The Commodification of Revolution

These four companies account for a combined 80% of all music sales*  Rage Against the Machine’s guitarist, Tom Morello, had this say about his band being signed to a major label: 

When you live in a capitalistic society, the currency of the dissemination of information goes through capitalistic channels. Would Noam Chomsky object to his works being sold at Barnes & Noble? No, because that’s where people buy their books. We’re not interested in preaching to just the converted. It’s great to play abandoned squats run by anarchists, but it’s also great to be able to reach people with a revolutionary message, people from Granada Hills to Stuttgart**  

 The difference between Noam Chomsky and Rage Against the Machine is that Chomsky sometimes releases his books through independent publishers (Metropolitan Books and Open Media for example), though this still does justify the sale of revolutionary/anti-establishment writings at such mega-chain, system supporting bookstores as Barnes & Noble and Borders.

** Wikipedia.org, “Rage Against the Machine,” Guitar World, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Rage_Against_the_Machine (accessed January, 2007).

The “Cult of Che” will continue to increase with the eventual release of not one, but two Che Guevara movies (The Argentine and Guerilla) starring Benecio Del Torro, directed by Steven Soderbergh,[1] continuing the capitalization and exploitation of the anti-capitalistic revolutionary.     Rage Against the Machine reached extreme popularity in the mid-90s with their unique sound going double platinum in 1999 with their album The Battle of Los Angeles.[2]  Their t-shirt brandishing the famous image of Che Guevara on the front with a quote of his[3] on the back could be seen everywhere from the mall to the classroom.  Much of their success can be attributed to their leftist/revolutionary/anti-establishment lyrics and actions.  Rage Against the Machine was signed to Epic Records, a subsidiary of Sony BMG Music, which is considered one of the Big Four music companies along with Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and EMI Group.

[1] “Soderbergh on The Argentine and Guerrilla being released a week apart,” http://www.stevensoderbergh.net/ (accessed May, 2007).

[2] Answers.com, “Rage Against the Machine,” http://www.answers.com/topic/rage-against-the-machine (accessed January, 2007).

[3] “It is not a matter of wishing success to the victim of aggression, but of sharing his fate; one must accompany him to his death or to victory” www.whogivesashirt.ca/EM7500649.html (accessed April, 2007).

NBC Universal, in turn, is a subsidiary of General Electric,* which, in 2005, grossed revenue of upwards of $149.702 billion USD and a net income of $16.353 billion USD.** General Electric is the 40th largest economic entity in the world, with a larger GDP than the countries of Portugal and Venezuela as just two examples.***

To go along with the movie, independent publisher Ocean Press released a “movie tie-in” version of the book complete with a flashy cover filled with images from the movie, thus capitalizing on the release of the film.  This book falls within the “Che Guevara Publishing Project” of Ocean Press.  The project consists of “A series of books…launched by Ocean Press and the Che Guevara Studies Center (Havana) with the objective of disseminating the works and ideas of Ernesto Che Guevara ­ this most contemporary of radical role models…

 this multi-volume series shows Che as a profound thinker with a radical world view, who still strikes a chord with young rebels in every country today.”**** 

*80% of NBC Universal is owned by GE, the remaining 20% is owned by Vivendi Universal.  Focusfeatures.com, “Company Profile,” http://www.focusfeatures.com/home.php (accessed January, 2007).

** GE.com, “Statement of Earnings,” http://www.ge.com/en/company/investor/ar/cfs_e.htm (accessed January, 2007).

*** Corporations.org, “Of the world’s 100 largest economic entities, 51 are now corporations and 49 are countries,” http://www.corporations.org/system/top100.html (accessed January, 2007).

**** “about us,” http://www.oceanbooks.com.au/about_us.php?osCsid=t55gthma9jnitohmhtsfepsge5 (accessed May, 2007).

Che’s iconic image has appeared on countless products, posters, and t-shirts.  It is with this that a shift occurred in “revolutionary” thought.  What Dylan started, the Cult of Che finished.  By removing almost any actual revolutionary attachment to Che, Che became a label; some say a global brand, no different than Nike, McDonald’s, or Coca-Cola.  It is with this that the message of “revolution” became appropriated. It proved itself to be profitable.*

 The Motorcycle Diaries, the movie adaptation of Che Guevara’s pre-Revolutionary writings, was released in 2004 to rave reviews.  The movie was sold to the public as an “independent” movie, free of the hassles of the large movie studios.  What most of the public did not realize, and still does not realize, is that Focus Features is a division of NBC Universal, which considers Focus to be its art house/specialty division.**

* To see to the extent of which Che and revolution has been appropriated, one only needs to go to www.thechestore.com “…for all your revolutionary needs.”  On this website, of which it is not the only, you can purchase “officially licensed” Che Guevara merchandise ranging anywhere from t-shirts to clocks to belt buckles and then use Paypal or any of the major credit cards to pay.

** Answers.com, “Focus Features,” http://www.answers.com/topic/focus-features (accessed January, 2007).

Revolutionary sympathizer, Italian publisher, Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, known famously for smuggling the unpublished manuscript of Dr. Zhivago out of Soviet Russia, went to Cuba after a brief stint in Bolivia where he learned of Che’s revolutionary work.  With the foresight of a capitalist, he “saw a business opportunity in the possible assassination of Che.”*  In Cuba, he approached Korda in 1967 for a good picture of Che.  Korda kindly obliged, giving him two copies of the now famous picture.  Immediately following the death of Che, Feltrinelli copyrighted the image, selling 2,000,000 posters within half a year.  Korda never received royalties for the picture due to Cuba’s reluctance to sign at Berne Convention.** 

* www.pix.dk, “The story about the image of Che Guevara,” http://www.pix.dk/korda2.htm (accessed April, 2007).

** Ibid.

Ernesto “Che” Guevara has been mentioned and will be mentioned throughout this paper.  Without going to deeply into his history, Che assisted Castro in the Cuban Revolution of 1959 and later went on to attempt revolutions in the Congo and Bolivia.  In late 1967, Che was captured in Bolivia and executed shortly there after.  This “martyr’s death” allowed Che to become a symbol of the “revolutions” of 1968. 

            The “Cult of Che,” as it has been called,* was, and continues to be, fueled by the photograph taken by Alberto Korda, arguably one of the most recognized images of the 20^th century.  How this photo became so famous is typical of the Commodification of Revolution and the power of capital.

* Sean O’Hagan, “Just a pretty face?,” observer.guardian.co.uk, July 11, 2004, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/ review/story/0,6903,1258340,00.html (accessed April, 2007).

Once Dylan had established himself as a figure in the music community, he ceased writing “political” songs.  Ironically, many in the folk music community saw this almost as selling out:

            When Bob began to ignore topical material, it bothered me ‘cause he wrote such marvelous material, you know?  And suddenly to have stopped that meant that he was going away from a political consciousness that we felt we all had.  One can attribute that as going commercial as getting away from this, and that bothered us.*

 Later in life Dylan would imply that he did, wrote, and sang whatever he had to in order to get where he was; basically, he did what he had to do to make it.**  A similar line to the one Jack London took.  Dylan claimed numerous times that he was not a topical songwriter, nor did he every want to be part of the “movement.”  The “revolutionaries” claimed him as a spokesman, thus allowing Columbia to capitalize.  Yet, at the same time, Dylan used them to get to where he wanted.  Dylan himself never out rightly sang of revolution, but by taking his songs to be the songs of their “revolution,” the record company profited hugely off of this allowing for other bands like MC5*** to get signed to major labels Elektra and Atlantic, and then they too could profit off of “The Revolution.”

* Harold Leventhal in “State of Becoming,” No Direction Home: Part 2.

** “60 Minutes: Dylan Looks Back,” CBSnews.com, June 12, 2005, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/ 12/02/60minutes/main658799.shtml (accessed May, 2007).

*** Though they never sang songs about revolution, they became symbols of it, being the only band that was scheduled to perform at the 1968 Democratic convention that actually played and originally being managed by radical activist poet John Sinclair who was also briefly the leader of the White Panther Party.

His first record was not a commercial success, nor was it political.  It was with his second record, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, that his name became known.   It was on this record he “politicized” with “Masters of War,” “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” and “Talking World War III Blues.”  In one of his most popular songs then and now, “Blowin’ in the Wind,” he sang:     

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, ‘n’ how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, ‘n’ how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they’re forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.*

             On his third record, The Times They Are A’Changin’, in the title track he sang of the changes that were occurring throughout society: 

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin’.
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.**

                 The people of this era, most notably the student revolutionaries, took these songs to be their anthems.  These songs would fill the soundtrack of the revolution.  Joan Baez later said, “He‘d given us, by that point, the greatest songs in our anti-war, civil rights arsenals.”***  Dylan was considered the spokesman of his generation, a leader of the movement; “Whether he liked it or not, Dylan sang for us…”****  He himself denied all of this.  He didn’t feel that he himself was singing political songs.  Dylan saw himself as a songwriter, nothing more, nothing less.  If “political” songs helped to sell his records, then all the better.

* Bob Dylan, The Freewheelin’Bob Dylan, “Blowin’ in the Wind,” 1963 Columbia Records.

** Bob Dylan, The Times They Are A’Changin’, “The Times They Are A’Changin’,” 1964 Columbia Records.

*** “The Need For Change,” No Direction Home: Part 2.

**** Gitlin, 197.

In the 1960s, Bob Dylan rose to prominence by singing folk “protest” songs, continuing in the tradition of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.  Having hitchhiked his way to New York City, leaving his comfortable middle-class, mid-western upbringing, Bob Dylan began his career in the coffee houses and bars of Greenwich Village playing for little to nothing.  Within just a couple years, Dylan would become one of the most popular performers in the world.  

            Dylan’s recording career began not on the traditional folk labels of the day, Vanguard and Folkways amongst others, but on one of the largest labels at the time, Columbia Records when he was 20 years old.  Music publisher Artie Mogull said of why Dylan was signed to Columbia in the first place was because Hermann Starr and the company “smelled dollars,”* which is ironic as folk was at that time seen as a backlash against the early commodification and commercialization of popular music in the post-World War II era.**

* “Hammond’s Folly,” No Direction Home: Part 1, DVD, directed by Martin Scorsese, (2005; Paramount; 2005).

**  Cotton Seiler, “The Commodification of Rebellion: Rock Culture and Consumer Capitalism” in New Forms of Consumption: Consumers, Culture, and Commodification, ed. Mark Gottdiener, 206 (Lanham: Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2000).

His own way of life had produced the change.  He had lost contact with the people; he had grown wealthy, had forgotten his lessons in socialism and his own lectures and essays on imperialism; and, as a tired and confused man, no longer bothered to look beneath the surface for basic causes.  Perhaps his daughter, Joan London, analyzed it best when she wrote: “His was a more tragic sellout, for he had been subsidized, bought body and soul, by the kind of life he had thought he wanted, and it was destroying him.”*

 It is this unfortunate set of circumstances that has made Jack London one of the first in American history to use revolution as a means to wealth.  Jack London was the beginning of the Commodification of Revolution.   It is unfair to place the entire burden of the Commodification of Revolution on Jack London, as there are others from the same period that profited as well, including his good friend Upton Sinclair and John Reed, author of Ten Days that Shook the World,** but he set the standard and helped to create the tradition in America of Commodifying Revolution.

* Ibid., 118.

** To be fair to these authors, they were integral in raising awareness to social ills of their day, sometimes within the system, sometimes outside of it, and historically have had a lasting impact.