Capitalism Is the Crisis

Capitalism Is the Crisis

2011, Politics  -   165 Comments
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Ratings: 7.86/10 from 58 users.

Capitalism Is the CrisisCapitalism Is The Crisis: Radical Politics in the Age of Austerity examines the ideological roots of the austerity agenda and proposes revolutionary paths out of the current crisis.

The film features original interviews with Chris Hedges, Derrick Jensen, Michael Hardt, Peter Gelderloos, Leo Panitch, David McNally, Richard J.F. Day, Imre Szeman, Wayne Price, and many more!

The 2008 financial crisis in the United States was a systemic fraud in which the wealthy finance capitalists stole trillions of public dollars. No one was jailed for this crime, the largest theft of public money in history.

Instead, the rich forced working people across the globe to pay for their crisis through punitive austerity programs that gutted public services and repealed workers' rights.

This documentary explains the nature of capitalist crisis, visits the protests against austerity measures, and recommends revolutionary paths for the future.

Special attention is devoted to the crisis in Greece, the 2010 G20 Summit protest in Toronto, Canada, and the remarkable surge of solidarity in Madison, Wisconsin.

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David Dieni
David Dieni
3 years ago

"Any person who willingly submits to the deprivations of capitalist private property must be extraordinarily stupid"

Oscar Wilde
1898

David Dieni
David Dieni
3 years ago

I have been an activist for 25 years and here is the crux of the problem is stupid white people.

Average global GDP growth per annum since WW2 is about 3%
At 3% our economies and demand for energy doubles every 23 years, while 57 of the 65 oil producing nations of the world have used more than half their oil reserves, and as of 2008 oil production went into a permanent 9% decline per annum.

We use 1 billion barrels of oil every 11 days, and for every 6 to 8 barrels of oil we consume, we are producing just one. This is what triggered the war in the middle east and America's reckless attempts to manufacture reasons to attack both Iran and Venezuela, as the USA uses 27% of the world's oil. The remaining oil is sour crude that is far more expensive to mine and refine. This means we cannot meet current economic demands, much less furture demands and as a result, the UN World food organization is now warning of imminent famines of "biblical proportions"

The worst growth figures on record of -0.1% occurred during the great depression and also in 2008. According to the IMF negative growth for 2020 stands at -4.7%.....in other words the world economy is collapsing, it is in free fall, exacerbated by COViD 19.

It is the unparalleled energy density of oil that has fueled the machines that has allowed for
the explosion in human population from a relatively steady 2 billion since the (supposed) birth of Christ to what it is today. As no infrastructure is in place to transfer to renewables, and we do not have the oil reserves to build all the required turbines etc...............

In retrospect, our response as sentient human beings to our government's genocidal invasion of Iraq was the litmus test in our commitment in standing up for the right of all people to live free of oppression and the threat of war. Instead of holding mass murdering genocidal war criminals to account, and preserving our democracy and our own rights at home, we turned our backs on our fellow man and each other, as we have continually sanctioned genocide at the ballot box.

As the chickens now come home to roost, we have no one to blame but ourselves, and our continued failure to act rationally to the threat posed by our insane leaders can only have one outcome.

Andy
Andy
5 years ago

Lot of comments from angry capitalists here. Get ready! We're coming for your toothbrush!

jeremy
jeremy
6 years ago

I understand that we need capitalism to make our economy grow but to what extent should a corporation be able to grow there needs to be caps to how many companies they build or factories to control how much they grow and controlling how much profit they make I believe that socialism with capitalism could work question would be what should be socialism and what should be capitalism and with capitalism there should be regulations to the extent of their growth so that smaller businesses can grow to

Michael
Michael
6 years ago

this doco confuses true capitalism with cronyism, which is what Marxists typically do to demonize capitalism in pursuit of communism. It was cronyism which caused the GFC 2008, will be the cause of the next big crash and is responsible for draining the wealth from the middle classes to enrich the already wealthy classes. The main players in cronyism are the investment banks on Wall Street and government-central banks. Neither contributes anything tangible or productive to our society. The main purpose of the banks is literally to increase their profits which they do by creating currency out of nothing, loaning it to other investors, who in turn gamble it on financial markets, which causes massive inflation, asset bubbles, debt and financial crashes. They reap the rewards from their gambling and easy money creation, while the rest of us get debt and inflation.

mike m
mike m
7 years ago

Because human nature won't look into removing personhood from corporations.
Too lazy, and lazy is human nature.

corynski
corynski
8 years ago

Human nature is the problem.

mike m
mike m
8 years ago

corporation personhood
there's the problem

Dave
Dave
9 years ago

Marx, the silliest father of all silly Marxists, invented the terms "Capitalists", to deride and deflect a free people from the very American term, Free Enterprise. A note to Marx minions, an economic system dependent upon capital ("money" for you minions) is by definition, a capital-ist system. I bet you'd be aghast that Marx would likely be thrilled with today's Big Government and yes, by extension, Crony Capitalism. He was juiced at the thought that a central "authority" that could run all of your asses. But then again, perhaps he was too idealistic to understand that a very powerful government protects only the very powerful. I might have to concede that...

We need a revolution all right...one just like the American Revolution that made possible the greatest advancement in human history. The first limited government that existed by the consent of the governed. A Republic (not Democracy) established to protect, not destroy or confiscate personal property, necessary for an free, enterprising and entrepreneurial people.

But it's too bad we've apparently forgotten the value of freedom & personal responsibility. In ignorance, envy and greed we blather on about fairness and have to a large degree embraced once again, the most dangerous and deadly lie called socialism.

I'm sure I'm assuming a lot here and I'm even more certain I'm being far too generous to suggest that you genius socialists must have shared your hard-won grades at the university with others that were just there for the coeds, pot and beer.
You didn't? Shame on you, you disgusting capitalists...

jtripper
jtripper
9 years ago

Are negative comments trashed on this site?
This film is a piece of Marxist Communist garbage.

jtripper
jtripper
9 years ago

The are really mentally ill people narrating this video.
Rife with conspiracy theories and doom and gloom predictions, none of which have any factual merit, they spout on about the evil empire of rampant capitalism.
The quality of life in the Western world has never been better. Where these fools would take that world would be a dream no one would like to imagine. Think of Pol Pot's Cambodia. China's Red Revolution, Soviet Russia, Castro's Cuba, modern Veneszuela, Zimbabwe, et .al. The perfect Marzist Communist societies. All total failures. Even the hard core Chinese communists have given on the Maxist ideal as being just that, an ideal, functually flawed when applied.
The danger with the message of this film is that that message is being embraced by Western World politicians, media outlets and educators. A message of folly leading to devastating results. What makes these fools think for a moment that their Marxist path to slavery is any better then the Capitaists. On any scale weighing the Western World ideals against third world ideals which would you prefer?
Ah, but sadly the film shows the new path of Marxist Communists. A path where all peoples of the world are equal. Brought to their knees by the weight of of communism. Forced to suffer equally for the right to be human. Equality for all at the expense of all.

TADLONU
TADLONU
10 years ago

This is a great film. I can't understand how "in your face" the corruption is, you can't tell me that millions of people out of work and a few thousand of other people with billions of dollars is good and just how the world works. I really like how it was said in the film "if you can find billions of dollars to bailout the banks "from nowhere" then you can do the same to help the people who are homeless, out of work etc." GREAT STATEMENT!!!!

DIMOJABE
DIMOJABE
10 years ago

I liked it for two reasons:
1) it showed the protests our US media ignored
2) it interviewed someone who actually runs a successful worker coop saying out loud that there has to be a management system for the worker coop to survive

Good music too.

Julien
Julien
11 years ago

I like the fast food protests! Had Martin Luther King, Jr. lived through his poor people's campaign, he would have had every low wage worker walk off the job for days until commerce stopped.

grace&peace
grace&peace
11 years ago

corporations, the wealthy think they are doing well, because they are on the last part of the ship that's going down

Devon Griffiths
Devon Griffiths
11 years ago

As the documentary itself goes, I think it's fairly good, just not in the way the creators intended. It shows the embarrassing state of the only opposition that exists: pedantic professors yakking about Marxism, too eagerly outraged students, and unions chanting "power" in the face of losing their member's elite, privileged position in the workforce. This coalition does not resonate with the public at large, despite the crisis - yet refuses to adapt (predictable, given its composition).

I especially liked the parts where it turned into a sort of music video, romanticizing all this. Another amusing part was where they visited the tent city and talked to the construction worker. Almost the entire film focussed on student loans - this part was just thrown in there in a disconnected way, almost like showing a clip from a wildlife video to prove a point, but without actual concern. Once it was shown, people living in tents didn't come up again, because it was only a side point being made about debt; those people aren't really important except as they relate to the main point about student loans, and how somebody should do something to help those kids get the money to buy enormous homes and expensive cars like their parents.

Nowhere was any sort of solution articulated, the closest it got was a few eulogies for the Washington Consensus and Keynesian economics - a Golden Age when the middle class in the West thrived at the expense of the rest of the planet. Forward to the past!

Marx was right about at least one thing: the middle class is not a revolutionary class, merely afraid of backsliding and having to fall in with the riff-raff. Oh, the indignity!

Bill Young
Bill Young
12 years ago

I think the video was good, felt the same way about the ''Anarchists'' they should've called themselves protestors, which is what most of them were. Other than that it got back on track.

Martin Screeton
Martin Screeton
12 years ago

Excellent Film but went a little off the beaten path with the ramblings of the anarchists :)

stepitup_onenotch
stepitup_onenotch
12 years ago

This is a good film. I wonder why a couple of people who were interviewed on national TV allowed themselves to be called anarchists, such a negative term, it is bound to strike terror in the average citizen, they should refer to themselves as protesters.

Doug D
Doug D
12 years ago

Terrible documentary, if there is a better way to do it then lay it out for us. I as well as any normal person wants a better way to do things, but guess what there isnt one. Do we just keep taxing the working people to pay for the non working people? I have an idea, dont have kids if you cant afford it. Population control should be the topic on everyones mind. Less people means more resources, am I the only one who thinks this?

Kathie Bishop
Kathie Bishop
12 years ago

Amazing contributions by all the key activists!! Accurately describes where we are politically and economically--and that right now we have lost the class war--so we better get with it before we lost it all---

Robert159
Robert159
12 years ago

you have to TAKE it, I know what government is doing is wrong, you know it.
So the question is why do we allow it? for safety? fear of being thrown in a cage?
The war is here ladies and gentlemen either you choose to realize it or not.
the only way to fight back is simply not pay your taxes. claim 10 on you dependents and take your money back.
we have enough numbers. We the People MUST speak NOW!!

Collima
Collima
12 years ago

I just finished watching your documentary, “Capitalism is the Crisis”; I must say that I appreciate being able to view it online.

What I most appreciated was not only was I given an insightful analysis of the development of capitalism, but also some great ideas for implementation for change.

One sentence stood out for me: “all resistance begins with a reorientation of how we relate to the world.” I have heard economics defined as “the relationships between people”. I would reword your statement to: “all resistance begins with a reorientation of how we relate to one another.” It is our wrong relationships with each other that bring disequilibrium to the entire world.

The workers’ cooperatives seem ideal transitions from our current system. When we correct relationships between us, we will be able to provide everyone with everything that we need – all of us around the world. Thanks for giving such great examples!

Kane Sinclair-Sojka
Kane Sinclair-Sojka
12 years ago

A poorly executed documentary. Anyone can gather headline articles and flash them up on the screen in PowerPoint fashion. Didn't get past the ten minute mark.

emenot
emenot
12 years ago

Capitalism is not the cause, its GLOBALIZATION!

Skumbo Gumbo
Skumbo Gumbo
12 years ago

great film, thanks. its good to see a film in this genre that doesnt go too over the top with the conspiracy theory stuff- this is far more grounded in reality than zeitgeist, inside job etc... id recommend

Bilbo Baggins
Bilbo Baggins
12 years ago

More lame internet journalism...

Avoid...

Brad
Brad
12 years ago

This film is mostly talking heads and protest porn.

Joshua Thompson
Joshua Thompson
12 years ago

This documentary is horribly misleading and presents many lies as facts. We have real problems when it comes to loopholes for large corporations, cronyism, the Fed, but this movie goes off the deep end with an extremely liberal agenda.

Please don't waste your time on this.

Mercenarry ForHire
Mercenarry ForHire
12 years ago

If People are not wise it doesn't matter what type of idea they come up with,

You are all Destined for Self-destruction...

Thomas Emmanuel
Thomas Emmanuel
12 years ago

Mark Stouffer:

USSR, China, Cuba ect. was not marxist, communist states. The power was not with the people, but with a few (maybe one) people. What was in those countries was "state capitalism". Read up.

giorgiomax
giorgiomax
12 years ago

Before seeing the video and judging by the cover...

isn't this video like blaming the cars instead of the drivers for the accidents?

If Capitalism is a tool, like a hammer, to create value, and the users use it for smashing other people, then... ahm.., we need to change the hammer for a rope...,??? is this what the video is going to say?

I can't see how people will not shoke other people with the rope.

Every "explanation" or examples I've seen so far in this video have been about PEOPLE doing bad things to other people..., instead of they're UNABLE to do good things.

Are there cars that can stop us if we wanted to crash / kill people if we wanted to?

I do agree that there could be tools that help avoid negative outcomes more than other tools... hmm.., but, does it really worth that "revolution" just to end up with the same people.

I'm pretty sure people can manage to take advantage from other people regardless of what they have on hand.

I'll keep watching the video just a bit more.

texasgirl46
texasgirl46
12 years ago

What a waste of 2 hours....

Lucian TheUnbannable
Lucian TheUnbannable
12 years ago

Anarchy is derived from Greek David but that definition is false An- NO Archon- Ruler. Anarchy means no rulers, not no rules.

Antonis D. Politis
Antonis D. Politis
12 years ago

Thank you for this doc. You re doing a great job. Greetings from Athens.

EndlessNow
EndlessNow
12 years ago

maybe 999 is the answer

StevenLJones
StevenLJones
12 years ago

Power is with the people. Individually your nothing and helpless and powerless and alone. Together you have all the power. If all the students in the United States collectively said we are not going to pay our loans, what would happen? The state depends on the police and military. My advice is make friends with them and get them on side, because without the police and military the state is nothing. Remember the bottom line they are from your class and your neighborhoods and they are people with families and mortgages and bills and threats of unemployment. People agree to follow the system. Then the system works to enslave them. Disagree.
Business will always exist in some form. Corporations too. It's time to fire the 1% and change the laws to reflect the needs of democracy and society and planet as a whole. The enigma for the 1% is that if you don't make a good living, you can't buy their products and they go broke. So it really is in Capitalism interest to make sure that you have disposable income. The more the better for everybody. So your downfall is eventually theirs. Austerity programs will backfire. Austerity programs won't make corporations rich, it will make them poor.

In the media Anarchism is associated with violence and nothing else. As long as Anarchism vandalize buildings and burn cars that's what people image of them will be. Violence only gets reported nothing else and labeled anarchy. It doesn't work. Educate me. Put up posters in every neighborhood of truths that I can't be denied. Back it up with fact. Lastly take responsibility for our own part in this mess. Unions have made it hard for Western business to compete with the east. I worked at a pulp mill and union guys would take a week to do a 2 hour job. Sorry we have some facing up to do as well. And lastly watch that you don't become what you hate.

Key to a free democracy is a media that isn't controlled by its advetisers or government or other interests. A Media that is simply interested in the truth. How you do this I don't know but it would fix a lot problems fast.

KsDevil
KsDevil
12 years ago

The use of credit unions, in combination with barter and trade of goods and services would bypass the corporate stranglehold on the economy and the government. In fact, everyone should get used to that since oil is peaking and our current system will become even less sustainable. And always remember: money is just a tool to standardize trade. It is the traded that is all important. You can cut out the middle man and the trade is still valid.

William O'Donnell
William O'Donnell
12 years ago

Is this why governments want us to save our money so they can 'borrow ' off it & then make it disappear in a 'financial crisis' ?

David Foster
David Foster
12 years ago

Anarchy (Greek): The state of chaos which arises in the absence of government.

CapnCanard
CapnCanard
12 years ago

Capitalism is inherently unsustainable and we are currently going through THE COLLAPSE. How's your 401k? What is your home, er house worth? This is part of an environmental and societal catastrophic collapse... but is was all very preventable, but wealth will not doing anything to stop it.

Radhaya
Radhaya
12 years ago

The end of this doc is interesting, I didn't realize there were so many demonstrations in other countries. Looks like a global revolution may be at hand. Ah, but can they succeed against the techno-military establishments with their advantage in weaponry? Maybe they can get their respective armies and navies to defect like the Russians did, then they may have a chance. The money-changers had better not anger the military with their austerity programs.

Abe Jones
Abe Jones
12 years ago

The film left me thinking ...Why doesn't Noemi Klein sell her upper-class condo in downtown Toronto and move into that Winnipeg Vegan Co-op?

I was struck in the film by how the Anarchist Vegan Co-op guy said there have to be rules.

Maybe Noemi can write a book : Rules for Trading Grapes for Tomatoes In the Post-Capitalist Order

Abe Jones
Abe Jones
12 years ago

Socialists and Anarchist you gotta love-em

No alternative solutions but they're eager to tear down

EndlessNow
EndlessNow
12 years ago

has anyone considered something along the lines of an internet-based Bank of the People? A bank made by the people for the people, with users contributing to help the bank operate, so that the bank could run with no fees, and any profits this bank may earn (through investment or whatever) would be divided proportionally among all depositors. Funds held by this bank could be verified over the web, so that an audit of this bank could be performed by anyone at home from their computer(and then another person could perform the same audit somewhere else and the two audits would actually agree in real time). Transparent, responsible banking for the people by the people. People withdrawing their money from corrupt, profiteering banks would be a good thing, wouldn't it?

I mean, all of us together could do a better job than these few people in control of our banks. A bank for the people by the people would be far more likely to invest in companies and industries that reflect what the people actually support, like real renewable energy for example, or innovative construction companies that use 21st century technology to provide low cost, high tech housing and other structures. This would be a way for the people to harness their money, to create a large pool of citizens' money (money=power) to use as a tool to change the world in ways they would welcome. The more that people are able to control their own money and are able to use it in ways that come back to them in direct benefit (eg. job creation through investment in innovative companies), the less likely it is that violence would be necessary to correct current economic and social problems. Instead of nonviolent resistance, this would be an aggressive economic resistance. Fight money with money.

I welcome constructive criticism of course...I'm know I'm not smart enough, nor do I know enough, to know if an idea like this is workable.

dufas_duck
dufas_duck
12 years ago

Equal outcome for all, gotta love it. It would be just like my child's school, every kid gets an award for anything they do....or don't do. If this were the Olympics, everyone would get a gold medal, wouldn't that be great. This would also make life easier for people like the Nobel Prize committee, everyone would get a prize, no questions asked, or these things would be eliminated altogether...they do smack of competition..

Since it has been deemed that no one is to buy or even needs that big screen TV, that Ipod, Ebook, or nicer car, those employees that used to work in these industries can be assigned to work in agriculture, street sweeping, or cleaning toilets. The pay is the same so what a person does doesn't matter.

Health care shouldn't matter. Natural is the word of the day. Animals in the 'natural' world do not have health care so the 'natural' thing to do is if someone is hurt, sick, or otherwise infirm, either make them comfortable or let them be....Solves the population problem.

Freedom is to be what the 'state' deems it to be and anything else is to be aggressively curtailed. There will not be any political parties, only one, world wide bureau to oversee everything. Life will be great.....

Nathan Daniel
Nathan Daniel
12 years ago

You got to be crazy, you gotta have a real need
You gotta sleep on your toes and when you're on the street
You got to be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed
And then moving in silently, down wind and out of sight
You gotta strike when the moment is right without thinking

And after a while, you can work on points for style
Like the club tie, and the firm handshake
A certain look in the eye and an easy smile
You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to
So that when they turn their backs on you
You'll get the chance to put the knife in

You gotta keep one eye looking over your shoulder
You know, it's going to get harder, and harder, and harder
As you get older
Yeah, and in the end you'll pack up and fly down south
Hide your head in the sand
Just another sad old man
All alone and dying of cancer

And when you lose control, you'll reap the harvest you have sown
And as the fear grows, the bad blood slows and turns to stone
And it's too late to lose the weight you used to need to throw around
So have a good drown, as you go down all alone
Dragged down by the stone

Gotta admit that I'm a little bit confused
Sometimes it seems to me as if I'm just being used
Gotta stay awake, gotta try and shake off this creeping malaise
If I don't stand my own ground, how can I find my way out of this maze

Deaf, dumb and blind, you just keep on pretending
That everyone's expendable, and no one has a real friend
And it seems to you the thing to do would be to isolate the winner
Everything's done under the sun
But you believe at heart everyone's a killer

Who was born in a house full of pain
Who was trained not to spit in the fan
Who was told what to do by the man
Who was broken by trained personnel
Who was fitted with collar and chain
Who was given a pat on the back
Who was breaking away from the pack
Who was only a stranger at home
Who was ground down in the end
Who was found dead on the phone
Who was dragged down by the stone

budge5
budge5
12 years ago

A very intesting subject that we are all affected by, ruined by a propogandist that might as well be a bankers prole.
How is anyone going to take in 100words (in print) and their provenance in 2 seconds.
Rid us of Media studies grads with the bankers.

musbcrazy
musbcrazy
12 years ago

personally i think your wrong, corporatism is the problem. free market capitalism with sound money is a very good way to achieve effective economies! why dont you blame the politicians who've deregulated systems in a way, so toxic mortgage and derivative products could bankrupt our countries and how politicians use public money to bail out their bank friends instead of the families struggling to pay their bills. i think some of you have forgotten we have a socialist state not a capitalist one so if u want to live in a socialist welfare state then so be it....just remember you reap what you sow! me if i work hard, i want to keep what i earn not support those who cant be arsed to work.

i think perhaps having the life and society id like is not possible in Europe or the UK. god please get Ron Paul in the white house next year because then Im selling my house and business and taking my assetts and work ethic to the states.

why i should i pay for my elderly care with what ive earned instead of it going to my children and why should i work to produce tax to support those who just spunge off the system!

Sheeraz Ullah
Sheeraz Ullah
12 years ago

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