Le Livre Noir du Capitalisme (The Black Book of Capitalism) is a French book published in 1998, in reaction to The Black Book of Communism

The Black Book of Communism

The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression is a book authored by several European academics and edited by Stéphane Courtois, which describes a history of repressions, both political and civilian, by Communist states, including genocides, extrajudicial executions, deportations, and...

(1997). Unlike the latter however, Le Livre Noir du Capitalisme does not attempt to provide a comprehensive tally of victims of the politico-economic system in question. Rather, the book is composed of a series of independent essays commissioned from various writers who were given free rein to write on any aspect of capitalism they chose. Topics covered range from the African slave trade

African slave trade

Systems of servitude and slavery were common in many parts of Africa, as they were in much of the ancient world. In some African societies, the enslaved people were also indentured servants and fully integrated; in others, they were treated much worse...

 to the era of financial globalization

Globalization

Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...

.

An appendix provides an incomplete list of 20th century death tolls which Perrault attributes to the capitalist system. The list, which includes both combatant and noncombatant dead, includes an estimated 58 million dead from the First and Second World Wars, plus death tolls from various colonial wars, anticommunist wars and repressions, ethnic conflicts, and some victims of famines or malnutrition,which brings the incomplete list to a combined total of about 100 million deaths attributed to capitalism in the 20th century.

Edited by Gilles Perrault

Gilles Perrault

Gilles Perrault is a left-wing French writer and journalist.He attended the Collège Stanislas de Paris and then studied at the Institut d'études politiques, eventually becoming a lawyer, a profession he worked in for five years....

, the other contributors to the book include historians, sociologists, economists, trade unionists and writers: Caroline Andréani, François Arzalier, Roger Bordier, Maurice Buttin, François Chesnais

François Chesnais

François Chesnais is a member of the Scientific Council of ATTAC-France, the author of several books and numerous articles on economics and a founder of the Marxist journal Carré Rouge.-Books:...

, Maurice Cury, François Delpla

François Delpla

François Delpla is a French historian. He wrote the only French biography of Hitler. He helped write the Black Book of Capitalism*...

, François Derivery, André Devriendt, Pierre Durand, Jean-Pierre Fléchard, Yves Frémion

Yves Fremion

Yves Fremion is a French author and former editor of the French science fiction magazine Univers. He has also edited a number of anthologies and has worked for the comic and humour magazine Fluide Glacial...

, Yves Grenet, Jacques Jurquet, Jean Laïlle, Maurice Moissonnier, Robert Pac, Philippe Paraire, Paco Peña, André Prenant, Maurice Rajsfus, Jean Suret-Canale

Jean Suret-Canale

Jean Suret-Canale was a French historian of Africa, Marxist theoritican, political activist, and World War II French Resistance fighter.-Biography:...

, Subhi Toma, Monique and Roland Weyl, Claude Willard and Jean Ziegler

Jean Ziegler

Jean Ziegler is a former professor of sociology at the University of Geneva and the Sorbonne, Paris. He was a Member of Parliament for the Social Democrats in the Federal Assembly of Switzerland from 1981 to 1999...

. The book has been translated into Greek, Italian and Czech.

Contents

• Andreani Caroline is a historian. She wrote about the migrations of the 19th and 20th centuries and how they contribute to the history of capitalism.
• Francis Arzalier, historian, professor, teacher training institutes in Beauvais, head of Africa Today magazine, wrote the chapter titled "African Independence and "Communism"".
• Maurice Buttin, lawyer and President of the France-Palestine Association. Wrote the chapter titled Imperialism, Zionism and Palestine.
• François Chesnais is an economist, author of numerous books including The globalization of capital, Syros Editions, Paris, 1997. He writes the chapter titled "The globalization of capital and the threats of barbarism."
• Maurice Cury is a poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter and television writer. Cury is President of the Writer's Council and Vice-President of the National Union of Authors and Composers. He wrote the chapter titled "Totalitarian Liberalism".
• Francois Delpla is a historian with specialization received in World War II. He wrote the chapter "World War II".
• François Derivery is a painter (Group PR) secretary of the journal Aesthetic Papers, deputy editor of the journal Speech. He wrote two chapters: "War and Punishment: The Massacre of Vietnam", and "Massacres and Repression in Iran".
• Durand Pierre is President of the Alumni Committee of Buchenwald-Dora, a journalist and historian specializing in World War II. Pierre wrote two chapters: "Counter-Revolution and Foreign Interventions in Russia (1917 - 1921)" and "The Origin of Wars and a Paroxysmal Form of Capitalism."
• Jean-Pierre Fléchard is a historian, wrote the chapter titled "First World War: 11,500 dead and 13,000 wounded in 3 and a half years"
• Yves Fremion is a journalist and writer, vice-president of the Voltaire Network. He wrote the chapter titled "A Pub is Worth a Thousand Bombs ... (Advertising Crimes in Modern Warfare)"
• Yves Grenet is an economist. He wrote the chapter titled "Capitalist Assault on Asia".
• Jacques Jurquet is a writer, anti-colonial activist from the Communist Resistance. He wrote two chapters, one about the genocide in Indonesia, and the other chapter is titled "Fascist annexation of East Timor".
• Jean Laille is a reporter for Humanité. He wrote the chapter titled "The Re-Concentration of Weiler: A Century of Genocide in Cuba".
• Robert Pac, journalist, started reporting in the civil rights movement over 25 years ago in the fight alongside African Americans, Indigenous people of the Americas, and members of other ethnic minorities in the Americas. He wrote about the Indigenous American Genocide, and the chapter titled "The Long March of African Americans in the United States: The Unfinished Dream."
• Philippe Paraire is a writer, he wrote books for children, published by Hachette Jeunesse. He wrote the chapter titled "A Slave Economy and Capitalism: A Quantifiable Assessment, and the chapter titled "The Living Dead of Globalization."
• Paco Pena is a teacher and journalist in Chile. He wrote the chapter titled: "North American Interventions in Latin America".
• Gilles Perrault wrote the introduction, "Why a Book on Capitalism".
• Andre Prenant is a geographer, he wrote about the events in Algeria from 1830-1998.
• Jean Suret-Canale a veteran volunteer of the resistance, underground militant Communist Youth League from 1939 to 1944, former central committee member of the French Communist Party, an honorary lecturer at the University of Paris VII, geographer and historian, author of ten books about Africa and the third world. He wrote about the origins of capitalism and Africa under French imperialism and colonial rule.
• Tomas Subhi is a sociologist, of Iraqi origin, exiled in France since 1971. Co-founder of the international coordination against embargoes, he led several missions in Iraq since the 1991 war. He wrote about "Iraqi Oil Victims".
• Monique and Roland Weyl, lawyers, wrote the chapter titled "When the Abolition of Capitalism is not Enough".
• Jean Ziegler is a member of parliament in Geneva, Switzerland. He also teaches sociology at the University of Geneva. His contribution to the book is entitled "Swiss Bankers Kill Without Guns".

External links

Les Temps des Cerises Account of Capitalism Du Bon Usage des Livres noirs Summary of casualties François Delpla's chapter of book: La Seconde Guerre Mondiale Anarchopedia article on book