Capitalism crisis-prone: Patnaik

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Former vice-chairman of State Planning Board and noted economist Prabhat Patnaik has said that capitalism is prone to crisis. Delivering a  lecture on the topic ‘’Why Marxism?’’ at the national seminar organised as part of the  CPM state conference here on Saturday, he said  in  capitalist societies people collectively would try to define their destiny.  He said Marxism was essentially related  with human emancipation and methods to be adopted for realising this goal. “The struggle for emancipation is not new. But the scientific characteristic and outcome of the struggle are invariably different . As a matter of fact, history has a spontaneous character independent of the people who participate in the struggle,’’ he said.  He said the crisis of capitalism in the Indian context was more complex. Inaugurating the seminar,  CPM politburo member Kodiyeri Balakrishan said in the last two decades of globalisation, capitalism was still reeling in serious crisis. The Occupy Wall Street agitation in the US was the latest example of the crisis. Thomas Isaac MLA presided over the function.  Socialist Register Editor Leo Paniche,  Dr C P Chandrasekhar, Pannian Ravindran and   Ninan Koshy spoke.