It is probably clear to most of our readers that American
capitalism has entered a period of acute crisis. Even the boom preceding this
recession was one marked by the emergence of the ‘rust belt’ – decaying cities
once epicentres of the world’s most prosperous industrial working class, such
as Detroit and Baltimore. Baltimore, which is majority black, used to have one
of the US’ most wealthy black populations. It is now synonymous with crime,
drugs and decaying industry, with the second highest murder rate in America.
And all this before the looming recession. It is no wonder it has been reported
that many Americans feel like they have been in a recession for some time.
This is the backdrop to the immensely acclaimed US TV
series, The Wire, made and set between 2001-7. The programme so
incisively dramatises this social malaise that some critics have dubbed it the
best television series ever. What is undoubtable is that it truthfully tells
the tale of the “betrayal of the American working class”, which was its creator
David Simon’s goal. The fact that it could only be released on HBO, the
advert-free network, tells you something about how the laws of profit-making
are not interested in telling the truth. This is a programme all socialists
interested in the American working class should watch.
In the first series, the class-conscious low-ranking drug
dealer D’Angelo Barksdale teaches his protégés the rules of chess by relating
the pieces to the hierarchies of organised crime. The message is profound –
these kids are at the bottom of a ruthless system of exploitation. The allusion
to capitalism sums up the programme’s overarching metaphor – organised crime is
but a more direct form of capitalism. As D’Angelo’s class consciousness
develops as he is used by those above him, he continues to draw the harsh
lessons of capitalism, and he tells it like it is to his naïve fellow workers.
When discussing the fact that a black guy invented chicken ‘McNuggets’, these
kids feel a sense of pride at his achievement and inevitable wealth. D’Angelo
destroys this illusion, pointing out that McDonald’s owners probably stole the
idea, leaving the inventor ‘in his cellar’. [SPOILER ALERT!!] In the end,
D’Angelo is forced by the hierarchy to bear the brunt of their prison sentence.
His anger forces them to kill him. [SPOILER OVER]
In capitalist society, production is unconsciously socially
determined. Social labour presents itself as private, that is to say that what
appears to the individual as his/her own work that he/she has decided upon, is
actually socially determined through, amongst other things, money. We do not
know the circuitous path our money has taken in order to reach us, nor where it
goes when we spend it. Thus, when the renegade detective team decide to ‘follow
the money’ (rather than the drugs) in their investigation of a drug syndicate,
it leads them to unexpected places – for example, into the accounts of big-shot
Democrat senator Clay Davis. Of course, Mr Davis is intimately tied up with the
local establishment, including the Police bureaucracy. It is clear that for the
investigation to successfully bring a much-hated drug cartel to court, it must
not flinch in the face of corruption. But the bureaucracy shows it is much more
interested in protecting its privileges than doing its job, and as a result the
investigation is limited until it becomes pointless. In a later series, when
Clay is handed a subpoena for his links to money laundering, he rages at the
Mayor (a personal ‘friend’) –
“I would expect this kind of shit from the FBI, but not some
local police. I know I have paid far too much money to the Mayor for this shit.
Ain’t no motherfucker in the world so ungrateful as that. How do you think I
afford a campaign into office? Where do you think my money comes from? A
local grocers? You think I know where the money comes from? I’ll take anyone’s
money if he’s giving it to me. I don’t have time to ask questions. You better
call this subpoena off right now!”
That capitalism and the bureaucracy is a mirror image of the
crime world is brilliantly summed up in a court scene. The legal expression of
the local drug syndicate, the corrupt, slimy lawyer Mori Levy, cross examines
the rival (and honest) thug Omar, and in an act of vile sophistry, he cynically
and hypocritically accuses Omar of feeding off society’s fear and weaknesses
(which is exactly what Levy does!). Omar interjects with a comment so cutting
in its honesty it stops Levy in his tracks, “Same as you. I got the shotgun,
you go the briefcase. It’s all in the game, right?”
It is a constant theme that because of the
interconnectedness of crime and politics, the capitalist state is incapable of
solving capitalism’s constant social problems. When the principled detective
McNulty forces the same lawyer into a concession, the police department’s
attorney gets upset. “If I want a good future I can’t piss on the people that
matter. Levy is on the Bar, I need his support.” McNulty retaliates, “If half
you lawyers had the balls to follow through, if you didn’t want some nice
career with some hotshot Downtown firm, then all those bastards like him would
be immediately indicted. But no, everyone stays friends, and everyone gets
paid.”
The initially progressive Mayoral candidate Carcetti is
attracted to an undercover operation of effectively legalising drugs, which
massively cuts crime. But when the operation is exposed by the media as a
scandal, he seizes on the opportunity to attack the incumbent Mayor in order to
win, which forces the Mayor to close the operation down, driving up crime. The
point is clear – the state must pander to the reactionary nature of the
bourgeoisie, irrespective of its members’ personal dispositions.
[SPOILER ALERT!!]
The second series focuses on the degeneration of the
dock-workers union as their industry declines. The union leadership is sucked
into the cruel logic of the market as it desperately attempts to bribe the
bourgeoisie into acting in the workers’ interests instead of its own. Fearing
the drying up of work, they pay politicians to invest in the docks. The trouble
is, the money for this comes from smuggling on behalf of international criminal
gangs. Because the local government wants to get rid of this pesky union, it
exposes this scandal. As a result the politicians back out of the deal, no
doubt leading to a jump in unemployment and a slashing of the union’s
membership. The gang fears the union boss will snitch, so they execute him. Fundamentally,
capitalism is in decline in Baltimore, so the worker’s cannot fight by paying
the capitalists to help them. This is a brilliant metaphor for reformist
policies of class-collaboration. The bourgeoisie discards of the corpse of this
union boss when he is no longer needed, just as they do with our reformist
leaders.
The Wire is
an immensely profound work of art and dramatisation of decrepit 21st
Century capitalism in its heartland. It just makes you wonder what it will look
like once the coming worldwide slump has had its way.
