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Michael Moore - www.michaelmoore.com/index_main.php
Radical populist
This week sees the release of Michael Moore’s much-hyped exposé
of the Bush administration, Fahrenheit 9/11, in UK cinemas. In the
USA rightwingers have used their de facto monopoly of the media
to heap facile criticisms upon the film, even to the extent of launching
a widely unsuccessful boycott.
However, in these strange political times, the reactionary Daily
Mail has hitched its true blue colours to the Moore bandwagon. Its
review of the movie by general Sir Michael Rose dismisses the anti-corporate
and anti-war thrust as a diversion from what he sees to be the main
issue - that Bush and Blair lied about the pretext for war, meaning
that the invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq is itself immoral
(Daily Mail July 1). Though his concluding call for this film to
be widely seen is motivated by the rightwing anti-Blair agenda of
the Mail, there is nevertheless every possibility that exposure
to Moore’s anti-Bush polemic could help upset the chauvinist
little England bubble the paper assiduously cultivates.
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Promotion of Fahrenheit 9/11 dominates Moore’s website, featuring
a mischievously doctored picture of him holding hands with a jolly-looking
Bush. The first batch of links concerns the documentary’s content
and what political action viewers can take. The ‘Okay, I’ve
seen the movie. What do I do now?’ link takes us to ‘Mike’s
action guide’, which urges viewers to adopt a pledge. This
will commit them to registering at least 10 people to vote; spend
a weekend in one of 17 swing states (ie, where the Bush/Kerry presidential
vote will be extremely tight); adopt five non-voters and escort
them to the polls; and volunteer on election day to boost turnout
through street stalls, leafleting, etc. I can’t quite put my
finger on it, but there seems to be a common thread uniting these
activities …
The guide moves on to more electoral activism, with more tips around
voter registration, how to vote, how to stand for office, places
where Greens can be elected “without feeling guilty”,
and more on swing voting. Perhaps the most interesting of these
is ‘Take back congress!’ Of course this means securing
a Democrat majority in both the senate and house of representatives.
However, Moore qualifies this with the necessity of “reminding
them to vote the way Democrats are supposed to, and we’ll demand
that they grow a backbone”. Unfortunately for Moore, given
that the Democrats have historically been a schizophrenic alliance
between northern liberals and southern conservatives with their
respective constituencies, just how Democrat representatives are
“supposed” to vote is very much in the eye of the beholder.
Other items in the action guide include pieces on the Guantanamo
Bay prisoners, a round-up of news items culled from mainly “real
news” sources (it definitely says something about the state
of the US media when The Guardian and the BBC can be classed thus),
a forceful guide to the authoritarian Patriot Act and the proposed
measures to be included in supplementary legislation. It will be
interesting to see how the USA’s rightwing clique of media
punditry squares measures that allow the government to ‘disappear’
and strip people of their citizenship with the press freedom Americans
supposedly enjoy.
Another interesting feature is ‘How can I help the soldiers?’
The first part concerns the ‘Books for soldiers’ website,
where those in the armed services post requests for titles which
are then donated by viewers. Cannily Moore has muscled in by offering
free copies of his Stupid white men and Dude, where’s my country?
to those occupying Iraq. Given that most of the left has a paper
position of agitating among the armed forces, this seems one way
of offloading piles of political books and pamphlets that are otherwise
gathering dust. Other offerings include writing to the Selective
Service System (the agency responsible for supplying the army with
personnel) to state your conscientious objector intentions for when
a draft takes place, and a collection of letters from soldiers in
Iraq.
Communists can criticise Moore’s politics, which are essentially
liberal with a strong radical-populist bent, on many counts. However,
Marxists should acknowledge Moore’s positive political achievements.
The first of these is obvious - his skilful use of the media to
both promote his documentaries and books, and the ability to provoke
acres of media coverage to reach audiences not usually receptive
to politics left of Bush. More important though is his effective
appeal to the democratic side of American national identity. Moore’s
work is helping to turn this traditional bastion of US conservatism
into a battleground on which progressive ideas can make an advance.
There is a lesson here for the left.
Phil Hamilton
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