Reflections of a Successful Mass Action: reclaiming the Pittsburgh narrative from corporate bast

Behind the legions of stormtroopers, the teargas, the snipers, and the razor wire, decisions are made by a greedy and powerful few of how best to perpetuate the current paradigm of exploitation, destruction, and profiteering; how their model can be repackaged and preserved to plague another generation of unknowing sheeple. Our collective future continues to be systematically sold off to the capitalist market gods with every new clearcut, mountain top removal, with the toxification of our land, air and water; with each new sweat shop, rubber plantation, each forced relocation; with each new predator drone or guided missile system.


By K. M. Spacebag

Disclaimer: The following is purely a statement of opinion comprised from a number of different perspectives, and in NO WAY reflects the actions of the author.

Before we begin, it is important to emphasize that what follows is, for the sake of relative brevity, necessarily dismissive of the months of grueling hard work that has gone into organizing this and all mass actions. To assume that such a gathering is spontaneous is to dismiss the countless hours of painstaking, strictly consensus based organizing undertaken by the Pittsburgh anarchists and hundreds of organizations. Many brave individuals with full understanding of the great legal and physical risk involved with coordinating such an event, have nevertheless put themselves on the line in the interest of solidifying a more formidable movement. Our debt and gratitude to them requires volumes of text to express.

Nor should one interpret this as precluding the idea that arguably the most important organizing revolves around establishing more long-term alternative structures to replace unjust ones. Mass actions are a unique opportunity to build larger movements, to get the message out on a global forum, to establish broader networks, and to reconnect with one’s inner rebellion. But the longer fight remains in community gruntwork.

Instead, I have chosen to express, for the interest of spreading resistance, an unapologetic and often militant romanticism, a small portion of our generation’s propaganda by the deed, preceded by some brief theoretical exposition of the G20 for all you sleepers out there.

“The premise of personal property is that each of us has what he/she needs. The premise of private property is that each of us has something that someone else needs or wants. In a society based on private property rights, those who are able to accrue more of what others need or want have greater power. By extension, they wield greater control over what others perceive as needs or desires, usually in the interest of increasing profit themselves.”

ACME collective, from Endgame

Behind the legions of stormtroopers, the teargas, the snipers, and the razor wire, decisions are made by a greedy and powerful few of how best to perpetuate the current paradigm of exploitation, destruction, and profiteering; how their model can be repackaged and preserved to plague another generation of unknowing sheeple. Our collective future continues to be systematically sold off to the capitalist market gods with every new clearcut, mountain top removal, with the toxification of our land, air and water; with each new sweat shop, rubber plantation, each forced relocation; with each new predator drone or guided missile system. As the greedy hands of the market fill every untainted corner, every isolated crack where once free individuals remained, we witness the rendering of a universally colonized slave class whose sole purpose on this planet is to work and buy, production and consumption, replacing the immaterial and priceless feelings and relationships that have long characterized humanity with plastic flashy things, false currencies and meaningless “jobs”, like starving little mice chasing lies to turn the wheels of corporate profit.

The defenders of this system labor only to construct in each of us, through constant bombardment and reinforcement, a false sense of normalcy in hopelessness to which we are all inescapably trapped; pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! What many have come to see as the undisputable and inexorable condition of modern reality, or even the expectable symptoms of human “progress”, some have historically recognized as the self-fulfilling damnation of life on this planet, the mechanized awl hollowing out the human spirit, condemning our friends and loved ones to a life of servitude and misery, and having only experienced its hollowness, they may never have the contrasting emotional vocabulary to identify it. The focus on this G20 meeting in Pittsburgh will undoubtedly be to apply a new spin to this same 300 year old pattern, an attempt to make capitalism palatable as it falters once again in the downswing of its fifth Kondratieff cycle .

In pondering the existence and function of this country club of the 20 richest states (actually, the richest 19 plus the EU), Emmanuel Wallerstein’s conceptualization of the world system immediately comes to mind. In Wallerstein’s model, the world is dominated by a single capitalist system, comprised of core states, periphery states, and semi-periphery states . Simply put, core states exploit periphery states for profit, and semi-peripheral states have characteristics of both exploiter and exploited. Within the G20, core states comprise the original G7 and G8, from which this group was derived, who inarguably wield the most decision making power. The rest of these states can be considered semiperipheral, and are more or less along for the ride in order to create the illusion of democracy.

The important thing to note here is that there is no linear ladder of “development” to be ascended over time by “underdeveloped” states, and there is no point at which all states can reach core status. Such a scenario, though frequently dangled before the exploited to enhance the transfer of wealth into greedy hands, could never exist in a capitalist system as there would be no one left to exploit, or to capitalize off of. Equally important is the fact that the so called “representatives” of these states are nothing more than bank ministers and financial reps, so despite their misnomer, the only people they “represent” are the wealthy ruling class, the smallest portion of the population. Such is the nature of post WWII “Development,” which, since the Reagan Era has infected the world through neoliberal free market fundamentalism, and today with what many apologists call “globalization,” but could be more accurately described as corporate globalism.

The G20, already boasting 85% of the world’s GNP, gathers periodically to discuss how they can further solidify their position, to bury their collective boot deeper into the throat of world (over)production and (over)consumption. Within Antoine Gunder Frank’s framework of development, this system of exploitation extends not only from one state to another, but also manifests domestically as the controllers of capital concentrated in urban financial districts extract wealth via an elaborate system of satellite connections .

Through free trade agreements, international finance, the so called “comparative advantage,” and the spread of universal consumer culture, this global band of greedy pigfucking cashsuckers collude in a perpetual harvest off of their respective populations.

In this we see the forceful removal of indigenous populations for resource extraction, the violent repression of dissent, the assassination of labor organizers, the gentrification of “poor” communities, and the anthropogenic decline of all ecosystems. The collusion of the G20, though sadly with the winning approval of a startling portion of their own slaves, can only mean the acceleration of this economic disparity at the expense of all the living inhabitants of this planet.

Pittsburgh is a sterling example of this structural violence. In the early 20th century, the city solidified its position as the heart of the US steel industry, becoming the home of the US labor movement, with the birth of such unions as United Steelworkers of America, the American Federation of Labor, and the Congress of Industrial Organizations. Then, after WWII, the US turned toward foreign steel markets, who’s cheap labor and low production standards provided a lucrative capital market. Pittsburgh’s lifesblood began to stagnate, and poverty and unemployment exploded. Between 1950 and 2000, the population of the Steel City fell from nearly 700,000 to 300,000, leaving behind a landscape of boarded up factories, condemned buildings, and dilapidated housing. Strife and misery plagued much of the city for decades. In fact, Obama has cited the city’s unsettling past and recent purported recovery as the primary reason for choosing the city to host the G20. For some, it represents the potential of capitalism to recover. However, to long-time residents of Pittsburgh, this supposed turnaround represents only an influx of a new wealthy class of outside colonizers and corporate money, protected by a bolstered police force, and pushing multi-generational Pittsburghers into marginal districts and poor housing.

So, for these reasons and many others, when the G20 converged upon Pittsburgh this September, so too did the enraged masses, offering to them and to the world a different model of human existence. Our model is one in which matters of distribution, ecology, and values are not determined by a small fringe population of string pullers and profiteers, but by the people who have up until this point only endured the consequences of this so-called “progress”. It is a model in which the needs of all living things of are not decided upon by the vast minority of increasingly rich, but by and for the people and living things on this planet. It is neither dictatorial nor representative, but participatory, where the agenda is driven not by fictitious market forces but by issues of immediate reality.

In defending the disastrous trajectory of modern capitalist history until present, the powers that be often refer to the freedoms afforded to us under their governing. As my friend Ryan Harvey once pointed out, this is an egregious contradiction. Freedom is not something that is gifted to us by any ruling party, but rather it is something that must be taken by each individual, with each deliberate and conscious action. Pittsburgh would have to show the world that truly free people are ungovernable.

This is by no means a new model. This is a world for which, along with many others, anarchists have long fought. Anarchism, despite its frequent misrepresentations, is a proud political tradition carried through history by great egalitarian thinkers, from Emma Goldman and Peter Kropotkin, to more recognizable names like Helen Keller and Gandhi. It represents a rejection of assertions that groups of elites are better equipped to organize society than the individuals that comprise it. In this sense, anarchy is a rejection of coercive authority, racism, patriarchy, and all systems of domination (in this case, capitalism). It is a mode of decentralized, horizontal organizing that is manifest today in coops, CSA’s, collectives, and communities around the world. However, despite decades if not centuries of heartfelt struggle, the disparity and destruction continues only to accelerate with each passing year. In order to be considered any kind of victory, in some way, Pittsburgh had to change everything. To some, a formidable militant arm (albeit, largely militant nonviolence) would show the world that we will no longer constrain ourselves to the tools offered up to us as gifts by the status quo, just as traditional nonviolent protesters would be required en masse to win the minds of the fence sitters. Most importantly, both efforts needed to find a way to agree upon their equal utility. A successful movement would consist of a clear collusion and agreement between the two, and a recognition that infighting will only hinder the movement; to create solidarity where, up until this point, only division has reigned.

The night prior to mobilization, the anarchist spokescouncil was an uneasy and tense setting. The few dozen organizers from all over the country huddled in the muggy and searing convergence space represented only a few hundred at most in their respective affinity groups. Reports of the newly militarized Pittsburgh police force had been rolling in for weeks; of a $19 million budget for new toys capable of delivering mass violence in ambitious new mediums; the enlisting of thousands of police and state troopers from the surrounding regions; the preemptive application of 2500 National Guard to the city. Despite the anticipated arrival of thousands of comrades from around the country, the resistance was to be wholly outnumbered, out-geared, and in all likelihood, had already been infiltrated by the opposition. If not one or two people in this room was a cop, then certainly several in the mixed crowd looming outside on the sidewalk indeed were.

Whether vocally or intuitively, many feared the probability of what the state apparatus has come to refer to as “the Miami model,” which, simply put, means outnumbering the protest several fold and applying unrestrained brutality in dispersing the crowd. Rubber bullets, wooden shotgun projectiles, teargas, pepper spray, pepper bullets, and the age-old billy club were all expected items on the impending menu. Rumors had been circulating of sound cannons, which had previously only been used in dispersing insurgents in the imperial wars, and had not been seen in action on US soil.

But this is a movement of underdogs; a minority within a minority within a minority. Accordingly, the faces in the room expressed not fear nor doom, but determination, cognition, concern, and the desire to revolt just waiting to be realized. Some are seasoned veterans, others in earlier stages of self liberation, but all agree that, to borrow a phrase, resistance is fertile.

Among the debates and heated arguments, there seemed to be agreement about two premature victories: 1) The Pittsburgh police announced earlier plans to release 200 nonviolent offenders in preparation of mass arrests (laughter and applause), and 2) many of the 100 corporate institutions designated by the Pittsburgh Organizing Group as targets representing the same values as the G20, Profit over People, had already closed for business and boarded their windows in anticipation of property damage.

Amidst this lightening of the mood, a clatter of the deadbolt and open door reveal a friendly face bearing a despairing expression, “The cops are out here, they’re gonna raid the space. Sit tight.” By the door, the comms coordinator shuffles uneasily. The legal advisor looks around at the room full of faces staring back at her, “Okay, here’s the deal. There are 50-100 cops outside. They say they want to enter the space. This is probably just a scare tactic, so we’re gonna continue the council as planned for now.”

The cops never enter the space.

Instead, for four hours the council trudges through laboring consensus on issues ranging from jail solidarity, to communication logistics, to march structure. Much concern is raised about the rout of tomorrow’s unpermitted mobilization, complicated by the city’s steep hills, the concentration of financial and shopping districts and other worthy points of such an opposition, cushioned by low income neighborhoods to be avoided when possible and respected when not, and the vulnerability and constraint posed by the proposed starting point. “Would we even get out of the park?” seemed to be the sentiment permeating throughout the council. The process itself was further complicated by the fact that each individual was representing a larger affinity group, ranging from 3 to 100 people. In a movement structured around participatory organizing, representative politics is seen as a fallacy, and so each speaks only for herself. Nevertheless, consensus is reached, the loose framework for mobilization is agreed upon, and the council adjourns and vacates through the crowd of uniformed cops, agent provocateurs, and patiently waiting comrades.

Around 2:00, the crowd of black-clad protesters begins to amass at Arsenal Park. Police wagons are seen stationed around the park, and neither they nor the gathering protesters appear to know what to expect. As hundreds gather under black flags, many dawning masks among the presence of media and police photographers, curious locals leave their houses to see what will happen next. Anarchist, environmentalist, global justice activists, and disgruntled liberals fill the scene until the crowd peaks at around 2000. As riot cops begin to move in, the flags begin to move and the crowd heads for the street. The financial strip housing the G20 at the David L Lawrence center, the desired endpoint, is still far in the distance. The demonstration will need to file through 2 miles of narrow residential neighborhoods, streets and alleyways teeming with patrol cars, swat wagons, and a militarized police force that appears ready for a battle. As the mass files out of the park, “Whose streets? Our streets!” echoes across the scene, proclaiming the desire of the People to take back a city that appears as occupied as Baghdad.

Prior to the anticipated unpermitted march, the Pittsburgh chief of police assured the people of the city of a “progressive strategy” in crowd deterrence, that they had no intention of utilizing teargas in the city. So, it should come as no surprise that, as the crowd snakes its way through modest neighborhoods of tight streets and small houses, with the voice on the loudspeaker, speaking on behalf of the Chief in proclaiming this an unlawful gathering, teargas is the first thing unleashed. The front lines of the protest clash with riot police through the sound of gunfire and bitter clouds of teargas, and the march scatters through alleyways and regroups in uncertain intersections. One can picture working class families, who were encouraged to stay home that day due to street and business closures, huddled in their living rooms, coughing out the noxious fumes of the police riot outside, covering the ears of their children as their windowpanes shake in the face of the sound cannon’s deafening chirp.

For three or four hours, the now fragmented march, primarily made up of an anarchist contingent, as most others fled the police, shuffled through the streets of Pittsburgh. Few if any ever made it downtown. Dumpsters served as the primary deterrence of police brutality, many thrown over in the streets to block police passage and protect the march, others sent rolling down steep streets by more militant parties into legions of riot cops. As reports rolled out over televisions of Boston Market and PRC Bank becoming targets of retaliation, having windows smashed out by groups fleeing the police, residents of these steep and narrow Pittsburgh streets sat on their porches as the legions of Black Bloc marched passed their homes, touting black banners of anticapitalist appeal.

One would assume that, for many of these long time residents of a troubled city, such a sight would conjure horrifying up images of Pittsburgh’s darker days, of the riots that plagued the hill district after the steel crash of the 70’s. Instead, in sharp contrast with anything preceding the Pittsburgh demonstrations many seemed to empathize with the cause of the demonstration. Entire families of working class residents, all too familiar with the effects of structural injustice, opened their doors to applaud the march. “Go on, get ‘em!” Cried the emphatic residents of these Pittsburgh streets.

Regrouping after the fact, many agreed that this was something new. Not ridicule, nor disgust, but encouragement from locals. Nevertheless, the marched had been successfully fragmented, and violent deterrence of a determined police force had successfully kept the march out of downtown. The demonstration was unfulfilled.

That night, after many had the chance to regroup and lick their wounds, word had spread of a Bash Back! (the queer anarchist group) demonstration gathering near the campus. When the marching band arrived the crowd gathered steam and headed toward the strip mall.

Soon, the heart of the city’s gentrification, where chain restaurants and corporate outlets mask the widespread landscape of boarded up buildings and low income housing, became the focal point of creative destruction. In its most fundamental, Thursday’s Black Bloc was a forum for the physical transformation of geographic space, the temporary removal from the urban landscape of institutions that extract wealth from the community to be accumulated in the major financial hubs by wealthy elites, exploiting the politically vulnerable in sweatshops, removing diversity, and exporting social and ecological destruction to the poor. In its deeper and more sociological, it acknowledges the preconceived position relegated to the common people by the politically powerful; those rendered workers and consumers for the benefit of the rich; the colonization of every day existence through a homogenous, plastic, and mass produced menu of options; protected by riot-geared thugs at home, invigorated by imperial resource wars abroad. The Bloc recognizes this, removes it from its veil of sexiness, artificial status, and false security, exposes it to the otherwise domesticated, and smashes it with a ball peen hammer.

The window of a McDonalds or a Kinkos or a PNC Bank explodes, awakening the human spirit from its unknown slumber. The images we see later in the newspapers and on TV, the shattered glass sprawled across sweatshop chic fashion, the liberation of glass from fast food chains, from banks, and from police stations and police cars, all serve to unshackle our minds from the chains of our friendly faced, sharply dressed, american flag lapelled colonial masters. The enforcers of this neocolonial paradigm fumble through the streets in panicked squad cars, always just behind this audacious band of remorseless thoughtcriminals, only to be thwarted by flaming dumpsters and the impossible fluid motion of the masked offensive.

And no word could be more completely characteristic of this night. The media proclaims a riot, implying gradual, unconscious escalation, disorganized chaos for chaos sake. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is an offensive on the front lines of modern liberation, critical, calculated, consensual, and effective; an assault on a structure of violence in a social war normally visible only to its victims. The anarchists scramble through the city, evading the bludgeoning club and “non-lethal” bullets of their pursuers, and just as quickly as they came, they scatter into the night.
Frustrated in their inability to repress so public a resistance to the dominant social order, the police turn their guns toward the curious gathering mass of innocent college students.

That night, these students took the full brunt of the police brutality that simply had to be dished out to someone. Lines of draconian troops fired fully automatic weapons into a crowd of main stream apple pie children. Students trapped in hallways and stairwells heard their screams drown out in clouds of teargas. Presumably in an attempt to alienate the militant protestors as being responsible for the lashback of violence, or perhaps in a purely confused reflex of slipping authority, the students became unwilling recipients of their “Miami model,” all the while refusing to defend themselves. On Thursday they cried, “why are you doing this to us?” By Friday, the campus was mobilized to a degree no one could’ve thought possible.

Many point out how unfortunate and even detrimental it is that our opposition to the global capitalist puppet masters pits us most immediately against some working class people in the form of cops. To this, my initial reaction is the old adage, “as long as there are rich people and poor people, there will be cops to stand between them.” However, on closer evaluation the issue is inevitably much deeper than that. This perpetual dichotomy can perhaps be better be explained as a fundamental juxtaposition between those who reject strong handed authority as the best way of organizing society, and those who believe it is the only way to organize. Whether each individual cop holds the latter belief strongly, or is simply indifferent enough to be capable of carrying out this role, this is the concept that they represent. Granted, fighting the cops is rarely the best way to overcome this juxtaposition.

Some point to the march on the Democratic National Convention as the model to be duplicated, when 10,000 people followed a squad of fully uniformed veterans through police barricades toward the Pepsi Center. At each barricade, heated negotiations ensued between the cops and veterans, and each time we got through without altercation. When we arrived at the convention, 10,000 strong, many riot cops failed to fight back their tears in the face of such determination, and laid down their guns in respect.

In most scenarios, however, protesters don’t have uniformed veterans to stand between them and the cops. In Pittsburgh, holding off cops with flying rocks, pouring flaming dumpsters into the street, or sending a full dumpster cruising down a steep hill into a row of Darth Vader-lookalikes was arguably the only available means of avoiding their brutality, to duck certain arrest, and to stay in the street to assert our opposition to the G20. We all saw what happened to the crowds of college kids who had no intention of fighting back; massive violence and mass arrest. And not least of all, defending yourself against the police holds a powerful connotation of resolve and determination in a society where doing so carries staggering legal consequences.

And then, on Friday, the day of the more liberal (less radical), and state sanctioned People’s March, the most peculiar thing happened. At this point in the protest, the peace rallyers, the labor organizers, and the environmentalists would normally chastise the Black Bloc for detracting from the point of the protest. Liberal organizers of all stripes should be all over the televisions denouncing the anarchists for their aggressive tactics. “Why would our representatives listen to us now?” they should proclaim. In other instances, like the WTO in ’99 for instance, disgusted protesters would even help the police round up demonstrators responsible for property destruction, even setting aside their nonviolent beliefs to do so. On that day, this was not the case, at least, to be fair, to a much lesser extent than before.

The experience of a group of about 100 or so, ascending toward the starting point of the main march from an urban camp in a particularly violent and dilapidated part of town, sums the situation up rather nicely. Late the night before, temporary residents of the tent city, mostly punks, anarchists, and peace activists, and the permanent residents of the dreaded Hill District shared drinks in a broken down bar, with news reports over television decrying the corporate property destruction on Forbes ave. Locals bought punks beers in gratitude of their efforts, and punks bought locals beers in gratitude of their hospitality, in a neighborhood not normally known to be hospitable, and celebration of the night’s exploits rang out. Public Enemy playing over the jukebox as images of riot cops detaining college kids flashed across the screen, the clank of bottles and emphatic cheers of, “Fuck the Police!” filled the bar until closing.

In the morning, marching together toward the main march, Baptists, anarchists, Trotskyists, union leaders, and other organizers, all of whom had shared their camp together in communal accord and mutual respect all week, began their walk with an open mic. Larry Holmes, a primary organizer of the tent city, addressed the crowd thanking everyone for their hard work and collaboration. A high ranking member of Greenpeace addressed the crowd on the importance of their activism. But what stood out was when one man, the only one in the camp who had curiously had his young kids with him throughout the week, an otherwise reserved and quiet character, took the mic in an emotional speech that defined the occasion. I’ll paraphrase:

“Now, I used to be a part time victim in this screwed up system we have. I’m trying to keep my language straight cuz my kids is here. Today, I’m standing before y’all as a full time victim. I’ve been out of work for nine months, and things don’t seem to be looking up. More and more people are going out of work every day, and these politicians keep giving our money away to rich folks thinking it’s gonna make things better. What about us? How am I supposed to take care of my kids? Now, I’ve been organizing for a long time, but I’m not gonna get up here and tell you that what those kids was doing that got the police a riled up is wrong. I don’t have all the answers. Maybe, as long as I’ve been doing it, I haven’t been doing it the right way, ‘cause things ain’t getting any better. What I think, is that there are a lot of different ways we can go about changing things for the better, so long as we’re working together. And so I just want to thank each and every one of y’all for what you’re doing, and for coming out to this tent city to make this a beautiful thing. We’re gonna make this world a better place.”

As the day went on, 6,000-10,000 people of all ideologies marched together in harmony, among the display of fully armed but visibly bored riot cops. As always, the Black Bloc marched together among the masses, but on this day everyone respected what was called “the Pittsburgh Principles”, namely, the agreement to do our thing how we see fit during our march, but to respect the vision of other organizers when participating in theirs. So, among the Tibetan peace flags, the labor parties, the Marxists, and even the reformists carrying nationalist flags and calling for the G193 (apparently they want EVERYONE to be misrepresented by bank reps and financial ministers, I prefer the call for the GInfinity), the black flags waved along with all of them, without confrontation.

Though predictably dismissed in the popular media for emphasizing too wide an array of issues and lacking focus (and only because they know average folks have little concept of the broad consequences of capitalism), Pittsburgh was the most important thing for the US anarchist movement in a long and haunted decade. The more grandiose reports on http://infoshop.org proclaimed Thursday’s Black Bloc to be the most successful in the United States since Seattle. The militant demonstrations were able to show the people of this country definitively that the police function solely to protect the assets of the rich, and often at the violent expense of everyone else, but also that, while the individuals of the G20 were in no real physical danger, they will go through great lengths of extreme repression to stomp out any notion we may have that another world is indeed possible.

And resistance truly is fertile. On Friday night Forbes ave was tightly packed with police and national guard during a demonstration against police brutality, organized entirely by a previously indifferent student body. Bystanders filled the streets as police established their military formation. Kids gathered in the streets, whispering within their cliques, “where are the all the anarchists?” Some took the opportunity to hand out zines and engage in informative conversations before, without any real escalation independent of the police themselves, teargas once again filled the streets.

The resistance proved once again that these ideas are dangerous to the international war-and-profit machine. News reports indicate that Pitt college students are still organizing against police brutality in the aftermath of the summit.

Perhaps most importantly though, and this may have not been possible had the powers that be not made the mistake of bringing an oppressive regime like the G20 into a working class town like Pittsburgh, it proved to them and to ourselves that, if we keep the message strong in our actions, our vision is reinforced by the support of the global proletariat. In our generation of North American anarchism, our message has seldom been stronger, but likewise should we expect blowback in the form of state repression of the likes we may have never seen.

In the aftermath of Pittsburgh, CNN reported that the world is now more unified than ever. As Orwellian as this seemed in their intended context, they likely had no concept of how true this really was. The world is becoming unified, or more accurately: united; united AGAINST the rich and powerful who necessitate perpetual crisis for personal gain. For those involved and for those paying attention, the lines are drawn darker than ever.

Be ready.

Note: couldn't get footnotes to post correctly.

N. Kondratieff, The Long Wave Cycle

Flint, A World Systems Approach to Political Geography, p. 29-30

Frank, Development of Underdevelopment