“Meticulously researched… absolutely brilliant on numerous levels, Scott Noble’s Plutocracy series is the story of the American working class. It is also the story of the brutal repression American workers have suffered in their courageous struggle for human rights, dignity, and in some cases – revolution. Bringing an unapologetically pro-working-class viewpoint to his analysis, Noble vividly dramatizes entire epochs in American history, paying special attention to the ways in which workers have been ‘divided and conquered’ according to race, sex, skill and other attributes. The series also explores a number of highly inspiring episodes whereby everyday people struggled and triumphed against all odds..." - Sharon Smith, Labor Historian, Author Subterranean Fire: A History of Working Class Radicalism in the United States
Another exceptional series in four parts from the films of documentary filmmaker Scott Nobel of Metanoia-Films.org, with resource sources listed. Watch it here, at Metanoia-Films.org, or on Vimeo. Colorado Public Television also hosted the first half of the series in March, 2017: Part 1 and Part 2.
Literally "wealth" [Greek ploutos - as in Pluto, lord of the Underworld, where precious metals are found] conjoined with "rule" [kratos], plutocracy is the inevitable result of capitalism: rule by those who strive for wealth (by whatever means) and its inherent power over others.
PART 1: Divide et Impera
"I can hire one-half of the working class to kill the other half." - Jay Gould
"The movie assembles a rich historical mosaic which examines the constitutional roots of democratic elitism in the United States, the subsequent emergence of the labor movement during industrialization, and the various schemes employed by private capital to sabotage popular mobilization....If Plutocracy offers a lesson it’s this: history reveals that the business elite and their political intermediaries in government only made genuine concessions when labor forced them to." - Bill Blunden, CounterPunch
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PART 2: Solidarity Forever
When the union's inspiration through the workers' blood shall run
There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun
Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one
For the Union makes us strong
[Chorus]
Solidarity forever, solidarity forever
Solidarity forever
For the Union makes us strong
- Ralph Chaplin, "Solidarity Forever"
Picking up where Part 1 ended, Part 2 concentrates on workers overcoming divisions and joining ranks to confront capital.
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PART 3: Class War
"Plutocracy III: Class War, in the best tradition of Howard Zinn and other "people's historians," is a sobering, compelling and inspiring look at U.S. history from the bottom up, centered around the fiery struggles of the working class and the downtrodden....The film includes fascinating commentary from movement activists, writers and labor historians such as Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Brian Jones, Justin Akers Chacon and Peter Rachleff, juxtaposing analysis and anecdotal, with stirring imagery from past struggles." - Teamsters Local 810, SocialistWorker.org
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PART 4: Gangsters for Capitalism
GANGSTERS FOR Capitalism brings...stories viscerally to life with lessons that should give socialists great hope today--the most important being that we should never underestimate the ability of the working class to move into motion to demand social justice. The victories of the early 1930s are a profound demonstration of working-class self-activity and revolutionary leadership in a period that until then seemed decidedly bleak.
While society has greatly evolved over the last 85 years, the fundamental element separating the rich from the rest of us--class inequality--still exists in spades. Noble's work in the Plutocracy series highlights the most powerful weapon oppressed people have: class organization, and the power that can be leveraged through such solidarity and unity. - Teamsters Local 810, SocialistWorker.org
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