Strategies for Social Change
Teaching Capitalism’s Crisis
After teaching both graduate and undergraduate economics since 1969 at Yale, at the City University of New York, and, since 1973, at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, I retired at the end of 2008. The economic crisis that exploded across the second half of 2008 had suddenly created exciting new opportunities for Marxian critiques of capitalism to reach large audiences. As usual, the economics profession was far behind the flow of events; most economists continued to celebrate the private enterprises and markets that were so spectacularly imploding all around them.
Capitalism, Economy, and Religion: A Christian-Marxist Dialogue
Efforts to ally religion (and especially Christianity) with Marxism (and other sorts of socialism) built on their converging social criticisms as capitalism achieved global hegemony over the last two centuries. The specific objects of those criticisms included inequalities of wealth, inequalities of income, the fetishism of commodities, the idolatrous worship of material objects (and their accumulation) at the expense of spiritual values, and the calculating treatment of human beings as mere means to economic goals.Harvard's Finances: A Tale of Two Countries
Harvard just announced its charges for the 2010-2011 academic year: $51,000 per undergraduate. That covers tuition, fees, room and board. It does not cover such things as clothing, books and computers, school supplies, room furnishings, cleaning expenses, travel to and from Cambridge, MA, and entertainment. If we conservatively estimate these to cost another $9,000 on average, we reach a cost of $60,000 per academic year (September to April) for each Harvard undergraduate. In short, it now costs a quarter of a million dollars to get a Harvard BA degree.
Oregon Counters Massachusetts
The stunning win of a Republican novice in the Massachusetts Senate race to replace Ted Kennedy is well known. It is being interpreted as a sign of Obama's fading popularity and also as a sign that the US electorate wants more right-of-center policy. To show the flaw in thinking that right-wing answers to the economic crisis are the only popular option, consider the results of the January 26, 2010 referendum in Oregon. That referendum's 1.2 million voters decisively passed Measures 66 and 67 by margins of over 53 to 46.Taking Over the Enterprise
We are overdue for a new strategy. Labor and the Left are at low points in long declines. One cause has been adherence to a failed strategy. We need to acknowledge that reality and answer two linked questions. First, what part of getting into this situation was our own doing? Second, what changes in labor’s and the Left’s strategy could revive the two groups and rebuild their coalition into a powerful political force? To answer the first question: labor’s and the Left’s strategic attitude toward capitalism undermined both partners and their coalition.
Transitions between Economic Systems
The transition out of feudalism to capitalism in Europe, mostly from the 17th to the 19th centuries, took multiple forms. It was uneven as well, happening in different ways at different rates in different places. Marx studied that transition's various dimensions because they offered valuable lessons for the different transition he was interested in: out of capitalism to socialism and communism. One such lesson needs restatement now.Labor Movement?
The 2010 Statistical Abstract of the United States (and especially Tables 574 to 650), published by the US Census Bureau, provides many statistics that can update understanding of today's working class and possibilities of its movement. The Abstract counts 154 million people as members of the US labor force in 2008. Of these, 129 million were wage and salary earners (the rest were self-employed), and roughly 15-20 million held managerial or supervisory positions. The total working class rose dramatically from 83 million in 1970 to 154 million last year.Psychology and Economy Discussion at Brecht Forum
Published on December 15, 2009AUDIOThis disussion between Dr. Harriet Fraad and Professor Richard Wolff focuses on how the continued economic deterioration (credit crisis, rising food and energy prices, falling home prices, looming recession, fiscal crises of states and cities, etc.) is interacting with the psychological stresses and strains of US life today (isolation, loneliness, anxiety, depression, violence, child neglect, etc.). The discussion explores whether a potentially explosive convergence of economic and psychological crises is now under way.Economic Crisis and Political Alienation
On September 15, 2009, New York City's 3.2 million registered Democrats were eligible to vote in their Primary election. Only 11 percent of them voted. Excepting the mayoralty -- virtually conceded to Michael Bloomberg, a nominal Republican and real billionaire -- all important city posts were being decided since New Yorkers vote overwhelmingly Democratic. These include New York City Council seats, the controller, and the public advocate. The Council has real power over city life. The controller manages $82 billion in city workers' pension assets and is the off
The Obama Strategy: America’s New Role in the World Economy
Obama’s chief strategic goal, at home and abroad, is to manage a severe crisis in one kind of capitalism (private) by achieving a transition to another kind (state managed or state). Because the crisis of private capitalism inside the US is so serious and requires so many resources and so much focused policy attention, the global position of the US receives relatively less attention and a lower priority. The Obama strategy thus entails a retreat from the Reagan-through-Bush positions on the US role in the world (expressed by attacking them as “counter-productive”).
