Yanis Varoufakis is the Former Minister of Finance of Greece and a leftist icon. I never thought I would be able to interview someone like this..Live everyda...
He is good for transitioning to more radical socialism but he's an opportunist. He tries on multiple occasions to wash away the faults of capitalism, either by saying that we have entered a new system he calls "technofeudalism" which is somehow different than Lenin's imperialism and that we need to fix capitalism through technocratic means (workers get an equal share of companies but the capitalist system does not get torn apart), or by attacking actually existing socialism in history by saying that it's undemocratic and authoritarian.
He is open to working together with other opportunists instead of defending correct socialist theory, and the members of his party that take part in syndicalism always take weird positions, sometimes defending the companies, and all around not being nearly radical enough.
I believe they contribute to the working class movement positively and that they would eventually ally with the communists if it came to revolution, but they need to be treated with caution just like the other socdems.
i agree the feudalist stuff is really annoying. historically reductive and a distraction from more accurate analyses like you say. just a buzzword really
So far I haven't read his technofeudalism point as washing away the faults of capitalism. I do think that in general, capitalists would rather be lords than capitalists. I think he's saying capitalism is beginning to create feudalist conditions by its nature.
But maybe he was more explicitly whitewashing capitalism in some other writing or speaking, I could see it because that would mesh with the first half.
it's not an analysis grounded in a dialectical historical/material outlook so it serves to distract from that essentially and imo even runs a soft defense for capitalism by saying we live under a secret worse thing when actually we live under imperialist capitalism, that is the problem and all marxist have known this for a century or more.
He is good for transitioning to more radical socialism but he's an opportunist. He tries on multiple occasions to wash away the faults of capitalism, either by saying that we have entered a new system he calls "technofeudalism" which is somehow different than Lenin's imperialism and that we need to fix capitalism through technocratic means (workers get an equal share of companies but the capitalist system does not get torn apart), or by attacking actually existing socialism in history by saying that it's undemocratic and authoritarian.
He is open to working together with other opportunists instead of defending correct socialist theory, and the members of his party that take part in syndicalism always take weird positions, sometimes defending the companies, and all around not being nearly radical enough.
I believe they contribute to the working class movement positively and that they would eventually ally with the communists if it came to revolution, but they need to be treated with caution just like the other socdems.
i agree the feudalist stuff is really annoying. historically reductive and a distraction from more accurate analyses like you say. just a buzzword really
So far I haven't read his technofeudalism point as washing away the faults of capitalism. I do think that in general, capitalists would rather be lords than capitalists. I think he's saying capitalism is beginning to create feudalist conditions by its nature.
But maybe he was more explicitly whitewashing capitalism in some other writing or speaking, I could see it because that would mesh with the first half.
it's not an analysis grounded in a dialectical historical/material outlook so it serves to distract from that essentially and imo even runs a soft defense for capitalism by saying we live under a secret worse thing when actually we live under imperialist capitalism, that is the problem and all marxist have known this for a century or more.