Catastrophe or Revolution?. Issue 3 (3rd July 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Brancaccio, Emiliano; Passarella, Marco Veronese
• Is Part Of: Rethinking Marxism. Volume 34:Issue 3(2022)
• Page Start: 317
• Page End: 337
• Publication Date: 2022-07-03
• Subjects: Capital Centralization -- Catastrophe -- Collective Planning -- Karl Marx -- Revolution; Communism -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 335.4305
• DOI: 10.1080/08935696.2022.2031030
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0893-5696

Abstract

Abstract : This essay critically examines a statement made by former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, Olivier Blanchard, before and during a debate with one of the authors. Blanchard argued that a Keynesian "revolution" is needed to avert a future "catastrophe." But analyzing the historical process this essay names the law of capital's reproduction and tendency toward centralization leads to a grim prediction: the tendency of free capital to centralize and thereby jeopardize all other freedoms threatens today's liberal-democratic hegemonic institutions. In the face of this prospect, neither Keynesian policy nor a universal basic income seem adequate. The only revolution able to avert catastrophe is the redefinition of the most powerful tool in the history of political struggles: collective planning, subversively regarded as a factor for developing free social individuality and a newly liberated human being.