Global Capitalism: On Labor - A May Day 2024 Special [May 1st, 2024]
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- čas přidán 30. 04. 2024
- Today we offer a very special Global Capitalism special in honor of “May Day”
Today's May Day Special, a collaborative effort with long-time contributor Charles Fabian, opens with the major causes for why May Day 2024 is so special. These include the fact that the great crash of global capitalism in 2008-2009 shook the world in ways that include shocking a declining US labor movement back to life and growth.
We saw that in 2011 when the Occupy Wall Street movement shook the US and beyond again. Then the "Fight for $15" swept across low-wage America as it still does. Then a socialist named Bernie Sanders rose to prominence and changed how millions of Americans viewed the economy and could see the need to vote for a direct challenge to capitalism. Nor did the pandemic slow down the growth of an anti-capitalist left that shows up these days as a 70% approval rating for unions in the Gallup poll and for hugely successful unionization drives in low-wage areas like Amazon and Starbucks, in auto plants in the US south, in militant new union leaderships elected in the Teamsters and the UAW.
May Day - the international celebration of the working class - has much to cheer for in 2024. And the international context is special too. The US-led, formerly dominant G7 no longer presides over world capitalism unchallenged. The BRICS - China and its allies - are a new alternative leadership of the world economy with a much more ambiguous relationship to capitalism. May Day 2024 welcomes nothing less than a new world economy and one far more favorable to working-class struggles than we have seen in years.
Co-sponsored by Democracy at Work and Left Forum
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(Understanding Marxism, Understanding Socialism, and The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Cannot Save Us from Pandemics or Itself)
Robert Hennelly’s
(Stuck Nation: Can the United States change course on our history of choosing profits over people?) are for sale on Lulu.com.
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Litterally watched your: "the game is rigged" video from ACLU posted 9 years ago last night. You've been accurate in your criticism of capitalism this whole time. Change must be made now.
Too bad capitalism left 4 decades ago...leaving you with the landed aristocracy
and a criminal government that has been in place for 8+ decades.
All work should be unionized. United We Bargain, Divided We Beg.
Jay Gorney wrote about what the professor is saying in a song: "I built a railroad, made it run, in a race against time, I built a railroad, now its done, brother can you spare a dime..."
Usa empire is collapsing like all other EMPIRE'S IN HISTORY. A MESSAGE FROM DENMARK. Respect and understanding 🇩🇰✌️🇩🇰✌️
I love Denmark. My friend just moved back to Denmark 😔
Denmark is my favourite Risk tile! 🫡
Old capitalist Biden and old capitalist Putin. Biden said - He is not going to leave Ukraine! Putin is not going to leave silently. Think about it. These scum are preparing a nuclear war. (
Congratulations Charlie!
Brave and Brilliant economist Dr. Wolff. Thanks for always giving your honest analysis 👍
Thank you Professor for your brilliance and your willingness to share such critical economic analysis
With us!❤
Long time listener here and I'm virtually in tears listening to this list. I lived through it and it was disappointment after disappointment but I wasn't seeing the forest for the trees. Those were advances after all! And this couldn't come t a better time.
As a retired teacher who belonged to a union I greatly appreciate your May Day message. Thank you.
Yes
Your teachings are wonderful, full of love and truth. May people wake up and take your advice to heart.
In order to save the planet, the entire working class of the world needs to unite, IWW-style.
Global warming emergency affects all of us. We have to work that we are not are
poised by dirty air& water. Peaceful cooperations will undermine the dirty MIC.
A peaceful world by listening to the resolutions worked out by the U.N.O.🌻
The planet isn't going anywhere...and the message you are sending is a self-contradiction,
because if you believe it, the solution is decreased consumption.
But that is NOT what the labor movement is about because it claims you don't have enough
and that is in the developed nations.
Now, imagine that multiplied by all the impoverished ones?
As they say in Maine; "You can't the...ah, from he...ah."
Up till now, those in CONTROL haven't managed to figure out how to increase the death rate,
but they're working on it...and in the end, you will help one way or another.
Climate Change, regardless of its reality and/or manipulations, is being used by the ruling class as the excuse for initiating a totalitarian technocratic population control grid.
Thank you both Prof. Wolff and Charles! Happy May Day!
Truth is always hard to hear but better to understand now than later. A message from Denmark. Thanks for this project
Thanks yet again,Prof Wolff
Happy International Workers Day, everyone & thanks for spreading your wisdom, Prof. Wolff.
Economics advances one death at a time.
We are the workers, NOTHING happens without us. We are legion and the time of our exploitation will come to an end. Solidarity.
Dr. Wolff :
You are Very Special :
Tks., much appreciative.
Thank you, Professor and happy belated International Worker's Day, to everyone.
It is may day 2024 and ive just finished working for 11hrs, and only earning what essentially is company script. God bless our struggle.
None are more enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. Most people who are wage slaves are clueless.
happy may day
professor
Well done Professor. Good analysis.Good presentation.👏🌹💯
Happy May 1st. International Workers Day!🤘🏾
Thank you Prof! You're laying bare for Americans and its global neighbors the cold, grave realities abound. Please keep teaching - the world aporeciates and is learning with increasing interests to remedy their declining and tragic circumstances - be it economically, environmentally, politically and socially.
Jolly well told
As a new jobber in the tech industry, thank you for your effort and lectures. At the start of my working life i did not have the knowledge to interbalize the feelings i had against the system.
Thank you so much for bringing the truth and inspiration to the people. In Solidarity
Good evening from Denmark everyone 🇩🇰✌️❤️
I been listening to you my brother, you right about that it
RICHARD WOLFE FOR PRESIDENT!!!WE LOVE YOU PROFESSOR !!! EASILY ONE OF YOUR BIGGEST FANS…!!!!
What an incredible talk. A solid hour of pure unadulterated truth. Thank you for everything, Prof. Wolff. I first heard of you on The Michael Brooks Show. I will never forget him asking you to explain the labor theory of value while he was waiting for a guest to be ready. Your explanation was clear and concise and I was hooked on you. You have articulated ideas ive held for a long time and am now able to express clearly. Thanks again.
Unlike that turncoat Bernie, Dr Wolff has stayed strong, refused to sell out, kept his integrity for his entire life. What a great hero to the working class !
I appreciate your May Day message. Thank you!
Human ingenuity should belong to all Humans and not monopolized by a few. Technological innovations leading to productivity growth should be enjoyed by Humanity itself and not for the profit of a few. This is so obvious and that's why I love Proff. Wolff.
1 fresh hour with prof wolff, nice present for May 1st
Thank you for respecting the yellow vest movement. ✊💛
Comrade Wolff is smart and knows what’s what.
I hope these lectures are held at the Judson Memorial Church again soon.
I miss it too, the community feel. But the pandemic changed many things, and also time waits for no man, I mean he is in good health and sharp as a tack but at 82 years old I think he's earned the right to work from home ;o)
mind you I say that, look at Anthony Hopkins, he's older and strong as an ox.
Best wishes.
Hi Professor, The speech was great, and we got a good education. Thank you and Thanks!
Thank you as always, Dr. Wolff. There are people out here (perhaps a fairly small number) who are greatly benefiting from your ideas and will keep such ideas alive into future generations. We will not let capitalism obliterate socialism and worker ownership and control of our own lives. We will not let a complacent and uninformed working-class be sacrificed on the unholy alter of the capitalists' greed and private profit making which is what the capitalists want. They want a complacent, defeated and uninformed public. With your help we will not let that happen. "Workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose..."etc.
Hard working class deserves higher respect.
This episode seems to be putting me in a good mood. Power to the labor movement.
Happy first of May!
Union should be applied to subcontractors because they are workers too.
Tax money should be used to improve the living conditions of the majority =the ordinary people=the workers.
GREAT AS ALWAYS 👌👌👌👌👌👌👌
Excelent
thank you!
Outstanding
Thank you so much for continuing to teach such valuable information. Happy May Day
M8 I have to say- you've got Big Balls.
Yet another Tour de force analysis by Prof. Wolff. Super! Tnx
Always love your vcontent 💙
Class consciousness will be the catalyst for change.
One of your best yet 👏👏👏
Great man
May Day the true Labor Day around the world except in US😨
Inspiring talk young man
I love the may day presentation
The fact that the US is the only place where "May Day" is in Sep. always baffles me
In Canada as well and I'm sure you know why Labour Day is only a sale day.
Not a accident. The story behind the US "labor day" epitomizes the struggle of the worker.
Your the best...
Thank you. 🖖🏼
I think American can learn how China has combined socialism and capitalism and benefits its citizens. The simple important aspect is how a government can work for its people. The so-called American democracy has failed to do that when the political candidates have to spend millions or 100 millions to win elections.
happy fun day
Respect to Dr. Wolff, while he was attending universities, we were working those unionized industrial jobs. My coworkers were not noble philosophers. The bosses were engineers, the line workers couldn't think their way out of a hat. Tech is making work obsolete. AI, robotics, 3d printing could make capitalism obsolete upending the producer/consumer paradigm. There is a belief that work brings dignity and purpose. No money, no consumers, no need for marketing. There was always something for the serfs to do, working the fields, standing the assembly line, carrying a rifle. Most of them can't learn to code now or in the future. We may need a new Marx who can build his or her philosophy to include the end of fossil fuels, climate catastrophe and mass migration, and the rise of the machines.
A penny for the thought: When someone/something gains something, someone/something must lose something. When we suck up water from the ground, the ground loses water i.e. it becomes more hollow.
Made American great again in the year 3024
DIGITAL ID MUST BE REFUSED AT ALL COSTS.
Good, thanks.
Doctor Wolf at 1.75x really hits different.
Dr. Wolff, Can you explain Cloward/Piven's theory, and how it is applied in modern America at this present time?
The late Scottish miners leader, Mick Magahey, complained about having a generation of negotiators and not agitators. The agitators are back!
The professor dismissed Isr*hell war on Innocent Palestinians all together, unfortunately.
#BDS,#BDS,#BDS!!!
#USdefundIsr*hell, NOW !
I am starting from ground zero now because of the pandemic
❤❤❤
💯
Red Star Coffee was always better than Maxwell House, little known fact.
Just as the company board is always seeking to repeal the advantages won by a union Capitalism is always threatening and attempting to take back any social measures it once was forced to roll out. Oops, then you said the same. Yep, I'm a good student. :)
We gave yet to see a cooperative equally owning an enterprise..
❤
Unions need to support the student protests if they want fellow leaders and believers that workers are the foundation of democracy, not the oligarch class we have now that fed off of workers toil
Share this with status coup!!
Contact centres should unionize
what we need most is affordable housing and national healthcare for all. Unions only fight for their dues-paying members. we need better government not unions.
Few people know that May Day originated in the USA. 🎀
the history here can hopefully be discribed as "the events that lead to the 3rd American revolution" (the civil war is considered the 2nd in marxist terms)
Only problem is that over time, the combination of AI and robotics will make virtually all human labor obsolete, since humans will not be able to produce as rapidly and efficiently as capitalist employers will be able to do. In fact, once that point is reached, the very concepts of "employer" and "employee" will disappear. What will be the point of a capitalist hiring human workers when the latter become unnecessary? We can move in the direction of co-ops in the short term, but when "jobs" themselves are no longer needed, our options will vanish. We can entertain notions like UBIs, but who will provide them? It seems to me that over the course of history, capitalists have only valued workers to the extent they can be exploited for profit, and when that is no longer the case, the exploitable will become expendable.
Of course, all this applies to what might be called the "old" capitalist paradigm. But there is a new paradigm, a "financialized" one, that is well described by economist Michael Hudson.
According to Hudson: "Under finance capitalism, you make a profit by driving a company bankrupt and leaving it as a shell." Finance companies "borrow money and pay it to themselves as dividends."
This is what private equity funds and hedge funds have been doing. Privatization and financialization supplant the traditional notion of capitalism by subordinating tangible production to financialized gains. This type of capitalism functions differently than the economy dissected in Marx's KAPITAL. If anything, it's even more pernicious and predatory.
The end of the oil age and the fall of global industrial civilization within the next few decades will make AI and robotics not only obsolete, but a bitter joke relegated to the dustbin of history.
Thier is a case for invoking article 6 at United nations
Justice Brandeis,the Louisville Native,in whose honor the Uof L Law School was named ,observed many years ago,that "we can have large personal fortunes,or Democratic Institutions,but not both.Res Ipsa Loquitur
I guess he was unaware of Athens, as they had both, and then they had neither.
The working class have permanent income. By getting more leisure hours they can spend their time in a money spending to mind enjoying ways.
I was expecting to hear about the 35 trillion dollar debt incurred to stave off 2007, instead we didn't ever hear about what will happen to the debt.
AI improves productivity, which can fund specific taxes to deliver universal income to ALL WORKERS as is being done and practised in certain countries over and above strategies for better cooperative ideas.
I wouldn't hold my breath for the bosses to share their profits just because they don't have to pay employees.
$7.25/hour...Wow! Grab your Boots and Shovels: There remains much Bullcrap to remove from Economic Elite Street, USA.
Safety conditions ...........
There are robots taking over massage therapists’ jobs 😢
Equinox in NYC has them.
👍✨♥
The working class is now getting KARMA! The descendants of the slaves are still owed REPARATION!
If it wasn’t for Ⓐctive unions, we’d still be working 80hrs a week, kids would still be mining. NormⒶlize worker co-ops and Ⓐctive unions. Democratize🗳️the workplace☭.🏴🇺🇸
So Walmart instead of making Making $6,000,000,000 makes $5,000,000,000 wow it's gonna put them out of business.
Dear Professor Richard Wolff, who determines the exchange rate of the US dollar vis-a-vis other currencies? Who determines the inflation rate?
Hint: it ain't "the market"
But if we work less we will make less. Not able to pay the increase in prices.
Should workers know that they make junk that is designed to become obsolete?
Do economists know? Can they figure it out?
Where is the data on the annual depreciation of automobiles since Sputnik? There isn't even a variable for it in the Net Domestic Product equation.
Please explain the process involved in designing something that will last forever?
The pyramids are still around...but other than being a tourist attraction, they
had little practical use.
@@jgalt308 Silly strawman comeback.
Who said FOREVER? You are like those economists who start talking about titanium.
Do you know what a bathtub curve is or a passive backplane?
@@psikeyhackr6914 So you chose a stupid response to an obvious question?
Was the first spear or cutting tool the best possible tool, or simply the first one
applied for that purpose? Was this planned obsolescence?
Now, take this principle and apply it to every innovation. Now apply it to every improvement
of that innovation?
Now explain at what point did this planned obsolescence become a thing?
Also explain the economics of the price of durability?
Your questions are very impressive...and I'm sure that you can also explain their relevance...
and how they would apply to the questions here.
Your turn.
ChatGPT:
"The average useful life of an automobile in the United States is typically considered to be around 11-12 years, or about 150,000 miles."
Suppose that lifespan could have been doubled since 1960 without increasing prices by eliminating annual model changes? Only change what provided objective improvements. Like in real engineering not marketing psychology.
@@jgalt308
You mean saying FOREVER was not stupid?
Communist Commando says Hi to Richard and his team :)
Profit margins: whatever the market will bear!😂