Pyramid of Capitalist System

{{Short description|Anti-Capitalist cartoon caricature from 1911}}

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| footer = The 1911 American cartoon (top), Nicolas Lokhoff's "Social Pyramid", 1901 (bottom-left) and the poster of the Belgian Labour Party 1900 (bottom-right)

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The Pyramid of Capitalist System is a common name of a 1911 American cartoon caricature critical of capitalism, copied from a Russian flyer of {{circa}} 1901.[https://www.bonhams.com/auction/27336/lot/2/anonymous-we-reign-over-you-we-rule-you-we-fool-you-we-shoot-at-you-66-x-49cm-27-316-x-40-916in/ "We reign over you, we rule you, we fool you, we shoot you" by Anonymous (1901) – auction listing] The graphic focus is on stratification by social class and economic inequality. The work has been described as "famous", "well-known and widely reproduced".{{cite journal|last=Krieger|first=N|title=Ladders, pyramids and champagne: the iconography of health inequities|journal=Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health|date=1 December 2008|volume=62|issue=12|pages=1098–1104|doi=10.1136/jech.2008.079061|pmid=19008371|s2cid=44715620}} A number of derivative works exist.

It was published in 1911 by the Industrial Worker (The International Publishing Co., Cleveland, Ohio), a newspaper of the Industrial Workers of the World, and attributed to "Nedeljkovich, Brashich, & Kuharich".{{cite book|author=Nancy Krieger Professor Harvard School of Public Health|title=Epidemiology and the People's Health : Theory and Context: Theory and Context|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z59ciXRRaPsC&pg=PA338|date=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0199750351|pages=338–}}{{cite book|author=Kristina Lange|title=Historisches Bildverstehen oder Wie lernen Schüler mit Bildquellen?: ein Beitrag zur geschichtsdidaktischen Lehr-Lern-Forschung|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XvSZLDF89tIC&pg=PA189|year=2011|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|isbn=978-3643113542|pages=189–}}{{cite web |url=http://www.laborarts.org/collections/item.cfm?itemid=428 |title=Labor Arts |publisher=Labor Arts |date= |access-date=16 April 2014 |archive-date=8 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508154810/http://www.laborarts.org/collections/item.cfm?itemid=428 |url-status=dead }}

The work is based on older similar pictures. In 1900, the Belgian Labour Party used a picture called "Pyramide à renverser" ({{lit|a pyramid that has to be overthrown}}) during its electoral campaign.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lavenir.net/cnt/dmf20130321_00285775|title=Les affiches électorales mises à nu : Yes, we can|date=5 December 2023 }} A year later Nicolas Lokhoff's 1901 caricature of Imperial Russian society by the Union of Russian Socialists was published.{{cite book|author=Reinhard Bendix|title=Kings Or People: Power and the Mandate to Rule|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rxAb4kAtzMYC&pg=PA540|year=1980|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0520040908|page=540}}{{cite book|author=Ronald Hingley|title=A concise history of Russia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pewrAQAAIAAJ|date=1972|publisher=Viking Press|isbn=978-0670236510}} The original picture showed workers supporting the pyramid on their backs, with the stanza: "The time will come when the people in their fury will straighten their bent backs and bring down the structure with one mighty push of their shoulders." Notable differences between the Russian 1901 original and the American 1911 imitation include the replacement of the Russian Empire's black eagle with a money bag, the Russian tsar and tsarina with a more generic trio monarch and state leaders in suits, two of the three Orthodox clergy with a Catholic cardinal and a Protestant minister, and the Russian Empire army with a more generic group of soldiers; no revolutionary stanza is present. In both pictures, a fallen child or child worker symbolizes the plight of the workers. Another shared element is a red flag raised amongst the workers, symbolizing the emergence of the socialist movement.{{cite book|author=Rune Nordin|title=Fackföreningsrörelsen i Sverige: Uppkomst och utveckling|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZppIAAAAYAAJ|year=1981|publisher=Prisma i samarbete med Landsorganisationen i Sverige|isbn=978-9151814704|page=28|language=sv}}

The basic message of the image is a critique of the capitalist system, depicting a hierarchy of power and wealth. It illustrates a working class supporting all others, and if it withdrew their support from the system, it would topple the existing social order. This type of criticism of capitalism is attributed to the French socialist Louis Blanc.{{cite book|author=Geoff Mulgan|title=The Locust and the Bee: Predators and Creators in Capitalism's Future|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A4gXkeGQkj4C&pg=PA80|date=2013|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1400846658|pages=79–80}}