This article was found on the Radical Perspectives website.When reading this article by Rick Wolff there is one ongoing central idea. The capitalist class structure of system is the blame for our current economic problems. This article is very straightforward. The first line of the article reads “At the capitalist system’s core lies its central conflict” This conflict is between corporations and the workers/employees. The board of directors represents the corporation in this article. Wolff uses this situation as a background of the article.
He then continues to describe the conflict. This includes the fact that the corporations cut workers wages. In the other hand the workers seek to improve their income and job benefits. With the actions of corporations outsourcing and workers losing jobs Wolff suggests if workers “were workers to become their own collective board of directors, they would not likely reduce wages or outsource jobs” This would cause job retention.
Now that the background information is given, Wolff then gives examples of what the class structure has done to economy. Using past data Wolff states the class conflict has always contributed to instability economically. Wolff gets straight to the point when he says “But a taboo blocks consideration of one such cause namely capitalism’s class structure.”
I think Wolff even by his title is trying to reawaken the public and point to what is really going on. His article stresses that is not a recent problem. His analysis of post Wold War II recessions emphasizes that the class struggle needs to be revealed and analyzed for the general public. This article appeals to the worker and definitely not the corporations. It is like he is telling the reader this is common sense it’s the class struggle and nothing else. I believe this article is a conversation starter to the issues at hand with this economic crisis. However I think the article can be too black and white. This crisis is very complicated and there are much more factors then what is presented in the article.
Dhanha Bien-Aime
