Corporatism
Mussolini (Father of Fascism, a philosophy that led to the death of
millions):
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the
merger of state and corporate power"
Author: Stephen
DeVoy
Holly was the president of the Spanish Club. Some people fall in
love with languages and Holly was one of these people. She was so
enthusiastic about the Spanish language that she would listen to Salsa and Meringue
rather than rock-n-roll. Outside of her small group, the other students in
her English speaking town thought she was strange. This did not discourage
her.
The Spanish club was hoping to raise money for a trip to Puerto
Rico. They wanted to try out their Spanish language skills and learn more
about Latin American culture. It would be an expensive trip. They
lived in a working class town and few families could afford to send their
children away for such a trip. Holly and her friends knew that they would
have to work hard and long to raise the money. At this year's first
Spanish Club meeting, they decided to make it first priority and begin raising
funds right away.
It was fall in New England. They had decided to have a collective
yard sale. Winter would be upon them soon. It was important to have
the yard sale before the first snowfall, so they made this their first
fund-raising event.
The children had decided that either all of them would go on the trip or
none of them would go. All of the earnings from their fund raisers would
be placed into one single account. They would all work together and if
they raised enough money, they would choose the hotel and tour that would fit
their budget. If they earned just enough, they would have a modest
trip. If they earned more than enough, they would have an even better
trip. Whatever the case, it would be all for one and one for all.
Each child collected their unneeded possessions. They asked their
parents to do the same. One family had a large garage and a large
driveway. They agreed to allow the Spanish Club to hold their yard sale
there. On the night before the yard sale, they worked hard together and
brought all of the items for the sale over to the garage. In the morning,
they opened the yard sale early and took turns negotiating with customers.
At the end of the day they raise 0.00. There were nine students in the
Spanish Club. 0.00 was a good beginning but not enough.
Next the children held a bake sale. From the bake sale they earned
another 0.00. Two of the members of the Spanish Club offered tutoring
to students that needed help. Over the course of the year, these two
students raised another 0.00 for the club. Three of the students
shoveled driveways over the summer and raised 0.00 for the club.
The students got the school's permission to use the gym for a Salsa Night
where other students could join them dancing to Latin Music. They raised
0.00 from that event.
All was going well. One by one they were putting to practice their
plans for raising money and it was working. However, an unexpected event
threw things of course.
The Spanish Club members decided to show a Spanish language movie every
Thursday afternoon. Their Spanish teacher granted them use of her class
room. They brought in a DVD player and a wide screen television set.
Students were charged a .00 donation to see the movies.
The first two weeks it was a hit. They made almost .00 each
time. They had more room in the class room, so they printed up leaflets
advertising their Spanish movie program and posted the leaflets around
town. They posted them in the town square. They posted them in the
mall. They handed them out in the halls of the school. This
Thursday, they thought, they would earn much more money for their trip.
On Thursday, after school, twenty students came to see the movie.
This would be the best showing yet! As they started the movie, the
school's principle came barging into the room, ordered them to shut off the
movie and told all of the students to leave.
Holly stood up and ask, "Why are you doing this?"
The principle looked angry and frightened, "Because you are competing
with local businesses. I got an angry telephone call from the owner of the
movie theatre in the town square and he demanded that I stop this, this, this
abuse of school property."
The students were silent. They all looked at each other in shock.
"This is a school, isn't it?" asked Holly.
"Of course it's a school," said the principle.
"Then how is expanding the cultural horizons of students an abuse of
school property?"
"This isn't a movie theater," he retorted. "Don't
question my authority.
Holly was miffed. The students were now demanding their money
back. "Look," she said, "is there a law against this?"
"Not that I know of, but I don't want to have to find out," the
principle said. "We have an angry business owner threatening to take
action. I don't need this."
Holly raised her voice, "You mean you would put the profits of a
business owner over the welfare of your students? This town has no Spanish
language movie theater. We aren't in competition with him! You know
that."
"I don't care," he said. "I don't need the
headaches. Now, all of you, go home."
Holly handed the money back to the students. They left, mystified at
the power of some businessman they didn't even know. Holly was not about
to give up.
Holly and her friends wrote up a petition demanding that the school permit
them to show the movies in exchange for donations. They went from house to
house and got over one thousand signatures. Holly herself brought them to
the superintendent of schools. The superintended gave in and ordered the
principle to allow the students to hold their movie events.
The next Thursday, only 15 students showed up. Word had passed
around about the previous fiasco and some were hesitant to show up. The
movie started and all seemed to be going well for about 15 minutes when the
principle burst into the classroom again.
"Do you have permission to show that movie to a public
audience?" he asked.
"What do you mean?" asked Holly. "We rented it.
Here, I have the receipt. Why are you doing this?"
"I just got a call from the owner of the movie theater," he
said. "He told me that if you didn't have permission from the
copyright holder of the movie, he would be calling the FBI and demanding that
they prosecute us for violating the license under which you rented the
film. I can't risk it. The movie is cancelled, permanently!"
Holly once again passed back the movie donations. All of the
students were getting very angry. She asked the students to gather at her
house.
On the way home she passed by an office store. She purchased a large
package of poster-board and markers. When she arrived at home, 12 students
were there waiting for her. She took at a copy of the petition. It
was 20 pages long. She asked for five volunteers.
Each of the five volunteers was given four pages of the petition.
They went home and began calling those who had signed it. There was to be
a protest that evening in front of the movie theater, starting at 6:30.
The other seven students began making signs with various slogans
denouncing the owner of the business. One sign read, "Who are you to
silence us?" Another read, "Education over profits!"
There were many signs and they came up with a large array of slogans.
At 6:30 they gathered outside of the theatre, passing out signs to the 100
people who showed up. They marched back and forth on the sidewalk in front
of the theater, chanting slogans against the owner of the business and asking
movie-goers to go elsewhere to see a movie. Some movie-goers still went
in, but many did not.
As would happen at any protest, some people insulted the students.
"Get a job!" and old man yelled. The children responded,
"We're children, what do you mean, 'Get a job?'"
Soon the police arrived. They told the protesters that they needed a
permit.
"No we don't," said Holly. Just then the press arrived.
"We don't need a permit," she said. "According to the
laws of this state, we need no permit to gather on public land. We are
staying."
"You are interrupting a business," the police man said.
"Too bad," she replied. "He's interrupting our
education and now you are interrupting our rights."
The students began to chant, "We have rights. We have
rights. We have rights."
Soon, many parents came to stand with their children. More members
of the press showed up. A television news program sent a reporter.
The police could see that they were being watched and that they would be seen in
confrontation with children. The order went out to stand down. The
police retreated to a distance and watched. One police officer had a
conversation with a member of the news crew.
The news crew member came over to a few of the students and said,
"Hey, do you want to be on television?"
"Sure," said one of the students.
"OK, then. We need some action. This is getting kind of
boring. Why don't you guys fake a fight. I'll put it on the
TV."
The students looked at each other, turned to the reporter and said,
"Sorry, we're not stupid. Take a hike, asshole."
The protest continued.
At 9:30, when the second batch of movies were starting, the business owner
looked at his numbers for the day. Only half the normal number went into
the theater that evening. About half had turned and gone somewhere
else. He was angry. He did not predict that bullying his way into
monopolizing the showing of movies in the town would harm his profits.
The movie owner came out of the theater. "I'd like to speak to
the president of the Spanish Club!" he called out.
Holly walked over. "I'd like to speak with you in private he
said." It was his hope to cut a deal with her. Maybe he could
give her free movie passes or something and she would end the protest.
"No," Holly replied. "You speak with us in public or
not at all!"
"What can I do to stop this?" he asked. "I have a
business to run!"
"You should have minded your own business and not ours,"
countered Holly. "This is all your fault."
"OK, OK, he said. Play your stupid movies. It's not like
people will stop coming to my theater if you do," he said.
"Then why did you try to stop us?"
The business owner was silent.
"Why," she demanded!
"Don't get smart with me," he said. "I have influence
in this town. I suggest you take my offer and shut up."
The students were unsure of how to respond.
Holly said, "You have influence? Look around you and see the
influence of the people! Don't threaten us! We will have our movie
program whether you like it or not. Keep to your own business if you don't
want to alienate the people who keep you in business."
With that, the protest ended. Holly arranged for a private location
to view the movies. They never heard from the movie theater owner
again. He became unpopular and some people began to drive to the next town
to see movies from that day forth.
By the Spring, the Spanish Club had raised enough funds to send the entire
group to Puerto Rico. As they plane landed in San Juan, they raised a
cheer. They were proud of themselves for persevering. Most of all,
they were proud of themselves for fighting for their rights.