Socialism and Commodity Production : : Essay in Marx Revival.

• Superior document: Historical materialism book series ; Volume 165
• Author: Paresh Chattopadhyay
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden,, Boston: : Brill,, 2018.
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Series: Historical Materialism Book Series 165.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (314 pages).

‘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.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Preface -- Prologue -- On Socialism: Association of Free Individuals -- Commodity Production -- Simple Commodity Production -- Commodity Production and Socialism in Marx’s Followers -- On Socialist Accounting -- Anarchist Communism -- Concerning Guild Socialism -- On Market Socialism -- The Problematic of a Non-capitalist Road to Socialism -- Epilogue. Illusion of the Epoch: Twentieth-Century Socialism -- Back Matter -- References -- Index.