Weekly Roundup: October 27, 2021

A scary good pack of podcasts from Democracy at Work.

New this week: Economic Update, Anti-Capitalist Chronicles, All Things Co-op & Ask Prof Wolff...

Check out the latest content from Democracy at Work!

Economic Update: Cornel West on "Black Prophetic Fire"

On this week's show, Prof. Wolff presents updates on the strengths of socialism in German elections, British and US public opinion; and the US policies that are impoverishing its Puerto Rican colony. The second half of the show features an interview with Dr. Cornel West, with special attention to the contradictory realities of Harvard University, the public health failure of US policy toward Covid, the hostility toward Haiti and Haitians, and China.

Dr. Cornel West: "When you have a public life that is so debased, and degraded, and devalued that when there's a public threat, you're unable to provide an effective public response... It's clear that America is a colossal failure in terms of having a high quality, public life and therefore public response to public problems.”

Anti-Capitalist Chronicles: The Education of an Educator

In this episode of ACC, Prof. Harvey talks about what inspired and motivated him both personally and professionally. He quotes the poem "Burnt Norton" by T.S. Eliot.

Harvey: "In a way, it says that there is room for action. And we have to be brave enough to confront [it] because the partial ecstasy and the partial horror of all that is in front of us...For me, this was terribly important. Because, as I think you can see, these themes of time, and temporality of space, spaciality and place, the specificities of the rose garden, opening the door to the rose garden”

All Things Co-op: Lessons from Zuccotti - What Occupy Wall Street Taught Us

In this episode of All Things Co-op, Larry, Cinar, and Kevin talk about the lessons from occupy as we commemorate the 10 year anniversary of that revolutionary fall. They discuss what we should learn from that experience, what we owe to it, and how it still provides us crucial lessons on organizing in revolutionary times. It also forces us to reckon with the idealism of pure horizontalism, and the necessity of leadership in periods of struggle.

Larry: “It led to a whole bunch of movements in magazines, and ideologies, and newspapers, and a perspective on things that just didn't assume that there wasn't a back story that involved class. And that's where the co-ops come in, in my mind. A lot of organizations that support the co-op movements all have this idea that democracy should be built from the bottom up."

Ask Prof Wolff: Cooperation Jackson and Humboldt

A Patron of Economic Update asks: "What are your thoughts on the emerging cooperative ‘Cooperation Jackson’ and what’re some models or practices that socialist can advocate for on the municipal level. Thank you, again!" This is Professor Richard Wolff's video response.

Wolff: “If you believe in democracy, it's long overdue to replace the undemocratic, top-down, hierarchical enterprises we take for granted with the worker co-ops which are being looked at very seriously in Cooperation Jackson -Mississippi, Cooperation Humboldt -California, and other places that are similarly focused that way.”

Ask Prof Wolff: US Colonialism

A Patron of Economic Update asks: "Could you talk about how the U.S. still has colonies around the globe and how they have exploited them for over 100 years to the level of making them almost completely dependent on the US market? (i.e. Puerto Rico, USVI, Guam, etc.) And how, especially in PR, there is a movement to make these colonies a part of the Union so that the Democratic Party could benefit with extra seats in Congress and expand the US empire." This is Professor Richard Wolff's video response.

Wolff: “The United States replaced the formal empires that were revolted against after World War II, ending them for Britain, and France, and Belgium, and so on. The United States replaced formal colonies with informal colonies. It maneuvered Africa, Asia and Latin America the way it had once only done to Latin America, making these countries depend on capital investment from the United States… Informal colonialism, as these places have learned, can be as impoverishing as formal colonialism ever was.”