This talk was presented by Global Voices for Justice on October 5, 2016 in San Francisco, California. Prof. Wolff talks about worker coops and democratic decision-making in the workplace.
Everything Dr. Wolff said about worker cooperatives makes sense. I am going to start my own cooperative with a group of my friends. We will all pitch in to start a business, and pool our resources together.
Ace1000ks1975 Absolutely, although if you do start a worker co-op, then get some resources from Democracy at Work. Set up the correct legal standards for a worker co-op, so that you and your buddies don't just start another top down partnership like any other. Unless that is what you want to do.
Dr. Richard Wolff is riveting in this. Americans should embrace Worker Co-Opts / ESOPs -- after all it's healthy competition for a capitalist hierarchical system. Aren't we Americans in favor of choice and competition? We tell our children to share at a young age only to find out we do the total opposite when we're adults. He makes too much sense and what he is asking for isn't far-fetched. It's actually attainable. I have said this before, I'll say it again, Dr. Wolff is the Milton Friedman of the Left. Unique. Refreshing. Interesting.
I love Richard Wolff. He reminds me of my Uncle Walt, the man that took the time to show me mountains and rocks were more than one color when painting them. The people of Italy and Spain got it, but the IMF and World Bank are trying to take it away from them. I hope they fend it off with their "fucking" austerity cuts.
I once thought of opening a capitalist product to make my self rich!( That was once) And it changes today I am going to make a worker co-op and this will be my only aim in life!
hi Pat:Agreed on your assessments. FYI:Spent October in Spain where there is no functioning national government right now. Currently, everything is being dealt with regionally & locally! How cool\ free is that? PS :The erudite RW would be great running the treasury, etc. too bad we get banksters instead.
Richard Wolff is one of the few voices of reason to emerge in a sincere effort to salvage what remains of our republic. Cooperative enterprise is an important component to the kind of equality of opportunity he embraces. Elsewhere he has partly addressed one of the other powerful causes of inequality: monopoly privilege, and, particularly, monopoly landed privilege. Here is a rather remarkable statement made in 1909 by Winston Churchill, campaigning for his first seat in the House of Commons: "It is quite true that land monopoly is not the only monopoly which exists, but it is by far the greatest of monopolies - it is a perpetual monopoly, and it is the mother of all other forms of monopoly. It is quite true that unearned increments in land are not the only form of unearned or undeserved profit which individuals are able to secure; but it is the principal form of unearned increment which is derived from processes which are not merely not beneficial, but which are positively detrimental to the general public. "Land, which is a necessity of human existence, which is the original source of all wealth, which is strictly limited in extent, which is fixed in geographical position. Land, I say, differs from all other forms of property in these primary and fundamental conditions. "Nothing is more amusing than to watch the efforts of our monopolist opponents to prove that other forms of property and increment are exactly the same and are similar hl all respects to the unearned increment in land." Winston Churchill was at the time aligned with the Radical Liberals, led by Lloyd George. The Liberals tried but failed to dislodge the power of Britain's landed aristocracy. They had been awakened to this cause by an American -- Henry George. Yes. Let us do all we can to help people who share a desire to form a cooperative enterprise to do so. At the same time, let us do all we can to destroy the monopolization of land, natural resources, and land-like assets (two examples of which are the broadcast spectrum and take-off- and landing-slots at airports). Henry George's solution was then and remains apt today: require all who control nature to compensate society for the privilege. The amount owed is the potential annual rental value of whatever land is held. This is what constitutes real tax reform, the elimination of the redistribution of the rent of land from society to non-producing, monopolistic "rentier" interests. Edward J. Dodson, Director School of Cooperative Individualism www.cooperative-individualism.org
An excellent talk about an essential but from my understanding a little known alternative to top down ownership of our economies. In 1978 I worked on a Kibbutz in Israel; its worker- owner cooperatives were and still are very successful, showing what can be done where everyone gets a decent education, and a share in how their community's live and work for the benefit of everyone. We are so locked into the corrupt system of our capitalist now globalist way of life; such a radical shift is frightening. We would be so insecure and worry about powerful trade unionism and even communist take-overs! As a Brit I am ashamed to say I did not know of Corbyn's policy proposal that Richard spoke of. It certainly has not been a high priority policy spoken about in this pre-election campaign.
There is no "vs capitalist versions". Worker co-ops are capitalist in nature... socialist hacks just want to appropriate capitalist success and call it their own.
I'm not disputing that, it's just the terminology. Worker cooperatives are capitalist, not anti-capitalist (aka socialist). You can compare them economicly, but you compare two different ways of capitalism.
He could never get away with this talk in Red Texas. The doctors and insurance companies have this corral all closed up and "♪ never is herd a discouraging word♫" And the media is a military adjunct.♪" They castrate wise men down here. I know.
Dan V. , never say never...sooner or later avg folk will throw off their"masters"...that's the long arc of human society...city state....feudalism....capitalism...socialism...communism
i think working co-ops and socialist laws may be best in a resource based economy. but nevertheless this experiment is need NOW even in a capitalist system and at the end of this experiment hopefully we can transform into RBE cause it will win.
please folks listen closely to me you're right and wrong on here's and what u should do to put pressure on the establishment elitists 1. go to consolidated debt specialist company to deal with your debt. 2. go back to school find a major not many people specialize in. when you graduate or beforehand go at the employment office in the school ask help to connect you to an International Job Agency with benefits 3. never work under the books for any reason you will be caught. 4. look for Co-Op companies they are here and they exist. 5. research on personal grants or individual government grants. 6. look into tax liens and deeds and if you could get them without going to an auction legally. these steps if done on a massive scale will eventually put pressure on corporations to not play with people livelihoods because people are taking the economy in their own hands.
Capitalism went out the window long ago, Capitalism is suppose to work for both party's involved, those days are long gone, We live in a Feudalistic society now,
Digital Bullet The ownership class is just new lords and masters of the modern age. What is the difference between someone that lords over you by birthright, or by large amounts of money?
It is amazing that a professor with Diplomas from several prestigious Universities really believes that workers can run a firm or a factory with the complexity of modern times. Unbelievable. He would be made Dr. Honoris- Cause in Cuba or Venezuela. I wonder how come the Cuban regime hasn´t asked him to deliver conferences in Cuba about how bad capitalism is and how the Cuban workers can build up economic power to the level of that of the United States ...
And why oh why do reactionaries who insist on following the political ideology of believing in the supremacy of capital always use Venezuela and Cuba as examples of socialism failing like as if they are the only socialist countries [ever]!? Countries that comes to mind are Burkina Faso (highly successful under Thomas Sankara), Bolivia, even the World Bank of all institutions considered that Bolivia's economic progress under Evo Morales was "extraordinary". Cash transfers and social programs also reduced inequality. The measure of extreme poverty also fell from 38% to 18%, allowing Bolivia to pass Paraguay and shed its longtime status as south America's poorest nation. And Portugal. Venezuela is also a mixed economy, similar to Portugal under PM António Costa's socialist-communist coalition government, currently in their second term in office, six year's in power since 2015. Though unlike Venezuela, Portugal is doing very well. PM António Costa has also won praise at home and in Brussels (the de facto capital of the European Union) for combining fiscal discipline with successful measures to stimulate the economy, which has even grown faster than the EU average. And the problem with Venezuela (one of the world's largest exporters of oil and has the world's largest proven oil reserves at an estimated 296.5 billion barrels (20% of global reserves)) is its heavy reliance on oil which funds public programs by relying on the money it makes on oil. Then of course the price of oil collapsed, which meant a lot of its funds for these things did as well. So the root cause of Venezuela's financial struggles has to do with the sudden collapse of oil prices, a staple of capitalist markets, not socialism. Not to mention that US sanctions are wielded horrifically to cripple the economy and starve the people and that corporations are hoarding and hiding food from the people kulak-style; chaos, hunger and strife is inevitable when you're the target of American imperialism. And despite this economic chaos, the people of Venezuela still support the Bolivarian Revolution. In fact they probably support it more now because the US is starving and attacking them. And we can all see why the US is so interested in Venezuela. OIL!! And as for Cuba, right-wing anti-communists often want to have it both ways as well. On the one hand, they deny that the embargoes are a significant contributing factor to hardships in Cuba - arguing that the shortages are almost entirely caused by the flaws in Cuba's system. On the other hand, they insist that it's essential the embargoes stay in place. But why? If it really has no major effect on Cuba's economy, how could it be an important tool to pressure the Cuban government to meet US demands? And if it really isn't exacerbating the island's economic problems, why not prove that by normalizing trade relations?
I'm in love with Wolff but his story is always just short.... I.e. Oxfam 62% is framed just soooooo very wrong, and it's a major reason why what he's wanting to accomplish will never (nvr say nvr) happen (w/o conflict). Dear Doc Wolff stop suggesting to the world that the millionaires and billionaires to wealth and try telling the non-millionaires to spread their wealth with those below them. Start with the 62 in your audience now and see how that goes. Take their money now - before they leave or make it a prerequisite for attending one of your talks. Your objective I think I can sympathize with however the your presentation at this point is not compelling. British approach seems the most reasonable and should have been done to our banks and auto. Medical, Agg??? Energy???
