Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff

Episode: Capitalism's Other Side
Date: May 6, 2015

Overview:

This episode of “Economic Update” explores the origins and relevance of May Day as a workers' holiday, connects labor history to current economic struggles, analyzes the socioeconomic dimensions behind recent Baltimore protests, and examines systemic failings in both domestic and international contexts. In the second half, Professor Wolff interviews Turkish economist Professor Yahya Madra for an in-depth look at the complexities of Turkish capitalism, its political-economic contradictions, and the emerging movements for democracy and workplace cooperatives.

I. The Meaning and Lessons of May Day

00:05–08:35

• May Day Origins:

  • Began with the 1886 Chicago strike for the eight-hour workday, famous for its tragic police violence against strikers.
  • Globally commemorated as a day for working-class solidarity, labor rights, and social change.

• Historical Perspective:

  • Early struggles fought for better conditions within capitalism—higher wages, shorter hours, improved benefits.
  • Modern struggles are largely defensive: “Most working organizations... are fighting rather a different battle, a defensive battle, trying to limit the amount of benefits taken away." (A, 04:29)

• Call for Systemic Change:

  • Wolff critiques the strategy of incremental improvement within capitalism, arguing these gains are often eroded over time:

    “Maybe working people need to reassess over a hundred years of trying to get a better deal in capitalism, sometimes succeeding only to discover a decade later that the forces arrayed inside capitalism are strong enough to take back, to undo whatever benefits you got before.” (A, 06:00)

  • Advocates moving from reform to systemic change, encouraging worker ownership and self-management:

    “If you want to make sure that the economy serves working people, the majority, then you must put working people in charge of producing the goods and services we all need ... Enterprises should be owned and operated by the workers in them.” (A, 07:15)

II. The Crisis in Baltimore: Economics at the Heart

08:36–18:22

• Police Violence and Protests:

  • Baltimore’s unrest after the death of Freddie Gray is addressed, recognizing race and police brutality but urging focus on economic roots.

    “To focus on that is to miss something that I want to talk about that tends to go relatively much less attended to. I want to talk about the failure of our economic system.” (A, 10:14)

• Economic Devastation:

  • Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood statistics:
    • Over 50% adult unemployment
    • Median income $24,000 (below poverty line for a family of four)
    • A third of families in poverty
    • 25–33% of buildings vacant or abandoned

• Capital Flight and Abandonment:

  • The decline of Baltimore parallels Detroit; industries left for profit, leaving devastation behind with no intervention from private or public sectors.
  • Attempts at political change (including electing Black politicians) did not fix the systemic issues.

• Systemic Culprit:

  • Wolff’s diagnosis:

    “The capitalist system that governs Baltimore in reality is stronger than whatever it was that people fantasized could be a political change.” (A, 13:34)

• Prescriptive Takeaway:

  • If private sector fails to provide jobs, the public sector must step in.
  • Recurring theme: the system itself must change.

III. Lessons from Nepal’s Earthquake: Structural Vulnerability

18:24–21:38

• Disaster as an Economic Issue:

  • The suffering following Nepal’s earthquake is less about natural disaster and more about poverty, underdevelopment, and lack of infrastructure.

• International Neglect:

  • Rich nations did little to help Nepal prepare for natural disasters.
  • The real need is systemic change, not just charity:

    “The problem of Nepal isn’t an earthquake, is it? The problem of Nepal is the poverty and underdevelopment of that economy that puts them in such a vulnerable position.” (A, 19:51)

IV. Greek Crisis and Yanis Varoufakis

21:39–26:23

• Political and Media Focus:

  • Greece’s finance minister Yanis Varoufakis confronted by anarchist youth over perceived inaction against austerity.
  • Varoufakis’ measured response: he sympathized with their anger and reaffirmed commitment to resist austerity, promising not to use repression.

• Public Support:

  • “According to Bloomberg, 55% of randomly polled Greek citizens expressed their support for Yanis Varoufakis.” (A, 26:07)

• Implication:

  • More popular than leaders in creditor nations, reflecting support for anti-austerity policies.

V. Capitalism and Social Responsibility: The Bud Light Ad Fiasco

26:24–28:48

• Problematic Advertising Campaign:

  • Anheuser Busch’s “Up for Whatever” campaign (“The perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night”) criticized as socially irresponsible, especially amid a culture of widespread sexual harassment.

• Cynical Resource Allocation:

  • Wolff notes irony that large resources are spent to pressure women to drink more beer, not address real social needs:

    “Isn't it wonderful how efficient capitalism is in allocating resources?” (A, 27:31)

VI. Clarifying Cooperatives: Types and Distinctions

28:49–38:43

• Cooperative Models Explained:

  • Cooperative Ownership: e.g., community-owned utilities or worker-owned firms through pension funds, but may still be managed like capitalist businesses.
  • Cooperative Buying: e.g., food co-ops—joint purchasing for better prices.
  • Worker Cooperatives (Worker Self-Directed Enterprises):
    • Workers themselves collectively decide “what to produce, how to produce, where to produce and what to do with the profits.” (A, 36:48)
    • Distinct from other co-ops: focus is on democratic self-management, not just profit sharing or joint ownership.

• Central Argument:

  • Only true worker self-directed enterprises fundamentally alter the capitalist dynamic of workplace power.

VII. Interview with Professor Yahya Madra: Capitalism in Turkey

28:50–55:23

A. Turkey’s Political-Economic History

• From the Ottoman Empire to Modern Turkey:
  • Capitalism’s development featured “primitive accumulation” via expropriation during the Armenian and Assyrian genocides and population exchanges.
  • “The Turkish state for a while really did a lot of active work in creating a Turkish Muslim bourgeoisie which didn’t exist.” (B, 33:48)
• Secular State, Muslim Bourgeoisie:
  • Initial Turkish capitalism suppressed public expressions of Islam, resulting in unique dynamics between Muslim cultural identity and the capitalist state.

B. Rise of the AKP & Recent Decades

• Islamic Politics and the Working Class:

  • The AK Party (Erdogan’s party) capitalized on the discontented working class, aligning Islamic values with economic grievances—but redirected anger from capitalism toward the state instead of employers.

• Neoliberal Reforms and Foreign Capital:

  • Recurrent crises led to economic liberalization, financialization, and dependency on “hot money” (short-term volatile foreign investment).

• Persistent Structural Problems:

  • Turkey is energy-dependent (importing oil and gas), meaning growth deepens trade deficits and external vulnerability.
  • Environmental degradation surged as the state created domestic energy sources (mining, hydroelectric), which triggered grassroots ecological movements.

C. Recent Social and Political Crises

• Mass Protest Movements:

  • 2013’s Gezi Park uprising started as an ecological issue (protecting a park in Istanbul), then widened to broader economic and social discontent.

• Current Economic Context:

  • Economic stagnation: “There is increased precariousness. Unemployment has risen ... household indebtedness increases as you go with the lower levels of income.” (B, 44:33)
  • Capital flight and political turmoil, privatization, and ongoing cronyism hinder solutions.

D. Regional/Ethnic Contradictions: The Kurdish Question

• Kurdish Struggles and Peace Process:

  • Kurds spread across Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria have faced repression; Turkish state is in a fragile peace process with Kurdish forces after decades of conflict.
  • Kurdish movements in Turkey are “radically egalitarian, autonomous... with equal gender rights... as well as participatory structures and also workplace democracy.” (B, 50:02)

• Emergence of Progressive Political Alternatives:

  • The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) represents a broad coalition beyond Kurds—workers, women, and youth—advocating for:
    • Worker cooperatives (not as ideal, but as practical solution to unemployment)
    • 35-hour workweek
    • Political and economic democracy

• International (Western) Perspective:

  • Wolff contrasts US support for anti-democratic regimes with the missed opportunity to support genuinely democratic, progressive Islamic movements.

E. The Broader Lesson

• Capitalism’s Contradictions:
  • Economic growth, even when achieved, brings new crises if not paired with democratic accountability:

    “Capitalism is not the growth, that story about economic growth that capitalism touts once. It rarely actually does it in a proper way, but let's say sometimes it does. It is actually causing all sorts of problems unless it's democratically sort of controlled.” (B, 54:57)

  • Turkey and Brazil show that even “successful” capitalist growth deepens inequalities and spurs unrest.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “Maybe the time is to think seriously about labor and working people having a strategy summed up in the words change the system.” — Richard D. Wolff (06:46)
• “Baltimore is a screaming example [of economic failure]... The capitalist system that governs Baltimore in reality is stronger than whatever it was that people fantasized could be a political change.” — Richard D. Wolff (13:07)
• “If the private sector cannot provide the jobs, the public sector has to. Lord knows we have lots of needs.” — Richard D. Wolff (16:24)
• On Turkish capitalism: “The Turkish state for a while really did a lot of active work in creating a Turkish Muslim bourgeoisie which didn’t exist.” — Yahya Madra (33:48)
• On current Turkish progressive politics: “In the program there’s a lot of place for worker cooperatives… not as a kind of an ideal, but as a solution to problems of unemployment.” — Yahya Madra (52:29)
• “Capitalism is problematic even when it’s successful. That’s the message that probably what we can take from here.” — Yahya Madra (55:15)

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment/Topic | Timestamp | |-----------------------------------------------------------|-------------------| | Introduction & May Day | 00:05–08:35 | | Baltimore Economic Crisis | 08:36–18:22 | | Nepal Earthquake—Lessons Beyond Disaster | 18:24–21:38 | | Greece, Varoufakis & Austerity | 21:39–26:23 | | Bud Light Ad Campaign & Capitalist Responsibility | 26:24–28:48 | | Cooperatives: Definitions and Distinctions | 28:49–38:43 | | Interview: Turkey’s Capitalist Development (Madra) | 28:50–47:15 | | Ethnic, Regional Contradictions & Kurdish Question | 47:16–53:25 | | Closing Lessons & Global Relevance | 53:26–55:23 |

Tone & Language

The episode is classic Richard D. Wolff: clear, passionate, and unafraid to confront structural failures in capitalism. The dialogue with Professor Madra is engaging, scholarly, and explanatory, digging deep into the unique dynamics of Turkish society and economy while drawing parallels with global capitalist contradictions.

Summary Takeaways

• Labor movements must move beyond defensive battles for benefits within capitalism to fundamentally transforming how enterprises are owned and managed.
• Systemic economic failure, not just race and policing, underlies Baltimore's crisis.
• International incidents—like Nepal’s vulnerability and Greece’s economic hardship—underscore the consequences of persistent poverty and austerity.
• Worker cooperatives offer a practical model for democratizing workplaces, distinct from other forms of co-ops.
• Turkey serves as a case study of capitalism’s paradoxes: rapid growth accompanied by deepening inequalities, environmental crises, and new movements for authentic democracy and worker control.
• Even apparent capitalist success generates new contradictions without democratic oversight and control.