In this week's episode of "On Contact," host and Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges interviews Eugene Puryear, vice presidential candidate for the Party for Socialism and Liberation in 2008 and 2016 and author of the book "Shackled and Chained: Mass Incarceration in Capitalist America."

"Institutions of social control over black labor have been really essential to the building up of capitalism in America," Puryear tells Hedges. "I think we have to fight back by realizing two things. One, the major political parties -- certainly not the Democrats -- are not going to be our savior, have never been anything other than the vessel by which elites try to capture energy that's coming from the grass roots and give it some sort of systemic representation ... and I think we have to start to put [forth] a vision that looks beyond capitalism."

Below, watch the full interview, featuring a brief news segment from RT correspondent Anya Parampil:

—Posted by Emma Niles