[Marxism] work - ability - needs

[S. Artesian]

Nowhere in my reading of Marx did I find reference to a "to each according 
to his or her work."

Moreover, to argue that that twist (to each according to his/her work) has 
anything to do with Marx or socialism is at best ignorant, at worst 
deliberately distorted.  for Marx "work" or labor is a fundamentally social 
process, embodying the work of all.  From each according to ability is a 
social process where the conditions of labor allow each individual to 
develop to the max, based on the ability and labor of all.  Likewise to each 
according to need is again a social process, where the development and 
"distribution"of  the universe of individual abilities requires just that 
idential process of social support, based on the labor of all, for the 
multiplicity of individual needs.

So a fundamental equality is established in and by the social labor of all 
for all.

During the War Communism phase (and for a short period after) of the 
Bolshevik Revolution, the Bolsheviks did deploy a slogan "In order to eat, 
one must work." but that was a strictly egalitarian principle, the type that 
is considered so "unhelpful" in the current situation in Cuba.

And of  course, War Communism, with its slogan and its proposals for labor 
armies, gave way to the retreat of the NEP.

What is being introduced into Cuba with the bonus system for managers is not 
"to each according to his or her work," but rather to a certain sector based 
on the work of others-- and that differentiation is rather like the stem 
cell of class differentiation.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pance Stojkovski" <pance at rogers.com>
To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2008 1:29 PM
Subject: [Marxism] work - ability - needs


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