Trying to manage a capitalist system is not a socialist programme. It's a reformist programme. David Harvey should know that. He should know the potential risks of reform when those reforms do not take a transitional approach. I'm intrigued to know how well "managing" capitalism worked for Venezuela. The only way to save humanity from climate destruction, the only way to stop war and poverty and inequality is a complete break from capitalism. There is no "managing" this system, we have been trying for decades to do just that and while yes it has soften some of the damage it has also helped prolong the death agony of capitalism. We need to stop looking for shortcuts and making the case for socialism. Not just against capitalism.
It's despair, a product of the academic "Marxist" mindset disconnected from the organization and movement of the working class. socialistrevolution.org/david-harvey-against-revolution-the-bankruptcy-of-academic-marxism/
THAT IS BECAUSE THE MONEY(WITH NO UNION OR WORKERS LIVING WAGE) ONLY GOES "UP" WITH BARELY ANY SCRAPS FOR US, WHICH CAUSES A STRANGLED ECONOMY AND WITH WEALTH HOARDING WILL ALWAYS IMPLODE! WHEN FOLKS HAVE TO WORK 3 JOBS OR MORE TO HAVE RENT, FOOD, UTILITIES...AND PRAYERS NO ONE GETS TERMINALLY ILL! MANY WORKING FAMILIES THAT ARE HOMELESS ARE HAVING THIS CAPITAL LESSON... SOME WERE ONCE MIDDLE-CLASS!
Hi Mr. Harvey, I am from your supporters from Iran, during this month we have a very huge protests against the government and the government violated the protests and more than 300 hundred people shoot to dead in less than a week. also it is against the neo liberalism as Iran 's economy have huge problems and there are huge corruption in the government also in the last year working class experienced near 40% inflation and -4% GDP growth. but you missed our protesters and I am not feel good about it. It is important to mention that also Iran 's government is against US and it looks like a anti-imperialism government but it isn't a left government it is totally liberal government, as it privatize lots of industries and there is huge gap between social classes.
Amin Amanat - I hear you, from Scotland 🏴. I’m sure all people know there is something very wrong, and nearly all people know it is not the ordinary people that are the cause. I can’t talk to my family, because they have not yet seen the problem as I do, they are too tied up in their every day lives, in addition they think I am a mad pessimist and should lighten up! But I am heartened to see messages from people all over the world like you, especially from Iran, since we are not allowed to hear very much from your country on Main Stream Media. I think “we the people of the world” are organising in ways that have not been possible before, but it’s not going to be easy to break through what we in the west call “the glass ceiling” (a place that we can see but can’t get to). I don’t think Professor Harvey has forgotten you, (at least not intentionally), I’m sure he will include your sacrifices in his next mention. Your sacrifices have been heavy and heartbreaking. Peace and light to you and your family. ✌️✊🏼🌅
Amin Amanat - Two imperialist governments fighting for resources. Trump just admitted that the wars in the Middle East was only about the oil! I think he did this because it’s easier for them to tell the real reason, than try to tell lies. To put it another way, once the people know it’s about resources that changes their/our thinking, The west needs the resources, and the West will fight for the resources. Except that most of us don’t want to fight for anything we want to share. But this is what Professor Harvey is saying, we can’t share just now because the system would collapse and 80% of us would starve! What a terrible state of affairs.! I try to think of a way out of this, and the only way I can think of is as Professor Wolff says is to try to create a secondary economy amongst ourselves, he suggests co/operatives, but even that is incredibly hard to get right, but I do think it could be a way out for us all, charities by nature do not really able to solve the problem, they only alleviate the problem to the extent that they have the money. And in the West charities have become “BIG business”. Anyway we have to at least keep trying. ✌️✊🏼🌅
sad thing is, there's no escape from this for Iran, if the protesters were to succeed then all the enemies of the (hypothetically) dismantled islamic republic would dive in in the momentary political opening and carve out the productive sectors of the society for themselves, bringing even more neo-turbo-liberism with its privatization to the public iranian sphere. I can already see PM Johnson asking for reparations for what damage NIOC did to the British Petroleum Company, for instance
Impre Sauro - I would say the neo-turbo-Liberisim as you call it will always fill the gap in the end, unless we can prove to them that they are heading us all off a cliff! There is one thing that has not been discussed here, but is now being discussed elsewhere and that is the rise of sociopaths and psychopaths in corporations and governments. In centuries gone by, they couldn’t gather the way they do now. So because of modern communication and the creation of an environment that applauds and mistakes their cruelty for making and taking the difficult decisions, they have become concentrated and so has their power. It’s a modern day phenomenon, but now being looked at as one of the major factors of the psychopathic nature of the corporate organisations and governments. A more recent study done in 2019, but I couldn’t find the full paper. But this link explains it more. www2.le.ac.uk/offices/press/press-releases/2017/june/corporations-could-be-destroyed-by-psychopathic-leadership-study-suggests
@@OMGAnotherday i don't wanna sound reactionary 'cause i claim I ain't so, but there's a built-in poison to the Enlightenment project, while there was a time when a crippled, a leper, an idiot were but poor souls that landed on a unlucky body, and even the Pope and the Emperor knew what human pain was (and so they administered God's or the Law's punishment with that universal weight in mind) now that life became analyzed-studied-and-compartmentalized, and everything is looked at with that lens, aren't the poor and the last but the final, unnecessary bastion of an old, imperfect society that had not its methods perfected as we do now? Do you not breathe this air of cynicism as above so below? I don't find it too recent, at least here in Europe. I'll be brutal, jews pogroms were a european reality in germany even in the 12th century, but 80 years ago we achieved the means to architect a technical-logistical way to definitely eliminate the problem, the elites just said to the cultured germans (they weren't ignorant people, they understood the modern metaphor) that the last of the land, the people at the fringe were a cancer in the body-nation, and they themselves were the best surgeons to operate that body. Weren't they right? As bleak and grotesque this statement is, no one can argue that the nazi extermination camps were a failure. So, why wouldn't you sacrifice the unnecessary in favour of your own profit? Or if not for profit, do it in the name of the people, doesn't make a difference, might be that they're one and the same. Why wouldn't you choose that? It's just a matter of dosage, the poison is already inside, but this toxic stage has gone on for at least a century and it might accelerate at some point, as it did in the past (is eco-fascism so hard to imagine in the wake of a climatic catastrophe?)
Such a way to end the year. It is now, more than ever, that we need to look for new ways of organization. As Fisher ominously wrote: 'The long, dark night of the end of history has to be grasped as an enourmous opportuniy. The very oppressive pervasiveness of capitalist realism means that even glimmers of alternative political an economic posibilities can have a disproportionately great effect. The tiniest event can tear a hole in the grey curtain of reaction which has marked the horizonts of possibility under capitalist realism. From a situation in which nothing can happen, suddenly anything is possible again'.
As long as we think/feel life is about consumption and owning/hoarding/stockpiling no system can work... power wins...money becomes power. We all participate at the level of our belief that consumption/owning/stockpiling is the purpose of our lives and the source of our security. We utterly misunderstand the deeper source of security... peace and cooperation....
Thank you! You put into perspective things that I've been thinking about for some time. I love your differentiation of 'mobilization' vs 'organization'. In addition, your explanation of compounding growth is extremely informative. Fantastic episode!
At or around 36:00 Professor Harvey making the point that we have to keep capital flowing (we can't totally destroy the system) - Marx, or at least Lenin, argued that the footprints of the old society can not be vanquished immediately, they are too deeply ingrained and implanted, so, there has to be a gradual transitioning away from the old system ... but the bourgeoisie must be crushed, their resistance and all of their attempts at counter-revolution must be thwarted in order to have an effective and working "dictatorship of the proletariat." Class antagonisms are the deep divide that has kept Mankind from taking the steps forward that it should have taken by this point in time ... class differences must be erased and their damage assuaged.
Actually, Lenin implemented this concept in practice. After Revolution and Civil War Sonvarkom (first Soviet government) implemented capitalist economy. It was called NEP and it lasted from 1921 to 1928 at which time planned economy was fully established.
Good video, but I don't agree with his assertion that capital needs to be prevented from collapsing because it's "to big to fail". The destruction of capital does not mean the destruction of politics; images of chaotic anarchy (starvation, etc.) being the defining characteristic of the destruction of capital are essentially fantasy. Not to say that a transition of that magnitude would be entirely victimless, but that in itself does not preclude its desirability. Capital SHOULD be destroyed, even if it DOES engender some degree of hardship; unfortunately, it seems that even many of capitalism's greatest critics are susceptible to the old truism that "it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism."
You haven't reached the step and stage/layer and level of left-wing-proper marxist/marxian-orientated/persuaded/leaning socialism, which precedes marxist/marxian-defined communism. Most protesters are NON-PHYSICALLY VIOLENT (CRITICAL POINT OBFUSCATED by anyone and everyone) advocates and activists/solidarists and strugglers/parliamentarians and paramilitants who hold centre-left views and values at worse (depends on whether centrist or rightist and how dogmatic you are as a centrist or rightist) or centre-left to left-wing views and values at best (depends on whether you're centrist or rightist and how dogmatic you are as a centrist or rightist)
@@OMGAnotherday It is possible if everyone takes over (expropriates) their own workplace so they can organize everything themselves, and there are a lot of workplaces that should not exist in the first place anyway. Once people no longer have to pay their debts and obey the cops, they can go out to the streets looking for what they can do for the first time in their lives, instead of thinking what they should demand from the blacksuits. And there is historical precedence for this, if you look at the Spanish civil war for example. Even urban populations could make things running without anyone forcing them or telling them what to do. Then the question was not 'who is qualified for the job?' but rather 'who else can we qualify for the job?' As long as people can demonstrate to each other that they have no intention of exploiting anyone, basic trust and solidarity will surely come back, and with it, the desire to contribute. Without capital, production would actually boom and not come to a screeching halt, because there would be no more economic pressure to maintain scarcity and unemployment. Nobody would have to jealously guard their knowledge or position either. The one who is phantasizing about doomsday scenarios is David Harvey I'm afraid.
Excellent analysis of the current status quo. Harvey points out the greatest dilemma facing humanity is coping with an unsustainable capitalist system tethered to most of the world's population causing specific circumstances rendering it too big to fail without wiping out 80% of civilization.
@@tapptom doing anything in regards to what? I feel more like Germany is the only state in the EU stopping useful decisions like a transparency regulation for lobbyism. But I'll agree, Germans are way too lazy to get up their bottoms. And the social democracy is still in a bit better shape than in France, I guess.
@@ConstantinKlose-sj4mb No, it's a matter of culture, Germans are infected with hardcore Fukuyamism in and out. There's a belief that permeates the German society that this is how it is and we have to unify around capitalism and neoliberalism as the days of former struggles are over, this is the 'natural expression of a perfect society'. It helps that Germany is in central Europe and has a strong economy and so it can shield a lot of its citizenry from the worst of neo-liberalism.
天龍 production of goods. Germany has been beaten down by those halocaust survivors to the point that they will be guilty forever for this sham....endless reparations and it continues
@@tapptom What the hell are you on about, are you seriously suggesting that Germany can't become more radicalised because they are spooked by Israelis? That's not a serious analysis.
The statement that the distribution of food is a consequence of the flow of capital is a non sequitur and a sign of magical thinking. Every step in the production, processing, transportation and retailing of commodities is done by people. If capital would lose its valor and social significance, nothing would stop people from continuing production and distribution on their own terms (except themselves maybe and liberal naysayers).
We all have moments when we think to ourselves 'capitalism is too big to fail'. It's important to remember; 'there is no capitalism without workers labour', and we're waiting on the workers of the world to 'realise' their potential to organise and effect the necessary change.
The solution to financial inequality would be to revert to the time when everybody was either a farmer, a tradesman, or a merchant. It was the industrial revolution, plus now especially high-tech, which inevitably produced inequality of income and wealth, by greatly increasing the productivity of highly talented people, while doing very little to increase the productivity of the lesser talented.
He left Colombia out of this picture; their national civic strike since November 21, 2019 and is still holding out strong as I write... Dec 22 will be massive again!
We can't allow it to fail? Are you kidding? It's not like we can stop it. What we need to do is to try to prepare as best we can. It's essentially a massive natural disaster that we know is coming. The end is nigh, and all that sort of thing, yadda yadda. But reforming capital to wean ourselves off dependence? Ain't gonna happen, Magoo.
Albeit that the problems facing the 21st century seems insurmountable, the solution is relatively simple and that lies in giving money a use by date/shelf life. Which implies gold is not a good backing for money (that causes hoarding it) instead of spending it asap because money that has a limited lifespan looses value every second. When was mankind sold the idea that money lasts for ever ? When they backed it by gold ! But all man made things wear out or get used up... but NOT so gold ! However when cereal grains backs money as Scripture suggests, we'll enter reality. This is the new model for a sustainable socio-economic-legal system.
If an automobile approaches a corner at a far higher speed than would allow it to negotiate it safely, we can conclude there will be an accident ; same with this unreal economy going much too fast for its own safety, it's only a matter of time.... But stretching our imaginations further than normal might bring us to the point of realizing that there HAS to be a solution but we're simply ignoring or not noticing it. I want to suggest that Dr Rudolf Steiner solved that problem with his Threefold Social Order & Commonwealth. What is the point of creating a biosphere for humans to live on without also providing a fair and equitable model to steer by ?That is if you believe in God & all that. If not, welcome to your worst nightmare come true....
@@mgg7756 Let me say, after 37 years of studying his stuff, sacrificing everything, it occurred to me that I really wanted to know HOW a true system would look like ...being dogged by a gut feeling from very long ago that the present system is that car or the Titanic but what's the point in repeating the same mistake over and over....living meaningless lives ? I have no such grand hopes, only moving a small stone out of my fellow traveler's way as I expect from them. But I'd hate to bore anybody, but this is a fascinating subject once you start getting that this is NOT a glib solution but tailor made one based on how a healthy human body functions, again based on Scripture Luke 17:21 "The Kingdom of God is inside you" and to top all that, it's a perfect explanation for the French Revolution's Liberty, Equality & Fraternity
Why is it anti-capitalism? Why not post-capitalism? As capitalist political-legal-economic institutions (the public-sector and the private-sector) presents hard science (science, technology, engineering) solutions (that ought be perfected and personalised/perfected by way of personalising to any and all/each and every role (s) and responsibilities of a job/career in both work and labor)
I think the final message is a bit confusing and could be misread. "Capitalism is too big to fail" does not necessary means we should not fight its power, on the contrary, we should fight back whenever we can. Capitalism itself is moving towards self-destruction, without external force(some belief other than Capitalism), it will fail, very fast! But if we just roll with it, at the end of Capitalism, there is no utopia, but void and chaos. We need to have an organized "tactical withdrawal" from Capitalism: discipline Capitalism so that it is not collapsing, at the same time, build another type of social relationship independent from Capitalism, so when it fails, we can absorb refugees from collapsed Capitalism. Nobody like Capitalism(expect the 1%), but don't expect a miracle after Capitalism, if we didn't build that in the first place.
But that is exactly the issue, capitalism doesn't allow any parallel development of alternatives. The moment you so much as touch the market, everything you've done and fought for has been co-opted and "recuperated." And if you do a non-violent walkout, they'll just send the troops out and they will discipline you, not the other way around. And how long have we been hearing about the end of capitalism? 200 years? And it's just around the corner? Word? You are ignoring the fact that capitalism has demonstrated it's ability time and time again to mutate and displace it's limits whenever a breaking point has been reached. First came monopolies (by the beginning of the 20th century), then cross-sector conglomerates (WW period), then capital went inter- and supranational (neo liberalism), and now we are in the process of a global consolidation of power (big mergers and acqusition). What comes after won't matter, because capitalists will have become all-powerful arbiters of life and death.
@@billyoldman9209 I agree on most part, but not so on the part about "send the troops". That really depends on the history context and regional market of "the troops". Capitalist has almost unlimited power on extract commodities from market, but they are also limited by the market, which means there has to have a market of "free troops" for sale first. Give you an example, in history, the reason that capitalist can recruit Freikorps and killing KDP after WW1 is because during WW1, a massive population is recruited and trained as soldiers, when the war ended and Germany demilitarized, these people lost their job as soldier, so capitalist can hire them with relative low price. But that's not the case in any great power society today, in fact the lesson of WW1&2 for capitalists is that war is never good for business, today, wherever there is a conflict, international capital flees in seconds. Capitalist today is more interest in contain the violence or redirect to somewhere else than invest in violence. So, although capitalists are very much into get rid of socialist with violence, they have to mobilize their own class and the working class together to create such market. Just remember something, market place exchange value over use value; capitalists' power is bounded by market, and focus on realize exchange value only. And when we socialist develops our own social relationship, we can use both exchange value and use value equally, and we do not have to be bounded by market, we can extract use value from market, product only for use value, that degree of freedom is our advantage, we need to explore them. Capitalism is actually a less powerful system in term of flexibility.
@@海狸-m8v I am referring to events like the UK miners' strike in 1984 when they sent out mounted police and trampled down the peaceful strikers. Or just look at Latin America where the execution of labor organizers is part of the daily routine. And no, war is always very good for business. Maybe not for small businesses who get their little shops bombed down, but very good for big businesses like Dow Chemical or Lockheed Martin. For example Ford had factories even in Nazi Germany where Soviet POWs were doing forced labor, and those factories were spared from Allied bombing. So, no, capital doesn't flee war, it creates war. And if you want to distribute stuff like housing and food based on use value, you don't even need the market. But try to sell that idea to the real estate owners. They will fight social housing at all cost, even mass murder.
@@billyoldman9209 I think you miss understand my messages. First, I'm fully aware that capitalist doesn't allow any alternative, and ww2 history, and class struggle history, you don't need to remind me about that. I said in my first message, we should fight back whenever we can. But do not fight with desperation, fight smart! From Marx's Capital, we learn the general rules of capitalist, rules that capitalist is likely to follow, so when the right situation comes we can anticipate and planing a counter strategy. When I talk about capitalist do not like war, I'm talking about capitalist in general. The counter example you give about is a particular industry, "military industrial complex", your are mixing particularity with generality. And if you look at the ledgers under Nazi German you would find that most of them are not making a profit at all, the only reason big companies like Ford are making a profit is because Nazi government is buying weapons for war, same goes for Lockheed Martin, about 70-80% of their revenue is from US government, it is a "military industrial complex" model, in this model, government and military players a big role, but government and military has to justify that, if most people don't buy their BS, it's not going to work. And don't forget their are hundreds of other industries in the world, their are part of the capitalist class, they still have political powers in today's society. Those capitalists do not like war, war creates uncertainty, capitalists are likely to hold their money in time like that, and when every capitalist is holding their money, the market stops functioning, that's really bad for capitalists. My message is that fighting capitalist is not the only goal for working class, we still have to build our own social system at the same time, the more we build, the less attractive capitalism gets. Otherwise, after the end of capitalism, it is not socialism or something better, it is "the war of all against all".
@@海狸-m8v Making something more attractive than capitalism is a good point. If we look at places like Cuba, everything is bland and cringy, like the school uniforms they give to teenagers. No wonder many young people are going to the US. But how exactly can anyone beat the capitalists in seduction? According to Baudrillard, the recipe for seduction is fakeness, just like makeup, advertisement or Trump. The real is not seductive, it simply is what it is. For counter example, Hillary is a pathological liar, and she presented herself as such, as the real candidate of the bankers, so she couldn't seduce the voters. Just like the Hollywood mantra 'fake it until make it.' But is this seduction by the fake even compatible with the socialist project? Can it ever challenge people to participate in a fake game, just like the American Dream does? The bourgeoisie is just too good at this.
I am not that pessimistic as small communes can still be formed and planned with social justice and essential minimum consumption if world or our Globe is to be saved from everyday disasters
Actually, many instances of middle to long-term breakdown of trade (wether through blockades or war) has showed how people manage to recreate local surviving mechanisms (as long as the means of making so are available to them, which excludes cases like Gaza). Therefore, thinking that one has to manage Capital because there is "no choice" is just a lazy excuse for not rushing required changes that will likely put the mostly middle classes of major cities in a bit of pain.
That's a good point, because it also shows how time is ticking and the sooner it's done the better. Today we are at the point where more than half the global population is urbanized and it is only going to get worse at an exponential rate. Cities grow like cancer, even when the population is stagnant. And it is also the reason why capital has always been hell-bent on squeezing everyone into urban slums and ghettos, to hold the masses hostage and leave them with no alternative to slavery.
you know, you could almost be as big as RT with all your power guests.... Democracy at work streaming news and discussion channel 24/7 when? Could team up with democracy now! and abby martin for exemple, and a few other "hard"left media organisation and personalities. Comming soon by the end of 2020 :)
There can never be a total shortage of investment opportunities to employ capital. The rate of return will decline with less opportunity, but there will always be something constructive to be done with capital (savings). Harvey's putting up a straw man.
This is the central dilemma is one recognized by the Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. I.e. violent overthrow won't work. The call for workers of the world uniting too rings hollow today. In Marx's time he was calling for the unity of a proletariat made up from largely white European men all of who shared a similar language and culture crammed into a very small geographical space. Not so today.
Please understand! Co2 is NOT a problem! please take time to check the science. see Prof, Tony Heller, Oppenheimer ranch project and climate forcing ! or live in childish fear of the boogieman.
I like this channel, but please let me know when you find time where Capitalism exists? Thanks.... cap·i·tal·ism /ˈkapədlˌizəm/ Learn to pronounce noun an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. "an era of free-market capitalism"
It's amazing you mention this. I've been so agitated recently. Too many in US pronounce bourgeoisie as 'boo-ra-zhe' when really it should be 'borg-ra-zhe'. US comrades!!!, you cannot make the revolution until you get this right
@@lordofevil3731 so we were talking about economic dimension not social ones and btw china has a lower prison population then the US despite the china having a way larger population.
@@reddoggie554 the Cubans may interfere but have little power when compared to the US a world power that has casually made reference to invading and taking their oil.
Trying to manage a capitalist system is not a socialist programme. It's a reformist programme. David Harvey should know that. He should know the potential risks of reform when those reforms do not take a transitional approach. I'm intrigued to know how well "managing" capitalism worked for Venezuela. The only way to save humanity from climate destruction, the only way to stop war and poverty and inequality is a complete break from capitalism. There is no "managing" this system, we have been trying for decades to do just that and while yes it has soften some of the damage it has also helped prolong the death agony of capitalism. We need to stop looking for shortcuts and making the case for socialism. Not just against capitalism.
I don't know whether this video fills me with hope or with despair.
Those are two sides of the same coin.
Hope!
Tubmaster 5000 - Same here, but it did help me get the issue into perspective.
It's despair, a product of the academic "Marxist" mindset disconnected from the organization and movement of the working class.
socialistrevolution.org/david-harvey-against-revolution-the-bankruptcy-of-academic-marxism/
Thank you for your great observation of the current system. Power to the people.
Funny how when leaders of nations make grand claims of financial soundness then followed by immediate, increasing financial hardship.
THAT IS BECAUSE THE MONEY(WITH NO UNION OR WORKERS LIVING WAGE) ONLY GOES "UP" WITH BARELY ANY SCRAPS FOR US, WHICH CAUSES A STRANGLED ECONOMY AND WITH WEALTH HOARDING WILL ALWAYS IMPLODE! WHEN FOLKS HAVE TO WORK 3 JOBS OR MORE TO HAVE RENT, FOOD, UTILITIES...AND PRAYERS NO ONE GETS TERMINALLY ILL! MANY WORKING FAMILIES THAT ARE HOMELESS ARE HAVING THIS CAPITAL LESSON... SOME WERE ONCE MIDDLE-CLASS!
Hi Mr. Harvey, I am from your supporters from Iran, during this month we have a very huge protests against the government and the government violated the protests and more than 300 hundred people shoot to dead in less than a week. also it is against the neo liberalism as Iran 's economy have huge problems and there are huge corruption in the government also in the last year working class experienced near 40% inflation and -4% GDP growth. but you missed our protesters and I am not feel good about it.
It is important to mention that also Iran 's government is against US and it looks like a anti-imperialism government but it isn't a left government it is totally liberal government, as it privatize lots of industries and there is huge gap between social classes.
Amin Amanat - I hear you, from Scotland 🏴.
I’m sure all people know there is something very wrong, and nearly all people know it is not the ordinary people that are the cause.
I can’t talk to my family, because they have not yet seen the problem as I do, they are too tied up in their every day lives, in addition they think I am a mad pessimist and should lighten up!
But I am heartened to see messages from people all over the world like you, especially from Iran, since we are not allowed to hear very much from your country on Main Stream Media.
I think “we the people of the world” are organising in ways that have not been possible before, but it’s not going to be easy to break through what we in the west call “the glass ceiling” (a place that we can see but can’t get to). I don’t think Professor Harvey has forgotten you, (at least not intentionally), I’m sure he will include your sacrifices in his next mention. Your sacrifices have been heavy and heartbreaking.
Peace and light to you and your family.
✌️✊🏼🌅
Amin Amanat - Two imperialist governments fighting for resources.
Trump just admitted that the wars in the Middle East was only about the oil!
I think he did this because it’s easier for them to tell the real reason, than try to tell lies.
To put it another way, once the people know it’s about resources that changes their/our thinking, The west needs the resources, and the West will fight for the resources.
Except that most of us don’t want to fight for anything we want to share.
But this is what Professor Harvey is saying, we can’t share just now because the system would collapse and 80% of us would starve!
What a terrible state of affairs.!
I try to think of a way out of this, and the only way I can think of is as Professor Wolff says is to try to create a secondary economy amongst ourselves, he suggests co/operatives, but even that is incredibly hard to get right, but I do think it could be a way out for us all, charities by nature do not really able to solve the problem, they only alleviate the problem to the extent that they have the money.
And in the West charities have become “BIG business”.
Anyway we have to at least keep trying.
✌️✊🏼🌅
sad thing is, there's no escape from this for Iran, if the protesters were to succeed then all the enemies of the (hypothetically) dismantled islamic republic would dive in in the momentary political opening and carve out the productive sectors of the society for themselves, bringing even more neo-turbo-liberism with its privatization to the public iranian sphere. I can already see PM Johnson asking for reparations for what damage NIOC did to the British Petroleum Company, for instance
Impre Sauro - I would say the neo-turbo-Liberisim as you call it will always fill the gap in the end, unless we can prove to them that they are heading us all off a cliff!
There is one thing that has not been discussed here, but is now being discussed elsewhere and that is the rise of sociopaths and psychopaths in corporations and governments. In centuries gone by, they couldn’t gather the way they do now. So because of modern communication and the creation of an environment that applauds and mistakes their cruelty for making and taking the difficult decisions, they have become concentrated and so has their power.
It’s a modern day phenomenon, but now being looked at as one of the major factors of the psychopathic nature of the corporate organisations and governments.
A more recent study done in 2019, but I couldn’t find the full paper.
But this link explains it more.
www2.le.ac.uk/offices/press/press-releases/2017/june/corporations-could-be-destroyed-by-psychopathic-leadership-study-suggests
@@OMGAnotherday i don't wanna sound reactionary 'cause i claim I ain't so, but there's a built-in poison to the Enlightenment project, while there was a time when a crippled, a leper, an idiot were but poor souls that landed on a unlucky body, and even the Pope and the Emperor knew what human pain was (and so they administered God's or the Law's punishment with that universal weight in mind) now that life became analyzed-studied-and-compartmentalized, and everything is looked at with that lens, aren't the poor and the last but the final, unnecessary bastion of an old, imperfect society that had not its methods perfected as we do now?
Do you not breathe this air of cynicism as above so below? I don't find it too recent, at least here in Europe. I'll be brutal, jews pogroms were a european reality in germany even in the 12th century, but 80 years ago we achieved the means to architect a technical-logistical way to definitely eliminate the problem, the elites just said to the cultured germans (they weren't ignorant people, they understood the modern metaphor) that the last of the land, the people at the fringe were a cancer in the body-nation, and they themselves were the best surgeons to operate that body. Weren't they right? As bleak and grotesque this statement is, no one can argue that the nazi extermination camps were a failure. So, why wouldn't you sacrifice the unnecessary in favour of your own profit? Or if not for profit, do it in the name of the people, doesn't make a difference, might be that they're one and the same. Why wouldn't you choose that? It's just a matter of dosage, the poison is already inside, but this toxic stage has gone on for at least a century and it might accelerate at some point, as it did in the past (is eco-fascism so hard to imagine in the wake of a climatic catastrophe?)
Such a way to end the year.
It is now, more than ever, that we need to look for new ways of organization. As Fisher ominously wrote:
'The long, dark night of the end of history has to be grasped as an enourmous opportuniy. The very oppressive pervasiveness of capitalist realism means that even glimmers of alternative political an economic posibilities can have a disproportionately great effect. The tiniest event can tear a hole in the grey curtain of reaction which has marked the horizonts of possibility under capitalist realism. From a situation in which nothing can happen, suddenly anything is possible again'.
As long as we think/feel life is about consumption and owning/hoarding/stockpiling no system can work... power wins...money becomes power. We all participate at the level of our belief that consumption/owning/stockpiling is the purpose of our lives and the source of our security. We utterly misunderstand the deeper source of security... peace and cooperation....
Thank you! You put into perspective things that I've been thinking about for some time. I love your differentiation of 'mobilization' vs 'organization'. In addition, your explanation of compounding growth is extremely informative. Fantastic episode!
At or around 36:00 Professor Harvey making the point that we have to keep capital flowing (we can't totally destroy the system) - Marx, or at least Lenin, argued that the footprints of the old society can not be vanquished immediately, they are too deeply ingrained and implanted, so, there has to be a gradual transitioning away from the old system ... but the bourgeoisie must be crushed, their resistance and all of their attempts at counter-revolution must be thwarted in order to have an effective and working "dictatorship of the proletariat." Class antagonisms are the deep divide that has kept Mankind from taking the steps forward that it should have taken by this point in time ... class differences must be erased and their damage assuaged.
Actually, Lenin implemented this concept in practice. After Revolution and Civil War Sonvarkom (first Soviet government) implemented capitalist economy. It was called NEP and it lasted from 1921 to 1928 at which time planned economy was fully established.
@@CMVray so you agree with Big G
@@CMVray to a leftist; yes?
@@n.e.campmore7337 I've just provided historical example of how marxists understood necessity of gradual transitioning back in Lenin's times
Great insights, invaluable work Mr. Harvey.- Thank you so much !!!
Thanks for covering this
Good video, but I don't agree with his assertion that capital needs to be prevented from collapsing because it's "to big to fail". The destruction of capital does not mean the destruction of politics; images of chaotic anarchy (starvation, etc.) being the defining characteristic of the destruction of capital are essentially fantasy. Not to say that a transition of that magnitude would be entirely victimless, but that in itself does not preclude its desirability. Capital SHOULD be destroyed, even if it DOES engender some degree of hardship; unfortunately, it seems that even many of capitalism's greatest critics are susceptible to the old truism that "it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism."
You haven't reached the step and stage/layer and level of left-wing-proper marxist/marxian-orientated/persuaded/leaning socialism, which precedes marxist/marxian-defined communism.
Most protesters are NON-PHYSICALLY VIOLENT (CRITICAL POINT OBFUSCATED by anyone and everyone) advocates and activists/solidarists and strugglers/parliamentarians and paramilitants who hold centre-left views and values at worse (depends on whether centrist or rightist and how dogmatic you are as a centrist or rightist) or centre-left to left-wing views and values at best (depends on whether you're centrist or rightist and how dogmatic you are as a centrist or rightist)
Elijah Conrow - But how are we going to do that when all of the world’s resources are effectively owned by top 500 companies?
@@OMGAnotherday It is possible if everyone takes over (expropriates) their own workplace so they can organize everything themselves, and there are a lot of workplaces that should not exist in the first place anyway. Once people no longer have to pay their debts and obey the cops, they can go out to the streets looking for what they can do for the first time in their lives, instead of thinking what they should demand from the blacksuits.
And there is historical precedence for this, if you look at the Spanish civil war for example. Even urban populations could make things running without anyone forcing them or telling them what to do. Then the question was not 'who is qualified for the job?' but rather 'who else can we qualify for the job?' As long as people can demonstrate to each other that they have no intention of exploiting anyone, basic trust and solidarity will surely come back, and with it, the desire to contribute. Without capital, production would actually boom and not come to a screeching halt, because there would be no more economic pressure to maintain scarcity and unemployment. Nobody would have to jealously guard their knowledge or position either. The one who is phantasizing about doomsday scenarios is David Harvey I'm afraid.
Excellent analysis of the current status quo. Harvey points out the greatest dilemma facing humanity is coping with an unsustainable capitalist system tethered to most of the world's population causing specific circumstances rendering it too big to fail without wiping out 80% of civilization.
As a resident of Germany, I hope that the general strike in France could start a massive movement in Europe. Any thoughts on that?
Never happen in Germany...it’s the only state in the EU doing anything
@@tapptom doing anything in regards to what? I feel more like Germany is the only state in the EU stopping useful decisions like a transparency regulation for lobbyism.
But I'll agree, Germans are way too lazy to get up their bottoms. And the social democracy is still in a bit better shape than in France, I guess.
@@ConstantinKlose-sj4mb No, it's a matter of culture, Germans are infected with hardcore Fukuyamism in and out. There's a belief that permeates the German society that this is how it is and we have to unify around capitalism and neoliberalism as the days of former struggles are over, this is the 'natural expression of a perfect society'.
It helps that Germany is in central Europe and has a strong economy and so it can shield a lot of its citizenry from the worst of neo-liberalism.
天龍 production of goods.
Germany has been beaten down by those halocaust survivors to the point that they will be guilty forever for this sham....endless reparations and it continues
@@tapptom What the hell are you on about, are you seriously suggesting that Germany can't become more radicalised because they are spooked by Israelis?
That's not a serious analysis.
That was an absolute bombshell! Bravo Professor Harvey!
The statement that the distribution of food is a consequence of the flow of capital is a non sequitur and a sign of magical thinking. Every step in the production, processing, transportation and retailing of commodities is done by people. If capital would lose its valor and social significance, nothing would stop people from continuing production and distribution on their own terms (except themselves maybe and liberal naysayers).
true
I’m happy that someone finally talks about exponential growth. Besides Professor Bartlett.
We all have moments when we think to ourselves 'capitalism is too big to fail'. It's important to remember; 'there is no capitalism without workers labour', and we're waiting on the workers of the world to 'realise' their potential to organise and effect the necessary change.
The solution to financial inequality would be to revert to the time when everybody was either a farmer, a tradesman, or a merchant. It was the industrial revolution, plus now especially high-tech, which inevitably produced inequality of income and wealth, by greatly increasing the productivity of highly talented people, while doing very little to increase the productivity of the lesser talented.
Everybody talks about Chile, nobody talks about Cybersyn, the REASON that Allende was ousted.
Cybersyn is fascinating but that's hardly the reason, copper mines nationalization is a no-no in DC
He left Colombia out of this picture; their national civic strike since November 21, 2019 and is still holding out strong as I write... Dec 22 will be massive again!
Time for Mass national strikes in the USA like the Airlines Cargo trains etc
+Punch, YEAH a yellow vest movement in the US I'm all for it.
@@Alosipher Ever heard of Thatcherism?
what a great episode but what a grand contradiction we're forced to fix!
We can't allow it to fail? Are you kidding? It's not like we can stop it. What we need to do is to try to prepare as best we can. It's essentially a massive natural disaster that we know is coming. The end is nigh, and all that sort of thing, yadda yadda. But reforming capital to wean ourselves off dependence? Ain't gonna happen, Magoo.
Albeit that the problems facing the 21st century seems insurmountable, the solution is relatively simple and that lies in giving money a use by date/shelf life. Which implies gold is not a good backing for money (that causes hoarding it) instead of spending it asap because money that has a limited lifespan looses value every second.
When was mankind sold the idea that money lasts for ever ? When they backed it by gold ! But all man made things wear out or get used up... but NOT so gold ! However when cereal grains backs money as Scripture suggests, we'll enter reality.
This is the new model for a sustainable socio-economic-legal system.
If an automobile approaches a corner at a far higher speed than would allow it to negotiate it safely, we can conclude there will be an accident ; same with this unreal economy going much too fast for its own safety, it's only a matter of time.... But stretching our imaginations further than normal might bring us to the point of realizing that there HAS to be a solution but we're simply ignoring or not noticing it. I want to suggest that Dr Rudolf Steiner solved that problem with his Threefold Social Order & Commonwealth.
What is the point of creating a biosphere for humans to live on without also providing a fair and equitable model to steer by ?That is if you believe in God & all that.
If not, welcome to your worst nightmare come true....
Ok go solve it then! Thank God someone at last found good use to the 'scriptures'
@@johannesbekker1970 ohh and Steiner too. Damn I'm sure you'll save the world.
@@mgg7756 Let me say, after 37 years of studying his stuff, sacrificing everything, it occurred to me that I really wanted to know HOW a true system would look like ...being dogged by a gut feeling from very long ago that the present system is that car or the Titanic but what's the point in repeating the same mistake over and over....living meaningless lives ?
I have no such grand hopes, only moving a small stone out of my fellow traveler's way as I expect from them.
But I'd hate to bore anybody, but this is a fascinating subject once you start getting that this is NOT a glib solution but tailor made one based on how a healthy human body functions, again based on Scripture Luke 17:21 "The Kingdom of God is inside you" and to top all that, it's a perfect explanation for the French Revolution's Liberty, Equality & Fraternity
I'm a-religious btw
I find it ironic that burning dead dinosaurs is creating the climate where they existed. Coincidence?
Perhaps David Harvey underestimates the ability to put physical capital to work under imminent domain. Or perhaps he's right. It's a paradox.
Why is it anti-capitalism? Why not post-capitalism? As capitalist political-legal-economic institutions (the public-sector and the private-sector) presents hard science (science, technology, engineering) solutions (that ought be perfected and personalised/perfected by way of personalising to any and all/each and every role (s) and responsibilities of a job/career in both work and labor)
38:00 Sounds a lot alike what Andrew Yang wants to do. Have Capital serve humans instead of our current way of serving Capital.
Corrective capitalism
Who writes about that?
What's the design of the next phase...steps for transition
Nice udpdate!
I think the final message is a bit confusing and could be misread.
"Capitalism is too big to fail" does not necessary means we should not fight its power, on the contrary, we should fight back whenever we can. Capitalism itself is moving towards self-destruction, without external force(some belief other than Capitalism), it will fail, very fast! But if we just roll with it, at the end of Capitalism, there is no utopia, but void and chaos.
We need to have an organized "tactical withdrawal" from Capitalism: discipline Capitalism so that it is not collapsing, at the same time, build another type of social relationship independent from Capitalism, so when it fails, we can absorb refugees from collapsed Capitalism.
Nobody like Capitalism(expect the 1%), but don't expect a miracle after Capitalism, if we didn't build that in the first place.
But that is exactly the issue, capitalism doesn't allow any parallel development of alternatives. The moment you so much as touch the market, everything you've done and fought for has been co-opted and "recuperated." And if you do a non-violent walkout, they'll just send the troops out and they will discipline you, not the other way around.
And how long have we been hearing about the end of capitalism? 200 years? And it's just around the corner? Word? You are ignoring the fact that capitalism has demonstrated it's ability time and time again to mutate and displace it's limits whenever a breaking point has been reached. First came monopolies (by the beginning of the 20th century), then cross-sector conglomerates (WW period), then capital went inter- and supranational (neo liberalism), and now we are in the process of a global consolidation of power (big mergers and acqusition). What comes after won't matter, because capitalists will have become all-powerful arbiters of life and death.
@@billyoldman9209 I agree on most part, but not so on the part about "send the troops".
That really depends on the history context and regional market of "the troops". Capitalist has almost unlimited power on extract commodities from market, but they are also limited by the market, which means there has to have a market of "free troops" for sale first.
Give you an example, in history, the reason that capitalist can recruit Freikorps and killing KDP after WW1 is because during WW1, a massive population is recruited and trained as soldiers, when the war ended and Germany demilitarized, these people lost their job as soldier, so capitalist can hire them with relative low price. But that's not the case in any great power society today, in fact the lesson of WW1&2 for capitalists is that war is never good for business, today, wherever there is a conflict, international capital flees in seconds. Capitalist today is more interest in contain the violence or redirect to somewhere else than invest in violence. So, although capitalists are very much into get rid of socialist with violence, they have to mobilize their own class and the working class together to create such market.
Just remember something, market place exchange value over use value; capitalists' power is bounded by market, and focus on realize exchange value only. And when we socialist develops our own social relationship, we can use both exchange value and use value equally, and we do not have to be bounded by market, we can extract use value from market, product only for use value, that degree of freedom is our advantage, we need to explore them. Capitalism is actually a less powerful system in term of flexibility.
@@海狸-m8v I am referring to events like the UK miners' strike in 1984 when they sent out mounted police and trampled down the peaceful strikers. Or just look at Latin America where the execution of labor organizers is part of the daily routine.
And no, war is always very good for business. Maybe not for small businesses who get their little shops bombed down, but very good for big businesses like Dow Chemical or Lockheed Martin. For example Ford had factories even in Nazi Germany where Soviet POWs were doing forced labor, and those factories were spared from Allied bombing. So, no, capital doesn't flee war, it creates war.
And if you want to distribute stuff like housing and food based on use value, you don't even need the market. But try to sell that idea to the real estate owners. They will fight social housing at all cost, even mass murder.
@@billyoldman9209 I think you miss understand my messages. First, I'm fully aware that capitalist doesn't allow any alternative, and ww2 history, and class struggle history, you don't need to remind me about that. I said in my first message, we should fight back whenever we can.
But do not fight with desperation, fight smart! From Marx's Capital, we learn the general rules of capitalist, rules that capitalist is likely to follow, so when the right situation comes we can anticipate and planing a counter strategy.
When I talk about capitalist do not like war, I'm talking about capitalist in general. The counter example you give about is a particular industry, "military industrial complex", your are mixing particularity with generality. And if you look at the ledgers under Nazi German you would find that most of them are not making a profit at all, the only reason big companies like Ford are making a profit is because Nazi government is buying weapons for war, same goes for Lockheed Martin, about 70-80% of their revenue is from US government, it is a "military industrial complex" model, in this model, government and military players a big role, but government and military has to justify that, if most people don't buy their BS, it's not going to work. And don't forget their are hundreds of other industries in the world, their are part of the capitalist class, they still have political powers in today's society. Those capitalists do not like war, war creates uncertainty, capitalists are likely to hold their money in time like that, and when every capitalist is holding their money, the market stops functioning, that's really bad for capitalists.
My message is that fighting capitalist is not the only goal for working class, we still have to build our own social system at the same time, the more we build, the less attractive capitalism gets. Otherwise, after the end of capitalism, it is not socialism or something better, it is "the war of all against all".
@@海狸-m8v Making something more attractive than capitalism is a good point. If we look at places like Cuba, everything is bland and cringy, like the school uniforms they give to teenagers. No wonder many young people are going to the US. But how exactly can anyone beat the capitalists in seduction? According to Baudrillard, the recipe for seduction is fakeness, just like makeup, advertisement or Trump. The real is not seductive, it simply is what it is. For counter example, Hillary is a pathological liar, and she presented herself as such, as the real candidate of the bankers, so she couldn't seduce the voters. Just like the Hollywood mantra 'fake it until make it.'
But is this seduction by the fake even compatible with the socialist project? Can it ever challenge people to participate in a fake game, just like the American Dream does? The bourgeoisie is just too good at this.
Time to figure out how to switch to a resource driven economy like Jacque Fresco spent his life designing.
Okay, reform is preferable. Might have required less than 39 minutes to reach that conclusion.
no mention of Colombia? I'm disappointed.
There are a handful he didn't mention. Argentina, Caledonia, etc. It's a long list these days.
Not to imply it's happening in Argentina right now.
I am not that pessimistic as small communes can still be formed and planned with social justice and essential minimum
consumption if world or our Globe is to be saved from everyday disasters
@K Korona Are you a pessimist ?
@@sasikunnathur1221 no, he's a fascist, with delusion of grandeur
@@Gabriel-mf7wh Or, Korona is a troll with delusions of grandeur!
@@jazzypoo7960 oh, ok
@K Korona now that's T0O eDgY 4 M3 M8
Actually, many instances of middle to long-term breakdown of trade (wether through blockades or war) has showed how people manage to recreate local surviving mechanisms (as long as the means of making so are available to them, which excludes cases like Gaza). Therefore, thinking that one has to manage Capital because there is "no choice" is just a lazy excuse for not rushing required changes that will likely put the mostly middle classes of major cities in a bit of pain.
That's a good point, because it also shows how time is ticking and the sooner it's done the better. Today we are at the point where more than half the global population is urbanized and it is only going to get worse at an exponential rate. Cities grow like cancer, even when the population is stagnant. And it is also the reason why capital has always been hell-bent on squeezing everyone into urban slums and ghettos, to hold the masses hostage and leave them with no alternative to slavery.
'glasswar ..
.. 36:56
you know, you could almost be as big as RT with all your power guests.... Democracy at work streaming news and discussion channel 24/7 when? Could team up with democracy now! and abby martin for exemple, and a few other "hard"left media organisation and personalities.
Comming soon by the end of 2020 :)
RT is terrible... Hope you meant only in reach.
Democracy Now is a captured neo-liberal outlet; Amy is not the stalwart she once was.
@@n.e.campmore7337 neoliberal??
@@n.e.campmore7337 maybe she needs some good solidarity
God David Harvey is so clueless
There can never be a total shortage of investment opportunities to employ capital. The rate of return will decline with less opportunity, but there will always be something constructive to be done with capital (savings). Harvey's putting up a straw man.
10000th view.
This is the central dilemma is one recognized by the Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. I.e. violent overthrow won't work. The call for workers of the world uniting too rings hollow today. In Marx's time he was calling for the unity of a proletariat made up from largely white European men all of who shared a similar language and culture crammed into a very small geographical space. Not so today.
Please understand! Co2 is NOT a problem! please take time to check the science. see Prof, Tony Heller, Oppenheimer ranch project and climate forcing ! or live in childish fear of the boogieman.
I like this channel, but please let me know when you find time where Capitalism exists? Thanks....
cap·i·tal·ism
/ˈkapədlˌizəm/
Learn to pronounce
noun
an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.
"an era of free-market capitalism"
Literally had a video 3 days ago on this subject
Oh boy, a pedant.
It's amazing you mention this. I've been so agitated recently. Too many in US pronounce bourgeoisie as 'boo-ra-zhe' when really it should be 'borg-ra-zhe'. US comrades!!!, you cannot make the revolution until you get this right
Yeah I'm pretty sure the french would be happy to point out that your ancap logic doesn't pan out very well.
How's the socialism working in Venezuela?
Great in china which has more public ownership than Venezuela
@@james192599 they have concentration camps for political prisoners
@@lordofevil3731 so we were talking about economic dimension not social ones and btw china has a lower prison population then the US despite the china having a way larger population.
@@reddoggie554 the Cubans may interfere but have little power when compared to the US a world power that has casually made reference to invading and taking their oil.
@@reddoggie554 OK get the Cubans doctors out & get US big pharma in. Two years in let's see who the poor prefer.