Democratic Socialists of America

This call will discuss the role of the capitalist class in shaping the current crisis we are experiencing. Both the slow response (in many countries) and the massive economic dislocation we are experiencing are not a result of the disease but of a long period of capitalist austerity. From underfunded and privatized healthcare systems, to precarious employment without benefits, to just-in-time 'lean' production, policies pushed by capitalists to increase their own profits created the conditions for the current crisis, and if we do not respond the capitalist class will be the ones to share our reaction it, as well.

 

Vijay Prashad, director of the Tricontinental Institute: Institute for Social Research, will speak about the relationship between capitalism to crisis: how are crises created, exacerbated, and exploited to further the interest of the capitalist class? What would a crisis response led by the working class look like? This will be followed by small group discussion facilitated by DSA's National Political Education Committee.