Thoughts on production, alienation, and ideology
Check out that productivity and income graphic above. Maybe you’ve all seen it before? I think I’ve seen it a billion times and shared it a million times.
At some intuitive level, we know what it means. Capitalism has screwed American workers for at least 4 decades.
But a lot of people miss the point of the graphic. Let’s talk about what it means and does not mean.
Plenty of people are raising the idea that TSA workers can stop the US government shutdown with a strike. A TSA Strike, so the thought goes, is something that would bring travel to a halt. Travelers would hate it. Companies would hate it. And since most Americans blame Trump for the shutdown, he’d have to fold and reopen the government without getting funding for a wall.
Sounds good. The trouble is that a traditional TSA Strike is illegal. So how would it work?
Let’s look at some options.
W. E. B. Du Bois wrote an article on women’s suffrage in The Crisis in 1914. I’m assuming all of you know who Du Bois was. But if any of you don’t, click the link in the previous sentence. The Crisis is a magazine Du Bois founded and edited for the NAACP.
Du Bois was no stranger to the issue of women’s suffrage, which was a hot political topic in his day. In this particular article, he focused on the relationship between suffrage and race. Especially whether black people should advocate for women’s suffrage even if the vote is extended to only white women.
Du Bois argued they should.
It’s more than 100 years old, and suffrage isn’t exactly a hot topic now. But it’s worth noting that voter suppression and felon disenfranchisement certainly are. Consequently, I think we can learn from his argument and apply it to contemporary issues.
There’s no shortage of anti-capitalist films. But there aren’t many that manage to both present a strong message and perform well critically and financially.
Let’s take a look at 5 anti-capitalist films that did it all. They present coherent messages that explain some aspect of our world, they were good movies, and they made money at the box office.
Source: Democracy Chronicles (https://www.flickr.com/photos/democracychronicles/42715589844)
Jacobin and Current Affairs are in war mode. Their enemy? The centrist wing of the Democratic Party. Their lone, brave soldier? Bernie Sanders. It’s all hands on deck for Bernie 2.0.
At times, they insist that Bernie run in 2020. At other times, it’ s more nuanced. Nathan J. Robinson, in particular, presents Bernie less as the shining knight of Jacobin and more as the best progressive option who also, by the way, happens to have the best chance of defeating Trump.
With Elizabeth Warren officially in the presidential race, it’s all the more pressing an issue.
As leftists, what should we make of all this? Is Sanders the only choice? If so, does that mean we all have to jump on board?
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