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Today, Michael Moore's film, Capitalism: A Love Story, opens in theatres nationwide. It will be shown on over 1,000 screens and there will be free screenings in some of the poorest cities across the country for the homeless and the poor.
Moore's film makes you want to get out there and fight the power. And judging by the looks of things, Americans overwhelmingly need to fight the power. Not later next week. Not next month. But now.
In Chicago, on September 25th, I was present for a screening that Michael Moore attended. In addition to members of the general public, Moore graciously invited the Republic Windows workers and others from the United Electrical Workers union in Chicago to see the film.
The story of the Republic Windows workers challenging the shut down of their factory is featured. The workers saw that they were being wronged when they were not given sixty days notice that the factory would be closing. They were not given terms for severance pay either.
Clear violations of the contract produced an event that should have rippled through the poor and working class of America. Every individual should have seen the power of unity among working folk in the workplace.
This is the antidote that Michael Moore prescribes throughout the film. He prescribes that Americans come together with their fellow man in the workplace and in their community to effect change and empower themselves.
Moore's film shows the evils of capitalism through situations involving foreclosures, privatization of prisons, "dead peasant" policies, Congress, etc.
Underneath all of the research and anecdotes that come out of the film Moore is really suggesting that every American deserve an "adequate standard of living" -- the right to food, shelter, water, clothing, and health.
These standards of living cannot be maintained in a society that bases itself on capitalism. Greed and the for-profit motives that drive those who grease and move the wheels of capitalism do not and will never allow for the system to benefit all. That would place a limitation on profit and would significantly diminish what could be taken.
Through stories of workers and members of communities standing up to foreclosure, Moore encourages a bottom-up response to all the inequities capitalism creates. This is the quickest way for Americans to begin to challenge and roll back the power that capitalists have gained over the past decades.
Unfortunately, some of the poorest and hardest working Americans may be a bit dazed and confused in the final portion of the film as Moore introduces the hero he hopes will save Americans from the robbers and barons, which have driven this country into ruin. That hero is Barack Obama.
To be fair, up to this point, Moore has done everything a film should do to communicate how capitalism is the root of many of societies ills and problems. And, Moore hasn't just suggested how history has been kind to capitalism in America but he has shown how, in the past few years, capitalism can be implicated for causing societal woes. This is Moore's "magnum opus" as other reviews have suggested.
But, what makes a person think that, after almost a year since his election, Barack Obama is going to stand up for the poor, working, and middle class? What makes one think he is going to do anything to radically change the dynamics of power in business and the workplace?
What makes one come to the conclusion that Obama is going to take casino capitalists on Wall Street and greedy corporations who have an utter disdain for democracy and human rights and tell them it's a new day for America and this is how things are going to be?
If capitalists are in love with their money, than liberals and progressives and indeed most Americans are in love with their presidents.
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