As a fan of Wolff, I'm very happy that this didn't end up being a takedown video.

@chase5177

3 жыл бұрын

if you see no ads then it is labelled already.

@mkepioneet

Жыл бұрын

Agreed. A lot of the "takedowns" are in bad faith

after years of dealing with the public he realized he has to teach everyone basic concepts that they can handle and accept first before getting into the deeper more uncomfortable truths about the system as a whole.. bernie did the same thing..

I'm actually kinda proud of myself for, albeit with great difficulty and rewatchs, following along, specially at the end... holly molly was that dense... I do need to read more theory though. All of us do, I think the left is in a period of going back to the drawing board. I feel is more a testament in how you presented and summarized the relevant parts of theory. You did an amazing job.

@themarxistproject

3 жыл бұрын

It's always really nice seeing comments like this. I'm glad you were able to make good use of the video! I fully understand and respect people's need for digestible content, but sometimes theory is difficult and requires struggle. It took me a long time to properly grasp the contents of the presentation in this video, so I would certainly not expect anyone to get it all in 20 minutes! And of course, my presentation is not without considerable flaws and limitations (hence why it's no substitute for the source material). I'm always reminded of a famous Marx quote: "There is no royal road to science, and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits." I think you're right: the left should go back to the drawing board and not "dread the fatiguing climb," as Marx put it.

@big_sea

Жыл бұрын

based

About time somebody said it, for a minute I thought I was the only one who bothered to read the man's books. I was introduced to wolff by Abby martin, the first book I bought was his collection of essays on the 2008 economic crisis and that sent me down the spiral of Marxism.

I think it doesn't take long to see that Wolff's videos and lectures has a different target audience, which mostly explains the disparities.

@gaberobison680

Жыл бұрын

He’s trying to convert the average American who doesn’t really have any idea of academic discussions

Hakim did an interview with him and I was super impressed. I've always enjoyed his content, but Hakim asked him about a lot of theory and boy does he know his stuff. And I think his application of it to actually existing socialist countries was very nuanced and insightful.

@robertstan298

3 жыл бұрын

That interview totally slipped by for me, guess I'll have to intentionally look it up now hehe. Thanks.

@Lambda_Ovine

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah... Hakim didn't like a lot of his answers. Like a lot of Marxists Leninists, anything that that deviates from previous interpretations of Marxisms from the 20th century leaves him greatly unsatisfied. Which is frustrating, but I like Hakim. He knows his stuff.

@davidfoust9767

3 жыл бұрын

@@Lambda_Ovine I didn't get that impression from Hakim during the interview. I don't think Hakim is a dogmatic ML. He has been fairly complementary to China, for example, which gets a lot of criticism from some MLs. Paul Morrin is ways criticizing them and saying they are imperialist.

@antediluvianatheist5262

2 ай бұрын

@@davidfoust9767 Yeah, but Paul Morrin is a 'maoist' AKA an ultra.

This was really informative. Would love to see see a Marxism After Marx: David Harvey sometime in the future!

@AudioPervert1

3 жыл бұрын

F**K this Marx celebrity cult worship. Karl Marx believed in production and surplus. Hence he too, like many many people assumed that infinite growth is possible on a finite planet. Pathetic these old white institutional men "many remain unaware" of the most obvious truths...

@robertstan298

3 жыл бұрын

@Ibrahim Awad I think you're arguing in too much good faith. That person's clearly not interested in challenging themselves, let alone being challenged and possibly just a troll. I'd say there's great irony in a "Extinction Rebelist" lecturing others on cults, but I know there's plenty of good spirited and well intentioned people in there too.

Being fellow readers of Marx, are you not worried about the volume of anti-communist rhetoric from ordinary citizens following the russo-ukrainian war, even though not a single communist is involved. The anger that a possible association with communism generates in otherwise rational people is truly. amazing.

Incredibly well done, much needed video. Ppl really do be calling the man a socdem after just watching 1 of his introductory videos

Excellent video. Thanks for taking the time to read Wolff and reveal his depth.

Please keep these videos coming !

Prof Wolff's views are not diminished by his theories. Whether one likes or hates his views on capitalism doesn't diminish the fact that our for of capitalism has failed the majority of the American people for the past 40yrs.

To quote C Derick Varn, there are two totally different Richard Wolffs: one exoteric and one esoteric. The two versions don’t have much in common.

would you do a video on Paul Cockshott?

super interesting, but the point around 16:30 about the "tendency for the equalization of profit rates" was kinda empirically disproven by Shaikh, Cottrel and others, wasn't it?

Fascinating video. Quick (and kind of unrelated) question: I’m about to start reading Capital (wish me luck!). What companion book(s) do you recommend I use to help better grasp the material?

@themarxistproject

3 жыл бұрын

David Harvey's companion is excellent. The other one I really liked was Ben Fine and Alfredo Saad-Filho's "Marx's Capital." Very accessible. I still come back to it regularly for reference.

@lladimirvenin7473

3 жыл бұрын

DO NOT read Harvey's companion ! In a month ( 23rd of August) Michael Heinrich's 'How to read Marx's Capital' will be coming out which will examine the ever importnat and complex beggining chapters of Capital. In the meantime , you could also order and read Heinrich's ' An introduction of the Three Volumes of Karl Marx's Capital' . Also I strongly reccommend that you watch/listen to his talk at Red May Tv - The Political Impact of Marx's From analysis kzread.info/dash/bejne/gZ2crsOAXdq-lpM.html

@rowanjohnson9892

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you both so much! I’ll keep all suggested literature in mind.

@sethread8978

3 жыл бұрын

@Shoshin and that’s a bad thing why? Different interpretations and readings of Das Kapital should always be critically welcomed. David Smith’s “Marx's Capital Illustrated” and Adam Booth & Rob Sewell’s “Understanding Marx’s Capital: A Reader’s Guide” are both great even though they bring Trotskyist (Cliffite and Grantist, respectively) influences that I don’t agree with into their readings.

@sethread8978

3 жыл бұрын

@Shoshin because Capital is incredibly dense and confusing if you don’t have a grasp of the classical economic theory preceding Marx’s analysis, so a reader’s guide, in my experience, makes Capital much easier to understand and apply to the modern day.

Thanks for this video. Dr. Wolff is very insightful but because his “niche” opinions on, say, past socialist projects, etc, this should discount his decades of political work as tireless or revisionist. He’s good for the left ultimately, and isolating him harms a lot more then it would help advance socialism, especially for many in the U.S.

@christiansmemefactory1513

3 жыл бұрын

i dont know what you mean by this at all tbh

@jcrass2361

3 жыл бұрын

@@christiansmemefactory1513 I’m just saying, maybe ML’s and other marxists try and blame this guy for saying shit about the USSR and then totally discount this guy, and it shows their own lazy ness, like Wolff is out there everyday trying to build up the left.

@noidontlikeu

3 жыл бұрын

@@novinceinhosic3531 he's also consistently supported Latin American socialist experiments too, I've never seen him talk smack about Venezuela or Cuba or Bolivia

@Yellow.1844

3 жыл бұрын

@@jcrass2361 twitter leftist are so pathetic, when another leftist does something in real life successfully they down him cuz hes not "good enough" for them while they just complain without doing anything

Thanks for starting right off with the meme. Top tier production quality.

Where do you find good reading notes on marxist epistemology. i need it for my exam

Yea I know some of these words Jk lol great video and stellar job at demonstrating how Wolff is much much, much more than KZread videos

As to determination, “self-determination” is the core of all determination and is also known as “participation”. So, in a competitive system, all people will participate and define themselves using competitive logic and principles and this logic is common to all competitions both economic and gaming. Retrospectively, all systems have positive and negative attributes or artifacts but it is the negative attributes that give cause to change the system. In capitalism (competitive economics, competitive self-determination), the negative artifacts are vanity, secrecy, coercion, corruption, anxiety, despair and chance. It is these artifacts that people will use to define themselves and guide their participation. This is unavoidable as these traits are self-referencing, self-evident and built into the competitive system by definition. This is why competitive self-determination (capitalism) will never become a good thing because it fosters and engenders negative outcomes by default. However, in this problem lies the answer and the solution. Cooperative self-determination is whereby people are allowed to participate with each other (i.e. solve problems) using open knowledge and democracy. With this, their participation will forego the incentives to vanity, secrecy, coercion etc. How a person will go about defining themselves will not be hindered by these competitive artifacts. This is the right path.

@falseprophet4927

Жыл бұрын

a positive sum world.

I am low key binging on this channel.. amazing work.

I think there's a use for co-ops in building dual power but they can't be the main target or even the main model with which to build the new society

That intro is the greatest thing I have ever seen

Thank You

Althusser is more about the “whole” as opposed to the (Hegelian) totality.

Great, now I am somewhat confused. (which all things considered is a good motivator)

algorithm

This analysis of Wolff, particularly his early books with Resnick, is worth seeing, despite the fact that the narrator, like so many leftist academics, becomes so mired in “ivory tower” verbiage that it seems more like an exercise in intellectual masturbation than a realistic attempt to clarify understanding of Marx. Just who is the audience being addressed here? If we want to immerse ourselves in scholastic esoterica, fine ---- there are plenty of forums for that. But why launch implicit criticisms of Wolff's online presentations for being inadequate to a full understanding of the man? I see Wolff’s online work as merely an attempt to make complex subjects more easily accessible to those without an academic grounding in economics (much less epistemology). If those presentations inevitably fall short in certain respects, should we blame the man or the "medium of exchange"? I would blame the latter; ergo, to implicitly take Wolff to task for not delving deeply into the more arcane aspects of Marxism seems rather pointless. It’s like expecting a two-hour documentary on Milton or Goethe to tell us everything we need to know. In other words, watching KZread videos can never be assumed to reveal everything an author has to say, about economics, philosophy, or anything else. That's why books exist in the first place ---- to fill in the gaps which lectures alone can't fill.

@themarxistproject

3 жыл бұрын

I fully agree actually. The point of this video was to shed light on what Wolff's published works have to offer. If it's a criticism of anything, it's the presumptuous reductions made of Wolff by various online viewers who are unfamiliar with the professor's academic work. The point was also precisely the one you made: to suggest that KZread is not a sufficient medium and Wolff's presence here has a rather different function from any of his more intensive publications.

Now that you are into this, I dare to suggest you to touch the discussion between Anwar Shaik on one side, and Baran, Sweezy and actually Wolff. Thanks for the videos !!!

I’m a card-carrying member of the co-op party

@ChicagoTurtle1

3 жыл бұрын

Co-op’s are just 1 step closer towards socialism. It’s also educational. Also beneficial to workers.

@neurodermatitis

3 жыл бұрын

@@ChicagoTurtle1 no lmao

Thanks for making this short video. I'm glad to see how Wolff, Resnick, et al, could erase the supposed gap between value and price that the Chicago School preaches to corrupt our youth with market fundamentalism. Wolff still speaks today about the reality of markets in a socialist system, but little about their nature. My impression is that markets would be more rational, humane, and directed in a welfare-based economy.

Can you add subtitles please?

Meme at the beginning is from a channel called “socialism done left”

Great video comrade! I want to ask you a question: will you do a video about mass repression/gulag/deportations In the USSR similar to the one you do for collectivisation? Are you planning to do similar videos also for China or other socialist countries?

@themarxistproject

3 жыл бұрын

Yes to both. I think the repressions in the USSR will come first as I'm already fairly familiar with the history there. The China videos will require extensive research so they'll take longer, but they will happen someday!

@leonardoquadrio9981

3 жыл бұрын

@@themarxistproject thank you! I'm really excited for this prospective!

@murataubakir8437

3 жыл бұрын

There was no repression. Gulags were just prison colonies where you could serve max 10 years. The average was 5. And the mortality rate was around 3%. A large portion of em was released every year

@leonardoquadrio9981

3 жыл бұрын

@@murataubakir8437 where can I find these informations?

@DoctorMooye

3 жыл бұрын

@@murataubakir8437 :)) Yeah, sure. I live in Romania - where they took the stalinist model, as the country was occupied by soviet forced until the late 50's early 60's and have family members who suffered under collectivisation ( beatings, blackmail, armed interventions) plus many accounts of second hand info. Plus the museums of old torture prisons - of which there were a lot. Plus documentaries and living people's accounts. Do not trust any data from the ex communist records. Most were tampered. In the same way one should not trust official CIA records about election interference in Latin America. There was massive political and religious repression, using every tool in the book -mass murder, deportation, forced labour, physical and psychological torture, etc. Anyone who says otherwise is in reality denial. That is akin to holocaust denial in my opinion. You might disagree about numbers and severity but to say there was no repression...that is just repeating regime propaganda, which most in communist Romania knew to be false anyway.

nice explanation !

How is the equalization of profit rates "imposed"? How do the competitive forces of the market "impose" the equalization of the profit rates? This is where Marx becomes like quicksand. It seems that there must be some sort of arbitrage between 2 or more markets where the entire system rests on that market which exploits its labor the most. This would have to be in the periphery where people are poorest and the ratio of person to machine (the organic composition of capital) is lowest.

Would love to see your take on MMT and how it compares to Marxs theory of money

@ldub8411

3 жыл бұрын

See Colin drumm

I need to contact mail id of the administrators of the marxist project.

@themarxistproject

3 жыл бұрын

Send us an email at themarxistproject@gmail.com!

Can you Please Please Please Please make a video on state capitalism?

Feed the algorithm

So, what you're saying is that the book is better?

@themarxistproject

3 жыл бұрын

Yes, the manga is better than the anime. Jk. The point is really that most people aren't familiar with Wolff as a Marxist academic and therefore falsely assume he has nothing more to offer beyond "co-ops good."

Keep your hands off Wolff: his contributions are essential to the current moment in history. He might be simplifying things but this is an essential aspect of his role as an organic intellectual to the working class. The only way forward for humanity is for the working class and more in general all oppressed people and all the 99% to be helped to understand how Marxism can be used as a tool of liberation or everything. For this Wolff has a pivotal role. Once peoples' minds have been opened to the analytical capabilities of Marxism it is much easier for people then to be able to embrace more and more complexity.

good video

Thank you for this, from a beginner.

👀👀

👍

But can we just get some co ops please

@SocialismForAll

3 жыл бұрын

People either buy out an existing business to convert it into a cooperative, or they start a new company from scratch. It's incredibly difficult and not that appealing a prospect for most working people. That's why there are only about 400 of them in the whole USA.

@robertstan298

3 жыл бұрын

Co-ops are at best, a way towards market socialism, which in turn, specifically markets, need to be abolished anyway. But in the meanwhile, totally, co-ops FTW.

@rileyemel9913

3 жыл бұрын

@@robertstan298 they are in my opinion, a good stepping stone until we can effectively plan an economy in a reliable way. One of the biggest problems in past leftism was the ability to plan an economy without major shortages. As more private companies use AI in their supply chain, it’s becoming apparent that if well used, public industries could do the same and reduce possibilities of human error and corruption in central planning. Many of these computer and AI systems are based on program a funded by the government at large universities, which means they were developed without the profit incentive many credit to these innovations. Just my take on how automation could be used though.

Who is to blame for the public's not being aware of Wolff's more academic work in past decades? The man is constantly out there, talking. Is he not allowed to talk about it?

@themarxistproject

3 жыл бұрын

That's a very good point. I suspect it's not an accident that the prof doesn't bring up his older works more often. Perhaps he thinks they are too niche and inaccessible to the audience he is going for. Perhaps he's strayed from his older positions. Hard to really say 🤷‍♂️

@christiansmemefactory1513

3 жыл бұрын

love your vids homes edit: both of yall actually

am i crazy or are wolff's epistemology and overedetermination basically reitaration of althusser's points?

@StephenSchleis

3 жыл бұрын

Wolff disagrees with Althusser on economic determinism in the last instance.

@StephenSchleis

3 жыл бұрын

But Althusser near the end of his life seemed to make the same conclusion. “The last instance never comes” Althusser said close to his death

@261guitar

3 жыл бұрын

@@StephenSchleis lonely hour of the last instance never comes. that's as early as "for marx". i mean i saw they said in the video that's pretty much althusserian talk on epistemology and overdetermination, but i was wondering where does if at all wolff move away from althusser.

The title "Rethinking Marxism" say it ALL.

To define what Marxism is one must say everything in the universe that is not Marxism, but to get the full story we need to go all the way back to Feudal Europe.

What is the difference between "reductionism" and "simplification"? Arguably, not much of a difference exists between the two terms. Simplifying concepts is a proven method of teaching. So yeah, Wolff, as do many other in many fields, utilize reductionist/simplified phrasing of concepts to teach it to those who have no formal education in philosophy and economics, or who are in the process of formalizing their education in those fields. Some leftists who criticize Wolff or anyone who uses what they call "reductionist" language seem to forget that they aren't really the target audience for much of Wolff's content. I still haven't made up my mind whether or not I think that those decrying Wolff as a reductionist are doing a disservice to the spread of leftists philosophy.

Wow I stopped watching right at the beginning because richard wolff clearly knows nothing! (Sarcasm obviously)

@RochusMr

3 жыл бұрын

And what do you know?

@animeis4eva

3 жыл бұрын

@@RochusMr I know how to click "Read more" on a youtube comment

In recent times, I’ve come to realize wolff is more of an anarchist. And his stance on the Karen Klown Konvoy was disappointing.

When did Marx ever advocate for workers cooperatives? Not that I can see.

@themarxistproject

Жыл бұрын

In Volume 3 of Capital, Chapter 27, pg. 571 (Penguin edition) “The cooperative factories run by workers themselves are, within the old form, the first examples of the emergence of a new form, even though they naturally reproduces in all cases, in their present organization, all the defects of the existing system, and must reproduce them. But the opposition between capital and labour is abolished here, even if at first only in the form that the workers in association become their own capitalist,i.e. they use the means of production to valorize their own labour. These factories show how, at a certain stage of development of the material forces of production, and of the social forms of production corresponding to them, a new mode of production develops and is formed out of the old. “

The problem with this kind of analysis, is that you are using the phrasing of the time without revising it to modern standards. Overdetermination is just that everything we do as individual people in society has to be looked at as part of a greater whole, because everything we do influences the things someone else is able to do. Using words like processes is incredibly distracting and not going to bring in people who aren't already theory nerds. Is some technical precision lost in translation? Possibly. Will people have to pause and rewind and take notes to understand the important idea? Nope. Wolff dumbs it down too much, but he speaks to large masses. I think we can find a middle ground of using plain language and still having a detailed discussion. I honestly couldn't get past 7 minutes, and I'm a motivated Marx sympathizing viewer. If your goal is to reach new people, phrase it like you would in a conversation with your friend instead of how you would when writing an essay for the final. If you are using more than 1 word you wouldn't normally use in a 4-5 minute span, you are covering too many topics at once. If your goal is just to add more theory that won't ever lead to anything, my apologies: carry on. Do not mistake me: I appreciate how much work went into researching and carefully writing this script. But that's the problem. It shows. And it requires the viewer be on that same level of interest to connect with. Peace and love, comrade.

@4imagesmore

3 жыл бұрын

Well said.

@themarxistproject

3 жыл бұрын

I think the choice of the term "process" is a careful and important one. Wolff and his colleagues are not simply attempting to convey the fluidity of social entities. It is not that things have a tendency to shift/change, because that still indicates some kind of "thing" with defined limits. The idea of "processes" is that things like class *are* the "flow/shift" itself, not an object following some trajectory. This is kind of difficult to communicate but it expresses (in my opinion) a radically different interpretation of the world around us. And like I said in the video, this perspective encourages us to view systems, not as interconnected points, but as overlapping flows, the intersections of which produce (and reproduce) distinct points within the system. Anyways, that is my reading, which may very well be wrong or misconstrued. As for your other point, I have no choice but to fully agree. The problem is that concision and thoroughness are nearly impossible to achieve simultaneously. It takes immense skills and knowledge of the topic at hand to convey the argument in a way that is fully accessible to any viewer while being true to the source material. All that to say: I'm not really an expert on anything, and am always looking to improve both my knowledge and my ability to communicate what I know. Thanks for your comment!!

*☭*

Based

I love Richard Wolff... he is great

Richard Wolff never prescribed a pure definition of what is Socialism. He's always been open to the various interpretations of Socialism. You're trying to peg Richard Wolff into one category of Marxism / Socialism when he himself has not placed a precise definition on the philosophy. By way of example, in a discussion with Paul Krugman his opening statement leaves Socialism open to discussion never pinning it to one meaning or structure. His opening statement begins at 5 minutes 55 seconds, however the entire discussion is well worth watching. kzread.info/dash/bejne/rGp-lbSIhpevgMY.html

@beribee2701

3 жыл бұрын

You are spot on. Also, he is willing to, even look at and the failings Marxs. This video is what I call dated and too academic (Academia likes some jazz artists. They go off into there world leaving the audience behind). Wolff (I believe) is trying to expose capitalism for what it is whilst promoting socialism as a better way to organise society. By simply democratising the work place. It's not the be all but, can be bought in ro play very quickly and have an great effect to shift away from the destruction that's happening at the moment.

@slipdishman8443

3 жыл бұрын

@@beribee2701 Thank you. Agreed that it's dated. Ricard Wolff often states his flexibility on the definition of socialism. The video I linked to is one that comes to mind wherein he argues the point rather thoroughly.

@storyls

2 жыл бұрын

The funny part is that much of the video from where the "socialism is when the government does stuff" comes from discusses the trouble of defining socialism and how it refers to a broad array of things.

Online leftists calling academic leftists radlibs and socdems? Yeah, what's new?

@kobemop

3 жыл бұрын

Eternal leftist infighting

socialism is so based

Algy

Do one on Hilferding, he debunked Bohm-Bawerk and the subjective theory of value. The subjective theory of value is wrong because labor as of right now is a commodity. Labor's use value comes from the fact that it adds use value to good x, good x previously would not have an exchange-value. Now it does as a result of there being a use-value. What this proves is that the use value of labor is separate from the exchange value of labor which is something that Bohm-Bawerk denies. Labor's use-value is that it adds a use-value to a good which can then reach a previously unattainable exchange value. The exchange value of stocks for example would be nothing if there was no use value, the exchange value here is held up by the use-value that it will produce profit (capital). The subjective theory of vale says that the use-value and the exchange value of labor are the same. They're not, there would be no exchange value of labor if commodity production (production for profit) was eliminated. If it was eliminated, labor would be paid in accordance to how much value it adds to a good whose use-value is now present.

@rdevil5330

3 жыл бұрын

I would also recommend doing a video on Marxism and Leninism and a revolution in an underdeveloped country (the popular government takes control of the commanding heights of the economy when it comes to the city as well as coops selling for profit at first while in the countryside, coops also sell for profit with both of them having the goal of a bridge between Capitalism and Socialism as well as primitive accumulation). This can then be used for rapid industrialization, bridging uneven development as well as investment in the proletariat through use of the deductible (development of roads, schools, hospitals, housing and the rest of the service sector), the last move should be rural industrialization.

@rdevil5330

3 жыл бұрын

The last point would be the world revolution and national-liberation, throwing a nation directly at it is dumb but there should be liberation of where the national identity has spread if they choose to identify with the like. It is necessary to have a world revolution though the first step would be liberating the nation and then preparing for the final revolution.

I think prof. Wolff’s attitude is delightfully pragmatic, an imperative when we consider any form of socialism now in 2021. The important base values of Marxism are as valid as i.e. the charter of human rights, but our society is vastly different to back when Marx (and others) made their observations. As the video also explains, any process depend on all the others (causality). Pure communism didn’t stand the test, because of what some economists call “the human factor”. We must try to integrate individual human psychology into this, because some of us will “fail” and some of us will “seek power” when measured against any social theory. When power is established (neoliberal right or socialist left), history shows that the narrative freezes up, and further dynamic adaptation stops. Individuals either strengthen their own power (get rich, get party roles) or feel left out (get poor, can’t influence). A fresh look on any form of socialism must take such “human factors” into consideration, and also learn how to communicate better with the electorate. Society is never static, and fails if it tries to remain static. Like now. Best of luck, nevertheless!

@fungulusmaximus

3 жыл бұрын

Pure communism has not been achieved man lmao.

@musiqtee

3 жыл бұрын

@@fungulusmaximus Yes, as I implied. A key point of failure in today’s communist states is the lack of democracy, or other means of holding key leaders responsible. An elite holds on to power, and vast groups of people are marginalised. This is also why i.e. socialism scares americans, but the whole problem evades the fact that some neoliberal right nations also drift towards fascism. Taking and holding power is very “human”, but realising accountability and losing said power is not.

@fungulusmaximus

3 жыл бұрын

@@musiqtee no. Communism has to be reached and is a long process. There are completely fair critiques of existing and past socialist governments, leaders, thinkers etc. You keep saying "communist state" which is implying you don't understand what communism means. A communist party run government does not a "communist state" make.

FeUdAlIsM

@cellonpot

3 жыл бұрын

Corporate feudalism

@keycuz

3 жыл бұрын

Domestication.

I stopped listening to Wolff as more and more of his content followed the theme of "types of socialism" when pointing to "not socialism." Like he's done concerning China, calling it "socialism with Chinese characteristics," despite it resembling nothing of the socialism that Mao et al wrote about. Or like the USSR under Stalin, which he explicitly rejected as being socialism in the video referenced at the beginning. This whole "types of socialism" argument he loves to fall back on is BS. The socialists in the movements/countries have different ideas on how to approach the issue of transitioning from their specific conditions towards a socialist future, but the difference is never really in the socialist future itself, because that's something they tend to agree on. So it's not "types of socialism," but more honestly and accurately, "taking the local conditions into account when building the movement towards socialism." Because that's what socialists do. There is no master plan for how anyone anywhere at any time can achieve socialism, because conditions are different everywhere at every time. Every time I hear Wolff's "types of socialism" nonsense, it pisses me off, because what he's really doing is changing the language to suit anti-socialists, which only gives them fodder to attack actual socialists who say "that's not socialism, and it's not what we advocate for." Something to note from the video: Wolff has authored a lot of books, which I'm told are more consistent with Marxism and the like...but most people will not ever read them. Most people won't watch his longer lectures explaining the concepts, but more will than will read his books. Most people who get exposure to Wolff will instead be exposed primarily to his shorter youtube videos, which is where the problem starts becoming obvious. It's the short, digestible content that people get, so when he talks about the USSR and China as "types of socialism," that's what people hear a prominent Marxist talk about, and that, as I mentioned, gives them fodder for their anti-socialist beliefs and arguments. All of that said, he's great at bringing worker cooperatives into the discussion (probably not so great at actually analyzing them, such as why Mondragon shifted towards more standard capitalist corporatism and what other cooperatives can learn from that), and I'm happy that he continues to do so. It's important work, especially for a Marxist, because it is one of the first steps towards normalizing democratic practices in the general populace, which are ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY for a socialist future, since socialism is worker democracy on the global scale. Another great movie. Thanks for making this content available/digestible.

The first 5 seconds of Prof. Wolff could totally be a meme.

@robertstan298

3 жыл бұрын

It is. It's a total intentional satire of the mainstream "understanding" of anything to the left Ronald Reagan.

The man can spit…

Wolff is just trying to make it simple for all the ignorant people in america. Please leave him alone. Don’t you think marx himself also talks in simplified terms when he’s with a bunch of ignorant people who don’t know how to think straight? Even the title of Wolff’s book, which you identify, indicates that.

Socialism can also be Anarchism, so...

The edit at the start has been edited to represent him falsely. Smearing someone is not a good start a critique with.

@themarxistproject

3 жыл бұрын

Rest assured this was a defense of Wolff, not a critique. And the opening clip was used sarcastically 🙃

@CripplingDuality

3 жыл бұрын

Pretty sure wolff is satirizing a common right wing take

@StephenSchleis

3 жыл бұрын

Not at all. It’s funny because he is talking about rightists.

Pipe dream not going to work

@michaelmappin1830

2 жыл бұрын

What's a pipe dream? Achieving an economic democracy? So you think we're going to have economic feudalism forever? Well that sure is depressing. LOL 😀

Co-ops can be created today by anybody.....but they are not for one simple reason....they do not work because leadership, inventiveness, hard work, and required capital are all missing from co-ops. Wolff mischaracterizes the entire business process by ignoring the idealist takes to create products, the costs, the capital it takes, the risks involved, and the basic fact that the average IQ is 100 in the population. Profit or capital gains are available to anybody who buys the stock of the public company. There is nothing preventing the "worker" from investing in the company and collecting their portion of the profits. I find Wolff very deceptive in his discussions as he fails to understand the reality of what it takes to create a company and run it successfully. Just look at North Korea and South Korea....MArxists verses Capitalists... Russia has a GDP less than Italy due to its history of Marxism. China makes junk, steals intellectual property, is committing mass murder daily , and controls its currency exchange rate to make things appear inexpensive. The only successful part of China was Hong Kong which was a Capitalist society and now it is on the road to destruction . Name a single global product produced by a Marxist society that has been successful. You can't because they don't exist.

What a load of nonsense.

To the gulag with you! 🤣🤣🤣

He's a revisionist and a reformist and I cannot believe you posted this. I am stunned. He's about the worst person I could think of for you to post. He's a LIBERAL and focuses on reform and economism and proposes working within the capitalist structure with his bullshit worker-co-op crap. Marxism is revolutionary, not "evolutionary" and Wolff is worse than a social democrat. Just NO. Those worker co-ops he drones about in Spain rely on the same shit as any other business model under capitalism. They outsource labor and exploit it just as any other capitalist enterprises do. Don't you believe his bullshit. Read Marx for YOURSELF. Nothing worse than a liberal claiming to be a Marxist----more harmful than direct assault from the so-called conservatives in a classical LIBERAL political economy.

Put it in layman's terms bozo

there is no marxism after marx. racists have tried with post-modernism and critical race theory, in a sense there is a 'good guy' and 'bad guy,' but this is at most a post-marxism, non-socialism, and even at that, an insult to the term marxism.

Your just babbling on about economics. Wolff gets it. We (I did not) do not. His has made capitalism clearer to me. After all your waffle, what is the solution? Wolff is suggesting really democratising the work place. What is your is yours. Without solutions academia is just waffling.

@themarxistproject

3 жыл бұрын

This video is a summary of some of Wolff's academic work and (to some extent) a defense of his positions. In fact, a good chunk of the video uses Wolff's arguments word by word. To your point about democratizing the work place: this is a worthwhile endeavor that surely breaks down some of the class-based distribution of labor. That being said, is it a complete solution? What do co-operatives do to move beyond market oriented distribution of commodities? And the organization of production on the basis of profit maximization? Cooperatives alone do not sufficiently remodel the process of capital accumulation. How would we address regional, local, racial, and other inequalities? It would undoubtedly require the presence of an administrarive central body (perhaps a federation of cooperatives) that could allocate resources based on need. This would likely run into an impasse if we are still operating in a market-based system that naturally reproduces inequalities across diverse spaces.

@beribee2701

3 жыл бұрын

@@themarxistproject indeed moving beyond a market economy is a very important question. Peter joseph 'zeitgeist' tries to do this. They in turn link to jacque Fresco 'Venus project' who talks of a resource based economy. Democracy as I'm sure your well aware is the only way to include all. But, that has a way of being taken over as we see time and time again. Nevertheless Richard W among with others like Yanis Varoufakis to name a few have some stepping stones. To try and get us to a Star Trek Generation like existence. or a more real Jacques Fresco nature based system. Where technology works for the 99% and not as is at present. Moving beyond market competitiveness is a great challenge as it really means getting into the lower depths of what we really are. To become what we need to be to remove the really unnecessary suffering, misery, killing and destruction which is taking place at present.

It's amazing to me that conservative values and Republican values get taken down by KZread but they'll leave crap like this up

@anthonysosa9299

3 жыл бұрын

You mean western evangelical Christian values. Also I know for a fact that you couldn’t understand a word he said because I’d you did you would probably be a Marxist.

@megathai

2 жыл бұрын

You sound so butthurt, last time I checked who got taken down? Crowther, PJW, etc are still here.

If you are late to work in Soviet Russia, you are arrested for underperforming. If you are early to work, you are arrested for trying to overperform your comrades. If you are on time for work, you are arrested for possessing a foreign-made watch.

wolff is a bit of a proto-marxist, and that is better than being a leninist or a maoist, as lenin and mao really perverted and destroyed the essence of marxism. determinism isn't going to get you anywhere nowadays, though. what we really need is quantum marxism.