Dictionary of Revolutionary Marxism
— O —
“OBJECTIVISM”
The name the vulgar bourgeois writer Ayn Rand gave to her
shallow philosophical system glorifying selfishness and capitalism.
OBLIGATION
[Ethics:] A moral requirement to act in a certain way. Kant held
the extreme position that (what he took to be) moral obligations are absolute, that is,
they are morally necessary regardless of the consequences.
See also:
CONSEQUENTIALISM,
DUTY
OCCAM’S RAZOR
A principle enunciated in cryptic form by the medieval philosopher William of Occam (or
Ockham) which states that you should always choose the simplest explanation for any
phenomenon, the one requiring the fewest assumptions and supporting entities.
See also:
Philosophical doggerel on
Occam and his “razor”.
OCTOBER REVOLUTION
Also known as the Bolshevik Revolution. It
occured November 8, 1917, which was October 25 on the calendar then in use in
Russia. [More to be added... ]
OCTOBER ROAD
The term “October Road” is shorthand for the revolutionary
strategy, tactics and policies followed by Lenin
and the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution, not only in the October Revolution seizure of
power itself, but for the whole Bolshevik revolutionary process over a period of more than
two decades starting from around 1900. Thus the question “To what degree should American
revolutionaries follow the October Road?” means “To what degree should we employ the
revolutionary strategy and tactics that Lenin and the Bolsheviks used?” This of course is
still an open question.
[Lenin speaking of the revolutionary strategy and tactics of the Bolsheviks at the time of the First World War (and note that he just uses the word ‘tactics’ where we would today usually say ‘strategy’):] “The Bolsheviks’ tactics were correct; they were the only internationalist tactics, because they were based, not on the cowardly fear of a world revolution, not on a philistine ‘lack of faith’ in it, not on the narrow nationalist desire to protect one’s ‘own’ fatherland (the fatherland of one’s own bourgeoisie), while not ‘giving a damn’ about all the rest, but on a correct (and, before the war and before the apostasy of the social-chauvinists and social-pacifists, a universally accepted) estimation of the revolutionary situation in Europe. These tactics were the only internationalist tactics, because they did the utmost possible in one country for the development, support and awakening of the revolution in all countries. These tactics have been justified by their enormous success, for Bolshevism (not by any means because of the merits of of the Russian Bolsheviks, but because of the most profound sympathy of the people everywhere for tactics that are revolutionary in practice) has become world Bolshevism, has produced an idea, a theory, a programme and tactics which differ concretely and in practice from those of social-chauvinism and social-pacifism.” —Lenin, “Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky” (Oct.-Nov. 1918), LCW 28:292.
“... the mass of workers in all countries are realizing more and more clearly every day that Bolshevism has indicated the right road of escape from the horrors of war and imperialism, that Bolshevism can serve as a model of tactics for all.” —Lenin, ibid., LCW 28:293. (As always in this Glossary, italics and other emphasis are as they appear in the original.)
OCTOPUS
Short for Organization for Counter-Terrorism and Operations. This is yet another
government paramilitary force attempting to destroy the Naxalites
(Maoist revolutionaries) in India. This particular force seems to have been set up by the
Andhra Pradesh state government.
OLIGARCHY
Rule by the few, usually for their own corrupt and selfish purposes. Thus often, in
effect, rule by the few who are rich. Bourgeois society, whether in the form of
bourgeois democracy or
fascism, should be considered a type of oligarchy since
the ruling bourgeoisie is a tiny class relative to the
whole population.
OLIGOPOLY
Semi-monopoly, or a “looser form” of monopoly. In other words,
a situation where a small number of producers control the capitalist market for some
commodity, and limit their competition either in all respects (definitely including prices),
or—more commonly today because of the nominal anti-trust
laws—to areas of styling and advertising.
Lenin, when he talked about monopoly,
was really using the term in a way which would today better be called oligopoly.
(The word ‘oligopoly’ did not enter the English language until 1895 and even then at first
only in technical publications, and the Russian equivalent probably also did not exist
when Lenin was writing.)
“ONTOGENY RECAPITULATES PHYLOGENY”
This idea, which the 19th century semi-materialist naturalist Ernst Haeckel called
his “biogenetic law”, is basically that the embryological development of an individual
creature is a recapituation of the stages of the historical evolution of that species.
Thus early embryos of humans and other primates have gills and a fish-like tail recalling
their ancient fish ancestry. Modern biological science, however, considers the idea that
ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny to be sort of a very crude and limited partial truth.
“There is in fact a peculiar correspondence between the gradual development of organic germs into mature organisms and the succession of plants and animals following each other in the history of the earth.” —Engels, Anti-Dühring (1878), MECW 25:69.
“The same phenomenon is illustrated by the gill arches that still dominate the ontogeny of land-living vertebrates. It is obvious in all these cases that development is controlled by such a large number of interacting genes that the selection pressure to eliminate vestigial structures is less effective than the selection to maintain the efficiency of well established developmental pathways.” —Ernst Mayr, Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist (1988), p. 435.
ONTOLOGY
1. The branch of metaphysics (in the non-Marxist sense) which
discusses the nature of existence or reality in the abstract, what sort of entities actually
may be said to exist, and so forth.
2. [More narrowly, but still usually within the milieu of bourgeois philosophy:] The set of
entities or substances which are said to exist. The dualist’s
“ontology”, for example, includes not only matter but also—independent
of matter—mind and possibly “spiritual substances” (such as “souls”
or “gods”). The materialist’s “ontology” includes only matter and energy (or “matter in
motion”), and mental phenomena are viewed as functional characterizations of certain highly
complex material entities (e.g., brains) as they change and internally reorganize.
OPERATION GREEN HUNT
A large-scale anti-Maoist military campaign launched in the fall of 2009 by the Indian central
government together with the paramilitary forces of several states in India, and expected to
last for at least several years. The initial military operations began around Nov. 1, 2009, and
much larger operations are expected in the first months of 2010. A major focus of OGH is in
the Adivasi (tribal) areas in east-central India, where the
Communist Party of India (Maoist) has made much progress in organizing and leading the people
in mass struggles in resistance to the theft and despoilation of their land by giant mining
companies and other Indian and transnational corporations. In effect, OGH is aimed as much at the
Adivasi masses as it is at their Maoist leadership; it is in reality a war by the Indian government
against its own people.
Many news articles about OGH, background
articles, and statements of opposition to the campaign, can be found at the following websites:
http://www.bannedthought.net/India/MilitaryCampaigns/
— BannedThought.net page on Military Assaults on Revolutionaries and People’s Movements in India
OPPORTUNISM
[In the Marxist-Leninist sense:] “The opportunist does not betray his party, he does not
act as a traitor, he does not desert it. He continues to serve it sincerely and zealously.
But his typical and characteristic trait is that he yields to the mood of the moment, he is
unable to resist what is fashionable, he is politically short-sighted and spineless.
Opportunism means sacrificing the permanent and essential interests of the party to the
momentary, transient and minor interests.” —V. I. Lenin, “The Russian Radical is Wise After
the Event” (Oct. 18, 1906), LCW 11:239.
OPTION (Capitalist Finance)
A security (or transferable contract) allowing (but not obligating) the holder to buy or sell
something (such as uniform bulk commodities, currencies, or other securities, most commonly
shares of stock) at a future time and at a pre-agreed price. In the U.S. options can be
exercised at any time up until a specified date, whereas the European type of options can
only be exercized on the specified date itself. A “put”, or “put option”, gives the holder
the right to sell the share (or other thing) at the pre-agreed price, while a “call”,
or “call option”, gives the holder the right to buy at the pre-agreed price.
Bourgeois economists try to justify the
existence of options and options trading by pointing out that they allow the possibility of
a type of insurance for companies that must hold real assets
at the present time (and want to insure against their loss of value over time), or for
companies which must buy assets later (e.g., a manufacturing company that must buy steel six
months from now and does not want to be surprized by a huge increase in the price of steel
at that time). It is true that the judicious use of options can have this result. However,
the great preponderance of the buying and selling of options is not done for insurance
purposes, but simply as a form of speculation. Options exist primarily to facilitate
speculation and gambling. And this serves to further destabilize the already inherently
unstable capitalist financial system.
Options are just one of the many types of
derivatives, or ways of gambling about future stock prices,
commodity prices, currency exchange rates, etc., that financial capitalists have created,
and that go to make up today’s “casino economy”.
See also:
WARRANT
ORGANIZATIONS — Political
“The character of any organization is naturally and inevitably determined by the content of its activity.” —Lenin, “What Is To Be Done?” (1902), LCW 5:440.
“ORGANIZED CAPITALISM”
A revisionist theory about capitalist economics which
claims that in the modern monopoly era capitalism either already has become, or else will
soon become, so “organized” that economic crises will no longer develop. An early version
of this theory was put forward around 1900 by the revisionist pioneer
Eduard Bernstein, who argued that a long series of
reforms by the capitalist state, together with the regulation of production by private
associations of capitalist companies, would lead to a decline in the severity of crises
and their eventual complete elimination. Bernstein, of course, also opposed any form of
the “breakdown theory” (that crises might eventually
become so bad that the capitalist system would collapse).
In an article in 1915,
Rudolf Hilferding put forward a more elaborate version
of the “organized capitalism” thesis, but one just as erroneous. He had already hinted
at this notion in his famous book Finance
Capital. Basing himself on his research into the development of trusts, cartels
and finance capitalism, Hilferding claimed that the capitalists could now both regulate
production and also regulate profits. Since he believed that crises came about because
of the falling rate of
profit—voilà!—there would no longer be any capitalist economic crises!
This is a great example of how an
incorrect theory of crises can really totally mislead you. Bernstein’s theory of
“organized capitalism” was also based on an incorrect crisis theory, but in his case
it was the “anarchy theory” (i.e., that
crises are due to the anarchy of “many capitals”). Since monopoly capitalism, and the
advent of trusts and cartels, was presumed to end most of this anarchy, there should no
longer be any economic crises.
What neither Bernstein nor Hilferding
understood is that capitalist economic crises actually derive simply from the very
extraction of surplus value from the workers in the
first place, and are thus inherent in capitalism. In short, the workers are not
paid enough to buy back all they produce. Things can be kept going for a while by using
the surplus to build more factories (even if unneeded); by loaning the workers money to
buy the things they otherwise cannot afford; and by having the government run deficits
to purchase the “excess production”. But ultimately all that must of necessity collapse,
which brings on an inevitable economic crisis. Thus a correct understanding of capitalist
crisis theory shows that there cannot possibly be any such thing as crisis-free
“organized capitalism”.
We should also mention that Kautsky’s
theory of “ultra-imperialism” (under which the
entire world market is under unified capitalist control, which supposedly precludes
inter-imperialist wars), is sort of a extension to this “organized capitalism” nonsense
and a related revisionist fantasy.
ORGANIZING THEORY
See: CENTRAL ORGANIZING
THEORY
OUGHT
The word ‘ought’ is a “verbal auxiliary”, which is used to add the element of obligation
to the meaning of the verbal phrase (and hence the utterance as a whole). In the context of
morality, it is the additional meaning of moral obligation which is added. Thus, in
morals, ‘ought’ means “was (were) or am (is, are) under moral obligation (to do, be, have ...
something).”
See also:
DUTY
OUGHT FROM IS
[To be added...]
See also:
“NATURALISTIC FALLACY”
OUTSOURCING
The practice by corporations of sub-contracting work (manufacturing work, service work, etc.)
to other companies and especially foreign or non-union companies which pay lower wages and
offer fewer benefits to their workers. It is one of many very common ways today in which the
capitalists are intensifying the degree of exploitation of the international working
class.
OVERPRODUCTION
Production which exceeds effective market demand. That is, the production of commodities
which cannot be sold because there is no market for them. Overproduction is also call a
“glut”.
[Ricardo, from his On the Principles of Political Economy, and
Taxation (1817):] “...the very meaning of an increased demand by them [the
laborers] is a disposition to take less themselves, and leave a larger share for
their employers; and if it be said that this, by diminishing consumption, increases
glut, I can only answer, that glut ... is synonymous with high profits...”
[Marx, after quoting the above
passage, says:] “This is indeed the secret basis of glut.” [TSV, 3:121.]
OVERPRODUCTION CRISES
[Intro material to be added...]
There can be no overproduction crises under
socialism or communism, because society is quite able to use the vast preponderance of all the
goods that it plans to produce, and actually does produce. Of course in every society there
will be at least a small amount of wastage in production, but under socialism there is no
systematic shortfall due to the failure of market demand—since there are no capitalist
markets at all!
“On this assumption—if capitalist production
were entirely socialist production—a contradiction in terms—no over-production could, in fact,
occur.” —Marx, TSV, 3:118.
OVERPRODUCTION CRISES—CAUSES OF
[Intro material to be added...]
“The form of production is simply the form of distribution seen from a different point of view. The specific features—and therefore also the specific limitation—which set bounds to bourgeois distribution, enter into bourgeois production itself, as a determining factor, which overlaps and dominates production. The fact that bourgeois production is compelled by its own immanent laws, on the one hand, to develop the productive forces as if production did not take place on a narrow restricted social foundation, while, on the other hand, it can develop these forces only within these narrow limits, is the deepest and most hidden cause of crises, of the crying contradictions within which bourgeois production is carried on and which, even at a cursory glance, reveal it as only a transitional, historical form.” —Marx, TSV, 3:84.
“Overproduction, the credit system, etc., are means by which capitalist production seeks to break through its own barriers and to produce over and above its own limits. Capitalist production, on the one hand, has this driving force; on the other hand, it only tolerates production commensurate with the profitable employment of existing capital. Hence crises arise, which simultaneously drive it onward and beyond [its own limits] and force it to put on seven-league boots, in order to reach a development of the productive forces which could only be achieved very slowly within its own limits.” —Marx, TSV, 3:122.
OVERPRODUCTION CRISES—RESOLUTION OF
[To be added... ]
OWEN, Robert (1771-1858)
A Welsh industrialist and early utopian socialist. In the early 19th century, he
attempted to operate the factory town of New Lanark, Scotland, for the benefit of the workers
at the textile mills. With the help of outside philantropists, the paternalistic experiment was
successful for a number of years until Owens’ business partners demanded an end to it. Afterwards
Owen and one of his followers founded two utopian socialist communities, one near Glasgow and the
more famous being the New Harmony community established in 1825 in Indiana. Owen, however, did
not take much of an active role in these utopian communities and spent little time there. There
was also little care taken in the selection of the original members, which included a number of
vagrants, opportunists, adventurers and very contentious enthusiasts each with their own strong
ideas about how to do things. Despite the fairly substantial initial funding, both communities
soon failed.
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