Marxism for the 21st Century: Capitalist Crisis, Socialist SolutionsInteractive workshop will raise issues and stimulate participatory discussion. Presentations will focus on three issues connecting the current capitalist crisis with key issues in Marxist thought. First presentation identifies the profit motive/wage system as structural features unique to capitalism, arguing that both must be abolished to end reoccurring capitalist crises. The second discusses the ecological crisis created by a constantly expanding capitalist system, creating alienation from nature, which can only be overcome through a life affirming socio-ecological regime: ecosocialism, characterized by freely associated workers controlling all aspects of a decommodified world society living in solidarity with each other and in harmony with nature. The third focuses on the political tactics followed by the Unites States “neo-left” in merging its aspirations with Barack Obama and the Democratic party, thereby strengthening and legitimating an illegitimate system while providing left cover for regressive policies. In contrast, Marx advocated for independent political action by workers and their own organizations, arguing against joining capitalist political parties.
Stages of Capitalism, Class Stratification, and State: Strategies for Labor Organizing and GovernanceThe present economic crisis is not merely a shadow of the Great Depression. It comes at a catastrophic juncture in the historical transition from the dominance of industrial capital to the dominance of finance capital. For that reason there will be no qualitative job rebound in traditional metropolitan centers. Underlying material transformations include globalization (e.g., transnational corporations evolving from metrocentric to polycentric), full commoditization of knowledge and knowledge power, increasing importance of professional classes (sellers of knowledge power), and the emergence of nouveaux metropolitan centers in the former periphery of imperialism (e.g., BRICs). These trends account for deindustrializaton of the old metropolitan centers, global decline in organized labor unionism, spread of depoliticized capitalist culture, and acceleration of social alienation.
Prerequisites for fundamental change include: overthrowing corporatized labor bureaucracies, creating workplace democracy, addressing the specific class interests of the professional classes, overcoming the aversion to public political discussion, breaking the monopoly of corporate media, and abolishing the two-party dictatorships of most capitalist states.
Marxismo para el siglo 21: crisis capitalista, soluciones socialistasInteractive workshop will raise issues and stimulate participatory discussion. Presentations will focus on three issues connecting the current capitalist crisis with key issues in Marxist thought. First presentation identifies the profit motive/wage system as structural features unique to capitalism, arguing that both must be abolished to end reoccurring capitalist crises. The second discusses the ecological crisis created by a constantly expanding capitalist system, creating alienation from nature, which can only be overcome through a life affirming socio-ecological regime: ecosocialism, characterized by freely associated workers controlling all aspects of a decommodified world society living in solidarity with each other and in harmony with nature. The third focuses on the political tactics followed by the Unites States “neo-left” in merging its aspirations with Barack Obama and the Democratic party, thereby strengthening and legitimating an illegitimate system while providing left cover for regressive policies. In contrast, Marx advocated for independent political action by workers and their own organizations, arguing against joining capitalist political parties.
Eslabones del capitalismo, estratificación de clase y estado: estrategias para organización y gobierno laboralThe present economic crisis is not merely a shadow of the Great Depression. It comes at a catastrophic juncture in the historical transition from the dominance of industrial capital to the dominance of finance capital. For that reason there will be no qualitative job rebound in traditional metropolitan centers. Underlying material transformations include globalization (e.g., transnational corporations evolving from metrocentric to polycentric), full commoditization of knowledge and knowledge power, increasing importance of professional classes (sellers of knowledge power), and the emergence of nouveaux metropolitan centers in the former periphery of imperialism (e.g., BRICs). These trends account for deindustrializaton of the old metropolitan centers, global decline in organized labor unionism, spread of depoliticized capitalist culture, and acceleration of social alienation.
Prerequisites for fundamental change include: overthrowing corporatized labor bureaucracies, creating workplace democracy, addressing the specific class interests of the professional classes, overcoming the aversion to public political discussion, breaking the monopoly of corporate media, and abolishing the two-party dictatorships of most capitalist states.