Debating capitalism and socialism

NEW YORK--More than 60 people turned out to a December 3 debate on "Capitalism vs. Socialism" at Hunter College.

The debate, which was held by the Economics Club and the International Socialist Organization (ISO), featured economics Professor Mark Weinstock and Petrino DiLeo, a contributor to SocialistWorker.org and the International Socialist Review, as well as a panel of students from the two clubs.

Professor Weinstock invoked the brutality of Stalinist Russia and China under Mao to argue that socialism leads inevitably to tyranny. "I respect you for having good intentions," he said, turning to the ISO members on stage, "but you people scare me."

DiLeo responded by rejecting Weinstock's association of totalitarian dictatorships with the genuine Marxist tradition and arguing that American capitalism, with its foreign occupations and massive prison population, is not exactly a paragon of freedom.

The student panels debated a series of pre-arranged questions about free trade, the recurrence of economic crises and health care, which produced the most lively discussion. Meryam Bukhari of the Economics Club presented a number of examples of consumer waste in order to demonstrate "inefficiencies" that an even more market-based health care system would supposedly address. "We live with a caste system of health care, " responded Hannah Fleury of the ISO. "Those with money get good care and those without get bad care. No amount of statistics can alter that fact."

For many students, the debate was their first opportunity to hear a socialist economic perspective because Hunter has no Marxist economics professors. "We don't teach Marx," Weinstock declared, "because he was a great analytic philosopher but not a good economist."

The success of the debate demonstrated the interest on campus in hearing explanations for the current economic crisis. At the end of the night, members of the two clubs discussed making these debates a regular event on campus.