Dissecting capitalist crisis

Fred Goldstein speaks on capitalism at a dead end.
WW photo: Peter Cook

Fred Goldstein, author of the recently published work “Capitalism at a Dead End” and a member of the Secretariat of Workers World Party, spoke about the book to a full house at the Inquiring Mind bookstore in New Paltz, N.Y., April 12. Students and community activists from the anti-war and anti-fracking movements in the Hudson Valley heard Goldstein elaborate on the book’s thesis that the capitalist system is no longer able to revive itself through the normal processes of the market.

Citing the enormous development of labor-destroying, high technology over the last 30 years, including computerization and robotization, Goldstein showed how mass unemployment and low wages are now a permanent feature of the capitalist system.

A lively discussion followed the presentation with questions ranging from how the unions can fight back to what the implications are for education, as well as the question of the viability of the system of private property itself. Goldstein concluded with the idea that while the political atmosphere right now is dominated by reactionary bourgeois ideology, the deteriorating conditions of the multinational working class will force a new consciousness to develop to fight back against intolerable conditions.