On the other end are the struggles of ordinary people to fight
back. From fighting foreclosures in Miami and in Congress to the sit-in
at Republic Windows and Doors and the election of Barack Obama, the
movie points to a way for working America to win dignity and economic
democracy. Seeing on the big screen real life examples of workers in
Wisconsin and California running businesses as cooperatives impresses
the point: the dog eat dog model of corporate and casino capitalism
isn't the only way to run an economy.
Moore has a way of Americanizing radical and socialist ideas,
something that corporate America and anti-worker forces propagandize as
"foreign" and "alien" to the U.S. experience. Yet, as Moore shows, the
ideas of cooperation and solidarity, or the distrust of banks are as
American as apple pie. Moore weaves together key pillars in American
life, religion and patriotism, and reclaims them from the far-right and
other hypocrites who proclaim the holiness of the free enterprise
system. By looking at American history and its institutions, the film
and exposes that radical pro-people and socialist ideals are throughout
the fabric of America.
There is a major omission in the film. As Moore sets up the glory
days of U.S. capitalism in the 1950s and 1960s, showing home movies of
family vacations and narrating about workers who entered the middle
class, there was no mention of what was going on at the same time. That
millions of Americans were locked into poverty and racial apartheid
throughout the South and northern cities. This was a perfect
opportunity to show the underbelly of an economic, social and political
system that still had deep flaws even when parts of the working class
did enter the "middle class."
Plus, U.S. slavery and taking of lands from Native Americans and Mexico
-- and the racial theories and policies that ensued to justify it --
are central to, as Karl Marx and W.E.B. Du Bois put it, "the rosy dawn
of capitalism."
It was surprising since Moore had gone into some of this in Bowling For
Columbine. Moore does include stories of African American and Latino
families along with white families, which leave the viewers with the
notion that we are all in the same boat. And towards the end of the
film in clips of the Civil Rights movement, the huge crowds for Obama
during the elections and the multi-racial workforce at Republic Doors
and Window who heroically stood up to their employer and Bank of
America in December 2008.
For history buffs and serious students of American politics, Moore
offers a newly discovered gem. His crew found never before seen footage
of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt outlining a second Bill of
Rights which would include a right to a job, right to health care,
housing and education, the right of businesses to operate without the
constraints of big monopoly and bank pressures.
Moore said FDR, after giving his last speech to the American people on
the radio, called in the film crew to shoot him outlining such a
far-reaching plan. FDR was ill at the time and died soon after. Moore's
crew tracked down the film sitting in some unmarked box in South
Carolina, Moore said.
At the rally before the march to the Byham Theater, California
Nurses Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro, Mineworkers President Cecil
Roberts, Steelworkers President Leo Gerard and Professional and
Technical Engineers President Greg Junemann fired up the crowd.
To the cheers of the packed ballroom at the David Lawrence Convention
Center, Roberts, a sixth-generation coal miner and orator in the West
Virginia-style of rousing speeches, asked the crowd: When George Bush
or Joe Wilson gets sick, who pays? When ugly Dick Cheney gets sick, who
pays? The crowd shouted: We do! The American people want the same deal,
Roberts said.
An extended standing ovation greeted Moore after the movie showing.
He took questions from the audience. One was on the distribution of the
film. Something, he said, he is always worried about his movies getting
picked up. But judging the reception it got by this working class
audience, there may be money to be made by exposing capitalism, a good
motivation for distributors to pick up this movie.
But for Moore, this movie is certainly a love story -- a love
affair with the power and strength of ordinary American people to make
positive change in our country and world.
Terrie Albano is editor of People's World, http://www.peoplesworld.org.
back. From fighting foreclosures in Miami and in Congress to the sit-in
at Republic Windows and Doors and the election of Barack Obama, the
movie points to a way for working America to win dignity and economic
democracy. Seeing on the big screen real life examples of workers in
Wisconsin and California running businesses as cooperatives impresses
the point: the dog eat dog model of corporate and casino capitalism
isn't the only way to run an economy.
Moore has a way of Americanizing radical and socialist ideas,
something that corporate America and anti-worker forces propagandize as
"foreign" and "alien" to the U.S. experience. Yet, as Moore shows, the
ideas of cooperation and solidarity, or the distrust of banks are as
American as apple pie. Moore weaves together key pillars in American
life, religion and patriotism, and reclaims them from the far-right and
other hypocrites who proclaim the holiness of the free enterprise
system. By looking at American history and its institutions, the film
and exposes that radical pro-people and socialist ideals are throughout
the fabric of America.
There is a major omission in the film. As Moore sets up the glory
days of U.S. capitalism in the 1950s and 1960s, showing home movies of
family vacations and narrating about workers who entered the middle
class, there was no mention of what was going on at the same time. That
millions of Americans were locked into poverty and racial apartheid
throughout the South and northern cities. This was a perfect
opportunity to show the underbelly of an economic, social and political
system that still had deep flaws even when parts of the working class
did enter the "middle class."
Plus, U.S. slavery and taking of lands from Native Americans and Mexico
-- and the racial theories and policies that ensued to justify it --
are central to, as Karl Marx and W.E.B. Du Bois put it, "the rosy dawn
of capitalism."
It was surprising since Moore had gone into some of this in Bowling For
Columbine. Moore does include stories of African American and Latino
families along with white families, which leave the viewers with the
notion that we are all in the same boat. And towards the end of the
film in clips of the Civil Rights movement, the huge crowds for Obama
during the elections and the multi-racial workforce at Republic Doors
and Window who heroically stood up to their employer and Bank of
America in December 2008.
For history buffs and serious students of American politics, Moore
offers a newly discovered gem. His crew found never before seen footage
of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt outlining a second Bill of
Rights which would include a right to a job, right to health care,
housing and education, the right of businesses to operate without the
constraints of big monopoly and bank pressures.
Moore said FDR, after giving his last speech to the American people on
the radio, called in the film crew to shoot him outlining such a
far-reaching plan. FDR was ill at the time and died soon after. Moore's
crew tracked down the film sitting in some unmarked box in South
Carolina, Moore said.
At the rally before the march to the Byham Theater, California
Nurses Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro, Mineworkers President Cecil
Roberts, Steelworkers President Leo Gerard and Professional and
Technical Engineers President Greg Junemann fired up the crowd.
To the cheers of the packed ballroom at the David Lawrence Convention
Center, Roberts, a sixth-generation coal miner and orator in the West
Virginia-style of rousing speeches, asked the crowd: When George Bush
or Joe Wilson gets sick, who pays? When ugly Dick Cheney gets sick, who
pays? The crowd shouted: We do! The American people want the same deal,
Roberts said.
An extended standing ovation greeted Moore after the movie showing.
He took questions from the audience. One was on the distribution of the
film. Something, he said, he is always worried about his movies getting
picked up. But judging the reception it got by this working class
audience, there may be money to be made by exposing capitalism, a good
motivation for distributors to pick up this movie.
But for Moore, this movie is certainly a love story -- a love
affair with the power and strength of ordinary American people to make
positive change in our country and world.
Terrie Albano is editor of People's World, http://www.peoplesworld.org.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
