By Bhabani Shankar Nayak
The more than three million Epstein files, including those already released, not only reveal an entrenched criminal network of perverted ruling elites and rotten capitalist socialites with an inhuman sexual appetite for young girls, but also expose their power, influence, and lack of accountability. Sexual trafficking and the exploitation of young girls define this criminal network of social, political, and economic elites. The impact of this exploitative, immoral, and perverted network has far-reaching consequences for people, society, culture, politics, states, and governments across the globe.
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However, the release of the Epstein files at this particular juncture appears to be less about delivery of justice but more about systematically diverting public attention from the failures of market-led democracy, the bourgeois state, capitalist and imperialist global system which have failed both institutionally and procedurally to address the everyday material and spiritual needs of the people in terms of delivering equality, liberty and justice. The multiple material crises confronting the working masses are fundamentally produced by the capitalist system itself and threatens the very foundation of lives, dignity of people and trusting each other as human beings.
The systematic release of different aspects of these files serves to undermine public confidence in political leaders, intellectuals, journalists, corporate executives, and other influential figures. The erosion of public trust and confidence is central to the growth of a culture of depoliticisation, which is itself a key requirement of capitalism. Democratic political accountability introduces checks and balances within the political, legal and economic systems—mechanisms of accountability that are anathema to capitalism. Consequently, a trustless, depoliticised, and unaccountable culture is conducive to capitalist dominance.
This trustless culture, along with the transient nature of profit-driven production systems, productivist values, and patterns of consumption, is fundamental to capitalism’s continued existence. Therefore, the priests of capitalism seize every opportunity and every event to promote and deepen a culture of distrust.
The story of the Epstein files undermines the authority of the democratic state and governments in the public eye, as sections of the ruling class are shown to be complicit in the illegal and immoral empire of the Epstein network and its heinous criminal activities. Undermining the state and government as upholders of democratic law has long been a central agenda of capitalism. Capitalism prefers authoritarian states and governments that faithfully follow the dictates of the capitalist system. Democratic forms of governance or states with a radical orientation are treated as aberrations and are therefore unacceptable to capitalist markets and their agents.
The Epstein files normalise various forms of heinous crimes, such as sex trafficking and sexual violence, as ruling elites and their networks openly display hedonistic lifestyles without legal accountability in public or private remorse. This lack of accountability trickles down into everyday social life, where sexual violence is increasingly normalised or ignored. Such reactionary dynamics encourage violence against women and reproduce and sustain a feudal, patriarchal capitalist system in which the objectification of women’s bodies is treated as normal.
The Epstein files also show how non-governing segments of the ruling class use the power of democratically elected leaders to enjoy privileges at the expense of popular democracy and the dignity of women. The trauma and fear inflicted on women by these agents of gangster capitalism become a warning to other women. Such a culture is deeply detrimental to the growth of a gender-equal society. The names contained in the Epstein files do not merely expose a billionaire “old boys’ club”; they also reveal elite impunity that undermines the legal system—one that is supposed to protect rights, promote justice, and punish crime—so that sexual exploitation of women can be brought to an end.
The mainstream media and its moral discourse surrounding immoral activities documented in the Epstein files and its high-profile, powerful men and their celebrity status network eclipses the voices of victims and ignores the lasting impacts on individuals and societies across the globe. This trajectory of crime, criminals, and their networks undermines the processes of justice and encourages the proliferation of all forms of criminal activity. The Epstein files do not merely reveal the moral failings of these perverted and powerful men; they expose an organised crime syndicate centred on hedonistic pleasure through the trafficking and exploitation of young girls. The reach of this syndicate extends far beyond national borders, and its consequences will persist for a long time unless justice is delivered swiftly.
The Epstein affair once again reignites and reinforces the understanding that the struggle for women’s liberation is inseparable from the struggle against all forms of power sustained by the feudal, patriarchal capitalist system. This system is led by powerful men who reduce the female body to a mere commodity of pleasure, while normalising violence and exploitation against women. History bears witness to the successes of united struggles for collective emancipation from patriarchal capitalism, a system that exploits all by treating the human body as a commodity for leisure, pleasure, and profit. This objectified commodity culture of capitalism not only endangers women but also threatens life itself and the planet. Struggle against such a system is therefore central to the pursuit of a dignified human life free from all forms of exploitation.
The writer teaches at the London Metropolitan University
