A presentation followed by Q&A and discussion

We are now in Year #3 of the second major collapse of US capitalism in 75 years. The government's "recovery" has benefited banks and share-holders, not the millions of unemployed and foreclosed. Government regulators failed to foresee or prevent the crisis. Now even modest and hesitant government efforts to overcome the crisis are stalled or corrupted by capital's wealth and power in both parties.

A real solution for capitalism's crisis is not another set of regulations, laws, and promises to prevent future crises. They have never worked. We need instead to change the system at the base.

Change must be grounded inside the enterprises where people work; we must reorganize production from the bottom up. Workers must become their own boards of directors (democratization of the enterprise) and share their economic power with similarly organized surrounding communities (democratization of the economy). On that basis we can better pursue the traditional progressive goals of economic development for the benefit of all, equal access for all to basic education, health, cultural, and other social services, etc.

We can re- organize production so that tiny minorities of people (whether private corporate boards of directors selected by major corporate shareholders or state officials) no longer make all the key decisions (what, how and where to produce and how to dispose of the profits). That organization has blocked or undone social progress at every turn.