This speech was given by Tim Dobson to introduce a screening of Michael Moore's new film, Capitalism: A Love Story.
I have been wondering what make Michael Moore so popular. How can he reach so many millions with a progressive, left wing voice? Certainly, documentaries has a mass appeal that a lot of books cannot reach but I think also it’s the way his films are presented. In some ways its an inverse of A Current Affair or Today Tonight, where it’s the easiest thing in the world for large corporations like Channel Nine or Seven to target whatever oppressed or minority group they feel worthy. The most recent example being a Channel Nine cameraman calling an Islamic man who was at court supporting his son a “fucking terrorist”. In Michael Moore's case it takes real courage for an individual to target and make uncomfortable some of the most powerful individuals in the world and therein lies the appeal. Regardless of what atrocities the likes of George Bush, John Howard or Kevin Rudd or corporate CEOs perpetrate, they are almost certain to live a mostly comfortable life, without having their consciousness pricked. But Michael Moore speaks truth to power, directly and it makes them very uncomfortable and it is in those moments, the world feels right. It is not refugees fleeing war that are under attack, it’s war mongers who are, it’s not trade unions but rather greedy corporate CEOs who have to justify themselves. It certainly points to the way a actual democratic and free media should be run but isn’t. Journalists, who don’t want to lose their access to politicians or upset their paymasters, rarely ask questions that need to be asked.
But there is something else which I think is appealing about Moore’s work; his films have more or less shown to be politically correct. Roger and Me look at the impact a multinational company like General Motors had when it uprooted and left to pursue a cheaper workforce in Mexico. This was in 1989, the next decade or so brought about a massive anti corporate globalization which organized precisely what Moore spoke about his film; the corporate race to the bottom for workers. Bowling for Columbine spoke out against the gun culture in the United States, but spoke about how it wasn't just the ownership of guns that was the problem. In that film he interviewed Marilyn Manson, who was blamed for causing the killings, and who pointed out that the day of the Columbine massacre was the same day that NATO forces bombed Kosovo the heaviest. In Farenheight 9/11 he decried the imperial wars and brought a simple truth to many. The war on terror was about profits, not about stopping terrorism, which has certainly being brought home in the way that corporations have made billions out of the human suffering in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Sicko he showed the world how sick the American health care system really is, and argued for universal health care, which to most Australians seems a no brainer. In the same film he had the guts to point out an inconvenient truth for the United States government, that is Cuba, which suffers under a devastating economic blockade by the United States, has a superior health care system than the U.S, which ensures that Cubans have a life expectancy that is almost equal that the U.S despite being a poor country.
All his films have hinted in their own way at the destructiveness of the economic and social system we find ourselves under, but this film names this source directly, capitalism. While he uses examples from the U.S, the same conclusions are applicable to Australia. Australians have the highest personal debt in the world, household debt is the equivalent of 155% of Gross Domestic Product, while the average house price is $485, 000, which is seven times the national income.
But while it is one step to identify capitalism as the problem, the next step is to identify the solution. Socialist Alliance believes the alternative is democratic socialism based on the following principles; solidarity and collaboration, environmental sustainability, participatory democracy, social economy and true equality between peoples, nations, religions and sexes. If we can convince enough people that society can and should be run along such lines, then the sequel to this film will have to be Capitalism: A Divorce Story.
