Articles by Alex Knight

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Reading The Grapes of Wrath in 2010: Capitalism and Immigration

Alex Knight May 31, 2010 Alex Knight

One of the most popular and well-written American books of all time, The Grapes of Wrath gives a very human perspective on the harsh lives of migrants, personified by the Joads - a family of poor sharecroppers from Oklahoma. Evicted from their family farm, just as the millions of Mexicans who have suffered enclosure from their land and become homeless and jobless because of NAFTA, the Joads travel to California in a desperate search of work, only to encounter the harassment of authorities and the hatred of the local population.

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Rebel Witches and the Creation of Capitalism

Alex Knight November 19, 2009 Alex Knight

Silvia Federici's brilliant Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body, and Primitive Accumulation, tells the dark saga of the Witch Hunt that consumed Europe for more than 200 years. In uncovering this forgotten history, Federici exposes the origins of capitalism in the heightened oppression of workers and in the brutal subjugation of women. She also brings to light the enormous and colorful European peasant movements that fought against injustice.

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Anti-Capitalism Goes Mainstream: New Film Opens Space for Radical Debate

Alex Knight October 22, 2009 Alex Knight

Capitalism: A Love Story, which opened in 962 theaters earlier this month, is Michael Moore's most ambitious work yet - taking aim at the root cause behind the injustices he's exposed in his other films over the last 20 years. This time capitalism itself is the culprit to be maligned in Moore's trademark docu-tragi-comic style. And by using the platform of a major motion picture to make a direct assault at the root of the problem, Moore has created space in the political mainstream for a radical conversation (radical meaning "going to the root").