresh Chattopadhyay and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-08-07 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘Socialism’ is a word that is now habitually taken to refer to a particular social system that prevailed in different parts of the globe during the twentieth century. This system was defined primarily by single-party rule with public (mainly state) ownership of the means of production along with a centrally planned economy. Its material base was generalised commodity production. The spokespersons of this system claim that this socialism was derived from Marx. Paresh Chattopadhyay’s Socialism and Commodity Production argues the falsity of this claim. On the basis of a comprehensive study of Marx's own texts, as well as a detailed engagement with a wide variety of theorists of socialist economics, it shows that Marx's socialism constituted an ‘Association’ of free individuals in which private ownership, the commodity, wage labour and the state have no place.