To Each According to His Bank Account

This is a photo that should not have been. This is an event you should not know. This is a guy who should not have been killed. This is a moment when truth was briefly on the silver screen of 1934. This is a photo of a chain gang, now hung up as a reprint, a decorative icon with authenticity so rare in a world of deep-fakes.

History is a weapon.

A few years ago, a poll showed more than half of USA citizens attributed Karl Marx’s quote “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” to George Washington or President Obama. People like Howard Zinn and Oliver Stone have repeatedly shown how Americans’ knowledge of their own history is astonishingly limited: Zinn’s People’s History of the USA was banned in many school districts to make sure it stayed that way. Now, over 3,700 books were banned during the 2024-2025 school year, more than double the number from 2021-2022.

So when a Serbian friend read Zinn’s People’s History of the United States he was shocked over the brutality with which the USA worker’s movements had been crushed. They were untold crime stories to him, “Why aren’t people more aware of this history?” This turned out to be the start of the concept for a documentary series entitled “CLASS WARS”. The plural in the title, “wars”, was important: the waves of extreme repression encompassed a wide geographical reach over many decades. Tapping into the historical work of Zinn and others like Mike Davis or Kim Kelly (“Fight Like Hell”), we had also lined up an impressive line of commentators and consultants that included such greats like Chris Hedges and Robin Kelley. The teaser for the series can be seen here.

The series aimed to show that the forces that criminalized progressive activists before WW2 are the same methods used today. When the USA had Julian Assange persecuted and imprisoned for 10 years they used the same repressive law they used to imprison socialist Eugene Debs for his opposition to USA involvement in WW1. But the method goes deeper that just the “laws” as Oscar Ameringer, another socialist imprisoned under that “Espionage Act” of 1917 put it: “Politics is the art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other.” Or in other words: the USA political system is based on class war.

A German producer with good connections to USA producers took on the CLASS WARS project, and we were overjoyed when the renown production company, PARTICIPANT, signaled their interest to finance the series. In the last 20 years, Participant had made their mark in the film world with their unique emphasis on socially relevant productions: the climate-change documentary, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, or such films as Alfonso Cuarón’s ROMA, which specifically addressed social inequality from the perspective of the underprivileged. Their productions had received over 21 Academy Awards and grossed more than $3.3 billion at the box office.

Then, in April 2024, as the budget for CLASS WARS was being discussed and the contracts on their way to being sealed, a bombshell headline appeared in the New York Times: “Participant Calls it Quits.” The company’s lifeline was millions in investment from eBay-billionaire, Jeff Skoll, who announced that he was pulling out. Though Skoll refused to be interviewed in the Times article, he was quoted as blaming the “revolutionary changes” in the media.  This was a misuse of the term “revolutionary”. The problem was well known and not new. Netflix and Disney had started selling ads, and advertisers preferred apolitical entertainment.

I wonder why (not).

When Trump was elected in 2024, Skoll was seen celebrating at Trump’s inauguration with his buddy, Elon Musk. Some commentators presumed that Skoll’s association with the studio behind the climate-change documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, had just become “inconvenient” for the billionaire. Times change. It also meant the demise of financing for the CLASS WARS series.

Since January last year, Skoll has distanced himself from Trump, publicly condemning Trump’s budget plans. His farewell letter to Participant has also since been made public, in which Skoll proudly praises the achievements of Participant as “one of the most gratifying ventures of my career”. So why pull the plug on this success story of activist filmmaking? Hollywood insiders complained that the studios just did not want to make films for adults any longer. Or as Geeta Gandbhir, one of the documentary directors slated for CLASS WARS stated: “TikTok is now our competition”.

Other sources pointed to the real factors for Skoll’s decision to stop funding  Participant and take his money elsewhere: the California wildfires had aggravated Skoll’s asthma and he decided he had to move to Florida, which can be costly for those requiring beachfront property. He threw down nearly $90 million for an ocean estate in “Manalapan”, the exclusive tiny Florida town where other billionaires like Oracle boss Larry Ellison have erected homes. Manalapan’s strict low-density zoning laws also require hurricane-proof roofs and windows. Is it really easier to protect yourself from hurricanes than California wildfires?

The Florida villa was not the only real estate requiring the funds with which Skoll had formerly financed Participant’s activist films: Skoll also bought a $17 million  estate near Washington D.C., seven months after announcing the closing of Participant. The property includes a 1905 residence, a log cabin, and stables, with additional historical significance since it had served as a Civil War encampment and hospital. Was Skoll expecting the outbreak of another civil war, like 40% of the Americans polled in 2022? Not necessarily, if one believes Skoll’s explanation that he purchased the estate to be closer to the Washington Capitals ice-hockey team, which he owns.

“To each according to his needs”: part of the equation seems to have been fulfilled, for one class of the population.

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