Black Book of Capitalism? (RE: The 20th Century - The Economist

Jim heartfield jim at heartfield.demon.co.uk
Fri Sep 17 15:50:19 PDT 1999


In message <006501bf00df$d5f25a00$a5f48482 at nsn2>, Nathan Newman <nathan.newman at yale.edu> writes
>Are there any useful compilations of mass death under the
>capitalist/colonialist states that use similar expansive methodologies of
>murder attributed to those states?

First world war

Deaths British Empire 947 000 French Empire 1 400 000 Germany 1 800 000 Austria-H 1 200 000 Russia 1 700 000 USA 116 000 Italy 650 000 Serbia 48 000

Second world war:

military casualties civilian casualties

USSR 13 600 000 7 700 000 Germany 3 480 000 3 890 000 Japan 1 700 000 360 000 Britain 452 000 60 000 Italy 330 000 85 000 USA 295 000 France 250 000 360 000 Poland 120 000 5 300 000

(TG Charman Modern European History)

Plus Jews exterminated 6 000 000

Bengal famine 1943 3 500 000*

[Running total for two world wars: 55,343,000]

Indonesia 1965: 1 000 000 Vietnam 1950-75 1 000 000 Iraq 1992 250 000

(John Stockwell, former CIA operation manager in Angola put the total deaths attributable to the US in the forty years after the second world war at 6 000 000, which he said was a conservative estimate. He put it to Kissinger who said the total was nearer 16 000 000. Speech Nicaragua Solidarity Conference 6 May 1989)

So by Kissinger's estimate, you could say 55,343,000 + 16 000 000 = 71,343,000 + 250 000 Iraqis = 71,593,000. (on top of the 10 000 000 killed in the Belgian Congo)

*starved because Britain withdrew grain from the countryside to deny it to invading INA troops. -- Jim heartfield



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