Screening of Documentary Film 'Heist: Who Stole the American Dream?'

Peace Action of San Mateo County will present the film "Heist: Who Stole the American Dream?" on Friday, September 21, 7 PM at the Unitarian Universalists of San Mateo, 300 E. Santa Inez Ave. (at Ellsworth) in San Mateo. The UUSM is wheelchair accessible.

"Heist..." investigates the roots of the current economic crisis, and the ongoing assault on working people in the U.S. Beginning in the time of the New Deal of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's administration, the film tells the hidden story of how over the years corporate leaders worked with elected officials of both major political parties to create the largest transfer of wealth in history - resulting in an enormous gap between the rich and the poor. The film is structured as a political thriller, showing the shift from New Deal reforms to an ideology where the free market reigns.

Today's news blames Americans' devastated 401(k)'s and collapsed home values on financial earthquakes within the last two years. But "Heist..." also traces these seismic shifts back to their roots in the early 1970s. It shows how large corporations - acting through lobbying organizations like the Business Roundtable and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce - began a political mobilization that would propel the largest transfer of wealth in history. The winners were the wealthiest 1% of our population. The losers were ordinary Americans, whose real income has barely increased since 1973.

The film's protagonists - including U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, political economist and historian Gar Alperovitz, and former Obama Administration advisor on green jobs Van Jones - is a solid list of folks doing critical work around rethinking the current American economic structure. This allows the film to be solution-oriented and a beacon of hope and change for economic justice. "Heist..." clearly lays out a step-by-step narrative of the evolution of this economic disaster, and eventually offers suggestions on what people can do to help fix the situation.