His were rebellious times where the echoes hung in the air. Common people who fought privatization and enclosure of land and found themselves executed and incarcerated en masse because they demanded a natural born right to the comments. Paine apprenticed, a professor took off as womens lives, not just our waists, were being shrunk from robust vital things, equal participants in life to child readers, in closed domestic objects. At least women of a certain class. In 1757, paine went to see the king of prussia as sailors and pirates protested impressment, forced labor, Forest Service in the military. Paine stood up against impressment and the rights of men. Avoid ship as a story and has taught us, he wouldve served with people from all over the world including africans, irish and blacks from the caribbean. He would have participated or at least witnessed their grumbling and perhaps their rebellions on board ships. He certainly was aware of their rebellions against the british throughout the 1700s, and which caribbean blacks, africans, irish and given some of the colonized americans, too, but certainly the hetero, homo, multigendered a mob, the rowdies, carried with them the word of the slave revolt into the streets of what were to become the United States, including new yorks own streets. Those slave revolts, jamaica, 1767 come up her muta 1761, 62, 6378, grenada, st. Vincent, tobago, st. Croix, st. Thomas, saint kits, throughout the 1760s and the 70s, there were rebellions. And they moved to the south. Alexandria, virginia, in 1757. New jersey 1772, st. Andrews parish south carolina, and in a joint african and irish effort in boston 1774. Thomas paine arrived in america that year and immediately wrote against slavery. We have in our powers to begin the world over again, he wrote in common sense. 20 years later in agrarian justice, he acknowledged that even after independence the world was in need of serious remaking. He wrote the present state of civilization is as odious as it is unjust. It is absolutely the opposite of what it should be. And it is necessary that the revolution should be made in it. The contrast is like dead and living bodies chained together. It wasnt just a u. S. Problem. It was a global problem. The great mass of the poor and all countries have become a hereditary raise. Its next to impossible for them to get out of that state for themselves. For the sake of justice and humanity, he said not in 76 but in 1796, it is necessary to make change. Specifically to make properly productive of national blessing extending to every individual, not just a few. Are we in times that try our souls . For sure. Lets hear it. Are we . Are we in revolutionary times . [inaudible] thats the question were going to address today. [laughter] we will recall angela davis who said we should not be afraid to ask for what we want. What robin good has called our freedom dream, she said, need not bear the imprint of compromised. So ask away, compromise not, to address all of this and more with richard wolff, professor of economics emeritus, university of massachusetts amherst, visiting professor at the new School Graduate program, author of many wonderful books including marcus at work, a cure for capitalism, occupied economy, and capitalism hits the fan. The Global Economic meltdown of what to do about it. He also is a wonderful Weekly Economic update in new york. [applause] and syndicated nationally. Chris hedges spent 20 years as a Foreign Correspondent, 15 of those for the new times where he was part of a team that won a pulitzer prize. He denounced the bush recession is called to a day iraq and losses most of the time. He is the author of bestsellers, and he writes weekly column that you must read for the website truth day. [applause] cornel west as columns of a bluesman in the life of the mind. Longtime princeton professor now at Union Theological seminary, these best of was classic race matters, democracy matters and his memoir, brought the west, living and loving out loud. It appears weekly on many programs, when they let him. As well as on his dear brother tavis smiley pbs tv show. He can be heard weekly on the National Public reprogram disputed by Public Radio International and ugly also heard on the radio. Thank you all. [applause] the format is going to be as follows. Wonderful gina has distributed cards. If you have questions you to write those questions on corporate we do actually do not guarantee to answer all your questions. But we will sort through, discover some themes and posting questions to the speakers once they have laid out their arguments, for about 45 minutes. Ill get a chance to pose a couple of questions about own and well have you out of here in 90 minutes of pure. Enjoy. [applause] [inaudible] we selected paine louder. House that . Okay. We selected paine for a couple of reasons. First of all, hes arguably the only real revolutionary theorist america has produced. We produced some admirable anarchists, emma goldman and alexander berkman, noam chomsky, dorothy day and others. We have produced some powerful prophetic voices out of a all pressed communities, whether that is Frederick Douglass or malcolm x, my friend cornel west and others. But in terms of revolutionary theorists we have almost none. Paine may be the only one. In many ways he was the first intellectual in the sense that he never tied himself to Political Parties but it was always in opposition to power. I thought it opens the discussion with richard and cornel by highlighting some of his major strengths. Ones i think we can learn from. The first would be that paine in a way that many of the four figures of the revolution were not, understood the monarchy, understood reddish power to keep income to the United States antilles 37. Part of his job in common sense was to explain the structures, the power to the colonies who didnt understand them but even figures like benjamin franklin, up until the very last moment wanted to build with the king. And it was part of paines job to explain why this wasnt possible. I think one of the things i think all three of us probably feel, and i will stop any second and legible address this, is that there has been a misreading on the part of the american left, and even among the Progressive Community of the structures of power. And for that reason it is rendered as impotent. We have effectively been challenging our energy back into a dead political system. I wrote many of ralph naders major speeches for an 2008 election, going back to 2008 there were a lot of people in the left forum who are drunk the koolaid for barack obama. I think that was because they had quite been diverted quite effectively into the personal narrative of a candidate which is irrelevant in terms of understanding the mechanisms of power. And just as paine understood that the into real power of the british had essentially blinded itself, that its hubris made incapable of listening which is why had one of the largest armadas, 350 ships, sent on new york. I think were in a very similar moment as well. Maybe begin, cornel, with you and talk over the about that idea up structure of power. Yeah. Did you want to say something, brother wolf, before i said something . Okay. I think for me its not just a question of structural power. Its true that thomas paine comes at 37 years old to the new world, and already has a critique of not just good and bad king but of men monarch as all. Hes talking about a structural systemic analysis that most of the americans at the time had not moved toward. That in 1776 there were over 400 pamphlets published. And one pamphlet we still read, common sense, sort of the number of voices being listed here this 37 year old who arrived, later this structural power but keep in mind who he was. His father was a quaker. He inherited a fundamental solidarity, we as the downtrodden with those who were excluded, that he was willing always to cut radically against the grain in this conception of himself at 37 was he was going to die, or he was going to be willing to die if he, ensuring that he would act honorably, think critically, that he would be willing to sacrifice his popularity for truth and justice. And would always view what other folks on the Grassroots Movement he has the conception of himself that is quicker like. He was not an atheist but he was a ds. He hated organized religion. He hated dogma, especially religious dogma but also ideological dogma and to consult as first and foremost a member of those we call everyday people. He was a comment to the core. He engaged in a revolutionary act in how the road, not just what he wrote. Because how he wrote was a critique of the pomposity and the obscurity of the latin, greek upset language of the edmund brooks and others, that he is going to speak a language that was so clear. He said i want to write as plain as the alphabet for common folk ache as i come out of the common folk. So that was a revolution in form and style. It was the first time the folklore they could read at all could be read to, to get through a language that was part of their colloquial style. That was part of how they communicated. Going back to the class, he was not working class. He was arkansas class in northville. But he identified with the common folk. What we dont have today is we dont have intellectuals. It was the First American modern intellectual unconnected. No doubt about that. What we dont have today intellectuals who have not been seduced by the professional managerial carrots and the subculture of the university who are fundamentally committed to the plight of predicament of commenters, everyday people, working people, poor people. And view their calling, not a career as having organic connection, with their struggles no matter how strong or no matter how weak they are. There are some intellectuals that do that. Fear and fewer and fewer. Why . Because what thomas paine didnt have to deal with is the backup of impending ecological potassium the backup of possible nuclear catastrophe, the fashionable character of being cynical and despairing even as you are highly professionally approved and recognized. A sharp analysis by no willingness to pay a cost, no willingness to take a risk, no willingness to cut radically against the grain. And, of course, he dealt with the consequences. He died it right here in greenwich village, 72 years old, six people at his funeral, two of them black because her critique of african slavery, the first piece he wrote in march of 75 was real that led to the Abolition Society in the new world. He was fundamentally committed to a critique of White Supremacy. Very oftentimes among highly visible white intellectuals. Brother chris is rare. Rick wolf, rare. We can go to we can kabul this because the list is so short. [laughter] im not just talk about making a symbolic gesture of talking front of the committed to your analysis to White Supremacy is an integral factor among other crucial factors, and then you make the organic connection. Thats the kind of brother thomas paine was and it is very, very difficult to build on his legacy even though we have to acknowledge just how crucial that challenge is. I want to pick up on something that you all just did, when laura was still speaking before we started. She asked how much a change was needed, or some words to that effect, and it was a strong, clear statement, yes. Then she asked about revolution, much less strong. Much more wobbling. Now, thomas paine is exactly about that difference. Just as the name of this conference, the name we chose for this conference is reform and revolution. Faced with a situation that is becoming more and more unequal, unfair, unjust and intolerable, what are we going to do. And what paine, for me, what makes them stand out is that care that he takes to go right after that question. And the way i hear it is this. We now face, he says about this time, more than enough evidence, decade upon decade of accumulated outrages, injustices, attacks on our freedom, our rights and our security. In a sense we have tried to address this one and that one, to work out an accommodation here, to get every form over there. Weve been there and weve done it, and it hasnt worked. And weve got to face that. We cant make reforms, most of the time, because the power structure against us blocks of us. But even worse, when occasionally we get a reform, that same power structure, having lost the effort to block it, now goes to work to undo it to reverse it and to go right back to where they were. Therefore, the conclusion paine reaches and tries to teach the American People than is the same one i think many of us want to teach now. Youve got to change the system. Not because its an alternative to being, achieving reforms, but because changing the system is the only way to make a reform thats adorable. Revolution is the way you complete the reform process just as it is the condition for the reforms you get to last, and he mean what you wanted them to mean when you fought for them. Thats why the word revolution ran in paines work so powerful. Its a big change. Not that theres we to say to the king of england, go home, youre out of your, its over. The british empire, hundreds of years of dominance, we quit. Youre out of here. A powerful ending of the colonial relationship that you this country its a modern birth. Its whole history. An amazing thing to say to the people, to separate. And yet arent we in the same . Isnt that the legacy for us, to . To finally say, let me pick up on one theme because i know many of you have encountered references to, or if you a lot of time youve read the book by thomas the caddie, a lot of time, 600 pages, it takes a long time and hes a good economist as a writer not so much. [laughter] in our profession thats absolutely normal. [laughter] but his point is the same, isnt it . He says he studied capital for 250 years. He and his colleagues in california at berkeley are the go to statisticians to understand the ditch vision of wealth and income in the world these days. His conclusion in that book, capital in 21st century is that capitalism inherently, anywhere and everywhere it has been established produces at its inherent tendency and growing inequality of wealth and income. Periodically, he points out, people get so freaked by this that they push back and we have a reform. And then as soon as its over, the same capitalism undoes the reform. We all know that, dont we come here in the United States . The last 40 years is the undoing of the new deal. There it is, again. And part of his power which is the power of all great revolutionary riders is that he utterly appended that language to the extent that he redefined terms like democracy. Democracy was a pejorative. Republicanism or the republic was a pejorative. He declined to those words and give them a new definition. The other thing is that he spoke in the language or he wrote in the language of everyday people. Now, that as a writer is deceptive because it is actually extremely difficult. Wall well masteredcapacity. As a writer i want to be that clear windowpane by which people can see through and when he writes his response in the rights of man he goes after the florida style. I think language and i want to raise this with both the new, extremely important because we live in a society now where those who have bought or have created specialized vocabularies that shut the rest of us out. Economists have been particularly good at this. But just about the technocrat. And we are ruled by technocrats. Created a specialized vocabulary that those of us on the outside are not able to penetrate. And that becomes a kind of barrier in terms of our ability to exercise our rights as citizens to influence power. And pain understood that extremely well. And it is why his writings were so effective. Arguably one of the greatest lessons in english. When he writes the rights of man and it becomes extremely important because and that second party actually outlines the whole of state. End the government goes nuts. They pass the 2act a law which bans, just as we see in the wake of the occupy movement cabanes large public gatherings, makes it easier to prosecute people for treason. Paine himself is tried for sedition and has to flee to france. He ends up as one of two foreign delegates in the National Convention, stands up and opposes the regicide of louis the 16th. He ends up prison. But when he writes rights of man he gives to the english workingclass, and you have to remember at the time they were in far worse economic state than the White Working Class and the United States. Three out of four people in large metropolitan cities in europe were either poppers are beggars. And when the government creates all sorts of worker organizations that begin to discuss political issues the government shuts down and drives it underground. In make this point that one of reasons he is better known in england is because he gave them the whole vocabulary to the kind of workingclass radical labor. Think that is an extremely important issue and that this kits to report from the peoples reaction is that we are still in a process of searching for the language by which we can describe the political and social and economic reality that we are enduring and how to respond. I think at the center of that revolution and form and style was a genuine anger, our righteous indignation, the conditions of the people that he was fundamentally working alongside and struggling along side with. Plain speech, frank speech, speech that is unafraid, the language of the great victoria garcia and malcolm x. It cuts through the jargon. It does not remain there because it articulates a vision so that there is an alternative. That is what is lacking. Part of the problem is when we do have persons with those voices what happens . Well, paine went to jail and london, pushed out, 11 months in prison in paris, makes and out. When he comes back here he has a critique of George Washington, even joker religion in the midst of the first awakening and is completely pushed aside. Oftentimes persons who have these voices are either in prison, incarcerated, live on to character assessment it will literally assessment it or just boost to the margins. [applause] we can go on and on and on in this regard. The challenges hell were living in a much more cruel to a fascist state. The spies are operating. Your friends to when you thought