Keynes sau Marx?

de Redactia

Michael Roberts pune ntrebarea aceasta n legtur cu situa ia din Grecia:

The Greeks are now in a so-called four-month breathing space, an extension of the
existing bailout programme agreed by the previous Conservative-led government with
the Troika (the EU Commission, the ECB and the IMF). Of course, this breathing space
is already narrow and closing. The Greek economy continues to suffocate (see my
posthttps://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2015/03/03/greece-breaking-illusions/).
An interview with Costas Lapavitsas
But there is an opportunity to consider the way out for the Greek people when the four
months are up. Thats what makes the recent interview in Jacobin with Syriza MP and
Marxist economist, Costas Lapavitsas, a leading member of the Left Platform within
Syriza, so interesting. (https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/03/lapavitsas-varoufakisgrexit-syriza/).
Costas pulls no punches and spells it out like he sees it, taking no prisoners from the
reformist left as represented by current finance minister Yanis Varoufakis or what he
calls the ultra-left of the KKE communists and Antarsya (as well as unnamed
impractical Marxists).
Previously based at the SOAS college in London, Lapavitsas is not a member of Syriza
(although he was elected on the party list) and is a newcomer to parliamentary politics.
However, he has been a socialist activist for most of his life and is known for his incisive
and challenging theoretical work on the political economy of money, credit and
financialization (see my post,https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/theinformal-empire-finance-and-the-mono-cause-of-the-anglo-saxons/).
Lapavitsas has also worked with the Research on Money and Finance group in London to
produce concrete analyses of the origins and trajectory of the European crisis and, most
recently, published together with the German neo-Keynesian economist Heiner
Flassbeck a kind of manifesto proposing a radical break from the euro.
Its a long and thorough interview, excellently conducted by Sebastian Budgen, so Ill just
concentrate my comments on what I thought was key to understanding the state of the
Greek capitalist economy and the policy objectives and alternatives open to Syriza and
the Greek people. This post is still very long!
Lapavitsas criticises the position adopted by the Syriza leadership in its negotiations for
an extension of the bailout. For him, what was wrong was not that Varoufakis and
Tsipras did not stick to the Syriza aim of cancelling or renegotiating the debt, but that
they capitulated to the Troika on this because they were not prepared to exit the

euro. Syriza will attempt to lift austerity, reduce the debt restructure or write off the
debt and change the balance of social, economic, and political forces in Greece and
Europe more generally without breaking out of the monetary union and without
coming into all-around conflict with the European Union. Thats clearly what this
government signals.
For Lapavitsas, it is impossible to end austerity and stay in the euro and that is what is
wrong with Varoufakis position. The government went into negotiations with an
approach which, as Ive already said, was critical to its composition, to creating it,
which is that we can go into the negotiating room and we can demand and fight for
significant changes, including the lifting of austerity and the writing off of debt, while
remaining firmly within the confines of the monetary union.
Lapavitsas is right to say that whether we consider Varoufakis a Marxist or not is
unimportant (at this point in the interview, reference is made to my own analysis of
Varoufakis views see my
post,https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2015/02/10/yanis-varoufakis-moreerratic-than-marxist/. As Lapavitsas, puts it, Varoufakis is a heterodox economist who
has rightly rejected neoclassical economics, but he has never been a man of the Left,
revolutionary left and was at one time an adviser to reformist George Papandreou.
Lapavitsas is right on this: labels are not important: the correct analysis and policy
prescriptions are what matters. And what is clear is that Varoufakis owes more to Keynes
than Marx.