PROKLA - Zeitschrift für kritische Sozialwissenschaft
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Nach dem Kapitalismus: Warum der Staatssozialismus ökonomisch ineffizient war und was das für Alternativen heute bedeutet
No full textIn the 20 th centmy, different types of socialist societies failed - not only because of an evident lack of democracy, but also due to their economic inefficiency, Apart from the historical underdevelopment of Russia and other socialist countries, there could be given three main reasons for this inefficiency: 1) Based on the Leninist concepts of party and leadership, the socialist states were characterized by new social contradictions that led the majorities to a kind of silent resistance to central planning, 2) The socialist model of development and modernization didn\u27t offer a real alternative to the economic paradigms in capitalism. Socialist countries turned out to be incomplete copies of fordist societies, 3) The socialist countries didn\u27t find answers to some fundamental systemic problems of planning, as there are: decentralization of decision-making and scope for a self-determined reorganization of working processes
Neue Arbeitspolitik und politische Ökologie zusammen denken: Was lässt sich aus dem Exempel des alten HdA-Programms heute lernen?
No full textTaking its starting points from the difficulties of a politics of production inherent in the very structure of capitalist accumulation as a \u27private affair\u27 this texts looks at the lessons to be drawn from the social-democratic experience of a politics for the \u27hnmanization of the working life\u27 as it has been implemented in the 1970s and 1980s in Germany. Based on looking back beyond the \u27epochal rupture\u27 which has taken place since then, it elaborates the kind of experience the German trade unions have been making in the framework of this reform programme. On this basis, it criticizes prevailing attitudes of simply concluding the unfeasibility of political projects from their \u27reformist\u27 mould and argues that the present situation of transition still remains open for a politics of reform, although possibly of a more transitory nature, leaving open future deeper transformations - under the double condition of respecting the contingencies of historical agency, especially with regard to empowering strategies, and of developing a new kind of politics based on a broad alliance concerning the \u27quality of work\u27 in a comprehensive understanding, not just wage work, with a focus on empowerment, while at the same time addressing the challenges of ecological and feminist issues
Ist Commonismus Kommunismus? Commonsbasierte Peer-Produktion und der kommunistische Anspruch
No full textDuring the last decades, a new mode of production has emerged, for which names such as "commons-based peer production," "cornmonism," and "peer economi\u27 have been proposed, This article explores the main characteristics of this mode of prodnction and discusses the relationship between commonism and communism: if communism is "the real movement which abolishes the present state of things", can commonism become the mode of production which allows this movement to realize this purpose
Kapitalismus und "natürliche Grenzen": Eine kritische Diskussion ökomarxistischer Zugänge zur ökologischen Krise
No full textIn the face of climate change and peak oil, a concept of "natural limits" to societal development seems to be necessary for an appropriate understanding of the ecological crisis. Eco-Marxist approaches, like the ones of James O\u27Connor, Elmar Altvater and Ted Benton, have significantly contributed to develop such a concept. Particularly, they have contributed to dissolving respective discussions from their Malthusian roots and to defining natural limits as related to the capitalist mode of production. However, the eco-Marxist focus on the structural contradictions of capitalism affects its ability to understand the variety of societal relationships with nature which is possible within capitalism, and thus the modes through which the ecological contradictions of capitalism may be regulated. Furthermore, it neglects the various forms of the production of nature which do not necessary lead to natural limits but are nevertheless an issue of socio-ecological power and domination. In order to grasp the ecological crisis in a more comprehensive manner the eco-Marxist view thus has to be complemented by other approaches like critical political ecology and the concept of societal relationships with nature
Obama und die Linke
Get PDFThe election of Barack Obama was possible because he was supported by a broad movement including many parts of the US-Left. The article analyzes the heterogeneous composition of this movement Obamas development during the election campaign and the expectations of the US-Left
State of the Union: Die widersprüchliche Entwicklung der US-Gewerkschaften zwischen Verzweiflung und Hoffnung
No full textFor a long time trade unions in USA had an extreme weak position. With new practices of organizing especially SEIU (Services Employees International Union) had some success and was used as a model. But also inside SEIU new problems and conflicts grew. The future development of US trade uniqns is rather uncertain
Subjektivierte Taylorisierung als Beherrschung der Arbeitsperson
No full textIn debates concerning recent developments in the sphere of work, Taylorized and subjectivated forms of work (where workers coordinate tasks on their own, and indirect forms of control are employed) are considered to oppose each other. There almost seems to be a consensus that Taylorized and subjectivated forms of control belong to two distinct domains of the sphere of work: Manufacturing work involving little skill on the one hand, highly skilled and service work on the other. This article argues that the subjectivation process of work also takes place in low-skill jobs. Particularly in work environments structured by information technologies, both ideal types of work organization become intertwined and constitute a distinct mode of work organization: subjectivated Taylorization. A prominent example is call center work. On the basis of own empirical case studies, both management strategies of subjectivated Taylorization and reactions on the workers\u27 side are analyzed. The paper concludes with a reflection on general changes the logic of control, and domination of workers
Kampf um Arbeitszeit: Ein Überblick
No full textThis article examines the development of weekly working hours put in by wage labour since the introduction of the 40-hour week. It analyses the changes in different periods based on the contentious relationship between socially necessary and actually laboured working hours resulting in predominantly extensive and intensive accumulation regimes. To understand the recent surge in working hours, so one of the main arguments, one has to account for the role of competition as driver of capitalist development and as a mode of social dominance. Conversely the struggle for working time must be understood as a struggle for the limitation of competition through working-class solidarity and the manifestation of a political economy of the working class. The same solidarity also demands for a new definition and a new distribution of socially necessary working time, including paid and unpaid working hours
Grenzen und Möglichkeiten linker Stadtpolitik: Eine Erwiderung auf Klaus Lederer
No full textResponding to Klaus Lederer\u27s critique on an earlier article written by the author, the text highlights the preformation of the urban political arena via New Public Management, and looks at the different roles that progressive parties and grassroots movements play under these conditions
