Month: July 2011

Entangled in Neocolonialism: The Weight of Chains

gregoryelich

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An Interview with Boris Malagurski

Who in their right mind would actually want to be a colony?  That is the question asked in the opening section of The Weight of Chains, the latest film directed by Boris Malagurski.  His film demonstrates how the South Slavs emerged from centuries of colonial rule under the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires, and unified to form an independent Yugoslavia.  In sharp analytical detail, Malagurski’s film dissects how Western intervention systematically undermined that independence and helped destroy Yugoslavia, plunging the region into war in the process.

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Class War Without Mercy

gregoryelich

greed3

One can never have too much money. In the United States, the top one percent of the population rakes in almost a quarter of the national income and enjoys forty percent of the wealth. That privileged class sees this situation as a problem. To be precise, they are not getting enough.

For ordinary workers, the recession brought only economic hardship. But for corporate America, it meant opportunity. It was perceived as the chance to mold the economy permanently into something approximating the Third World model: vast wealth and privilege for those at the top, and unemployment, falling wages, and inadequate or nonexistent social services for the rest of society.  Read More »