Authority 18

The line is continuous—those who took the land from the Indians continue to oppress us with their feudal structures. (…) Foreign monopolies impose crops on us, they impose chemicals that pollute our earth, impose technology and ideology. All this through the oligarchy which owns the land and controls the politics. But we must remember—the oligarchy is also controlled, by the very same monopolies, the very same Ford Motors, Monsanto, Philip Morris. It’s the structure we have to change. This is what I have come to denounce. That’s all.

Quoted by Klein 2007: 127

Sergio Tomasella, tobacco planter and general secretary of the Argentine Farmers' Union, was tortured and imprisoned for five years during the junta (military dictatorship). This quote comes from his testimony post-dictatorship before the Argentine tribunal against impunity.

In this quote, Tomasella links colonialism with the inequality that goes hand in hand with unequal ownership. In Germany, too, 10% of the population owns 50% of the total net wealth. Income and wealth are related to people’s social backgrounds all over the world (70% of the children of academics go to university, while only 20% of the children of workersdo , see Fratzscher 2017).

*Naomi Klein (2007): The Shock Doctrine. The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Toronto: Knopf Canada.

1990