Immanuel Wallerstein talked to an audience of 500 people at the Old
Student Union House in Helsinki on Wednesday, March 5, 2008. The presentation
was part of an event Capitalism ’08. The possibilities of a freer future.
The topic of Immanuel Wallerstein’s lecture was The chaotic state of
the world system. Wallerstein predicted that capitalism is drifiting
toward its end – not through a revolution – but because the system is
not profitable enough for the capitalists themselves. According to
Wallerstein, the reason for this is that the price of labour has been
increasing since the birth of capitalism around the 15th century.
The event took place at the old student house which was one of the main venues of the 1968 radical student
movement in Finland. Other international speakers of the event were
Rodrigo Nunes, Ruth Reitan and Peter Waterman.
The event was organized by Left Forum, Attac at the University of
Helsinki, Political Science Department of the University of Helsinki,
NIGD, KSL Civic Association for Adult Learning, Finnish Construction
Trade Union, Le monde diplomatique (Finland) and Demokratiafoorumi VK.
