CLASSROOM USE
In order to enrich the students’ experience and take full advantage of the learning opportunities in this film, we recommend both pre- and post-viewing activities. Below are some questions addressing the major issues raised in the film.
Grade Levels:
This film is recommended for high school students and beyond.
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Subject Areas:
Economics/Business
Political Science/Human Rights
Social Studies/Government
Sociology
U.S. History
Film/Media Studies
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Learning Objectives:
– To analyze the techniques and themes deployed by the filmmakers to tell the story and build characters.
– To research and understand the economic and political issues of the U.S. financial crisis of 2007-2010 and the problems that have led up to it over the last forty years.
– To research and understand the history of the Great Depression and its economic and regulatory aftermath.
– To research and understand FDR’s NEW DEAL policies and their impact.
– To examine the film text as an historical document and record of the last 40 years of financial and political U.S. history.
– To understand the importance of resistance and the role of activists in society.
– To understand the interrelationship between the actions of large corporations and their effect on local communities.
– To understand the importance of good government.
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ANALYSIS QUESTIONS
These analysis questions challenge the student’s careful viewing of HEIST and develop media literacy.
1. In the documentary HEIST, the film opens with Lou Mattis, former CEO of Sterling-Winthrop, a global pharmaceutical company, saying “everything in this country is about money….everything.” What is this film’s agenda? How does the beginning of the film frame its agenda?
2. What do we learn from the experts in the film? What position do they take? Do the filmmakers present an objective view of the events in the film? Give one example from the film to support your claim. Is it possible to present a completely objective point of view? How did the interviews affect your perceptions of the subject matter? How did your own personal background affect your viewing of the film?
3. Did the filmmakers make it clear who executed the coup on everyday people to undermine the American Dream and how they did it? Did they explain clearly how to fix the problem?
4. How do the filmmakers use footage of FDR to tell their story? How is this film footage used to draw parallels to today’s economy?
5. Why did the filmmakers choose to do a film about this subject at this time?
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COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
These comprehension questions challenge students to make connections and understand the effects of historical circumstances on this particular chapter of history, the cause and effect relationships between historical events and social movements, and the effects of implementation of policy.
1. In 1936, FDR fought a battle with big moneyed interests against increased government spending, increased regulation, union strength, and stronger safety nets for average Americans. He established the NEW DEAL and supported important legislation that assured 50 years of economic peace and a strong middle class. According to Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren, what were the three major legislative acts that he supported? What parts of the New Deal did former President Ronald Reagan dismantle?
2. What new rules and safeguards were established in the late 60’s and early 70’s that caused corporate leaders to orchestrate a plan to eliminate government policy and regulation?
3. Lewis Powell worked closely with Eugene Sidnor at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to draft a strategy that would alter public perception about corporations through major campaign contributions. What were the major strategy points of the POWELL MEMO?
4. During the Carter Administration, the Business Round Table and the Chamber of Commerce joined forces to lobby Congress. What did they lobby for and how did their efforts effect organized labor? Who started the ideological marketing organizations that put these strategies into effect? What did the Heritage Foundation’s Mandate for Leadership accomplish in the Reagan administration? In later administrations?
5. What did Reagan’s Economic Recovery Tax do to change the tax burdens of Americans? How did estate taxes change and how did the media “spin” this issue?
6. What was the Fairness Doctrine and how did its repeal under Reagan change media ownership and broadcasting? How did Clinton overhaul telecommunications laws and how did this change news reporting?
7. What is NAFTA and what is the impact of NAFTA on the wages of workers, worker productivity, and workers’ standard of living?
8. Why did the Mandate for Leadership focus on eliminating guaranteed pensions for employees and, instead, expand IRA’s? What happened to most Americans’ 401K plans from March 2008 to June 2009?
9. Reagan started the deregulation of the financial industry but the 1999 repeal of the Glass–Steagall Act under Clinton effectively removed the separation that previously existed between Wall Street investment banks and depository banks. What did this allow banks to do? How did these changes cause the worldwide financial crisis of 2008?
10. What catastrophic event happened in 2005 that Van Jones felt illustrated the logical outcome of 30 years of bipartisan public policy?
11. Why did President George W. Bush try to sell the American public on privatizing the social security system in his State of the Union address of 2005? The bottom 50% of Americans depends on Social Security for 84% of their retirement income. What are the three benefits of social security mentioned in the film?
12. What happened to corporate profits and CEO bonuses and salaries since the financial meltdown? What percentage of the population has benefited from this massive transfer of wealth?
13. How would public financing of elections, restoring the Glass-Steagall Act, and rolling back tax cuts for the wealthy end corporate control of democracy?
14. What happened in Wisconsin to public service unions (teachers, firefighters and police) who were targeted by Governor Scott Walker when he called for sweeping legislation that would weaken public employee rights and bargaining ability and make it much easier to fire employees? How did the corporate transfer of wealth affects state budgets? How did it affect California’s budget? What is the role of unions in strengthening a community and why are they still important?
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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
These discussion questions challenge students to talk aloud with other members of the class to broaden their ideas, challenge arguments, formulate positions on issues, hypothesize the influence of the past on current issues, and differentiate between fact and interpretation.
1. The film HEIST defines the American Dream as the “national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes the promise of prosperity and success.” Ella Baker Center Executive Director Jakada Imani says you have to recast or reframe what that means now. What is your definition of the American Dream? How is it different from your parents or grandparents?
2. Can large global corporations co-exist with local living economies? Who gains and who loses? What types of industries and which sections of society are most negatively affected by corporate globalization?
3. In Richmond, CA., a classic David vs. Goliath story unfolded as the community of only 100,000 people rose up against the big money of Chevron oil and forced Chevron to pay its fair share of taxes. How did they do this? How does one organize locally to get a proposition passed?
4. Do you think major corporations have an unfair advantage in lawsuits? Why or why not? Research and give some examples to back up your answer.
5. At the end of the film, Van Jones, Co-Founder and President of Rebuild the Dream, asks, “What kind of species are we? Are we locusts or are we honeybees?” Discuss what he means by this.
6. Have you or a family member been personally affected by the economic crisis? Has it made you seek help, organize, become an activist, or use the media?
7. Jakata Imandi (Ella Baker Center) reminds us that no one has been held accountable for the biggest wealth transfer in the history of America, not even a conversation about it. Who do you think is to blame and what should be done to them?
8. In HEIST, President Ronald Reagan says “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem” in his first inaugural address 1981. After seeing the film, do you agree with this statement? Compare Reagan’s viewpoint with that of FDR. Who do you think was right? What is the role of government in our society? Do you think it is necessary?
9. Why do you think so many people felt (like Lou Mattis in the film) thatReagan “brought back pride, loyalty and patriotism” to the United States?What major events happened in the U.S. during the Nixon and Carteradministration that paved the way for Reagan¹s ideological counter-revolution? Was it really “morning in America?”
10. The film posits, “There are two kinds of power in America—organized money and organized people.” Do you see evidence of successful grassroots local movements in your city?
11. Should banks or corporations be allowed to grow to the point where they pose a threat to the financial system? Washington let banks grow into behemoths in the first place. But if a company is too big to fail, should it be considered too big to exist? How big is too big to fail?
12. The film mentions that the Peter G. Peterson Foundation (Peterson is founder of Blackstone Group, a private equity firm) has taken the position that entitlement programs like social security are wrecking the economy. Social security is totally funded by working people and their employees and currently has a surplus of $2.3 trillion. Why do you think his foundation is taking this position?
13. In Stanford Professor Ian Morris’ book Why the West Rules– for Now (2010) he discusses the confluence of what he calls the Five Horsemen of the Apocalypse: climate change, migration, famine, epidemic and state failure, and posits that we are facing a completely new kind of collective historical turning point, a mess the entire world must face. Discuss what important role redundant local economies serve in a world with multiple stresses.
14. Make a timeline of presidential decisions starting with Jimmy Carter and continuing through President Obama that have helped unravel the U.S. financial system. Who did the worst damage? Was it truly a bipartisan destruction?
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ACTIVITIES
I. The Bay Area is ground zero for the green and local economy movements and in the film HEIST, a worker cooperative in Oakland, A Taste of Denmark, is shown as an example. Economist and author Michael Shuman’s description of this “new economics of place” entails three general strategies which local communities can employ to regain control over their economies. The first strategy entails a fundamental preference within the community’s economy for locally based industries that meet the basic needs of citizens. Growing evidence suggests that every dollar spent at a locally owned business generates two to four times more economic benefit—measured in income, wealth, jobs, and tax revenue—than a dollar spent at a globally owned business. That is because locally owned businesses spend much more of their money locally and thereby pump up the so-called economic multiplier. Other studies suggest that local businesses are critical to tourism, walkable communities, entrepreneurship, social equality, civil society, charitable giving, revitalized downtowns, and even political participation.
PART ONE: Research
http://www.livingeconomies.org/aboutus/research-and-studies/studies
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A growing body of research confirms the value to communities of their locally owned businesses, the importance of choosing local first, and the impact of Local First campaigns on the economic health of communities. The above website posts the results of recent studies. One of the studies resulted in these key findings:• Every $100 spent with a local firm leaves $68 in the Chicago economy; $100 spent at a chain store leaves $43 in Chicago.• For every square foot occupied by a local firm, the local economic impact is $179, versus $105 for a chain store.
PART TWO: Experiment
Make a list of items that you need to buy. Go to Wal-Mart or another big box store and price the cost to procure the items.Now go to your local business or businesses to price the cost to procure these same items. Compare the prices. Which is cheaper? Next, apply the multiplier effect for local communities described above. Is it really cheaper to purchase from non-locally based stores? Discuss your findings.
II. THE AMERICAN DREAM
From It’s a Wonderful Life to Rocky to The Departed, movies have been a great vehicle for depicting the American Dream. Pick and discuss a movie that you have seen that you think depicts the American Dream including quotes from the film.Here are a few examples that may help you:Tyler Durden, Fight Club, 1999 “I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables—slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war . . . our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.”Lester to Carolyn, American Beauty, 1999 “This isn’t life! This is just stuff. And it has become more important to you than living. And honey, that’s just nuts.”
III. MOTIVATING FOR GRASSROOTS MOVEMENTS
Co-Director Frances Causey grew up in the South and was personally horrifiedby institutional economic and racial injustice. Co-director DonaldGoldmacher¹s father was a union organizer. Discuss how their backgroundsmotivated them to make a film about making people in positions of poweraccountable for their actions and showing people how they can fight back andnot be bullied and pushed around by big corporations.Like the residents of Oakland and Richmond in the film HEIST, people becomeactivists to protect the communities, businesses, and people they love.Think about your community where you live or go to school. Is there anythingthat you feel strongly about changing? Or is there an issue you want toprotest but don¹t know how or when to do it? What motivates you? Form agroup and develop an action plan. Sharon J. Smith¹s book: The YoungActivist¹s Guide to Building a Green Movement and Changing the Worldcontains everything you need to know.Interview local organizers working for a green, resilient, locally sustainable economy. Find out what motivates them. Vote with your dollar andkeep your money in your community!
And don't forget to keep informed!
WHAT ARE THE BANKS UP TO NOW?
Find and read these two recent stories in the Business section of the NewYork Times:
Outsize Severance Continues for Executives, Even After Failed Tenures byEric Dash (September 29, 2011)
Banks to Make Customers Pay Fee for Using Debit Cards by Tara Siegel Bernard and Ben Protess (September 29)
