South African Trotskyist Hillel Ticktin first made a name for himself in the 1970s and 1980s, with a groundbreaking reexamination of the political economy of the USSR. Much of his work has been fragmentary, taking the form of short articles or occasional essays, quite often in polemical exchange with authority figures such as Ernest Mandel and Charles Bettelheim. Only two books have so far resulted from these efforts, published in close proximity to one another, both offering late reflections on systems about to collapse: The Politics of Race: Discrimination In South Africa (1991, on the old apartheid regime) and Origins of the Crisis in the USSR: Essays on the Political Economy of a Disintegrating System (1992, on the Soviet Union).
You can download these, along with numerous pieces from his journal Critique and the CPGB’s Weekly Worker by clicking on the links below:
- “Towards a Political Economy of the USSR”(1974)
- “Political Economy of the Soviet Intellectual”(1974)
- “The Capitalist Crisis and Current Trends in the USSR” (1975)
- “The Current Crisis and the Decline of a Superpower”(1976)
- “The Contradictions of Soviet Society and Professor Bettelheim” (1976)
- “The USSR: Beginning of the End?” (1977)
- “The Class Structure of the USSR and the Elite” (1978)
- “Rudolf Bahro: A Socialist Without a Working Class” (1979)
- “Socialism, the Market, and the State: Another View: Socialism vs. Proudhonism” (1979)
- “The Ambiguities of Ernest Mandel” (1980)
- “The Afghan War: The Crisis in the USSR” (1980)
- “The Victory and Tragedy of the Polish Working‐Class: Notes and Commentary on the Polish Events “ (1982)
- “Is Market Socialism Possible or Necessary?” (1984)
- “Andropov and His Inheritance: The Disintegration of the USSR under the Banner of Discipline” (1988)
- “The Contradictions of Gorbachev” (1988)
- “The Transitional Epoch, Finance Capital, and Britain: Part 1, The Political Economy of Declining Capitalism” (1988)
- “The Transitional Epoch, Finance Capital, and Britain: Part 2, The Origins and Nature of Finance Capital” (1989)
- “The Year After the Three General Secretaries: Change without Change” (1989)
- The Politics of Race: Discrimination in South Africa (1991)
- Origins of the Crisis in the USSR: Essays on the Political Economy of a Disintegrating System (1992)
- “The USSR after Chernobyl” (1993)
- “The Political Economy of Class in the Transitional Epoch” (1993)
- “Mikhail Gorbachev and Margaret Thatcher: Allies in Crisis” (1994)
- “The Decline of Capitalism” (1995)
- “The International Road to Chaos” (1995) (1995)
- “The Growth of an Impossible Capitalism” (1997)
- “What Will a Socialist Society be Like?” (1997)
- “The Nature of an Epoch of Declining Capitalism” (1998)
- “The Political‐Economic Nature of the Purges” (1999)
- “Lessons of the Russian Revolution” (2001)
- “Where are We Going Today? The Nature of Contemporary Crisis” (2001)
- “Theses on the Present Crisis” (2002)
- “Why the Transition Failed: Towards a Political Economy of the Post‐Soviet Period in Russia” (2002)
- “The Third Great Depression” (2003)
- “Towards a Political Economy of War in Capitalism, with Reference to the First World War” (2004)
- “Paul Sweezy — Marxist Political Economist, 1910-2004” (2004)
- “Marxism, Nationalism, and the National Question after Stalinism” (2005)
- “Political Consciousness and its Conditions at the Present Time” (2006)
- “Decline as a Concept, and Its Consequences” (2006)
- “A Critical Assessment of the Major Marxist Theories of the Political Economy of Modern Capitalism” (2006)
- “Political Economy and the End of Capitalism” (2007)
- “Don’t Revive Absurd Slogans” (2007)
- “1956 as the Year of Stalinist Upheaval and the Iconic Transfer of Imperialist Power to the USA” (2007)
- “Notes on Zionism and Other Matters” (2007)
- “Results and Prospects: Introduction toCritique’s Issue on 1968″ (2008)
- “A Marxist Theory of Freedom of Expression” (2009)
- “A Marxist Political Economy of Capitalist Instability and the Current Crisis” (2009)
- In Defense of Leon Trotsky” (2010)
- “The Crisis and the Capitalist System Today” (2010)
- “The Myths of Crisis: A New Turning Point in History?” (2011)
- “The Theory of Capitalist Disintegration” (2011)
- “Stalinism, Its Nature and Role” (2011)
- “Marx’s Specter Haunts the Wealthy and Powerful” (2011)
- “The Decline of Money” (2012)
- “Rosa Luxemburg’s Concept of Crisis in a Contemporary Theoretical Context” (2012)
- “From Finance Capital to Austerity Muddle” (2013)
- ““Mandela: He was a Bourgeois Hero” (2013)
- “The Permanent Instability of Capitalism” (2014)
- “What is the Capitalist Strategy?” (2014)
- “The Period of Transition” (2016)
- “The Permanent Crisis: Decline, and Transition of Capitalism” (2017)
- “A Marxist Philosopher: István Mészáros, December 19, 1930-October 1, 2017” (2017)
Ticktin’s writings on the socioeconomic character of the Soviet Union have been immensely influential, inspiring groups like Aufheben as well as individuals like Neil C. Fernandez (whose dissertation he advised) and Christopher Arthur. He raises issues that every Marxian Sovietologist must work through, even if one disagrees with his conclusions. Below I will disaggregate his ideas in three parts, beginning with his politics vis-à-vis the CPGB (PCC), moving through his historic claims about the USSR vis-à-vis Fernandez and Paresh Chattopadhyay, and then finishing with some methodological and thematic notes again vis-à-vis Chattopadhyay. Continue reading
