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Introduced by Paul Kellogg
Karl Marx talked about the contradictions between the forces of production and the relations of production as the basic impediment to human progress under capitalism. We are seeing this playing out in real time in the unfolding crisis in Europe.
This talk will focus on these contradictions, not from the standpoint solely of the Eurozone’s weakest economy, Greece, but also from that of its strongest, Germany. The European Union, and the Eurozone within it, are just the most recent forms in which capitalism in Germany has attempted to overcome the contradictions outlined by Marx.
The talk will trace these attempts, from Bismarckian imperialism in the 19th century, to the two world wars in the 20th century, and finally look at today’s crisis. All of these attempts at finding a “spatial fix” to crises in capital accumulation have occurred undemocratically, have fostered chauvinism and racism, and have remained trapped in the fetishized forms which are the curse of private property. These superstructural impediments have become prisons, holding back social development in Germany and throughout Europe.
Paul Kellogg is a political economist who teaches in the graduate program at Athabasca University.
Suggested reading: Paul Kellogg, "'Progressive' Europe's Reactionary Stew' http://www.socialistproject.ca/relay/relay30_kellogg.pdf
