Movement for a Socialist Future: MSF

THOSE who run global capitalism constantly generate images which conceal the real nature of the big corporations and the system they represent. At the same time, more and more people are aware that enormous power is concentrated into these multinationals. To challenge this power we need to discover what their images actually reveal.

It is easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of images churned out 24 hours a day by the media and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between image and reality, and to establish the relation between the two.

But to discover how to change the system we must see these images as a starting point for discovering the real essence of the system, not just a clever marketing tool.

All images stand in a relation to what produces them. An image - by definition - is the image of something. That thing (or "source") is by its nature not the same as the image. Yet it is connected to it and it is the thing which produces the image.

From the standpoint of logic, the image - because it is a reflection of a certain thing - of necessity contains the properties of that thing. For example, the image of yourself in a mirror will reflect what you actually look like.

This relation between image and the thing imaged persists even in the complex conditions of today's image-dominated global society. To get to the truth we cannot afford to ignore the images presented to us especially in the form of news. We cannot simply dismiss all images as media concoctions and "switch off", much as we may want to. We need to get to the truth through the image.

Many images which are presented to us are in direct contradiction to the message they are putting across. The more "real" they are, the more deceptive they can be. Real-life events, such as a birth or a death, or even prisoners on death row, are used by Benetton, to shock people.

Mobile telephone companies use documentary news images of those who have fought against the system, such as Martin Luther King, to lure people into buying their gadgets. The pro-capitalist Financial Times newspaper puts out images of the revolutionary anti-capitalist Lenin to promote itself.

The use of such images actually shows the desperate need capitalist companies have to find new ways of selling their products. Nothing is sacred and nothing is taboo. The way in which images are used today is the ultimate commercialisation of anything and everything. A system which has to "use" images of its opponents to "brand" itself is in deep crisis.

Images can seduce and grip people temporarily, but they cannot solve the real problems of life or in the end hide them. Despite all the appearance of control by the global corporations, any stability in the world financial markets has gone out the window. NatWest, one of the biggest British banks has just been taken over by a much smaller Scottish bank, with the loss of 21,000 jobs. However many images are presented about banks, it is clear that the old institutions, whether economic or political, have no future.

The more a system and its government feels it must rely on images alone, the more susceptible it is to being undermined. The frenzy of speculative share dealing in Internet shares, the bubble of house price increases and obscene flaunting of new-found wealth are part of an artificial house of cards which cannot last.

People are driven, in the last analysis, by their self-interest, which under capitalism, depends on what class they are members of. If it is in their interest to challenge the ownership of the multinationals they will do so. The Seattle demonstrations and other movements by workers and young people globally are proof of this.

This article first appeared in Socialist Future magazine