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Fall 2007
Span 98
2 P/NP Unit(s)

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About the Course:

    This course explores a number of major issues in the modern world through the examination of several notable  political films. Among the issues covered are the historical appearance of wage labor, national liberation, neocolonialism, the political/economic ramifications of racism, sexism, fascism, their relation to the capitalist mode of production, and the working class resistance that must inevitably accompany these.

     Each film will be introduced by brief readings assigned to contextualize the theme or the events to be analyzed. They will be made available in class and/or online.  Discussions will follow each film, where an open forum will facilitate collaborative learning. Student performance will be evaluated through discussion participation, engagement of themes presented, and one optional essay assignment incorporating three of the films to be turned in the last meeting of the semester.

      The global integration of working class struggle plays a major role in the selection of films, with the aim of noting the larger class similarities that cultural interpretations and identity politics often blunt from visibility.

-First Meeting - Course introduction

(Excerpts of Gramsci, Benjamin, Brecht, Ousmane, and Wayne)

 TENTATIVE FILM LIST IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER

1.  LA HAINE (France) Urban poverty, unemployment, racism and police terror in the French ghettos as experienced by a trio of multi racial youth.

2.  BURN! (Fictional Caribbean Island) Transition from slavery to wage labor, neocolonialism, rebellion against exploitation, and counterinsurgency as a scorched earth war of attrition.

 3.  BLACK MAN‘S LAND (Kenya) Post WWII colonialism, the contradictions of pacifism, state terror, atrocities, and the limits of nationalism. This film was censored in Britain.

4. THE TAKE (Argentina) Industrial Workers seize abandoned factories and run them collectively, albeit with the reluctant approval of the reactionary but astute government.

 5.  THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (Algeria) Resistance to French colonialism and the repression encountered. State and nationalist terrorism. This film was screened by the Pentagon in 2003

6. KUHLE WAMPE (Germany) The unemployed form a shanty-village to educate and train in preparation for the time of armed struggle. This film was Banned by Nazis

7. SALT OF THE EARTH (U.S.) Mexican-American mineworkers confront racism and the “woman question” as they strike against the mining company. This film was banned in the U.S.

 8. THE FOURTH WORLD WAR (Korea, U.S., South Africa, Mexico, Argentina, Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq) On-scene footage of mass protests of the calamities caused by capitalist globalization. 

 9. FINAL SOLUTION (India) Hindu anti-Muslim racism analyzed with the politics of polarization firm in the background. Banned in India.

10. THEY LIVE (U.S.) A delightful blend of sci-fi schlock with an anti capitalist allegory. Starring ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper as a migrant laborer in search of the elusive American dream. 

11. SIR, NO SIR! (U.S./ Vietnam) Resistance within the arm of repression; Soldiers opposing war.

+ MORE FILMS TBA 

Recommended viewing:

 Lumumba, Norma Rae, Bandit Queen, Street Angels, Crows and Sparrows, El Norte, Black God White Devil, When The Mountains Tremble, Romero, Latino, The Panama Deception, The Wobblies, Cover Up, Bamako, La Commune, Punishment Park, Canoa, Arsenal, The Battleship Potemkin, Strike (Eisenstein), Matewan, Lion in the Desert, Memoirs of Underdevelopment, Life and Debt, The War at Home, Xala, Darwin’s Nightmare, School of Assassins,  Uprooted, Z, This is England, The Wind that Shakes The Barley, Matewan, Hearts & Minds, Harlan County U.S.A., Sugarcane Alley, La Ultima Cena, + more TBA 

How to Enroll:

*Informal first meeting:

Be in Wheeler 123 at 5PM on Monday August 27 to chat about the course, your expectations and ours. 

UPDATE (Aug 28 2007): UPPER DIV CCN WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE AS THE DEPARTMENT WAS NOT ABLE TO SPONSOR A 198 COURSE, ONLY A 98 LOWER DIV, BUT DOES IT REALLY MATTER?

*First meeting:

Monday September 10, 5PM, as Mon Sept 3rd is Labor Day (no school!)

*Add class with ccn 86195, Span 98