Global Capitalism: On Labor - A May Day 2024 Special [May 1st, 2024]

Рет қаралды 26,830

17 күн бұрын

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
Special messages to our audience: Please help sponsor Global Capitalism by becoming a monthly donor to Democracy at Work. Go to our website to learn more (www.democracyatwork.info/donate).
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Please find books published by Democracy At Work:
Richard Wolff’s
(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.
Find direct purchase links on our website ( www.democracyatwork.info/books ), or find them directly on Lulu (www.lulu.com/spotlight/democracyatwork )
Your support helps to produce and distribute these talks. Thank you.

Пікірлер: 220

@jacobclay4263 15 күн бұрын

Congratulations Charlie!

@rodrigocbermudez 15 күн бұрын

happy may day professor

@davidluckens3479 15 күн бұрын

Thanks yet again,Prof Wolff

@user-kk1vj7hy9e 15 күн бұрын

As a retired teacher who belonged to a union I greatly appreciate your May Day message. Thank you.

@davidluckens3479 15 күн бұрын

Yes

@M.M.Alam.Liberty 15 күн бұрын

Brave and Brilliant economist Dr. Wolff. Thanks for always giving your honest analysis 👍

@ShardDesu 15 күн бұрын

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.

@jgalt308 14 күн бұрын

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.

@mariarencher869 15 күн бұрын

Your teachings are wonderful, full of love and truth. May people wake up and take your advice to heart.

@renehermiz 15 күн бұрын

Usa empire is collapsing like all other EMPIRE'S IN HISTORY. A MESSAGE FROM DENMARK. Respect and understanding 🇩🇰✌️🇩🇰✌️

@jermainemyrn19 15 күн бұрын

I love Denmark. My friend just moved back to Denmark 😔

@ronstephen-wy4ib 11 күн бұрын

Denmark is my favourite Risk tile! 🫡

@Googlag 10 күн бұрын

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. (

@renehermiz 15 күн бұрын

Truth is always hard to hear but better to understand now than later. A message from Denmark. Thanks for this project

@voiceofchina1788 15 күн бұрын

Thank you both Prof. Wolff and Charles! Happy May Day!

@yendiserwaa3065 15 күн бұрын

Thank you Professor for your brilliance and your willingness to share such critical economic analysis With us!❤

@lucianfiul3035 15 күн бұрын

Happy May 1st. International Workers Day!🤘🏾

@mac4peace 15 күн бұрын

All work should be unionized. United We Bargain, Divided We Beg.

@geraldmantel4955 15 күн бұрын

In order to save the planet, the entire working class of the world needs to unite, IWW-style.

@vigorberg4798 14 күн бұрын

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.🌻

@jgalt308 14 күн бұрын

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.

@westernciviccapital3075 14 күн бұрын

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.

@dinnerwithfranklin2451 15 күн бұрын

Thank you, Professor and happy belated International Worker's Day, to everyone.

@Grahamglenns 11 күн бұрын

Hallelujah!!!! The daily jesus devotional has been a huge part of my transformation, God is good 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻was owning a loan of $47,000 to the bank for my son's brain surgery (David), Now I'm no longer in debt after I invested $8,000 and got my payout of m $270,500 every months,God bless Chloe Linda Henderson 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸..

@MickelSpinner 11 күн бұрын

Hello how do you make such monthly ?? I'm a born Christian and sometimes I feel so down 🤦 of myself because of low finance but I still believe in God.

@JoyceTatum-jy5vn 11 күн бұрын

Thanks to my co-worker (Alex) who suggested Ms Chloe Linda Henderson.

@Evansnathanty 11 күн бұрын

She's a licensed broker in the states 🇺🇸

@Evansnathanty 11 күн бұрын

After I raised up to 325k trading with her I bought a new House and a car here in the states 🇺🇸🇺🇸 also paid for my son's surgery (Oscar). Glory to God.shalom.

@kasandraiehelton 11 күн бұрын

Wow that's nice She makes you that much!! please is there a way to reach her services, I work 3 jobs and trying to pay off my debts for a while now!! Please help me.

@Marxist2 15 күн бұрын

Happy International Workers Day, everyone & thanks for spreading your wisdom, Prof. Wolff.

@jgalt308 14 күн бұрын

Economics advances one death at a time.

@sirdook2761 12 күн бұрын

We are the workers, NOTHING happens without us. We are legion and the time of our exploitation will come to an end. Solidarity.

@ChristopheCivry 15 күн бұрын

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..."

@renehermiz 15 күн бұрын

Good evening from Denmark everyone 🇩🇰✌️❤️

@vivalaleta 15 күн бұрын

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.

@JMoroccoMisterBoy 15 күн бұрын

Dr. Wolff : You are Very Special : Tks., much appreciative.

@michaelmundy5754 15 күн бұрын

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.

@davidluckens3479 15 күн бұрын

Jolly well told

@joshanderson7358 15 күн бұрын

Well done Professor. Good analysis.Good presentation.👏🌹💯

@paulyayala2645 15 күн бұрын

RICHARD WOLFE FOR PRESIDENT!!!WE LOVE YOU PROFESSOR !!! EASILY ONE OF YOUR BIGGEST FANS…!!!!

@randynilsson2466 14 күн бұрын

Thank you so much for bringing the truth and inspiration to the people. In Solidarity

@sardertanvirahmed4523 15 күн бұрын

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.

@OuaVang 15 күн бұрын

I been listening to you my brother, you right about that it

@westernciviccapital3075 14 күн бұрын

Thank you for respecting the yellow vest movement. ✊💛

@icetea4me 15 күн бұрын

I hope these lectures are held at the Judson Memorial Church again soon.

@Nine-Signs 15 күн бұрын

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.

@Denitakis 14 күн бұрын

I appreciate your May Day message. Thank you!

@doxy5709 14 күн бұрын

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.

@Rebekah347 14 күн бұрын

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 !

@7hx89 15 күн бұрын

Hard working class deserves higher respect.

@plum4620 15 күн бұрын

Comrade Wolff is smart and knows what’s what.

@SM-df9hm 15 күн бұрын

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.

@AppledelhiWalter 14 күн бұрын

1 fresh hour with prof wolff, nice present for May 1st

@andylu4721 14 күн бұрын

Hi Professor, The speech was great, and we got a good education. Thank you and Thanks!

@davidlong1111 15 күн бұрын

It is may day 2024 and ive just finished working for 11hrs, and only earning what essentially is company script. God bless our struggle.

@ronstephen-wy4ib 11 күн бұрын

None are more enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. Most people who are wage slaves are clueless.

@bat4130 14 күн бұрын

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.

@user-sz1rk1jj8j 14 күн бұрын

Always love your vcontent 💙

@probasket8159 15 күн бұрын

Excelent

@katariina.s 14 күн бұрын

Thank you so much for continuing to teach such valuable information. Happy May Day

@bigdog44pc 14 күн бұрын

This episode seems to be putting me in a good mood. Power to the labor movement.

@elenamraz957 15 күн бұрын

GREAT AS ALWAYS 👌👌👌👌👌👌👌

@GregoryJWalters 14 күн бұрын

Yet another Tour de force analysis by Prof. Wolff. Super! Tnx

@kdacuna 14 күн бұрын

One of your best yet 👏👏👏

@homapirzadeh3930 15 күн бұрын

May Day the true Labor Day around the world except in US😨

@martinjanecek4950 15 күн бұрын

thank you!

@MrTomherzog 12 күн бұрын

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.

@jamesbrown5896 15 күн бұрын

Outstanding

@marksmit8112 13 күн бұрын

Inspiring talk young man

@davepetrovich9851 14 күн бұрын

Class consciousness will be the catalyst for change.

@thomaskirkpatrick1134 14 күн бұрын

Great man

@jason8077 15 күн бұрын

The fact that the US is the only place where "May Day" is in Sep. always baffles me

@dinnerwithfranklin2451 15 күн бұрын

In Canada as well and I'm sure you know why Labour Day is only a sale day.

@jeffbrewer1580 10 күн бұрын

Not a accident. The story behind the US "labor day" epitomizes the struggle of the worker.

@Evilhunknextdoor 13 күн бұрын

I love the may day presentation

@peterkerruish8136 15 күн бұрын

M8 I have to say- you've got Big Balls.

@BestFitSquareChannel 14 күн бұрын

Thank you. 🖖🏼

@tomtuttle919 14 күн бұрын

Your the best...

@russmiller4801 8 күн бұрын

Fabulous presentation! From a retired veteran and devoted Republican..(in name only?..perhaps)

@basheersujeevanam6319 15 күн бұрын

Good, thanks.

@DragonYang01 15 күн бұрын

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.

@JamesWalker-ky5yr 14 күн бұрын

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.

@bernardheathaway9146 14 күн бұрын

❤❤❤

@dannydenison6253 14 күн бұрын

❤

@pleaseleavemealoneandgoheal 14 күн бұрын

💯

@westernciviccapital3075 14 күн бұрын

DIGITAL ID MUST BE REFUSED AT ALL COSTS.

@walidshabazz5193 15 күн бұрын

Dr. Wolff, Can you explain Cloward/Piven's theory, and how it is applied in modern America at this present time?

@thespacecowboy420 15 күн бұрын

happy fun day

@edmumdtan2278 15 күн бұрын

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.

@MohicanD 15 күн бұрын

The professor dismissed Isr*hell war on Innocent Palestinians all together, unfortunately. #BDS,#BDS,#BDS!!! #USdefundIsr*hell, NOW !

@user-rj2um3yj3s 15 күн бұрын

Made American great again in the year 3024

@norvillerodgersspeaks 12 күн бұрын

Doctor Wolf at 1.75x really hits different.

@vivalaleta 15 күн бұрын

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. :)

@geraldmantel4955 15 күн бұрын

Red Star Coffee was always better than Maxwell House, little known fact.

@meldanvers 14 күн бұрын

The late Scottish miners leader, Mick Magahey, complained about having a generation of negotiators and not agitators. The agitators are back!

@tomtuttle919 14 күн бұрын

I am starting from ground zero now because of the pandemic

@lethapaulhus5971 14 күн бұрын

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!!

@philipsagalla7943 14 күн бұрын

We gave yet to see a cooperative equally owning an enterprise..

@panda59043 14 күн бұрын

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.

@cheweperro 14 күн бұрын

Contact centres should unionize

@piku5637 15 күн бұрын

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☭.🏴🇺🇸

@paulkesler1744 14 күн бұрын

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.

@AlanDavidDoane 14 күн бұрын

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.

@josiahsuarez 15 күн бұрын

👍✨♥

@PiotrPerviakov 5 күн бұрын

Few people know that May Day originated in the USA. 🎀

@IndepIndepWALT 15 күн бұрын

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)

@jaswindersian3159 15 күн бұрын

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.

@dinnerwithfranklin2451 15 күн бұрын

I wouldn't hold my breath for the bosses to share their profits just because they don't have to pay employees.

@romeoraulvalles1365 15 күн бұрын

Dear Professor Richard Wolff, who determines the exchange rate of the US dollar vis-a-vis other currencies? Who determines the inflation rate?

@westernciviccapital3075 14 күн бұрын

Hint: it ain't "the market"

@user-jo7po5pw3t 14 күн бұрын

Thier is a case for invoking article 6 at United nations

@davidluckens3479 15 күн бұрын

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

@jgalt308 14 күн бұрын

I guess he was unaware of Athens, as they had both, and then they had neither.

@sonarbangla8711 14 күн бұрын

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.

@user-iw4bs6hs5l 15 күн бұрын

The working class have permanent income. By getting more leisure hours they can spend their time in a money spending to mind enjoying ways.

@JaneDoe-iz2jb 12 күн бұрын

The working class is now getting KARMA! The descendants of the slaves are still owed REPARATION!

@psikeyhackr6914 15 күн бұрын

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.

@jgalt308 14 күн бұрын

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.

@psikeyhackr6914 14 күн бұрын

@@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?

@jgalt308 14 күн бұрын

@@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.

@psikeyhackr6914 14 күн бұрын

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.

@psikeyhackr6914 14 күн бұрын

@@jgalt308 You mean saying FOREVER was not stupid?

@GregoryJWalters 14 күн бұрын

$7.25/hour...Wow! Grab your Boots and Shovels: There remains much Bullcrap to remove from Economic Elite Street, USA.

@lisamertz 15 күн бұрын

There are robots taking over massage therapists’ jobs 😢 Equinox in NYC has them.

@firozsunderji6940 15 күн бұрын

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Z56DoK10ns6UXas.html

@spanky7277 14 күн бұрын

Safety conditions ...........

@anthonyr.capellan3198 14 күн бұрын

America is headed for a situation similar to the French Revolution. I guarantee that a major socio-economic collapse will happen after the 2024 election, providing even more urgency and fuel for the working class to fight for the respect, dignity, and opportunity they have been denied for several decades. It will be painful and scary, but I hope we’ll emerge as a new nation truly dedicated to our founding values.

@jgalt308 14 күн бұрын

And what would those values be?