Review of Radical Political Economics

The first part of this report outlines our framework for developing a model of work relations activity. Part II traces an important part of work rela tions history, showing the destruction of the 19th century pattern of craft worker control of industrial production, and its replacement by managerial control, thereby setting the stage for the study of more current forms of workplace organi zation. Part III examines how management has used its power over the structure of the work process as a means for controlling both the workplace and workers. It outlines the strategies management has developed to increase its control over this process. Part IV deals, conversely, with the formal and informal ways that workers have exercised counter-power over their lives at the workplace. It shows worker strategies for establishing and retaining control over their activities on the job. Part V presents a few concluding reflections on the political significance of work relations research.

Marxist categories — especially those of "capital" and "class" — are employed in a critical examination of two propositions: that capitalist pro duction relations, in a "state-capitalist" form, exist currently in the USSR: and that a novel "bureaucratic-exploitative" mode of production has developed in that country. Both views are found to be inadequate in face of theoretical re quirements and a survey of the relevant empirical data which appear to be consis tent with a socialist determination of the Soviet social formation. The implica tions of the "state-capitalist" and "bureaucratic-exploitative" interpretations for their proponents' grasp of capitalist realities are discussed.

The author begins with a history of recent interest in municipally- owned electric utilities (MUNI's) and then argues that neither welfare economic theory nor empirical econometric work provide much of a case against MUNI's. After identifying three views on the municipal ownership issue, two interpre tations of cities' fiscal ills are distinguished: one which neglects and one which suggests MUNI's as remedies. Some new empirical evidence is presented on (1) the proportion, and change in proportion, of general revenues MUNI's generate for their cities and (2) the comparative Moody's bond ratings of cities which do and don't own MUNI's. The author closes with some ideas for further research and the suggestion that discussions of local fiscal policy options which neglect MUNI's may be ideological defenses of the owning classes.

This article examines the process that has shaped the transforma tion of the Cuban social formation from 1961 to the present. To this end, socialist planning is constituted as the object of analysis; planning is viewed as a mani festation of and hence an indicator of a more inclusive process of change. It is our contention that any discussion of planning must be couched in terms commen surate with those used to explain socialism itself, i.e., a discussion of the forms and nature of the social relations. For this reason, we first outline our theoretical formulation of socialism (seen here as the combination of elements from two contradictory modes of production — communism and capitalism). Planning is then located in this general schema prior to a discussion of specific planning practises followed in Cuba for the period under consideration. Our analysis points to the fluidity of the forms taken by planning in Cuba, while attempting to demonstrate that struggles within the Party over correct planning procedures and between the Party and the masses over planning failures have caused this fluidity and stamped each form with its own specific orientation.