October 20th, 2006 by Manila Ryce
It was during this week in capitalism that John Brown, a white northern abolitionist, led a raid on Harper’s Ferry, Virginia as the town slept. An original draft called for 4,500 men to carry out the raid, but the arrival of these recruits never materialized. Brown only had 21 willing followers (16 white and 5 black), yet decided to continue anyway. Brown’s team cut the telegraph wires and easily captured the town’s armory. They took sixty prominent locals hostage, including George Washington’s great-grand nephew, and spread the news of the rebellion to local slaves.
The captured armory contained 100,000 muskets and rifles, which Brown would use to arm local slaves. His band would then head south, freeing more slaves and recruiting them to his growing “army of emancipation”. Frederick Douglass, a close friend of Brown, had known about the plan previous to its execution and testified that Brown’s strategy was to essentially deplete Virginia of its slaves, causing an institutional collapse of the southern counties left in his wake. Brown hoped to minimize bloodshed by fighting only in self-defense as he wreaked havoc on the economic viability of slavery.
However, things took a turn for the worse as an eastbound train stopped in Harper’s Ferry. The train’s baggage master tried to warn the passengers of the raid. Brown’s men ordered him to halt and then opened fire. The baggage master, Hayward Shepherd, was ironically a free black man and the first casualty of John Brown’s war against slavery. For some unknown reason, Brown allowed the train to continue after Shepherd’s shooting. News of the raid reached Washington the next day. Meanwhile, locals fired upon the armory and blocked the only escape route from town. Brown moved his hostages to a small brick engine house near the armory, only to be barraged by local militia forces. Brown’s two sons, along with other supporters, were killed in the shoot-out, the first while under a white flag.
By the morning of October 18th, a company of US Marines, under the command of Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee, surrounded the engine house. Brown still refused to surrender, and so Marines used sledge hammers and a battering ram to break down the engine room door. Brown was struck several times, receiving a head wound in the process, as he and six other men were captured. During the battle, ten of his followers were killed and five managed to escape.
Brown was to stand trial in Virginia, although his attack occurred on Federal property. He was charged for murder, conspiring to commit a slave insurrection, and treason against the state. One of Brown’s defense lawyers argued Brown could not be guilty of treason in a state to which he owed no loyalty, that Brown had not killed anyone personally, and that the failure of the raid was evidence that Brown had not conspired with slaves. Still, Brown was found guilty on all three charges and sentenced to death. His wife joined him for his final meal, but was denied permission to stay the night with him. Brown was hanged on December 2nd at 11:15 am and pronounced dead at 11:50 am. His body was dumped into a cheap wooden coffin with the noose still around his neck.
“Did John Brown fail? He certainly did fail to get out of Harper’s Ferry before being beaten down by United States soldiers; he did fail to save his own life, and to lead a liberating army into the mountains of Virginia. But he did not go to Harper’s Ferry to save his life. The true question is, Did John Brown draw his sword against slavery and thereby lose his life in vain? And to this I answer ten thousand times, No! No man fails, or can fail who so grandly gives himself and all he has to a righteous cause.”
“…That a man might do something very audacious and desperate for money, power or fame, was to the general apprehension quite possible; but…that nineteen men could invade a great State to liberate a despised and hated race, was to the average intellect and conscience, too monstrous for belief.”
- Frederick Douglass
The man, the myth, the legend. No Marxist in history has been quite as successful as Che Guevara in becoming a trademark icon for capitalist consumers the world over. While his dream of revolution may have been commercialized, I’m sure Che would take comfort in the fact that his image has sold a huge amount of t-shirts. Looking back, it’s hard to imagine who Che was to the oppressed people of the world. What we can grasp is that Che was a charismatic idealist who stood in solidarity with those who struggled. He sought nothing less than to change the world. Guevara carried the promise of a better future upon his shoulders. It is during this week in capitalism when that shining promise was desecrated.
Guevara’s body was put on display for photographers. CIA agents then ordered his hands be amputated and sent to authorities to confirm his identity with fingerprint analysis. Walt Rostow, adviser on national security affairs during the time, commented that Che’s death “shows the soundness of our ‘preventive medicine’ assistance to countries facing incipient insurgency–it was the Bolivian 2nd Ranger Battalion, trained by our Green Berets from June-September of this year, that cornered him and got him.”
Chief Joseph was a Nez Perce Indian, born in what is northeastern Oregon. His father was a defiant chief who refused to participate in the selling of land. In 1855, he refused a deal to segregate the land of Washington Territory into areas for Natives and areas for settlers, and in 1863 he boycotted the seizure of six million acres of Nez Perce land by refusing to move to the Nez Perce reservation in Idaho. Chief Joseph’s father died in 1871, but he communicated his wishes to his succeeding son before his death. He said, “Always remember that your father never sold his country. You must stop your ears whenever you are asked to sign a treaty selling your home. A few years more, and white men will be all around you. They have their eyes on this land. My son, never forget my dying words. This country holds your father’s body. Never sell the bones of your father and your mother.” Chief Joseph clasped his father’s hand and promised to defend his grave.
During the Tang and Song dynasties, Hong Kong was an important trading region. During the Qing dynasty, Europe increased its world trade, and China’s huge population offered limitless products which were in high demand. However, China had a one-way trading policy with the West. Europeans bought silk, porcelain, spices, and tea from China, but were not allowed to sell their goods in return. China would only accept silver as payment, fearing that a flood of European goods would contaminate and damage their culture.
This week in capitalism marks the day in 1984 when Britain and China finally agreed on a declaration to end 150 years of European rule in Hong Kong. Chinese authorities agreed to take over Hong Kong’s defense and foreign affairs in 13 years while allowing the city to maintain its local autonomy. The agreement also insisted that the mainland Chinese government would leave Hong Kong untouched for 50 years after it was handed back to its people. The UK ambassador to China, Sir Richard Evans, said the joint declaration was “the practical embodiment of the imaginative concept of one country, two systems”.
The Iran-Iraq War officially began on September 22nd when Iraq invaded Iran. The war resulted in 1 million casualties and cost $1.19 trillion in USD. Although there had been border disputes between Iraq and Iran since they were called Mesopotamia and Persia, the hostilities between the nations grew intense as oil was discovered under the disputed territory of Khuzestan. Other territories, such as the Shatt al-Arab waterway, were also called into question. Iraq encouraged Arabs in Iran to rebel against their government, while Iran encouraged Kurds in Iraq to do the same against Iraq’s leadership.
However, America was not only supplying Iraq with weaponry. According to a report put out by the US Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, “the sale of U.S. arms to Iran through Israel began in the summer of 1985, after receiving the approval of President Reagan.” These covert sales to Iran included over 2,000 anti-tank missiles, 235 parts kits for surface-to-air missiles, 18 F-4 fighter-bombers, 46 A-4 Skyhawk fighter-bombers, and almost 4,000 missiles. Additionally, “unverified reports alleged that Israel agreed to sell Iran AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, radar equipment, mortar and machinegun ammunition, field telephones, M-60 tank engines and artillery shells, and spare parts for C-130 transport planes.” The London Observer estimated that Israel’s arms sales to Iran totaled $500 million USD a year while Time Magazine reported that the Israelis had set up Swiss bank accounts for obvious reasons.
In 1964 Chile, Salvador Allende was a Marxist presidential candidate. Because of his anti-capitalist stance, the CIA spent millions to defeat him. Due to radio and print propaganda funded by the US, Allende lost the election that year. Allende ran again in the 1970 presidential election, and again the US funded his opponents’ campaigns to ensure his defeat. Much to the dismay of the US, Allende won the majority vote that time, which would make him the first democratically elected Marxist president in the world.
Augusto Pinochet, the Commander-in-chief of the Army, established a military dictatorship immediately following the coup. Pinochet (who closely resembles M. Bison in the picture) proclaimed himself president and took economic policy advice from American laissez-faire economist, Milton Friedman. He deregulated business, encouraged privatization, abolished minimum wage, rescinded trade union rights, privatized the pension system, state industries, and banks, and lowered taxes on income and profits. Pinochet was in power for 17 years, ruthlessly persecuting critics and political opponents. His dictatorship was well supported by the US government. The CIA later put many of Pinochet’s officers on their payroll as contacts, even though many of them were known to be involved in human rights abuses. To this day, Pinochet has not been prosecuted for his human rights violations in Chile and neighboring countries.
One long-term goal of apartheid in South Africa was to move blacks into independent “homelands”. A small percentage of South African land (13 percent) was divided into ten homeland states. Each state was destined to gradually self-govern and gain its independence from South Africa. Once a homeland gained its independence, the residents of that state would have their South African citizenship revoked, and replaced with a homeland citizenship. Blacks would no longer be citizens of South Africa, but “guest laborers” who merely worked in South Africa. In short, whites would be citizens, while a black person in South Africa would legally be considered a foreigner. This system allowed for whites, who were a shrinking minority, to retain control over the remaining 87 percent of South African land.
On this week in capitalism, the ANC organized a march to demand that Gqozo and his government step down and allow Ciskei to be re-absorbed into South Africa. There were around 50,000 people at the protest which was scheduled to march to the capital of Ciskei. However, when demonstrators started to cross the border into Ciskei they were indiscriminately fired upon by soldiers. 28 people were killed and hundreds more injured as two machine gun volleys and grenades caused demonstrators to run for their lives. Four men were shot in the back as they attempted to flee. The ANC released a statement saying that “No warning was issued, and no attempts were made to disperse the crowd using non-lethal means.”
The storm knocked out power and submerged up to 80 percent of New Orleans in 6ft of water. This devastation was not due solely to a natural disaster, as the Republicans claim, but to the neglect of the infrastructure which kept New Orleans livable. The breach of the levees was the direct result of essential social services being cut and government agencies, in charge of alleviating poverty and coping with disasters, being dismantled. The needs of society and the actions of the government ran contradictory, with the latter defeating the former.
The United States government showed the world just how little they care about the American people by failing the people of New Orleans. Rather than address the concerns and outrage of the public, they resorted to finger-pointing to save their jobs rather than our lives. On Good Morning America, the president declared that there would be “zero tolerance” for looters. When Dianne Sawyer suggested that the oil companies, who had reported record profits, should cede a share of their earnings to disaster relief, President Bush instead called on the American people to “send cash”. Over seventy countries donated hundreds of millions of dollars to the victims of Katrina before our own government made any real attempt to help. In some cases, aid was actually turned down by the US government. Meanwhile, American politicians patted each other on the back for the most minimal of gestures while people in New Orleans literally died of starvation and disease in the streets. At least 1,836 people died from the Hurricane and subsequent mayhem left in its wake.