Originally appeared on Truthout.org on Janurary 30th, 2012 in their Tax Issue

Richard Wolff joins host Mitch Jeserich on Letters and Politics for a primer on the Italian and Green Economic Crisis, as well as discuss the students of California beginning Occupations on campuses across the state.

Ako vladajuća klasa u SAD-u bude pametna, što većinom nije, ali ako bude, onda će upravo to pokušat učiniti – usmjeriti ovaj pokret na reformističke tračnice, učiniti neke promjene koje će ovaj sustav učiniti „manje nepravednim“, i to je ono što su učinili 30-ih godina prošlog stoljeća. Tada ste imali veoma snažan masovni pokret koji je izazivao kapitalizam, premda to nikada nisu tako postavili, ali koji je na kraju otišao u smjeru reformi umjesto u smjeru sistemske promjene.

Over the last 10 days, Harvard students twice stopped business as usual at this richest of all US private universities. An Occupy Harvard encampment of tents followed a large march of many hundreds through the campus protesting Harvard's complicity in the nation's extreme inequality of income and wealth. A week earlier some 70 students walked out in protest of Harvard's large lecture course in introductory economics. They too explained that they were acting in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movements.

Richard Wolff.

 

These Tuesday evenings will each begin with an update and analysis of major economic events of the last month and their contexts of longer-term economic trends shaping politics and society here and abroad. We will focus on the evolving global capitalist economic crisis and its consequences. We will examine topics such as

”Pystymme parempaan kuin kapitalismi”

Pääoman ylivaltaa vastustavat mielenosoitukset ovat levinneet jo Wall Streetiltä Eurooppaan. Amerikkalaisprofessori Richard D. Wolff uskoo, että tästä alkaa vasemmiston uusi nousu.

Syyskuun 17. päivänä alkanut Occupy Wall Street -tapahtuma on kerännyt New Yorkiin tuhansia ihmisiä, joille nykyinen talousjärjestelmä ei kelpaa.

”Tuuli on kääntynyt”, sanoo professori Richard D. Wolff. Hän vastaa puhelimeen kotonaan New Yorkin West Villagessa aamukahvia hörppien.

Talouselämän haastattelu on päivän ensimmäinen.

  In the below animation and audio presentation, Wolff explains what class is all about and applies that understanding to the foreclosure crisis of 2007–2011. He argues that class concerns the "way our society splits up the output [and] leaves those who get the profits in the position of deciding and figuring out what to do with them...

Richard Wolff was invited to speak at the Schonberger Peace and Social Justice Lecture at the University of Maine on October 20th, 2011. The recorded audio touches on many of the normal analyses with some additional attention to recent events.