This summer the Progressive Labor Party concentrated efforts to fight anti-immigrant racism and build communism in the cities of Los Angeles and nearby Murrieta. As we drove through LA, billboards advertising the newly released movie The Purge: Anarchy loomed overhead “United We Purge” read one billboard featuring a black youth in frightening make-up reminiscent of the anarchistic Joker in The Dark Knight.
The Purge: Anarchy is the sequel to last summer’s The Purge. Set in near future Los Angeles, the Federal government, under a group called the New Founding Fathers, has been granted unlimited power in order to bring stability to a crisis-ridden system. An epidemic of crime and unemployment has been reduced to nearly zero due to a national “purge” holiday. One night a year citizens are permitted to commit all crimes, including murder, in order to blow off pent-up violent urges and remove otherwise unemployed portions of the population. The Purge takes viewers through the streets of LA as the annual purge commences.
As the film unfolds, it becomes clear that the purge is a form of class warfare that benefits the rich. Crime and unemployment have been reduced by allowing the poor to kill the poor. The rich participate in the comfort of their mansions by buying poor people to slaughter others.
The main characters in the film form a multiracial, rag-tag army that fights its way through the murderous streets of LA, and a group of resistance fighters opposed to the purge are organized under black leadership. Despite these glimmers of multiracial unity and black leadership, the movie relies heavily on racist stereotypes to tell its story.
Early on, the film depicts a group of urban black youth preying upon an innocent, middle-class white couple. And later, an extended scene shows a drunken Latin man attempting to rape two women. These racist stereotypes deployed in the film have been and continue to be used by the bosses to justify the mass incarceration of black and Latin men and the mass deportations of Latin immigrants.
While director James DeMonaco’s intention was to “smuggle” into his horror-thriller a commentary on U.S. gun violence and class inequality, his critique is crushed by an overwhelming depiction of indiscriminate murder and revenge violence.
Despite the portrayal of a few good citizens, the foundation of the film rests on one disturbing premise — human nature is ultimately savage and animalistic. In the film, “the purge” is merely the government’s way of adapting to the fact that humans are inherently violent and evil.
This view of human nature implies that despite the vast power of the New Founding Fathers, the structural violence of the capitalist state in the form of the police, military and prison system is still necessary to keep violent workers at bay for the other 364 days a year.
With working class consciousness at low level, the implications of the film’s message in the current period are dire. This message helps the bosses further divide the working class by reinforcing an “under siege” mentality where workers, instead of uniting, live in fear of one another.
And for working-class youth, the dangers of the film’s message are more immediate. The film’s premise exploits the extreme individualism and revenge culture entrenched in capitalist youth culture. “Do what you want” no matter the consequences and “an eye for an eye” are the takeaway message for many youth.
Recent news reports of “Purge” Facebook pages and Instagram accounts popping up across social media urging users to post anything and expose anything for a 12- or 24-hour period reveal the poisonous ideology of this film. These social media accounts were soon flooded with explicit underage photos and “revenge porn.”
Revenge is an individualistic action taken to correct a real or perceived injustice. Revenge often takes the form of workers seeking retribution against other workers for something ultimately caused by capitalism. A truly revolutionary approach views injustice committed against individuals as part of a larger structure of injustice — capitalism. PLP’s view of true justice comes in the form of a communist revolution that requires the participation of masses of workers joined in multiracial unity fighting for a system without wages or borders.
Despite the real life “purging” along the border at the hands of Deporter-in-Chief Obama and the fascist thugs in Murrieta, when PLP marched through the streets of downtown LA and Murrieta, many rallied around our ideas. Challenge and our message of multiracial unity was well received by many, proving that despite the state-sanctioned racism and violence against immigrants, many workers are willing to stand up for and unite with their working class brothers and sisters for a better tomorrow.