Paresh chattopadhyay biography

Paresh Chattopadhyay/Pareshda 1 was born in Rudrakar of undivided Bengal.
The eminent Marxian socialist scholar and critic of Lenin's Marxism, Paresh Chattopadhyay (PC) passed away on January 14, 2023, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
PARESH CHATTOPADHYAY is Professor of Political Economy at the University of Quebec in Montreal.

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Paresh Chattopadhyay (1927–2023): Singleness of Purpose

As a young scholar and a State Doctorate in Economic Sciences (1964), University of Paris, a major influence was the French Marxian economist and historian, Charles Bettelheim (1913–2006), with whom PC had a close association over a long period. Undoubtedly, PC was influenced and inspired by Bettelheim’s magnum opus, Class Struggles in the USSR, First Period: 1917-1923 (1974), Class Struggles in the USSR, Second Period: 1923-1930 (1977), Class Struggles in the USSR, Third Period: 1930–1941, Part One: The Dominated (1994), and Class Struggles in the USSR, Third Period: 1930–1941, Part Two: The Dominators (1996), especially the first two volumes. But, with a critical, independent bent of mind, he disagreed with Bettelheim’s observations made in a 1985 mimeograph in French that Marxian concepts were insufficient in analysing the Soviet economy because of the “new forms of capitalist relations” in Soviet type societies. PC closely followed the Bettelheim–Sweezy (the latter, Paul M. Sweezy, 1910–2004) debate in the pages of the i

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Adieu Paresh Chattopadhyay

The evergreen Marxian socialist scholar and critic of Marxism, Paresh Chattopadhyay (PC) left us on January 14, 2023, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, at age of 96.He was emeritus professor of political economy in the department of sociology at the University of Quebec, Montreal.

With in depth mastery of Marxism, PC made his readers think and reflect over what he wrote, with an independent bent of mind. His research penetrated boundaries almost unscaled, by any Marxist historian or economist. It is remarkable that Paresh , in the thick of the scenario of times when Marxism has been given a crippling blow by counter revolutionary forces or imperialism in the form of globalisation, penetrating the globe on an unparalleled scale, stuck to his task of shimmering spark of Marxism, with the solidity of a boulder.

Paresh Chattopadhyay should be revered for sheer single mindedness or relentless spirit. He unflinchingly stuck to the task as a Marxian socialist scholar and intellectual, to add to the treasury an understanding and clarification of what Marx and En

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Marx Myths & Legends

Paresh Chattopadhyay

A Manifesto of Emancipation: Marx’s “Marginal Notes to the Programme of the German Workers’ Party” after One hundred and twenty-five years

This article seeks to dispel a number of misunderstandings concerning Marxs categories of labour, value and state. Readers are reminded that while labour is the source of value, i.e., exchange value, for Marx, it is by no means the sole source of value in the broader sense of usefulness for human beings, since Nature also participates in the production of wealth. Further, the oppressive character of labour - work - results from wage labour and the relations of exchange, which is something quite distinct from a division of labour. Paresh goes on to show how foreign to Marxs thinking is any idea of a workers state involved in some kind of planned economy, and rejects the idea of the working class having its own state machine governing a transition period between capitalism and communism.

Source: An earlier version of the paper was presented at “Marxism 2000