Welcome to FREE: The Forum for Real Economic Emancipation.In our first episode, Clara Mattei dismantles one of the biggest myths in economics: the idea of a “free market.”We dive deep into:✔ Why the free market is a myth and what really sustains it✔ How inequality isn’t an accident, but part of the system’s design✔ Why mainstream economics keeps us powerlessClara also reflects on her conversation with Jon Stewart and why knowledge must serve change—not protect the status quo.📌 Subscribe for more conversations on economic justice, democracy, and building a future beyond austerity.https://freefreeforum.org#FREEForum #claramattei #freepodcast #jonstewart #free #capitalorder #economics #austerity #inequality #capitalism

In this episode of the FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation) podcast, hosts Claire and Professor Ibrahim Shikaki, an associate professor of economics at Trinity College and an expert on the political economy of Palestine, delve into the economic dimensions of the crisis in the region. They discuss Professor Shikaki's paper, "Weaponizing Economics Against Palestine," and explore how economics as a discipline can mystify the true nature of events. The conversation uses dependency theory as a framework to explain how the Global North's wealth is built on the systemic extraction of resources from the Global South.

Key topics include:

• Historical Context: The discussion traces the origins of economic dependency back to the British Mandate, where policies encouraged Jewish emigration and shifted the weight of industrial production through concessions to Zionist organizations, changes in tax collection, and manipulation of tariffs.

• Post-1967 Occupation: The hosts and guest examine how the Israeli occupation after 1967 implemented military orders to restrict Palestinian industry, confiscate land, and create a dependent economy. This led to a significant portion of the Palestinian labor force working in the Israeli construction sector. The hosts discuss how Israel benefits from this arrangement by exploiting cheap labor and using the Palestinian territories as a supplementary market and a resource for factors of production.

Why is austerity always the answer, and who does it really serve?

In this explainer, economist Clara Mattei, executive director of the Forum for Real Economic Emancipation (FREE), breaks down the political logic of austerity, not as a budgeting mistake, but as a tool of systemic control. From slashed food stamps to rising interest rates, from military expansion to mass unemployment, austerity isn’t about scarcity. It’s about power.

Mattei reveals how fiscal, monetary, and industrial austerity function together to keep the majority dependent on markets, wages, and private capital — all while funneling wealth to the top. This isn’t just policy. It’s a global project of exploitation and repression.

🔍 Topics Covered:

• What austerity really means (and why it’s so rarely defined)

• The truth behind budget cuts and rising debt

• How austerity fuels inequality, militarism, and authoritarianism

• Connections between the Global South, interest rates, and structural theft

• Why the wage labor system must be protected — at any cost

• Historical roots: from Mussolini’s Italy to modern neoliberalism

📌 Subscribe for more conversations on economic justice, democracy, and building a future beyond austerity. Find out more: ⁠ https://freefreeforum.org/

✨ Stay tuned. Stay questioning. Stay FREE.

#Austerity #ClaraMattei #EconomicJustice #Capitalism #Inequality #FreeForum #SystemicChange #WageLabor #Neoliberalism #PoliticalEconomy

Produced by Better Worlds™ and Fast Content®

Economists Clara Mattei and Richard D. Wolff break down why capitalism has failed to deliver on its promises of liberty, equality, and democracy. From the hidden coercion of the labor market to the politics of inflation and unemployment, they expose how the system sustains inequality — and explore how worker cooperatives could offer a real path to economic emancipation.

📚 Richard Wolff’s latest book: Understanding CapitalismCheck out:  @democracyatwrk 

& https://www.democracyatwork.info/🎙️ Learn more about FREE at: https://freefreeforum.org

#richardwolff #democracyatwork #capitalism #marxism #inflation

Why do endless wars, austerity, and genocide continue — even when people everywhere demand peace and justice? This video explains the deep economic logic behind militarism, showing how capitalism and austerity are structurally tied to war spending.Drawing on Antonio Gramsci’s warning against indifference, the talk reveals how profit motives fuel violence in Gaza, Sudan, and beyond, while governments prioritize arms industries and surveillance over human needs. From record-breaking military budgets to soaring weapons stock prices, we connect the dots between economic structures and systemic violence — and why young generations are demanding divestment.This is part of FREE: The Forum for Real Economic Emancipation, a space for confronting the truths about how our economic system really works — and how we can change it.#Militarism #Capitalism #Austerity #Gaza #Sudan #AntiWar #Gramsci #FREEForum #Divestment #WarEconomy

Corruption isn’t a scandal, it’s the law.Economist Clara Mattei and political theorist Camila Vergara expose how our democracy is designed to protect the wealthy. The constitution itself sets the rules of the game, rules that funnel power upward, reproduce inequality, and leave people powerless.This is legal corruption: not against the law, but because of the law. From elections that don’t change power to laws that put profit over people, they show why inequality isn’t an accident, it’s intentional.👉 If you’ve ever wondered why democracy feels broken, why the 1% keeps winning, and why real change feels impossible, this conversation makes it clear.Topics we cover:What “systemic corruption” really meansWhy elections deepen inequality instead of fixing itHow the constitution was designed to keep people from powerWhy democracy in practice is an oligarchic democracyWhat breaking the narrative could mean for the futureClara Mattei • Camila VergaraForum for Real Economic Emancipation (FREE)❤️ Subscribe for more conversations on democracy, justice, and economic emancipation:https://youtube.com/@FreeFreeForum📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org/campaigns/support-free-today

🌍 Connect with FREESubstack: https://substack.com/@freefreeforumX: https://x.com/freefreeforumBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforumTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum

Why does democracy feel powerless against billionaires, war, and corruption?We all feel it: democracy doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to. The wealth of the few grows, while the majority struggles to survive. Wars rage, children starve, and our voices barely register.In this first FREE Forum event, political theorist Camila Vergara and economist Clara Mattei expose how oligarchy isn’t an accident, it’s built into the rules of our system.From famine in Gaza to the concentration of wealth in the U.S., they show why oligarchy thrives, and how democracy from below can defeat it. This conversation is about reclaiming power from the few, and building people-led alternatives from the ground up.👉This isn’t about left vs. right. It’s about power: who has it, how they keep it, and how we take it back.❤️ Subscribe for more conversations on democracy, justice, and economic emancipation:https://youtube.com/@FreeFreeForum📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org/campaigns/support-free-today#Oligarchy #Democracy #ClaraMattei #CamilaVergara #FREEForum #SystemicCorruption #peoplepowerPODCAST LINKS:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/free-with-clara-mattei/id1828302105Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5m5xbrPzTSmdGZFQuZP7ZCSOCIAL LINKS:Substack: https://substack.com/@freefreeforumX: https://x.com/freefreeforumBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforumTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum

What if capitalism didn’t replace slavery, what if it scaled it? This talk uncovers how plantation slavery powered global capitalism, why “legal corruption” is written into the rules, and how austerity and militarism keep exploitation alive today. Economist David McNally, Clara Mattei, and Rep. Michelle McCane reveal why the system is rotten at its core, and why freedom has always been won from below, not gifted from above.❤️ Subscribe for more conversations on democracy, justice, and economic emancipation: https://youtube.com/@FreeFreeForum 📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 📖 Learn more in David McNally’s new book Slavery and Capitalism: A New Marxist History🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org/campaigns/support-free-today Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/RcE-4GT7C_o#slavery #Capitalism #Exploitation #Corruption #Austerity #Militarism #Democracy #FreeForum 🌍 Connect with FREE Substack: https://substack.com/@freefreeforum X: https://x.com/freefreeforum Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforum Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum.

What if slavery wasn’t America’s past, but capitalism’s business model?Historian David McNally (author of Slavery and Capitalism: A New Marxist History) joins economist Clara Mattei to uncover how plantation slavery powered global capitalism, why coercion (not “free markets”) is the system’s core, and how exploitation survives today through austerity and war, from the shop floor to Gaza. We explore:• Slavery as modern business, the roots of today’s exploitation• Enslaved people’s stolen labor as the engine of modern wealth• Why “innovation” means faster extraction of unpaid labor• Austerity as state-enforced market dependence• Militarism as permanent demand (and profit)• Resistance from below, freedom won, not givenThis conversation breaks the Lincoln myth, centers enslaved people’s self-emancipation, and asks what real freedom requires now.❤️ Subscribe for more conversations on democracy, justice, and economic emancipation:   / @freefreeforum  📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 📖 Learn more in David McNally’s new book Slavery and Capitalism: A New Marxist History:https://www.ucpress.edu/books/slavery...🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org🎧 Listen as a Podcast Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5m5xbrP...#Slavery #Capitalism #Exploitation #Resistance #Austerity #Militarism #DavidMcNally #ClaraMattei #FreeForum🌍 Connect with FREE Substack: https://substack.com/@freefreeforum X: https://x.com/freefreeforum Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforu... Instagram: / freefreeforum TikTok: / freefreeforum Facebook: / freefreeforum

In this illuminating conversation, renowned historian Adam Tooze joins economist Clara Mattei to dissect the complex political economy of war and reconstruction. They explore how cycles of destruction and rebuilding can create profitable opportunities, moving beyond any single conflict to analyze broader patterns of capitalism. In this conversation:• The economic dynamics of post-conflict reconstruction and "peace plans."• How profit models can be built into both destruction and rebuilding.• The growing role of technocracy, AI governance, and the illusion of expertise.• The intersection of austerity, militarism, and the global cycle of profit through catastrophe. About the SpeakersAdam Tooze: Author of Crashed, Shutdown, and The Wages of Destruction.Clara Mattei: Economist and author, joining to provide further analysis.❤️ Support our mission for democracy, justice, and economic emancipation by subscribing to the Free Free Forum: https://youtube.com/@FreeFreeForum📖 Read Adam Tooze's Chartbook: https://adamtooze.substack.com/🎧 Listen to the Ones & Tooze podcast - https://www.youtube.com/@Foreign-Policyhttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ones-and-tooze/id1584397047foreignpolicy.com📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org/campaigns/support-free

In this full interview on the climate crisis, capitalism, and fossil fuels, journalist and academic Andreas Malm (How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Overshoot) joins economist Clara Mattei on the FREE Podcast to explain why capitalism keeps expanding fossil fuels, war, and risky climate “tech fixes” even as global warming passes critical limits.In this video, you’ll learn:• Why fossil fuel expansion keeps growing in the US, Europe, and the Global North after 1.5°C• How banks, asset managers, and sunk costs lock us into “business as usual” fossil fuel infrastructure• How the fossil economy is tied to militarism, colonialism, Gaza, and Palestine• Why geoengineering (solar radiation management, “parasol” schemes) is so dangerous, including the risk of “termination shock”• Two clashing “realisms”: one that protects capital, one that protects life and the climate• What climate justice movements in Colombia, Ecuador, Indigenous struggles, and Palestine are already doing to fight backThis is not a doom scroll. It’s a clear map of the madness — and of the people trying to shut it down at the root.#AndreasMalm #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism #FossilFuels #Geoengineering #stardust #Overshoot #claramattei #freepodcast ❤️ Subscribe for more conversations on democracy, justice, and economic emancipation:https://youtube.com/@FreeFreeForum📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org/campaigns/support-free🎧 Listen as a Podcast Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/free-with-clara-mattei/id1828302105Connect with FREE: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforum Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum00:00:00 - Introduction00:01:09 - Capitalism and Climate Change00:02:03 - State of Affairs00:02:11 - Investment in Fossil Fuels00:03:51 - Breaking with Mitigation00:04:54 - Sunk Costs00:05:24 - Structural Inertia00:08:55 - Militarism and Climate Change00:10:06 - Colonial Fossil Fuel Expansion00:13:49 - Need for Radical Action00:14:27 - Contrasting Realism00:20:00 - Solar Geoengineering Technology00:20:42 - Solar Geoengineering Technology and Its Dangers00:23:26 - Role of Grassroots Opposition00:25:04 - Colombia: A Beacon of Hope00:28:30 - International Solidarity and Future Actions00:31:42 - Conclusion

America didn’t stumble into mass incarceration: it starved security (housing, healthcare, income support, childcare, mental health care) and funded punishment (policing, surveillance, prosecution, long sentences) to keep people insecure, compliant, and controllable — and to protect wealth & power.In the United States, poverty, trauma, and even basic survival are treated as crimes and the response our government funds is punishment, not care. This live forum brings together economist John Clegg, organizer aurelius miles francisco, and Lacreshia Jackson a mother who survived incarceration to explain how that happened, who benefits, and what real safety could look like instead.Economist John Clegg, organizer aurelius miles francisco, and advocate Lacreshia Jackson What you’ll learnWhy U.S. mass incarceration = austerity policy and social controlHow local vs. state incentives + prosecutorial power turbocharged prison growthWhere private profit fits (and doesn’t) in the punishment ecosystemWhy LWOP = death by incarcerationTransformative justice strategies that create real securityIf this challenged what you thought you knew, subscribe, share, and join the conversation.❤️ Subscribe for more conversations on democracy, justice, and economic emancipation:https://youtube.com/@FreeFreeForum📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org/campaigns/support-free🎧 Listen as a Podcast Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/free-with-clara-mattei/id1828302105Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5m5xbrPzTSmdGZFQuZP7ZC#MassIncarceration #Justice #EconomicJustice #RestorativeJustice #MutualAid #FREEForum #ClaraMattei #JohnClegg Connect with FREE: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforum Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum

“It’s not a crime to be poor — but in America, it’s becoming one.”Economist Clara Mattei sits down with housing organizer Rob Robinson to expose how poverty has been turned into a business model — and why capitalism depends on keeping people poor.From unaffordable rents and the “shelter industry” to laws that criminalize homelessness, this conversation reveals a system that punishes people for being poor while rewarding those who profit from their suffering.🔹 How the U.S. made homelessness a business worth billions🔹 The truth behind “shelter non-profits” and poverty profiteering🔹 Why public housing was dismantled — and what could replace it🔹 The Supreme Court’s ruling that made poverty a crime🔹 How communities are reclaiming land, housing, and dignity“You’re homeless because you don’t have a home,” says Robinson. “Not because you failed.”❤️ Subscribe for more conversations on democracy, justice, and economic emancipation:https://youtube.com/@FreeFreeForum📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org/campaigns/support-free#Poverty #Homelessness #Capitalism #EconomicJustice #ClaraMattei #RobRobinson #freeforum Connect with FREE: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforum Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum

Inflation & the cost of living crisis are not just numbers on a chart, they are political choices about who gets squeezed and who is protected.In this SAPE lecture, economists Paulo dos Santos (The New School for Social Research) and Ramaa Vasudevan (Colorado State University) unpack today’s inflation as a social and political phenomenon. They trace how supply shocks, corporate profits, and central bank decisions turn wages, debt, and rising prices into a cost of living crisis and what a fairer response could look like.

📘 Organized by SOAS/School of London in partnership with the New School for Social Research, FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation), and the General Federation of Trade Unions.⏰ All SAPE sessions are completely free and open to all.Wednesdays, 6–8 PM UK, 1–3 PM ET, 12–2 PM CT📩 Sign up to join upcoming SAPE events live:https://tinyurl.com/sape-registration#Inflation #CostOfLivingCrisis #PoliticalEconomy❤️ Subscribe for more conversations on democracy, justice, and economic emancipation:https://youtube.com/@FreeFreeForum📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org/campaigns/support-free

Wall Street, banks, and corporate landlords have found a way to make more money from empty homes than from housing people. That’s why your rent keeps going up while whole buildings sit dark.In this conversation, economist Clara Mattei and urbanist Miguel Robles-Durán unpack how the modern housing crisis is driven by the financialization of housing. They explain how banks, asset managers, and corporate landlords turned homes into collateral and global investment vehicles, why empty apartments can be more profitable than housing people, and why the usual answers like “just build more supply” do not fix a system that keeps rents high.• How changes in banking let investors use homes as collateral and build huge portfolios• Why vacancy, speculation, and ghost apartments are baked into the model• How this affects tenants, communities, and entire cities• Real alternatives, from cooperative housing and social rent to public and non speculative models that already exist in places like Mexico and UruguayIf you have ever wondered why your rent goes up while so many homes stay empty, this conversation opens up the bigger story behind the housing crisis.#affordablehousing #HousingCrisis #Rent #WallStreet #Financialization #housingjustice #Landlord #CooperativeHousing #PublicHousing #ClaraMattei #MiguelRoblesDuran #FREEForum

We grow enough food to feed everyone, yet hunger keeps rising. Raj Patel explains how the capitalist food system produces “cheap food”, making hunger predictable, and profitable.In this conversation, we start with one unforgettable symbol, the chicken nugget, and use it to expose the “nugget economy”, how costs get pushed onto workers, land, health, and the climate so corporations can sell food that looks “cheap” at the register.If you have ever wondered how we can have full shelves and empty stomachs at the same time, this episode gives you the mechanism, clearly.🔔 Subscribe to FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation) for more deep dives on capitalism, empire, austerity, climate, housing, work, and the struggles from below that change everything.#FoodInsecurity #AffordableFood #RajPatel #ClaraMattei #FoodSovereignty #FoodJustice #FoodDeserts #freeforum 📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org/campaigns/support-free🎧 Listen as a Podcast Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/free-with-clara-mattei/id1828302105Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5m5xbrPzTSmdGZFQuZP7ZCConnect with FREE: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforum Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum

Grace Blakeley joins Clara Mattei to break down how capitalism is actually organized: corporate planning, state power, backdoor bailouts, and imperial extraction that protects profitability.In this conversation, we unpack:• How corporations plan production, labor, and supply chains• How governments enforce the capital order through policy, bailouts, and rules• Why competition gets harsher for everyone without power• What democratic planning can look like, participatory budgeting, co ops, local organizing• How organizing rebuilds agency in a system built to produce disempowermentGrace Blakeley is the author of Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom.🔔 Subscribe to FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation)#GraceBlakeley #Capitalism #Imperialism #PoliticalEconomy #MonopolyCapital #VultureCapitalism #claramattei 📌 Watch, share, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://freefreeforum.betterworld.org/campaigns/support-freeConnect with FREE: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforum Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum

Green colonialism is when “climate solutions” become a new extraction economy, land grabs, debt, and profit, dressed in green. Who profits, who pays, and what does climate justice require?In this episode, Clara Mattei speaks with Hamza Hamouchene, North Africa Programme Coordinator at the Transnational Institute and editor of Dismantling Green Colonialism.Together, they unpack how colonialism, imperial power, and fossil capitalism shape the climate crisis and the politics of the green transition — and why liberation and climate justice are inseparable in practice.In this conversation:• Green colonialism, in plain terms• Why mainstream climate policy keeps circling market solutions, and why emissions keep rising• Green grabbing and public private partnerships, how risk gets socialized while profits stay private• Climate reparations vs climate debt, and how dependency gets reproduced• Delinking, sovereignty, and what an anti imperial climate strategy looks like• Why liberation movements connect across regions, and what history teaches about anti colonial struggle• How western media narratives about democracy get mobilized to sell war, sanctions, and intervention🔔 Subscribe to FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation) @FreeFreeForum#GreenColonialism #ClimateJustice #EnvironmentalJustice #GreenTransition #PoliticalEconomy #Decolonization #CarbonMarkets #Imperialism❤️ Watch, learn more, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://www.freefreeforum.org/donate🎧 Listen as a PodcastApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/free-with-clara-mattei/id1828302105Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5m5xbrPzTSmdGZFQuZP7ZC▶ Connect with FREELinktree:: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforumBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum

Economics is political. The “neutral” rules of the economy shape who has power, who gets protected, You can vote, work hard, do everything “right”, and still feel stuck. That’s not a personal failure, it’s how the system is built.In this special episode, economist Clara E. Mattei joins Richard D. Wolff to discuss her new book Escape from Capitalism, and how power hides inside “normal” economic rules, wages, debt, taxes, and public budgets.This is a sharp, accessible conversation about why economics is political, how “freedom” can mask coercion, and what it takes to build real democratic power.In this conversation, Mattei and Wolff unpack:• How “freedom” can hide coercion in everyday life• Why wages, debt, taxes, and public budgets shape what feels possible• How “tight budgets” and cutbacks discipline the majority, while protecting the few• Why blaming “bad leaders” misses the deeper mechanics• Why organizing and new forms of democratic participation matter📚 Get Clara Mattei’s book Escape from Capitalism(US, Simon and Schuster): https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Escape-from-Capitalism/Clara-E-Mattei/9781668085141(UK, Penguin): https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/468201/escape-from-capitalism-by-mattei-clara-e/9780241742181📘 Richard Wolff’s book https://www.democracyatwork.info/understanding_capitalism🔗 Follow Democracy at Work  @democracyatwrk  https://www.democracyatwork.info/🔔 Subscribe to FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation)  @FreeFreeForum ❤️ Watch, learn more, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://www.freefreeforum.org/donate#EscapeFromCapitalism #ClaraMattei #RichardWolff #PoliticalEconomy #DemocracyAtWork #Economics #Capitalism 🎧 Listen as a Podcast Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/free-with-clara-mattei/id1828302105Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5m5xbrPzTSmdGZFQuZP7ZC▶ Connect with FREELinktree:: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforumBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum

AI data centers are swallowing trillions, and many are calling it an AI bubble. This episode asks a sharper question: who absorbs the risk, and who pays when the bet breaks?We follow the engine underneath the hype, the state, the Federal Reserve, tech monopolies, and finance, working together to turn a risky AI bet into protected wins, while shifting the costs onto workers, retirees, communities, and the climate.In this conversation, Clara Mattei is joined by Irai Regmi (writer of Radical Transitions; former researcher at the Roosevelt Institute) to map the machinery behind the boom:• What AI data centers actually are and why they’re treated like a new “asset class”• Why state “intervention” isn’t a rescue. It’s the foundation of accumulation• How the Federal Reserve anchors the financial architecture powering the bailout• How “financial stability” language legitimizes protection for the biggest players• Where the costs hit daily life: layoffs, higher electricity bills, water + grid strain, local damage• The hidden gamble: pensions, retirement security, and the austerity cycle that follows bailouts• AI infrastructure, militarism, and the global alliances forming around profit + power• A vital detour to Nepal: what a youth-led uprising reveals about systemic corruption, state violence, and radicalizationAre AI data centers popping up in your area? Where are you seeing the costs show up first? Power bills, water, layoffs, public budgets, or something else?Get involved:• Irai Regmi’s writing Radical Transitions: https://radicaltransitions.substack.com/• Subscribe to FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation) @FreeFreeForum• Watch, learn more, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org• Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://www.freefreeforum.org/donate🎧 Listen as a PodcastApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/free-with-clara-mattei/id1828302105Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5m5xbrPzTSmdGZFQuZP7ZC▶ Connect with FREELinktree: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforumBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum#AIBubble #DataCenters #FederalReserve

Sudan’s war is being framed as “tribal conflict,” while a profit system extracts gold and moves US weapons through regional pipelines.Human rights lawyer Suad Abdel Aziz (Executive Director, Decolonizing Sudan) explains who benefits, how it works, and what people in the US can do now.In this episode:• UAE gold extraction, smuggling networks, and conflict, resource supply chains• US weapons exports to the UAE and how they reach the RSF (Rapid Support Forces)• Red Sea ports, proxy warfare, and the geopolitical stakes• How sanctions and economic pressure helped set the stage• Practical next steps: UAE arms embargo pressure + boycott toolsGet involved:• Subscribe to FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation) @FreeFreeForum• Watch, learn more, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org• Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://www.freefreeforum.org/donateResources mentioned:• Decolonizing Sudan : https://decolonizesudan.org/• Boycott & Disrupt Toolkit: https://decolonizesudan.org/boycottuae• Support: https://givebutter.com/DecolonizesudanChapters:00:00 The “simple move” that could end this fast00:23 Sudan’s hidden catastrophe + the media frame01:19 Meet Suad Abdel Aziz (Decolonizing Sudan)02:18 Who profits, and why it’s covered up02:41 UAE gold: stolen resources + extraction04:37 US weapons manufacturers + the pipeline06:21 Boycott toolkit + No Thanks app07:28 Sudan–Palestine links + war economy logic08:14 Red Sea ports + regional proxy strategy10:13 Abraham Accords + foreign policy control11:41 Diaspora dilemma: reform vs intervention13:53 RSF, mercenaries, accountability + command chain19:00 UAE’s proxy-militia playbook beyond Sudan20:13 Uprising roots, sanctions strategy, RSF crackdown25:19 What people in the US can do now (arms embargo + pressure)27:53 Closing: reframe Sudan + solidarity▶ Connect with FREELinktree: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforumBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum#Sudan #UAE #WarProfits

Economist Clara Mattei and tax attorney Bob Lord expose how the US tax code was engineered to build the billionaire oligarchy — and why wealth taxes alone won't fix it.Bob Lord, senior vice president for tax policy at the Patriotic Millionaires and 35-year tax attorney, joins Clara Mattei to break down the mechanics of wealth inequality hiding inside the US tax code — from capital gains and unrealized income to regressive taxation, Social Security caps, and how billionaires legally avoid taxes for decades.The top 0.00001% of Americans — just 19 people — made nearly $1 trillion per year for the past two years. That's not just asset values rising. It's a tax system designed to let billionaire wealth compound tax-free while workers get taxed every two weeks.In this episode of FREE, Bob Lord explains:• How capital gains and unrealized wealth allow billionaires to avoid income tax indefinitely• Why Jeff Bezos paid ~2.4% effective tax rate while his Amazon stock grew 50%+ per year for 32 years• How regressive taxation — Social Security caps, sales taxes, property taxes, fines — extracts wealth from workers while protecting the top• Why eliminating state income and property taxes is the next phase of the wealth transfer• The difference between a wealth tax and fixing the real structural problem• What local organizing and ballot initiatives have accomplished — and what's possible in Tulsa and beyondBob Lord is senior vice president for tax policy at the Patriotic Millionaires and associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. Find out more:  @PatrioticMillionaires  FREE is hosted by Clara Mattei, economist and author of The Capital Order, as seen on Channel 4, Breaking Points, and more.#ClaraMattei #WealthInequality #BillionaireTax #CapitalGains #TaxTheRich #Oligarchy #RegressiveTax #WealthTax #PatrioticMillionaires #BobLord #UnrealizedGains #freepodcast 🔔 Subscribe to FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation) @FreeFreeForum⁩❤️ Watch, learn more, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://www.freefreeforum.org/donateOur Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/freefreeforum▶ Connect with FREELinktree: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforumBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum

00:00:00 - Introduction

00:01:30 - Guest Introduction and Discussion on Tax System

00:05:40 - The Flaw of the U.S. Tax System

00:06:48 - Disproportionate Taxation and Class Differences

00:10:39 - The Role of Tax System in Wealth Inequality

00:14:24 - Understanding Regressive Taxation

00:16:53 - Impact of Regressive Taxation on Consumption

00:22:02 - State Income Tax and the Impact on Middle Class

00:27:55 - The Case of Jeff Bezos: Understanding Effective Annual Rate of Income Tax

00:31:33 - Rationality of Regressive Taxation and its Impact

00:37:02 - Exploring Corporate Taxes, Inheritance Taxation and Offshoring

00:49:36 - Mobilizing the Population for Progressive Taxation

Oxfam reports the super rich in the Global North extracted over $30 million per hour from the Global South in 2024. So why does mainstream economics keep telling these countries they just need better institutions?Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven (Senior Lecturer in International Development, King's College London; co-author of Decolonizing Economics) explains how the economics discipline systematically erases colonialism, imperialism, and uneven development from its models — and what that erasure costs the majority of people on the planet.In this episode of the FREE Podcast (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation), Clara Mattei and Ingrid break down:• How Eurocentrism operates as a structural bias inside economic theory• Why Nobel Prize-winning frameworks like Acemoglu and Robinson still blame the Global South for its own poverty• How "institutional reform" functions as a cover for extraction• The case of Ghana's Ashanti Goldfields: 125+ years of colonialism, financialization, dispossession, and forced mergers• How the IMF, World Bank, and structural adjustment deepen underdevelopment• • International financial subordination: why Global South countries pay more to borrow, hold dollars they don't control, and lose domestic firms to multinational competition• Why development economics narrows the lens to individual behavior instead of confronting the global system• The Nobel Prize in Economics as a political instrument• What decolonizing economics actually requires — and why it's a political project, not an academic exerciseGuest links:📚 Decolonizing Economics: An Introduction — https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=decolonizing-economics-an-introduction--9781509545476📄 Cracks in the Gold Standard (new article on mining & development in Ghana) — https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X25000919🌐 Ingrid's website: https://ingridhk.com/📝 Developing Economics blog: https://developingeconomics.org/🤝 Diversifying and Decolonising Economics (D-Econ): https://d-econ.org/Subscribe for future episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@FreeFreeForumLearn more: https://freefreeforum.orgSupport FREE & Help Us Grow: https://www.freefreeforum.org/donate#decolonizingeconomics #globalsouth #capitalism #imperialism #developmenteconomics #Ghana #NobelPrize #IMF #WorldBank #structuraladjustment #freepodcast #ClaraMattei #economics #unevendevelopment🔔 Subscribe to FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation) @FreeFreeForum⁩❤️ Watch, learn more, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://www.freefreeforum.org/donate🎧 Listen as a PodcastApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/free-with-clara-mattei/id1828302105Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5m5xbrPzTSmdGZFQuZP7ZC▶ Connect with FREELinktree: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforumBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum

Oil just crossed $100 a barrel. The Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed. Gas prices are surging. And the dollar? It's getting stronger — not weaker. That's not a paradox. It's by design.In this episode of the FREE Podcast, economist Clara Mattei sits down with Costas Lapavitsas (Professor of Economics, SOAS University of London) to explain what no mainstream outlet will: the Iran war isn't a disruption to the global economic system — it's a product of it. From the dollar's imperial grip to the hollowing out of US industry to the $2 billion a day being spent on bombs instead of schools, this conversation maps the economic machinery driving the current crisis.Costas brings a new theory of imperialism rooted in Marxian political economy — connecting the financialization of the last four decades, the rise of China, the structural decline of the US as a productive power, and the escalation of militarism that follows when a declining hegemon refuses to let go.In this conversation:• Why the dollar strengthens during war — and who pays for it• Oil at $100+: what breaks next in the global economy• The US spends $2 billion a day on this war — enough to fund free college or universal childcare• How US multinationals hollowed out the domestic economy they claim to defend• Trump as symptom, not author — why this crisis predates and outlasts him• Capitalism and militarism: why markets produce war, not peace• The military-industrial complex: corrupt, inefficient, and structurally incapable of rebuilding US productive power• The WWI analogy: why this moment has no natural point of equilibrium• Why Costas sees hope in American workers and youthGUEST:Costas Lapavitsas is Professor of Economics at SOAS, University of London, and a scholar of contemporary capitalism and imperialism. His latest book is The State of Capitalism (2023). Recent articles include "A Topography of the New Dollar Imperialism" (New Left Review) and "Trump's Chaotic Imperialism" (forthcoming, Socialist Register).Watch Ad-FREE: https://www.patreon.com/freefreeforum🔔 Subscribe to FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation) @FreeFreeForum⁩❤️ Watch, learn more, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://www.freefreeforum.org/donate🎧 Listen as a PodcastApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/free-with-clara-mattei/id1828302105Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5m5xbrPzTSmdGZFQuZP7ZC▶ Connect with FREELinktree: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforumBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum#IranWar #OilPrices #DollarImperialism #Imperialism #StraitOfHormuz #MilitaryIndustrialComplex #ClaraMattei #CostasLapavitsas #PoliticalEconomy #AntiCapitalism #FREEPodcast #EconomicCrisis #USHegemony #GasPrice

Why does the American left keep losing? Roberto Mendoza — 82 years old, six decades of organizing from Alcatraz in 1969 to Standing Rock in 2016 — sits down with economist Clara Mattei to name what he thinks went wrong, and why it keeps going wrong.His answer isn't strategy or messaging. It's values. And Marxism, he argues, still shares too many of them with capitalism.Materialism. Industrialization. Top-down hierarchy. Roberto walks Clara through the three places where the supposed alternative to capitalism ended up reproducing it — why the Soviet Union collapsed under the weight of those contradictions, and why China today is better understood as state capitalism than communism.Then he offers the alternative he's spent decades building: a side-by-side reading of indigenous values against capitalist ones — generosity vs. hoarding, reciprocity vs. extraction, commons vs. private property, direct democracy vs. top-down rule — and points to the Zapatistas in Mexico and Rojava in northern Syria as places where those values are being built into actual institutions.A conversation about what the American left got wrong, what indigenous political thought has always known, and what it would take to build something that doesn't collapse back into what it claimed to oppose.In this conversation:- Why patriarchy was the main weakness of the 1960s and 70s left — including inside the Black Panther Party- How materialism became the shared value between Cold War rivals- Why Soviet planning reproduced capitalist hierarchy- China as state capitalism, not communism- The full indigenous-vs-capitalist values framework- The Zapatistas, Rojava, and Murray Bookchin's communalism- Why small, decentralized, and democratically-controlled beats large and efficient- Standing Rock, Wounded Knee, and the changing strategy of indigenous resistance- Why happiness lives in relationships, not material accumulation🔔 Subscribe to FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation) @FreeFreeForum⁩❤️ Watch, learn more, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://www.freefreeforum.org/donate▶ Connect with FREELinktree: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforumBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum#claramattei #robertomendoza #marxism #indigenouswisdom #politicaleconomy #zapatistas #rojava #freepodcast #leftpolitics

War, austerity, and a political class that offers no way out. What does an actual alternative look like — one that's already being built?Dr. Camila Vergara sits down with Eleanor Finley, author of Practicing Social Ecology (Pluto Press), to trace how democratic, ecological alternatives to capitalism move from theory into practice — from the commons of New England to the municipalities of Burlington, Vermont, to the feminist communes of Rojava in northern Syria.Drawing on Murray Bookchin's intellectual legacy — rooted in Marx, anarchism, indigenous philosophy, and Hannah Arendt — this conversation maps what it takes to build real political power from the ground up: cooperative production, direct democracy assemblies, libertarian municipalism, and the internal transformation required to sustain a movement.In this episode:• What social ecology is and where it comes from• The Burlington Greens, Bernie Sanders, and the limits of electoral politics• How the Rojava revolution built democratic confederalism under siege• Why women's liberation is central to any serious socialist project• The "revolutionary personality" — patience, hope as discipline, conflict resolution• What activists in the US can learn from movements abroadEleanor Finley is a political ecologist and activist. Practicing Social Ecology is out now from Pluto Press.📚 Practicing Social Ecology (Pluto Press): https://www.plutobooks.com/product/practicing-social-ecology/📚 Systemic Corruption (Princeton University Press) https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691207537/systemic-corruption🔔 Subscribe to FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation) @FreeFreeForum⁩❤️ Watch, learn more, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://www.freefreeforum.org/donate▶ Connect with FREELinktree: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForumSubstack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/X: https://x.com/freefreeforumBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforum.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefreeforum/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@freefreeforumFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFreeForum00:00:00 Introduction00:00:39 What Is Social Ecology?00:05:28 Murray Bookchin: Origins and Intellectual Roots00:11:26 Theory Into Practice: Social Ecology as Praxis00:12:24 Agroecology and the Back-to-the-Land Movement00:17:57 Beyond the Garden: The Political Sphere00:19:14 Libertarian Municipalism Explained00:22:35 The Burlington Greens and the Limits of Electoral Politics00:26:33 Rojava: How the Revolution Began00:27:57 Democratic Confederalism: Building Counter-Power00:33:32 Women at the Center of Revolution00:35:51 Production for Need, Not Profit00:37:22 Changing Ourselves to Change the World00:38:22 The Revolutionary Personality00:39:22 Hope as a Political Commitment00:40:54 Responsibility, Conflict Resolution, and the Left00:45:16 Closing Reflections#SocialEcology #DirectDemocracy #Rojava #MurrayBookchin #EleanorFinley #CamilaVergara #PoliticalEconomy #DemocraticConfederalism #FreeFreeForum