Government and Landlords Declare Class War Against Tenants: Who Will Win?
The Socialist Program with Brian Becker
The Socialist Program
4.7 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 6 October 2021
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On today's episode Brian and Prof. Richard Wolff discuss the massive scale of the eviction crisis and the urgent need for struggle in the face of this threat. While billionaires saw their wealth dramatically expand over the course of the pandemic and the government moved swiftly to bail out the rich, working class tenants accumulated crushing levels of rent debt. Now landlords are preparing to kick millions out of their homes as the pandemic continues to rage. Brian and Prof. Wolff also discuss examples from history of tenants organizing to stand up for their right to housing -- and bring down the system that prioritizes profits over people's lives.
Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can check out his work at rdwolff.com.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today we discuss the growing economic turmoil around the globe as prices of essential commodities |
| 0:06.8 | increase and transportation networks start to break down. What is causing these problems? Could |
| 0:14.7 | they lead to a broader crisis just as the world economy is trying to emerge from the shadow of COVID. |
| 0:21.6 | We need a new system. We need a new society. |
| 0:26.6 | We need to demand that which may have sounded impossible even a few weeks ago, |
| 0:30.6 | but is not only realizable, but an imperative necessity. Deepening unemployment, a looming wave of evictions, massive and widening inequality. |
| 1:04.1 | There's no denying it. |
| 1:05.3 | Capitalism is in crisis and capitalism is the crisis. |
| 1:10.3 | We are happy to have Professor Richard Wolfe join us again for our regular weekly segment |
| 1:15.4 | where we talk about the biggest stories related to the economy, the state of the working |
| 1:19.9 | class, and the crimes of big business. |
| 1:22.7 | I'm your host, Brian Becker. |
| 1:24.7 | The Socialist Program brings you content three days a week thanks to the support |
| 1:29.1 | of our patrons at patreon.com forward slash the socialist program. We appreciate all of your support |
| 1:36.2 | and encourage you to become a patron today if you enjoy listening to this show. |
| 1:41.7 | Richard Wolfe is the co-founder of the organization, Democracy at Work, and the author of many |
| 1:46.6 | books, the latest being, The Sickness is the System, when Capitalism Fails to Save Us |
| 1:52.3 | from Pandemics or itself. |
| 1:54.7 | Be sure to check out his work at R-D-Wolf.com. |
| 1:58.0 | That's R-D-W-O-L-F dot com. Professor Wolf, welcome back. Thank you, Brian. Glad to be here. |
| 2:06.4 | Professor Wolf, we're going to talk, as I mentioned in the introduction, about the stubborn increase in |
| 2:12.0 | the price of essential commodities, basic commodities. For multiple months, the Federal Reserve and other financial |
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