Michael D. Yates

Some essays were pretty good, some were more like rants. None were amazing. The Navarro essay about the stark contrast between neoliberal policies and theory is an important analysis (can be found in Montly Review), and Jancius' "Class for a Downwardly Mobile Generation" is a nice essay for academics to read, contrasting her personal struggle with the ivory tower and the "real life" of the working class. The book offers some nice support for returning the public debate back to a Marxist position on class, and away from identity politics of race and gender, while at the same time recognizes that each of these are intertwined.… (más)

Yates' book "Naming the System" is a valiant attempt to explain the failures, contradictions and problems of modern globalized capitalism in terms understandable to every layman. By and large, he has succeeded, though there are some flaws.

His strongest point is reconciling the arguments against the orthodox neoclassical theory of "more free markets = better" with the 'facts on the ground', in the form of valuable statistics and examples from practical experience. He enthousiastically destroys the reformist view of capitalism as followed by many social-democrats and current-day labor union leaders just as much as the libertarian approach. In addition to that, he gives a worthwhile overview of the Marxist interpretation of capitalism and why it is better able to explain certain commonplace phenomena in firm practice than the neoclassicals. Finally, he gives a non-too-critical overview of the great variety of leftist anti-capitalist movements in the world today and some general perspectives on their success, though all this is very vague.

The books great benefits are the easy to understand ways in which he shows the workings of capitalism in the many kinds of injustice felt by (young) leftist-inclined people, giving them a more solid ground for their critiques. However, this accessible approach is also the big downside to Yates' work: "Naming the System" is not in-depth at all, its wording is a little simplistic and childish sometimes, and it is virtually useless to those who already have a basic Marxist understanding of the capitalist world. Nevertheless, the book is worth four stars for its excellent utility as an education book on the Marxist approach for young people (high school and students), much like Naomi Klein's book was for the anti-branding movement.… (más)