Richard Wolff

Democracy at Work: Curing Capitalism | Richard Wolff | Talks at Google

EDITOR'S NOTE: The title of this lecture is a bit disconcerting, at least to me. First, because in my book capitalism cannot be cured, it can only be transcended. The cure for capitalism is to get rid of it, to bring humanity to the next logical stage in its evolution, socialism. Reformists, of course, have always claimed that capitalism can be tweaked into an acceptable formula supposedly blending the best of capitalism and socialism, that is "social democracy". But such hybrids rarely work, as the gradual unraveling of the much admired and ballyhooed Scandinavian brand of "nordic socialism" is eloquently showing.  Nor is the "soft" (aka "democratic") socialism model set up by British labour after WW2 holding fast. In both areas what we see today is a complete negation of socialism. In both Britain and Scandinavia capitalism never left; these cultures (along with the rest of Western Europe) still live under regimes of capitalist social relations: social production is first and foremost carried out for the sake of profits. Profits (and their political emissaries), and not social needs, are in command. This is clearly proven by the distressing situation we observe in the United Kingdom today, where even the sacred NHS, a healthcare system once touted as the jewel of "British socialism", is being implacably torn apart through underhanded fiscal and legislative aggression, while the working class seems unable to turn the tide.

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Further, both of these areas, along with the rest of the EU, are still essentially political and economic vassals of the US hegemonic empire. To their eternal shame, they continue to support Washington's malignant obsessions against China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, etc., or join its petty persecutions. Can any fair observer deny the complicity of Sweden and Britain in the torturing and harassment of hero journalist Julian Assange? Or the global harassment of whistleblowers Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden? But the worst part is that they are all engaged in assisting the US empire in its criminal wars around the globe—from coups to sanctions to hybrid war campaigns and even kinetic adventures.  Should that not be enough to convince you, consider how these associated ruling classes, embedded in nominally socialist cultures, are now openly dismantling the social safety nets and financial sovereignty won by the working class in Western Europe 80 years ago. "Austerity" is indeed the marching tune. This betrayal has already caused social explosions in France, Greece, Spain, Italy and other nations. More are obviously in the offing. And the turmoil has been aggravated by the Americans' massive mischief in the Middle East, which has triggered enormous waves of refugees now seriously destabilising the EU, including that bastion of Atlanticist power, Germany. The latter phenomenon, intended or not, has also facilitated the ascendancy of opportunistic fascitoid forces. The reigning capitalists don't seem to mind—they never have. All of the above underscores the sheer toxicity of capitalism, its irreformability, and the fact halfway cures, as history shows, never work.  With that in mind, let us listen to Prof. Wolff.—PG

—Patrice Greanville

Democracy at Work: Curing Capitalism | Richard Wolff | Talks at Google

Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University in New York City. He wrote Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism and founded www.democracyatwork.info, a non-profit advocacy organization of the same name that promotes democratic workplaces as a key path to a stronger, democratic economic system. Professor Wolff discusses the economic dimensions of our lives, our jobs, our incomes, our debts, those of our children, and those looming down the road in his unique mixture of deep insight and dry humor. He presents current events and draws connections to the past to highlight the machinations of our global economy. He helps us to understand political and corporate policy, organization of labor, the distribution of goods and services, and challenges us to question some of the deepest foundations of our society. For more of his lectures, visit the Democracy at Work YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/democrac...​.

BONUS FEATURES:

Richard D. Wolff Lecture on Worker Coops: Theory and Practice of 21st Century Socialism
Apr 25, 2016

BUT...because the concept of worker coops (in an ocean of capitalism) usually embodies a lot of confusion, let us bring Caleb Maupin to clarify the more essential points. Watch closely:
Workers Cooperatives & Confusion about Socialism, Communism
Jul 3, 2019

Caleb Maupin

This commenter sums up well our unease with the "worker coop" concept, an idea that stresses the worker ownership part but forgets that socialism cannot be built in (a) a sea of surrounding capitalism, and (b) without sufficient attention to the primacy of central planning in the entire economy. As long as central planning is weak or absent, worker coops will tend to operate as capitalist concerns that happen to have egalitarian ownership. Certainly an improvement on firms tha have a top-down structure of ownership and power, but not enough to liberate such firms from their inevitable capitalst problematica. 

Learn Communism!1 year ago (edited)

Good points. I think the ideal socialist economy should have both worker representation and planning in regards to production. However, the latter is the most important and more materially relevant, as as long as production strictly for exchange continues within any market economy (regardless of whether this market is capitalist or “ socialist” (Yugoslavia)), then issues such as overproduction, exploitation of the third world, and the tendency for the rate of profit to fall will still in all likelihood persist.

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Learn Communism!1 year ago

Krónika I definitely agree, the planning must involve the working masses. I just emphasized planning in my comment primarily because I hear a lot of newbie leftists only emphasizing the “workers ownership” element of socialism, while de-emphasizing the planning element.

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