ABSTRACT
The background against which Richard Wolff develops his analysis is United States politics, described as tainted by illegal party and campaign financing, corporate lobbying and little worker participation. Wolff suggests creating a system of worker-run enterprises, i.e. workers’ self-directed enterprises (WSDEs) discussed against the backdrop of Karl Marx’s ‘class analysis’ and production, appropriation and distribution theory. A system of WSDEs would give workers the right to appropriate and distribute the surpluses earned, and hence create the assumptions for the extinction of the State theorised by a number of Marxists. The model to be set against capitalism in Wolff’s approach is a mix of numerous basic components. The corporate organisation model should democracy and break up the capitalist class structure that currently enables one part of the population to exploit the subordinate class by using its services. In a system of WSDEs, ownership rights may be structured in different ways.
