Defenders of capitalism tell us it's a system of freedom and democracy. But the riches of the capitalist class were built on the suffering and death of millions of African slaves and the theft of entire continents, with the massacre, subjugation or expulsion of those peoples living there. As Marx put it, "capital comes dripping from head to toe, from every pore, with blood and dirt". This session will discuss the brutality of the early capitalist system - and the heroic resistance it met at every turn.