Accumulation, Imperialism, and Pre-Capitalist Formations: Luxemburg and Marx on the non-Western World

The dramatic changes that have unfolded in the global economy in recent years make this a worthwhile moment to explore the similarities and differences between Karl Marx and Rosa Luxemburg’s understanding of what is now termed the “globalization of capital.” Both Marx and Luxemburg were intensely interested in the impact of the expansive logic of capital accumulation upon non-capitalist or developing societies, as seen in Marx’s late writings on agrarian societies, communal formations in India and North Africa, and among Native Americans and in Luxemburg’s studies of some of the same formations in her Introduction to Political Economy and Accumulation of Capital. Although Luxemburg was unaware of Marx’s writings on these issues, since many of Marx’s manuscripts on non-Western societies are only now coming to light, there are striking similarities, on a number of issues, between her approach and Marx’s analyses. At the same time, there are also serious differences in their approach, in that Marx adopted a far less unilinear and deterministic approach to the fate of non-Western social formations as compared to Luxemburg. This paper explores these similarities and differences by exploring a number of manuscripts by Marx and Luxemburg that have only recently come to light or which have received insufficient attention, such as Marx’s Notebooks on Kovalevsky and Luxemburg’s studies of pre-capitalist societies of 1907, originally composed as part of her research for the Introduction to Political Economy. One of the article’s aims is to generate a re-examination of both Marx and Luxemburg’s contributions in light of these less-known writings. Les transformations dramatiques qui ont eu lieu dans l’économie globale ces dernières années rendent opportun d’explorer les similarités et les différences entre les analyses de ce qui est maintenant appelé la mondialisation du capital par Karl Marx et Rosa Luxemburg. Marx et Luxemburg étaient tous les deux très intéressés par l’impact de la logique expansionniste de l’accumulation du capital sur les sociétés non capitalistes et celles en voie de développement, comme en témoignent les écrits tardifs de Marx sur les sociétés agraires, les structures communales en Inde, en Afrique du Nord et parmi les Autochtones de l’Amérique du Nord, ainsi que les études de Luxemburg de certaines de ces mêmes formations dans son Introduction à l’économie politique et L’accumulation du capital. Bien que Luxemburg n’était pas au courant des écrits de Marx sur ces sujets, parce que beaucoup de ses manuscrits sur les sociétés non-Occidentales sont seulement maintenant en train de paraître, il y a des similarités frappantes, sur de nombreux sujets, entre leurs approches. En même temps, il demeure des différences importantes, dans la mesure où Marx a adopté une approche beaucoup moins linéaire et déterministe que Luxemburg à propos du destin des structures sociales non-Occidentales. Cet article explore ces similarités et différences en explorant plusieurs manuscrits de Marx et Luxemburg qui ont seulement récemment vu le jour ou qui ont reçu une attention insuffisante, comme Les Carnets de Kovalevsky de Marx et les études de Luxemburg sur les sociétés pré-capitalistes de 1907, écrites à l’origine dans le cadre de ses recherches pour l’Introduction à l’économie politique. Un des objectifs de l’article est de générer un nouvel examen des contributions de Marx et de Luxemburg, à la lumière de ces écrits moins bien connus

Marx\u27s Concept of the Transcendence of Value Production

Although the literature produced on Marx\u27s philosophic contribution over the past 100 years is immense, most of it has focused on his analysis of the economic and political structure of capitalism, the materialist conception of history, and his critique of value production. There has been very little discussion or analysis, however, of his conception of what constitutes an alternative to capitalism. One reason for this is that it has long been assumed that Marx\u27s disdain for utopian socialists and his strictures against inventing blueprints about the future meant that his work does not address the possible content of a postcapitalist society that transcends value production. Yet while Marx never wrote a single work addressing the alternative to capitalism, critically important comments and suggestions are found throughout his writings about the transcendence of value production and the contours of a postcapitalist future. This study subjects Marx\u27s discussions of an alternative to capitalism to critical scrutiny by exploring all four decades of his philosophic output--from his early writings of the 1840s, to his various drafts of Capital and Capital itself, as well as his late writings on postcapitalism. This study examines not only Marx\u27s major and well-known works, but also his notebooks, drafts, letters and marginalia that are now being compiled as part of the MEGA2 project

Rethinking Marx for Today: A Response to Paul Kellogg’s and Ian Angus’s reviews of Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism

Rethinking Marx for Today: A Response to Paul Kellogg’s and Ian Angus’s reviews of Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalis

Bilateral Mastectomy versus Breast-Conserving Surgery for Early-Stage Breast Cancer: The Role of Breast Reconstruction

BACKGROUND: Although breast-conserving surgery is oncologically safe for women with early-stage breast cancer, mastectomy rates are increasing. The objective of this study was to examine the role of breast reconstruction in the surgical management of unilateral early-stage breast cancer. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study of women diagnosed with unilateral early-stage breast cancer (1998 to 2011) identified in the National Cancer Data Base was conducted. Rates of breast-conserving surgery, unilateral and bilateral mastectomy with contralateral prophylactic procedures (per 1000 early-stage breast cancer cases) were measured in relation to breast reconstruction. The association between breast reconstruction and surgical treatment was evaluated using a multinomial logistic regression, controlling for patient and disease characteristics. RESULTS: A total of 1,856,702 patients were included. Mastectomy rates decreased from 459 to 360 per 1000 from 1998 to 2005 (p < 0.01), increasing to 403 per 1000 in 2011 (p < 0.01). The mastectomy rates rise after 2005 reflects a 14 percent annual increase in contralateral prophylactic mastectomies (p < 0.01), as unilateral mastectomy rates did not change significantly. Each percentage point of increase in reconstruction rates was associated with a 7 percent increase in the probability of contralateral prophylactic mastectomies, with the greatest variation explained by young age(32 percent), breast reconstruction (29 percent), and stage 0 (5 percent). CONCLUSIONS: Since 2005, an increasing proportion of early-stage breast cancer patients have chosen mastectomy instead of breast-conserving surgery. This trend reflects a shift toward bilateral mastectomy with contralateral prophylactic procedures that may be facilitated by breast reconstruction availability

In Support of a Patient-Driven Initiative and Petition to Lower the High Price of Cancer Drugs

Comment in Lowering the High Cost of Cancer Drugs--III. [Mayo Clin Proc. 2016] Lowering the High Cost of Cancer Drugs--I. [Mayo Clin Proc. 2016] Lowering the High Cost of Cancer Drugs--IV. [Mayo Clin Proc. 2016] In Reply--Lowering the High Cost of Cancer Drugs. [Mayo Clin Proc. 2016] US oncologists call for government regulation to curb drug price rises. [BMJ. 2015

Detecting intratumoral heterogeneity of EGFR activity by liposome-based in vivo transfection of a fluorescent biosensor

Despite decades of research in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signalling field, and many targeted anti-cancer drugs that have been tested clinically, the success rate for these agents in the clinic is low, particularly in terms of the improvement of overall survival. Intratumoral heterogeneity is proposed as a major mechanism underlying treatment failure of these molecule-targeted agents. Here we highlight the application of fluorescence lifetime microscopy (FLIM)-based biosensing to demonstrate intratumoral heterogeneity of EGFR activity. For sensing EGFR activity in cells, we used a genetically encoded CrkII-based biosensor which undergoes conformational changes upon tyrosine-221 phosphorylation by EGFR. We transfected this biosensor into EGFR-positive tumour cells using targeted lipopolyplexes bearing EGFR-binding peptides at their surfaces. In a murine model of basal-like breast cancer, we demonstrated a significant degree of intratumoral heterogeneity in EGFR activity, as well as the pharmacodynamic effect of a radionuclide-labeled EGFR inhibitor in situ. Furthermore, a significant correlation between high EGFR activity in tumour cells and macrophage-tumour cell proximity was found to in part account for the intratumoral heterogeneity in EGFR activity observed. The same effect of macrophage infiltrate on EGFR activation was also seen in a colorectal cancer xenograft. In contrast, a non-small cell lung cancer xenograft expressing a constitutively active EGFR conformational mutant exhibited macrophage proximity-independent EGFR activity. Our study validates the use of this methodology to monitor therapeutic response in terms of EGFR activity. In addition, we found iNOS gene induction in macrophages that are cultured in tumour cell-conditioned media as well as an iNOS activity-dependent increase in EGFR activity in tumour cells. These findings point towards an immune microenvironment-mediated regulation that gives rise to the observed intratumoral heterogeneity of EGFR signalling activity in tumour cells in vivo