They must solidify market share in the realm of ideas and grow, wherever and whenever possible, or go bankrupt. Delineated by ideas which can build capital enough for the acquisition of more power, and those which might unbind power, political parties are tethered to the same basic operating principles of any capitalist enterprise. As CrimethInc illustrated some time ago, in this market ideas function similar to currency. Politics, at its barest, is a market characterized by power-and the struggle for how power will be distributed. We merely perceive the two parties as markedly different because of the degree to which the spectrum of possibilities has been narrowed.
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And both are controlled by a plutocratic elite who have discovered what Escobar learned in his early twenties, that competition is best neutralized by eliminating all possible outliers. That's because the reality is, rather than arch rivals, liberals and conservatives are two factions of the same team. electorate have consistently diminished the potential for a freer America. The two dominant machines steering the U.S. Few organizations have pervasively and durably monopolized a market as well as America's Republican and Democratic parties. Escobar knew, by controlling every possible link in the drug chain from production to retail, he could corral suppliers under a single umbrella, dictate the price of his product, and severely limit any would-be competitors from challenging his power.Įscobar was not alone in learning from the strategies of corporate giants. Dubbed the Medellin drug cartel, his international cocaine operation grew to prominence functioning similarly to the corporations which dominate today's global economy. Before he died he had amassed an organization of state-like power, challenging, in fact, the government of Columbia itself over the question of its extradition policies-and winning. If you’d like to help, you can donate to their Patreon account.Cartel: An association of manufacturers or suppliers with the purpose of maintaining prices at a high level and restricting competition.Ī little over two decades ago, on December 2, 1993, the principle engineer of Colombia's infamous cocaine empire, Pablo Escobar, was killed while fleeing police on the barrio rooftops of his hometown, Medellin. The filmmaker is currently seeking donations to fund this series. I should also stress that Gangsters includes some truly remarkable and harrowing footage of labor strikes and battles between workers and police (especially during the pivotal year of 1934), much of which was only made available in the last few years.” We can thank these activists for the very existence of the American middle class.
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Here, I cover a number of militant, highly organized and often ingenious labor actions that collectively compelled great changes at the state level.
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Oftentimes it was more a case of one step forward, two steps back. With some notable exceptions, most of the strikes I covered in parts 1-3 merely set the stage for the next phase of labor struggle - they didn’t usually result in triumphant victories.
#Plutocracy political repression in the u.s.a series#
“More than any other entry in the series so far, this film is directly relevant to current events. Part IV is titled “Gangsters of Capitalism.” Scott Noble writes of Part IV: Part II,”Solidarity Forever,” covers the late 19th Century to the early twenties. Plutocracy: Divide et Impera (Divide and Rule) includes sections on Mother Jones, the American Constitution the Civil War draft riots Reconstruction Industrialization the evolution of the police the robber barons early American labor unions and major mid-to-late 19th Century labor events including the uprising of 1877, the Haymarket Affair, the Homestead strike and the New Orleans General Strike. The introduction examines the West Virginian coal wars of the early 20th Century, culminating in the Battle of Blair Mountain. A multi-part series by filmmaker Scott Noble, Part I focuses on the the ways in which the American people have historically been divided on the basis of race, ethnicity, sex and skill level. Plutocracy is the first documentary to comprehensively examine early American history through the lens of class.