By NICK G.

With the state of the world economy in turmoil, the “C” word has been coming up in the public dialogue with greater and greater frequency. Filmmaker, Michael Moore has made the “C” word — capitalism — the subject of his latest motion picture. I recently had the opportunity to view Moore’s new film, “Capitalism: A Love Story” and it has left me, I must admit, a little divided.

 For the most part, the film goes along in much the standard formula of his past films such as “Bowling for Columbine” and “Sicko”: Snippets of old vintage newsreel combined with Moore’s soothing, voice-over narratives interspersed by personal confrontations with CEOs and security guards. But in this film there was something different from his previous efforts. Something to me that highlighted the times we are living in. It was the scenes of working class resistance and struggle.

This, I feel makes the film very human and able to reach the average person on a very basic level. Two scenes that stood out most profoundly were the scenes featuring foreclosure protests and last winter’s worker occupation of Republic Window and Door Factory in Chicago. Scenes like these conjure up the memory of workers’ struggles of the 1930s and ’40s, such as, the great sit-down strike in Flint and the Teamsters’ strikes in Minneapolis. These scenes serve as brilliant examples of what ordinary working class people can do when they band together and organize.

While Moore proves to us instance after instance that capitalism is an utterly failed system, he fails to come to any firm conclusion. At one point he suggests that perhaps it is just plain greed and a lack of Christian principles that has led to the economic crisis. He also points to a lack of democracy and worker ownership over our economy and means of production. While most of these things are good, they do not lead us to any concrete solution. Moore denounces capitalism throughout the picture, but it’s almost as if he is afraid to come out and say the “S” word — socialism, which has left me with mixed feelings about the film.

At a recent AFL-CIO convention, Michael Moore called for a march on Washington in favor of single-payer healthcare. However, he still sees the Democratic Party as a vehicle for change and seems to still be under the illusion that somehow the Democratic Party, a party of capitalism, is still reformable.

As stated in his October 22 article, “15 Things Every American Can Do Right Now,” he believes that by supporting more left-of-center, “progressive” candidates in Democratic primaries as a challenge to centrist and “blue dog” Democrats the working class will get what it needs. This theory has been tested time and time again, yielding no return.

A real and effective solution would be for the working class to organize its own party of labor, independent of the two major parties and to support independent candidates that fight for a true working class agenda.

It’s true that Moore has brought the debate where it should be, focused squarely on the absolute failure of the capitalist system. Unfortunately, he comes short. He takes the case he has made and seemingly abandons it just when it needs to be driven toward discussion of an alternative or any real solution.

Nonetheless, I feel that this film can be a useful organizing tool and possibly bring back some class consciousness, something that has been missing for too long.