Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt Read online

  Praise for Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt

  “Sacco’s sections are uniformly brilliant. The tone is controlled, the writing smart, the narration neutral. . . . This is an important book.” —New York Times Book Review

  “An unabashedly polemic, angry manifesto that is certain to open eyes, intensify outrage and incite argument about corporate greed. . . . Through immersion reportage and graphic narrative, the duo illuminate the human and environmental devastation in those communities, with the warning that no one is immune. . . . A call for a new American revolution, passionately proclaimed.” —Kirkus (Starred Review)

  “[Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt] is, without question, the most profoundly disquieting (and downright shocking) portrait of modern America in recent years, and one that is essential reading for anyone wanting to comprehend the quotidian struggle of what sociologists called ‘the underclass.’ To describe the book as Dickensian in its horror-show reports of frontline industrial decrepitude and socio-economic dysfunction is to engage in understatement . . . Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt is unapologetically combative and profoundly J’accuse. And though many a conservative think-tanker could try to punch holes in its arguments no one can remain unmoved or unsettled by its brilliantly documented reportage from the precipice of a society that prefers to turn a blind eye to its nightmarish underside.” —The Times (Saturday Review)

  “[B]rilliant combination of prose and graphic comics.” —Ralph Nader

  “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt is as moving a portrait of poverty and as compelling a call to action as Michael Harrington’s ‘The Other America,’ published in 1962.” —Boston Globe

  “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt is a gripping and thoroughly researched polemic.” —Grantland

  “[A] growling indictment of corporate America.” —Financial Times

  “ . . . a unique hybrid of investigative journalism, graphic novel and polemic.” —Denver Post

  “ . . . a heartfelt, harrowing picture of post-capitalist America.” —Guardian (UK)

  “The book is a primer for every American who is overwhelmed by the uncertainty of the stock market, who wonders where America’s muscle went, and how much heavy lifting our kids will face.” —Seattle Times

  “The tales therein—both the intimate personal ones and the big sociopolitical ones—are as unsettling as they are impossible to put down.” —Philadelphia Weekly

  “Eloquently written and embellished by spare, desolate drawings from Joe Sacco, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt is accessible and deeply uncomfortable.” —Metro (UK)

  “ . . . provides close accounts of some of the country’s most devastated communities, ‘sacrifice zones.’ It ends with a detailed history of the Occupy protests and a declaration that ‘the mighty can fall.’” —Associated Press

  “[B]rilliant.” —The Capital Times

  “Days of Destruction is a riveting indictment of America’s failures.” —Portland Monthly

  “This searing indictment of our unsustainable society is unsettling. To keep our chance for dignity, we must do our part to champion the organizers and whistleblowers, committee members and protesters. Amen. Pass the word.” —Brooklyn Rail

  “[H]arrowing descriptions. . . . Hedges tells the story, not only of the people but of the town, and despite the differences in setting, certain similarities show through: poverty, addiction, violence; but more than that, a long series of broken promises and mounting despair. Sacco illustrates these chapters with his distinctive, careful line drawings. . . . [A]n excellent piece of journalism—engaging, troubling, and in its own way, beautiful.” —TowardFreedom.com

  “As quixotic as the quest may seem, Days of Destruction brings the rhetoric and the reality into a nobler focus after a very disturbing tour.” —The Star-Ledger (New Jersey)

  “It’s rare that a book carries so much courage and conviction, forcing reflection and an urge to immediately rectify the problems.” —Bookslut

  “A powerful social and political exploration.” —Midwest Book Review/California Bookwatch

  “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt is a journey through contemporary American misery and what can be done to change the course, interpreted through the eyes of two of today’s most relevant literary journalists. . . . The graphics illustrate what words alone cannot, capturing a past as it’s told, where there’s no longer anything left to photograph.” —Asbury Park Press

  “[T]he radical disjunction between how Hedges and Sacco approach their subjects is fascinating and instructive. Hedges is at ease with the grand, sweeping Howard Zinn–moments of matchbook history. . . . And if sweeping, historical connect-the-dots is your cup of tea, then you will find Hedges deeply moving. But if, like Sacco, you distrust all history that does not have a face, a name, and a voice behind it, you will find more to call you to action in the voices that speak from the decimated landscapes of America’s deepest poverty, which we (like Dickens’s ‘telescopic philanthropists’) know even less well than we do the sufferings of peoples halfway around the world. Together, Sacco and Hedges might just have created a form that can speak across divides unbridgeable without the supplement of graphic narrative.” —Public Books

  “ . . . a bleak, fist-shaking look at the effects of global capitalism in the United States.” —Joe Gross, Austin American-Statesman

  “This is a book that should warm the hearts of political activists such as Naomi Klein or the nonagenerian Pete Seeger. And cause apoplexy among the Tea Party and its fellow travellers. . . . Sure, it’s a polemic, but it’s a polemic with a human face.” —Globe and Mail (Canada)

  “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt is a harrowing account of the exploited American underclass. . . . It is their stories that shape Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt to be a mesmeric indictment of an America that has failed its populace. . . . From the title alone it is evident that neither Hedges nor Sacco remain objective or shy away from the palpable condemnation of capitalism and the American government. Regardless, they develop an accurate account of the despondency that plagues and divides American culture. This is an imperative read in an era where widespread economic depression and grief reign supreme. . . . Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt is powerful and remarkable, arguably one of the best publications of the year.” —PopMatters.com

  “This is an important book.”—Winnipeg Free Press (Canada)

  “It is a fascinating journey . . . This book hit me in the gut. It will move you to engage in battle.” —Ed Garvey

  “[R]ead Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt to know what is happening in this country.” —Caffeinated Muslim

  “ . . . a scorching look at communities burned out not by foreign bombs but by American capitalism.” —The Stranger (Seattle)

  “As a portrait of poverty, the book succeeds stunningly well.” —Portland Mercury

  “When their narrative culminates in Zucotti Park, readers will feel just as outraged as the protesters portrayed on the page.” —Barnes and Noble Review

  “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt examines how corruption and greed have shaped the history of the United States in an unfortunate way. . . . This is an excellent book for those who actually need a reason to revolt, and should be read by anyone seeking public office.” —San Francisco/Sacramento Book Review

  “Be prepared for an emotional experience without a happy ending. Be prepared to be defensive. Be prepared to be angry. Be prepared to be ashamed. . . . [T]he book is accompanied by sections that are a graphic novel approach to the individual stories of the real people interviewed in these zones of despair. What is so overpowering, and discussable, in th
ese biographies is that they read as much like a confessional as they do a history. . . . Can there be anything more important to discuss?” —Book Group Buzz, Booklist Online

  “This is indeed an extraordinary, must read book.” —OpEdNews.com

  “This may well be the most important book of the century, and yet Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt barely scratches the surface of our reality. But even that small peek into the system is mind-numbing. This book has the potential to wake us up—really Wake Us Up—to what is happening. The question is this: once we recognize the size and strength of the enemy, will we be so intimidated that we roll over and play victim? Or will we take a stand when and where we can, in small ways, alone or together, to start taking down the behemoth?” —Curled Up With a Good Book

  CHRIS HEDGES

  JOE SACCO

  BOOKS BY CHRIS HEDGES

  War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning

  What Every Person Should Know About War

  Losing Moses on the Freeway

  American Fascists

  I Don’t Believe In Atheists

  Collateral Damage

  Empire of Illusion

  Death of the Liberal Class

  BOOKS BY JOE SACCO

  Safe Area Goražde: The War in Eastern Bosnia 1992–95

  Palestine

  The Fixer: A Story from Sarajevo

  Notes from a Defeatist

  War’s End: Profiles from Bosnia 1995–96

  But I Like It

  Footnotes in Gaza

  Journalism

  Copyright © 2012 by Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco

  First paperback edition published in 2014

  Published by Nation Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group

  116 East 16th Street, 8th Floor

  New York, NY 10003

  Nation Books is a co-publishing venture of the Nation Institute and the Perseus Books Group

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address the Perseus Books Group, 250 West 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10107.

  Books published by Nation Books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail [email protected].

  Designed by Jeff Williams

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Hedges, Chris.

  Days of destruction, days of revolt / Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco.

  p. cm.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN 978-1-56858-473-7 (e-book)1. Poor—United States. 2. Social classes—United States. 3. Crime—United States. 4. United States—Social conditions—20th century.I. Sacco, Joe. II. Title.

  HC110.P6H43 2012

  305.5'60973—dc23

  2012004701

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  CONTENTS

  Introduction

  1

  DAYS OF THEFT

  Pine Ridge, South Dakota

  2

  DAYS OF SIEGE

  Camden, New Jersey

  3

  DAYS OF DEVASTATION

  Welch, West Virginia

  4

  DAYS OF SLAVERY

  Immokalee, Florida

  5

  DAYS OF REVOLT

  Liberty Square, New York City

  Acknowledgments

  Notes

  Bibliography

  Index

  For Amalie and Eunice

  For they have sown the wind,

  and they shall reap the whirlwind

  —HOSEA 8:7

  INTRODUCTION

  JOE SACCO AND I SET OUT TWO YEARS AGO TO TAKE A LOOK AT THE SACRIFICE zones, those areas in the country that have been offered up for exploitation in the name of profit, progress, and technological advancement. We wanted to show in words and drawings what life looks like when the marketplace rules without constraints, where human beings and the natural world are used and then discarded to maximize profit. We wanted to look at what the ideology of unfettered capitalism means for families, communities, workers and the ecosystem.

  The rise of corporatism began with the industrial revolution, westward expansion, and the genocide carried out in the name of progress and Western civilization against Native Americans. It does not denote simply an economic system but an ideology, a way of looking and dealing with each other and the world around us. This ideology embraces the belief that societies and cultures can be regenerated through violence. It glorifies profit and wealth. This is why we went to Pine Ridge, South Dakota. It was there that the disease of empire and American exceptionalism took root. The belief that we have a divine right to resources, land, and power, and a right to displace and kill others to obtain personal and national wealth, has left in its wake a trail of ravaged landscapes and incalculable human suffering, not only in Pine Ridge but across the country and the planet. What was done to Native Americans was the template. It would be done to people in the Philippines, Cuba, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and it is now finally being done to us. This tyranny and exploitation have become our own.

  The ruthless hunt for profit creates a world where everything and everyone is expendable. Nothing is sacred. It has blighted inner cities, turned the majestic Appalachian Mountains into a blasted moonscape of poisoned water, soil, and air. It has forced workers into a downward spiral of falling wages and mounting debt until laborers in agricultural fields and sweatshops work in conditions that replicate slavery. It has impoverished our working class and ravaged the middle class. And it has enriched a tiny global elite that has no loyalty to the nation-state. These corporations, if we use the language of patriotism, are traitors.

  The belief that human beings and human societies should be ruled by the demands of the marketplace is utopian folly. There is nothing in human history or human nature that supports the idea that sacrificing everything before the free market leads to a social good. And yet we have permitted this utopian belief system to determine how we structure our economy, labor, education, culture, and our relations with foreign nations, as well as how we treat the ecosystem on which we depend for life.

  All the airy promises of unfettered capitalism are starkly contradicted in the pockets of despair we visited. The hollow protestations of the courtiers in the media, the government, and the universities, who still chant the official mantra of free markets, have little substance when they are set against reality. Corporate capitalism will, quite literally, kill us, as it has killed Native Americans, African Americans trapped in our internal colonies in the inner cities, those left behind in the devastated coalfields, and those who live as serfs in our nation’s produce fields.

  The game, however, is up. The clock is ticking toward internal and external collapse. Even our corporate overlords no longer believe the words they utter. They rely instead on the security and surveillance state for control. The rumble of dissent that rises from the Occupy movements terrifies them. It creates a new narrative. It exposes their exploitation and cruelty. And it shatters the absurdity of their belief system.

  This book, from its inception, was called Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt. But when we began, the revolt was conjecture. The corporate state knows only one word: more. We expected a beleaguered population to push back, but we did not know when the revolt would come or what it would look like. We found pockets of resistance, courageous men and women who stood up before the gargantuan forces before them in Pine Ridge; in Camden, New Jersey; in southern West Virginia; and in the nation’s agricultural fields. But the nationwide revolt was absent. It arose on September 17, 2011, in Zuccotti Park in New York City, as we were in the final months of the
book. This revolt rooted our conclusion in the real rather than the speculative. It permitted us to finish with a look at a rebellion that was as concrete as the destruction that led to it. And it permitted us to end our work with the capacity for hope.

  CHRIS HEDGES

  Princeton, New Jersey

  AMONG INDUSTRIALIZED NATIONS, THE UNITED STATES HAS THE

  •highest poverty rate, both generally and for children;

  •greatest inequality of incomes;

  •lowest government spending as a percentage of GDP on social programs for the disadvantaged;

  •lowest average number of days for paid holiday, annual leaves, and maternity leaves;

  •lowest score on the United Nations index of “material well-being of children”;

  •worst score on the United Nations gender inequality index;

  •lowest social mobility

  •highest public and private expenditure on health care as a percentage of GDP.

  THESE TRENDS ARE ACCOMPANIED BY THE

  •highest infant mortality rate;

  •highest prevalence of mental-health problems;

  •highest obesity rate;

  •highest proportion of population going without health care due to cost;

  •second-lowest birth-weight for children per capita, behind only Japan;

  •highest consumption of antidepressants per capita;

  •third-shortest life expectancy at birth, behind only Denmark and Portugal;

  •highest carbon dioxide emissions and water consumption per capita;

  •second-lowest score on the World Economic Forum’s environmental performance index, behind only Belgium;

  •third-largest ecological footprint per capita, behind only Belgium and Denmark;

  •highest rate of failure to ratify international agreements;

  •lowest spending on international development and humanitarian assistance as a percentage of GDP;

  •highest military spending as a portion of GDP;