fandomweekly | [#183] Uprising Soonish (Torchwood)

Theme Prompt: #183 – Revolution
Title: Uprising Soonish
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG
Bonus: Yes.
Word Count: 1000
Summary: Ianto and Jack are planning a revolution, if they can just figure out how to do it.

“Are you seriously suggesting we start a rebellion?” Ianto couldn’t believe his ears.

Jack shook his head. “Not a rebellion; a revolution.”

“It amounts to the same thing. You want people to rise up and overthrow their government.”

“Don’t you? Look at the way these people are living! The rich keep getting richer, and the poor keep getting poorer.”

“Sounds a lot like back on earth.”

“Except that the division between rich and poor is greater here than you’d find anywhere but the poorest countries on earth. There isn’t even a middle-class here; everyone either has more money than they could ever spend, or they’re going hungry because they can’t afford the increasingly inflated prices for food on the pittance they earn, doing whatever jobs they can find. Anyone who can’t work, or can’t find a job…” Jack trailed off; there were homeless beggars everywhere he looked, barefoot and dressed in rags, all with the same hopeless look on their faces. “You can’t tell me any of this is right.”

“Of course it isn’t right, but a revolution… People will die!”

“They’re already dying. The ones lucky enough to survive living on the streets are regularly rounded up by the authorities and put to work in the mines and factories; long hours of unpaid slave labour in dangerous conditions. Most don’t survive very long. If any world was ever ripe for revolution, it’s this one. Besides, it’s not as if you’ve never incited a revolt before. You did it on that space station you told me about.”

“That was just overthrowing one corrupt official. You’re talking about turning a whole planetary society upside down. I wouldn’t even know where to start!”

“I never said it would be easy. We could start by redistributing some of the wealth, visit some of the wealthiest people on the planet, preferably when they’re not home, and transfer some of their funds to the less fortunate.”

“Rob from the rich to give to the poor? Wouldn’t work. The rich are invested in keeping the poor under their thumbs. If the poor suddenly had more money, the rich would simply raise prices again to a barely affordable level. They want everyone who isn’t among the elite to exist in abject poverty, so they haven’t got the energy for anything beyond day-to-day survival. Gets them a cheap workforce eager to carry out any task they’re offered in exchange for a sub-minimum wage. All the wealthy have to do is sit in their luxurious homes counting their money.”

“What would you do then?”

“Take their workforce. Round up all the beggars first, they’re the ones most at risk. Feed and clothe them, then take the lowest paid workers, and keep going until the wealthy have nobody to grow food, or manufacture anything for them. Their money will become essentially worthless when there’s nothing to spend it on. Then would be the time to take it away from them, when they’re reduced to having to carry out all the work themselves.”

“The wealthiest would probably just try to force those who aren’t quite so well off to do all the work, creating a new lower class, resulting in the same situation, just with fewer people,” Jack pointed out.

“Have you got any better ideas?”

“Abduct the wealthiest people, the ones who make all the rules, and take their place. Set up workers’ unions, charitable foundations, establish a minimum wage, bring prices down to affordable levels, provide low-cost housing for all…”

“Across a whole planet? We can’t do this alone, Jack. We’re just two people with a TARDIS; even we can’t be everywhere at once.”

“Two IMMORTALS,” Jack corrected his husband.

“Like that’ll make much difference. Can’t we just contact the Shadow Proclamation?”

“They don’t interfere with the way people run their own planets.”

“Typical. The ones with all the power sit on their arses and let millions starve to death.” Ianto scowled at his husband. “What use are they?”

“Sometimes I wonder that myself. Okay, how about we target the wealthiest and show them what will happen to their world if their greed continues unchecked?”

“You want to be the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come?” Ianto asked, raising an incredulous eyebrow.

“It’s an idea.”

“They wouldn’t believe any ‘visions’ you showed them, probably dismiss them as the result of overindulgence.”

“And we’re right back to stealing from the rich to give to the poor.”

“If there was a central government we could overthrow, we might have some chance at success, but it’s just a loose confederation of wealthy families who each run their own township along similar lines and keep out of each other’s business.”

“What if we started them fighting each other?”

“They’d conscript the poor to do their fighting for them. We’d just be making things worse.”

Jack slumped. “You’re right. Starting a revolution is a lot harder than I expected.”

“So now what?”

“I don’t know, but we’ve got to do something!”

“While we’re dithering, people are starving, so I suggest we start by distributing food. Buy up everything we can as foreign investors, then undercut official prices, or just hand food out for free.”

“Or get the wealthy to invest heavily in our business and use their investment against them.”

“We can figure it out as we go,” Ianto decided. “The important thing is to get the ball rolling.”

“We’ll need to get some of the locals involved, and we’ll need stake money in the local currency.”

“That is simple enough,” their TARDIS murmured. “I shall simply divert a percentage of the ruling families’ wealth into a separate account in your names. They will not even notice; they pay little attention to how much they have.”

“Okay, looks like financing our little revolution is the easy part. The rest might be a little trickier, but we can do it, I have faith in our ingenuity.” Jack grinned. “Let’s get revolting!”

“Yes, you would phrase it like that.” Ianto returned Jack’s grin. “Viva la revolution!”

The End