A new world order is emerging as the old one decays. China, South Korea, Japan, and other Southeast Asian

countries in ASEAN announced this week in a joint comprehensive project in reaction to Trump's tariffs

that they intend to build a trade infrastructure

and reduce dependence on Western financial institutions.

We need a new system. We need a new society. We need to demand that which may have sounded

impossible even a few weeks ago, but is not only realizable, but an imperative necessity. We are excited to have Professor Richard Wolfe join us again for our regular weekly segment, where we discuss the biggest

stories related to the economy, the state of the working class, and the crimes of big business.

I'm your host, Brian Becker.

The Socialist Program brings you content several days a week, thanks to the support of our patrons at patreon.com

forward slash the Socialist Program. If you're not a patron yet, please

become one today. Richard Wolfe is the co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. He's the

author of many books, including Understanding Capitalism, which is available at Democracy at Work.

Dot info. Richard, Professor Wolf, welcome back. Glad to be here, Brian,

and Richard is fine, a professor you don't need. I'm tipping my hat, Richard. You're Professor

Wolf to us. All right, all right. All right. Well, what's noteworthy about this new story,

Richard, is that China, Japan, and South Korea

and the countries of ASEAN are banding together.

I mean, literally banding together, and they don't say it explicitly, but it's clearly

in response to Trump's economic policies.

They say in their statement, in their joint

statement, we call for enhanced regional unity and cooperation as we endeavor to weather the heightened

uncertainty. And then at the end, they say amid rising uncertainties and long-term structural shifts, we reaffirm our full commitment to multilateralism

...