Hacker Cinema
Angola
1988 · Film · documentary · 45 min
Directed by Roberto Berliner
Captures the tenacity and diversity of Angolan society. Beginning with a brief history of Angola's war for independence from Portugal, the documentary's up-beat pacing provides an engaging overview of Angola's social and economic landscape. City life, music, the economy, rural communities, and the effects of civil war and apartheid in neighboring South Africa are covered using scenes of every day life in Angola and commentaries from Angolans themselves.
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The point here is that the US government in particular works at the behest of the capital-owning class and this is not a partisan issue, meaning there is almost no difference between Democrats and Republicans.
Paying outrageous amounts for healthcare is to protect profits. The ultra-wealthy paying very little in tax is protecting the capital-owning class. We topple and isolate governments that push back against economic colonialism (eg Venezuela threatened to nationalize oil producers and oh look, a coup). We are raising interest rates supposedly to fight inflation but really to create unemployment and suppress wages. Why? Wages come at the expense of profits. The recently averted rail strike would've cost 3.5% of profits (not revenue) to provide 125,000 essential rail workers with paid sick leave.
Look at the case of Steven Donziger [1] where Chevron shopped for a sympathetic judge that allowed an oil law firm to criminally prosecute and detain someone for years over a misdemeanour to daring to organize a $9.5 billion judgement against Chevron in a completely different country (ie Ecuador). This began under the last administration and the current administration has declined to intervene (which they could) and dismiss the case. Why is it that neither party wants to stand in the way of Chevron being essentially deputized to criminally prosecute people?
Even war can be viewed through the lens of protecting profits. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq cost an insane amount of money but they generated a massive amount of profits for a whole host of companies. Even the very justifiable material aid we have been giving and continue to give to Ukraine is a huge gain for the military industrial complex who sells those weapons (and, as an aside, the amount of Ukraine aid is eerily similar to the spending that ended by withdrawing from Afghanistan).
Prisons? Cheap labor (eg Angola State Penintentiary in Louisiana [2]). Restrictive immigration? Also cheap labor. Chicken factories and farms rely on undocumented migrants. If they complain you call ICE on them, pay a small fine, rinse and repeat. Why? Profits.
My point is that climate change is no different. If you attempt to fight the system, you're going to lose because profits (particularly short term profits) win. The only path forward is an economic one.
[1]: https://theintercept.com/2022/04/27/deconstructed-steven-donziger-chevron-ecuador/
[2]: https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/404305/angola-prison-documentary/
What prisoners get paid might seem slow.
In the documentary Angola, the warden makes the case for paying prisoners so little. It costs x dollars/year to feed and take care of a prisoner.
A working prisoner helps provide part of that income reducing the burden on the state, in turn the tax payers.