Updates on (1) "the markets" as fake causes of layoffs and austerity, (2) the SEC deal over Citigroup conflict of interest, (3) China's tariffs on US autos, and (4) US real wage drop in 2011 while labor productivity and thus profits rise. Major interview with Gar Alperovitz on US economic decline and movement toward "socialized capital" and worker owned and directed enterprises.

A new historical vista is opening before us in this time of change. Capitalism as a system has spawned deepening economic crisis alongside its bought-and-paid for political establishment. Neither serves the needs of our society. Whether it is secure, well-paid and meaningful jobs or a sustainable relationship with the natural environment that we depend on, our society is not delivering the results people need and deserve. We do not have the lives we want and our children’s future is threatened because of social conditions that can and should be changed.

Imagine a democratic alternative to police evictions of Occupy encampments across America's cities and towns. What if the decision to evict or not had been made by referendum? Voters could have determined whether to continue the long overdue public debates over inequality, injustice and capitalism that were launched and sustained above all by the Occupy encampments.

Occupy Harvard has produced a newsletter with featured articles and continues to release them with regard to the current economic crisis and discussing the theme of economic democracy.

Richard Wolff's article, Occupy Production, appears in the second issue.

The idea of workers self directed enterprises is that the workers displace and replace the capitalists with themselves. This has to be the next step in the process of transformation.

Professor Richard Wolff speaks at the Rosa Luxemberg Foundation in Berlin on November 5th 2011.

In this fifth year of economic crisis, as the 99% bear its mounting costs, a new movement is rising to confront and change the system in crisis. What strategy should we pursue, what choices must we make to realize the historic potential of our movement?  

Richard Wolff speaks by the central fountain in Washington Square Park.

The political movements of the left that I have participated in over many decades were almost always focused on or prioritized particular issues (wars, civil liberties, civil rights, poverty, collective bargaining, etc.) and/or particular subsections of the population (African-Americans, women, gay people, immigrants, etc.). The authorities almost always took advantage of that focus to separate and isolate the movement from society generally. They were often successful.

These Tuesday evenings will each begin with an update and analysis of major economic events of the last month and their contexts of longer-term economic trends shaping politics and society here and abroad. We will focus on the evolving global capitalist economic crisis and its consequences. We will examine topics such as

Broadcast Date: 30 Oct. 2011 Watch on YouTube

Thousands of Americans have been occupying Wall Street for weeks. Is this the start of the American revolution?

They say they are defending the 99 percent of Americans against the wealthiest 1 percent who control 50 percent of America's wealth.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, which was caused by the financial sector, the US economy has been in and out of recession. Thousands of people have lost their jobs, real wages are declining and benefits have been cut.

Brief updates cover China's latest financial interventions in Europe, Greece scapegoated as France and Germany deflect domestic attention and criticism of their austerity programs, comparison of European and US crisis-coping mechanisms, and poor US showing on OECD social justice indicators. We air the first part of fascinating interview with Occupy Wall Street activist Christina Towne on how and why she got involved. The second part - Towne's views on how and where OWS is developing as a movement - will be aired Nov. 12.