The Trial of the Chicago Seven


 If you do any reading at all on the history of American policing, something shocking quickly becomes apparent. The police have always been an instrument of social control, and the laws that they enforce are those that benefit the power structures. This might seem like a socialist fantasy until you realize that the institution of American policing grew out of slave patrols in the South and protection rackets in the North. Keeping the blacks, and the immigrants in a lower position in society allowed the capitalist classes to exploit them. In 1968, the working and academic classes joined in a revolutionary movement to stop an imperialist war, and to fight for equality in American society. This was met everywhere with a violent reaction. The film begins as a courtroom drama-the protagonists are introduced and after about ten minutes of montage to set up who they are and what they represent the trial begins. The charge is that 8 anti-war activists crossed state lines to start a riot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. It is a political charge thought up by the Nixon administration to discredit both the previous administration and the anti-war movement. It quickly becomes apparent that the presiding judge is incompetent so the rest of the film is both comedic and sinister. The sinister aspect comes from the fact that these people were put on trial because they were enemies of the state, a state that gives lip-service to freedom of speech and expression. The other sinister aspect is that some enemies (whites, upper class Jews) are given a wide berth, while others (black revolutionaries) and bound and gagged in the court. The acting is superb from all of the cast. One is left with the feeling that how one views revolutionaries is connected to the need for revolution in your time. I am deeply sympathetic with them. Especially the pacifist who is provoked into punching a marshal of the court. This pandemic and the continuing environmental disaster should lay bare the lie that is at the centre of consumptionist capitalist. More things do not make you happier, and do not make everyone richer but they destroy the planet and morally bankrupt society.  5/5

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