d@w

I loved the reduction and simplification of our current system of capitalism and all of this rings so true… and explains the current extreme inequality on this earth… which by the way is killing us… and will kill the host as well eventually. We are currently at the point of not going anywhere… flat, no growth, malaise… something has to change.

David Greene: I noted the passion, too. He wanted to impress the point that anybody who works for a capitalist is getting, to use a professional economist’s term, “screwed.” As complex as the issues are, that’s the fundamental truth.

Although I definitely enjoyed this lecture, I was somewhat concerned about professor Wolff’s tone. I had no personal issue with it, but I am worried that the audience and viewers might mistake Wolff’s passion and simplification of these complex issues might be mistaken as aggression or condescension. I can only hope that this wasn’t the case, but the audience seemed somewhat unresponsive to Wolff’s commentary. Professor Wolff seemed more confrontational in this lecture than usual, as well, but perhaps that is just how I interpreted it.

Thank you Will

Joann Iriarte: The Russian communists’ interpretation of Marx led them to structure their revolutionary economy on the basis of state ownership and management of the means of production and on the elimination of markets in favor of centralized planning. The everyday lives of workers did not change. Instead of private capitalists issuing them orders, party commissars took their place. In effect, the system resembled what is referred to as “state capitalism”. Professor Wolff and other contemporary Marxists believe that the Russian system failed in the end because it did not alter the micro-economic conditions of the workplace. It did not represent economic democracy. Wolff credits the USSR’s achievement of rapid industrial growth that raised the country from a state of extreme poverty and low educational attainment to a fully developed and industrialized nation. Ultimately, however, its inordinate concentration of power in the hands of a centralized authority led to social and political abuses and inefficiencies that resulted in its collapse. Please correct me, Professor Wolff, if I have misrepresented your thinking in any way.

Professor Wolff,
It comes to my mind to ask, very poorly, what if the military industrial complex of the early 20th century had been inhibited in creating and developing the conflict between socialism/communisim and capitalism. You know, Us versus Them. The US vs USSR. It seems that much of the resources of the nacent communist revolution in Russia was used to build a strong military to defend itself rather than to build a strong socialist economy.
Please excuse my ignorance.
Thank You,
Joann

I really hope [email protected] is working towards simultaneous releases of the video and audio versions of the lectures. I’m not able to watch all these, or have them playing at home. But I ám able to download and listen to them while driving, biking, walking or inline skating. Thank you for all your work in any case.

I’ve either read or heard before, in his books, lectures, and speeches, everything Professor Wolff talks about in this lecture, but this is a particularly cogent encapsulation of his principal ideas. Well worth listening to. Some of what he spoke about related to financing co-ops went into greater detail than what I’ve heard him say elsewhere.