Marxism K

2007 Wyoming Debate Cooperative Marxism
Solidarity at 7200 Feet 1 of 103

MARXISM SHELL 1/4............................................................................................3
MARXISM SHELL 2/4............................................................................................4
MARXISM SHELL 3/4............................................................................................5
MARXISM SHELL 4/4............................................................................................6
CRITICAL UNIQUENESS/SYSTEM LEGITIMACY IS COLLAPSING.............7
CAPITALISM WILL INEVITABLY COLLAPSE 1/3.............................................8
CAPITALISM WILL INEVITABLY COLLAPSE 2/3.............................................8
CAPITALISM WILL INEVITABLY COLLAPSE 3/3...........................................10
ANTI-CAPITALIST MOVEMENT KEY TO SURVIVAL....................................11
CAPITALISM=NUCLEAR ANIHILATION.........................................................12
CAPITALISM ROOT CAUSE OF TERROR 1/2..................................................13
CAPITALISM ROOT CAUSE OF TERROR 2/2..................................................14
CRITICISM/FRAMEWORK NECESSARY FOR SURVIVAL............................15
CAPITALISM=GENOCIDE..................................................................................16
CAPITALISM CONTEXTUALIZES RACISM AND SEXISM...........................17
SOCIALISM=DEMOCRACY...............................................................................18
ARMS CONTROL/DISARM GOALS LINKS 1/2................................................19
ARMS CONTROL/DISARM GOALS LINKS 2/2...............................................20
1AC METHODOLOGY LINKS 1/2......................................................................21
1AC METHODOLOGY LINKS 2/2......................................................................22
FOREIGN ASSISTANCE LINKS 1/3....................................................................23
UNCONDITIONAL FOREIGN ASSISTANCE ALT............................................28
CALLING IRAN ISLAMIC LINK........................................................................29
MARKET RHETORIC LINKS 1/2 .......................................................................30
MARKET RHETORIC LINKS 2/2........................................................................31
REPRESENTATION LINKS 1/3............................................................................32
WAR ON TERROR LINKS 1/2.............................................................................35
WAR ON TERROR LINKS 2/2.............................................................................36
HUMANITARIANISM AND PEACE LINKS......................................................37
TRADE/GLOBALIZATION LINKS 1/3...............................................................38
FOREIGN POLICY LINKS 1/4.............................................................................41
HUMAN RIGHTS LINKS 1/2...............................................................................44
HUMAN RIGHTS LINKS 2/2...............................................................................45
MICROPOLITICS LINK.......................................................................................46
ELECTIONS LINKS 1/2........................................................................................47
ELECTIONS LINKS 2/2........................................................................................48
INTERNATIONAL LAW LINKS..........................................................................49
ALTERNATIVE SOLVES: EXPOSURE TO
METHODOLOGY=CONSCIOUSNESS SHIFT 1/2.............................................50
METHODOLOGY=CONSCIOUSNESS SHIFT 2/2.............................................51
NEGATION ALT SOLVENCY ..............................................................................52
ALTERNATIVE SOLVES: WE RECONCEPTUALIZE DISCUSSION..............53
ALT: ENVISIONING NONCAPITALIST POSSIBILITIES SOLVES.................54
FRAMEWORK: POLICYMAKING BAD............................................................55
CRISIS POINT ATTACK CRITICAL....................................................................56
ALT: REJECT IN EDUCATIONAL SETTINGS SOLVES ..................................57
METHODOLOGY COMES FIRST.......................................................................58
WE’RE A BETTER METHOD..............................................................................59
METHODOLOGICAL ALTERNATIVE SOLVENCY 1/3....................................60
ENVIRONMENT IMPACT SCENARIO 1/2.........................................................64
ENVIRONMENT IMPACT SCENARIO 2/2.........................................................65
MARXISM IS KEY TO ENVIRONMENT 1/2.....................................................66
MARXISM IS KEY TO ENVIRONMENT 2/2.....................................................67
ISLAM CAN FIGHT CAPITALISM 1/6...............................................................69
Page 1 of 103
LEFTISM-ISLAM ALLIANCE BUILDING ........................................................75
ISLAM BAD 1/2.....................................................................................................76
ISLAM BAD 2/2.....................................................................................................77
AT PERMUTATIONS.............................................................................................78
AT CAP GOOD GENERAL...................................................................................79
AT “CAPITALISM INEVITABLE” 1/2.................................................................80
AT “CAPITALISM INEVITABLE” 2/2.................................................................81
AT “HUMAN NATURE”.......................................................................................82
AT BACKLASH.....................................................................................................83
AT: YOU’RE TOO RIGID/STRUCTURALIST OR VANGUARDISM BAD......84
GRAMSCIAN HEGEMONY STARTER SET 1/5.................................................85
AFF ANSWERS: PERMUTATION.......................................................................90
AFF ANSWERS: MARXIST METHOD BAD......................................................91
AFF ANSWERS: CAPITALIST COLLAPSE NOT INEVITABLE 1/2................92
AFF ANSWERS: CAPITALIST COLLAPSE NOT INEVITABLE 2/2................93
AFF ANSWERS: CAPITALISM GOOD 1/2.........................................................94
AFF ANSWERS: CAPITALISM GOOD 2/2.........................................................95
AFF ANSWERS: CAP KEY TO SPACE 1/2.........................................................96
AFF ANSWERS: CAP KEY TO SPACE 2/2.........................................................97
AFF ANSWERS: CAP COLLAPSE BAD 1/2.......................................................98
AFF ANSWERS: CAP COLLAPSE BAD 2/2.......................................................99
AFF ANSWERS: CAP SOLVES ENVIRONMENT ...........................................100
AFF ANSWERS: CAPITALISM UNLIMITED.................................................101
AFF ANSWERS: CAP GOOD FOR THE POOR FOLKS..................................102
AFF ANSWERS: MARXISM=TOTALITARIANISM........................................103
Page 2 of 103
MARXISM SHELL 1/4
THEIR ADVOCACY, AND THE NARRATIVE WHICH UPHOLDS IT, ARE BASED ON A
CONSTRUCTION OF TERRITORY CONTINGENT UPON AND INSEPARABLE FROM CAPITAL
ACCUMULATION. SO-CALLED “FOREIGN RELATIONS” ARE RULING CLASS RELATIONS;
THE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE UNDER VARIOUS RULING CLASSES’ BOOTS CRY OUT TO BE
HEARD BUT ARE BURIED IN NARRATIVES THAT VALORIZE FOREIGN-POLICYMAKING,
ELITE-TO-ELITE DEALMAKING, AND HEROIC STATESMANLIKE DISCOURSE. THIS
DOOMS US TO A WORLD OF PERPETUAL RESOURCE CONFLICT.
Lorimer, 02
(Doug, Political Committee of Australian Democratic Socialist Party, “Imperialism in the 21st Century,
http://www.dsp.org.su/links/back/issue21/Lorimer.htm, uw/mjs).
Brzezinski's statement about the "grand imperatives" of US imperial policy gives a candid insight into how the us ruling
elite views the world. The "vassals", among whom it is necessary to "prevent collusion and maintain security", are the
other imperialist powers. Like the vassals of medieval Europe, the other imperialist powers hold sovereignty within their
own "fiefs" but are required to render general support, and particularly military service, to the supreme lord in
Washington. The "tributaries" who are to be kept "pliant and protected" are the semicolonial capitalist regimes of Asia.
Africa and Latin America. from whom the imperialist powers extort tribute in the form of colonial super-profits, debt
service payments and cheap raw materials, oil in particular. The "barbarians", whom it is necessary to keep "from
coming together", are the oppressed and exploited mass of humanity, since when they do "come together-that is. Act
collectively in their own interests-pose a threat to the very existence of "civilisation" as the Brzezinskis conceive of it. That this
is the real view of the propertyless mass of humanity, of the workers and poor peasants of the world, held by imperialist
statespeople and strategists is confirmed by the argument given to US President Woodrow Wilson by his wartime secretary of state, Robert
Lansing, in 1918 as to why the United States should send troops, money and arms to Russia to overthrow the Bolshevik government. The
Bolsheviks sought, Lansing wrote, "to make the ignorant and incapable mass of humanity dominant in the earth"; they were appealing "to a class
and not to all classes of society, a class which does not have property but hopes to obtain a share by process of government rather than by
individual enterprise. This is of course a direct threat at existing social order in all countries."
AND, WORKING PEOPLE HAVE NO FOREIGN POLICY
Barnes 91
(Jack, National Secretary of Socialist Workers Party, New International. Pg 199)
The tactical divisions in the ruling class are real, and we haven’t found it difficult to explain the reasons for them. They
enable us to see the dangerous charater of the con-promoted by the bourgeois press—that the debate in Congress pushes us
further from the war. The truth is the opposite. The imperialist assumptions and goals shared by both Democratic and Republican party politicians,
and the bipartisan policies they have already set in motion, are the very ingredients propelling forward the probability that the siege war will become
a massive ground war (perhaps with a devastating air war as a prelude). Workers and farmers, as well as any authentic opponent of
Washington’s course toward war, have no voice, no representatives in Congress of any kind.
Page 3 of 103
MARXISM SHELL 2/4
AND, OUR DESCRIPTION OF THIS WORLD CONSTITUTES BOTH PERFORMATIVE

ADVOCACY AND EPISTEMIC RECONSTRUCTION; WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO SIGN YOUR
BALLOT AS A MOMENT OF PRAXIS AFFIRMING THEORY, REJECTING THE CENTRALITY
OF STATE ACTION IN CONSTRUCTING EPISTEMIC CLAIMS ABOUT WORLD AFFAIRS.
HARNECKER 2000
[Marta, Dir of MEPLA, Links, p. online: http://www.dsp.org.au/links/back/issue16/harnecker.html //wyo]
To think about the construction of forces and the correlation of forces is to change the traditional vision of politics. This vision
tends to reduce politics to the struggle over judicial and political institutions and to exaggerate the role of the state.
Immediately one thinks of political parties and the fight over the control and orientation of the formal instruments of power.17
The most radical sectors focus all their political action on the conquest of political power and the destruction of the state. The
reformists focus on the administration of political power and the exercise of government as the fundamental and sole form of
political practice. The popular sectors and their struggles are the ignored colossus. This is what Helio Gallardo calls the "politicism"
of the Latin American left.18 2) Overcoming the narrow conception of powerTo think about constructing forces is also to overcome the
narrow vision that reduces the concept of right-wing power to that of the repressive aspects of the state. The power of
the enemy is not only repressive but also, as Carlos Ruiz says, constructive, moulding, disciplining. If the power of the dominant classes
were only for the purpose of subjecting the left to censorship, exclusion, obstacles or repression, it would be more fragile. Its strength derives from
the fact that, in addition to eliminating those things it doesn't want, it is capable of creating what it does want: building
channels, producing knowledge, rationales and consciousness. It is the power to impose its own way of being seen and of looking at the
world.19 To think about how to construct forces is also to overcome the old and deeply rooted mistake of trying to build
political forces whether through arms or the ballot box without building social force.20
Page 4 of 103
MARXISM SHELL 3/4
AND, WE SHOULD SET LIMITS TO CAPITALISM IN EVERY SPHERE OF SOCIAL LIFE
De Angelis ’03 (Massimo, Department of Economics University of East London, THE COMMONER,
Winter, http://www.commoner.org.uk/previous_issues.htm#n6, uw/mjs)
If we keep setting limits to capital in every sphere of social life, saying no to war and enclosures, environmental
destruction and indignity, growth for growth sake and exploitation, human relations based on competition or despotism,
and if we are effective in doing so, there will be nothing else left that the beast can feed upon. Capital, that depends on
growth for growth’s sake, barrier overcoming and colonization of life, collapses if it is unable to overcome the barrier
posed by socialized humanity. We will have to take responsibility and say what must be said: the expropriators must be
expropriated so that we can rebuild our lives through new forms of sociality. We will have to take responsibility and find
ways to go beyond the invisible hand of the market and the visible fist of the state to coordinate our social practices.
AND, OUR METHOD SOLVES—INSTEAD OF ENDORSING THE AFFIRMATIVE NARRATIVE,

YOU SHOULD VOTE TO RECLAIM THE COMMONS AND AFFIRM OUR MATERIALIST AND
INTERNATIONALIST METHODOLOGY, EACH VOTE FOR THE DIALECTIC IS ESSENTIAL
OLLMAN 2003
(Bertell, Professor of Politics at NYU, Dance of the Dialectic, http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ollman/docs/dd_ch09.php, UW/MJS)
What's called "dialectical method" might be broken down into six successive moments. There is an ontological one
having to do with what the world really is (an infinite number of mutually dependent processes—with no clear or fixed
boundaries—that coalesce to form a loosely structured whole or totality). There is the epistemological moment that deals
with how to organize our thinking in order to understand such a world (as indicated, this involves opting for a philosophy of internal relations and
abstracting out the chief patterns in which change and interaction occur as well as the main parts in and between which they are seen to occur). There is the
moment of inquiry (where, based on an assumption of internal relations between all parts, one uses the categories that convey these
patterns along with a set of priorities derived from Marx's theories as aids to investigation). There is the moment of
intellectual reconstruction or self-clarification (where one puts together the results of such research for oneself). This is followed by the
moment of exposition (where, using a strategy that takes account of how others think as well as what they know, one tries to explain this
dialectical grasp of the "facts" to a particular audience). And, finally, there is the moment of praxis (where, based on
whatever clarification has been reached, one consciously acts in the world, changing it and testing it and deepening
one's understanding of it all at the same time). These six moments are not traversed once and for all, but again and
again, as every attempt to understand and expound dialectical truths and to act upon them improves one's ability to
organize one's thinking dialectically and to inquire further and deeper into the mutually dependent processes to which
we also belong. In writing about dialectics, therefore, one must be very careful not to single out any one moment —as so many thinkers do—at the expense
of the others. Only in their internal relations do these six moments constitute a workable and immensely valuable dialectical method.
So—Why Dialectics? Because that's the only sensible way to study a world composed of mutually dependent processes in
constant evolution, and also to interpret Marx, who is our leading investigator into this world. Dialectics is necessary just to see capitalism,
given its vastness and complexity, and Marxism to help us understand it, to instruct us in how to do "Commons From Under the Goose
Studies", and to help us develop a political strategy to reclaim the commons. Capitalism is completely and always
dialectical, so that Marxism will always be necessary to make sense of it, and dialectics to make correct sense of
Marxism.
Page 5 of 103
MARXISM SHELL 4/4
AND, IT’S TRY OR DIE FOR THE NEGATIVE—CAPITALISM WILL COLLAPSE, AND ALONG
WITH IT WE WILL LOSE THE LIBERAL-EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS THAT UPHOLD
TRADITIONAL DEBATE; WITHOUT MARXISM EXTINCTION IS INEVITABLE:
MESZAROS (Prof. Emeritus @ Univ. Sussex) 1995

[Istavan, Beyond Capital: Towards a Theory of Transition, /p. 146
In view of the fact that the most intractable of the global capital system’s contradictions is the one between the internal
unrestrainability of its economic constituents and the now inescapable necessity of introducing major restraints, any hope
for finding a way out of this vicious circle under the circumstances marked by the activation of capital’s absolute limits
must be vested in the political dimension of the system. Thus, in the light of recent legislative measures which already
point in this direction, there can be no doubt that the full power of the state will be activated to serve the end of squaring
capital’s vicious circle, even if it means subjecting all potential dissent to extreme authoritarian constraints. Equally there
can be no doubt that whether or not such a remedial action (in conformity to the global capital system’s structural limits)
will be successfully pursued, despite its obvious authoritarian character and destructiveness, will depend on the working
class’s ability or failure to radically rearticulate the socialist movement as a truly international enterprise.
In any event, what makes matters particularly serious is the fact that the far-reaching issues themselves which confront
humankind at the present stage of historical development cannot be avoided either by the ruling capital system or by any
alternative to it. Although, as a matter of historical contingency, they have arisen from the activation of capital’s absolute
limits, they cannot be conveniently bypassed, nor their gravity wished out of existence. On the contrary, they remain the
overriding requirement of all-embracing remedial action in the reproductive practices of humankind for as long as the
vicious circle of capital’s present-day historical contingency is not irretrievably consigned to the past. Indeed,
paradoxically, the ability to meet in a sustainable way the absolute historical challenge that had arisen from the perverse
historical contingencies and contradictions of the capital system constitutes the measure of viability of any social
metabolic alternative to the ruling order. Consequently, the struggle to overcome the threatening absolute limits of the
capital system is bound to determine the historical agenda for the foreseeable future.
Page 6 of 103
CRITICAL UNIQUENESS/SYSTEM
LEGITIMACY IS COLLAPSING
WE MUST ACT NOW. DESPITE APPEARANCES OF HEGEMONY – CORPORATIST STATES

LACK THE IDEOLOGICAL HEGEMONY NECESSARY TO GUARANTEE THEIR EXISTENCE,
THE STATE APPARATUS IS FRAGILE.
Eteshami and Murphy, Center for Middle East Studies – U. Durham, 96

[Anoushiravan and Emma, “Transformation of the corporatist state in the
Middle East,” Third World Quarterly, Vol. 17, Num 4, pages 753-772]
//karlovic
Nazih Ayubi contends that the reliance of the state upon the military's coercive abilities indicates the weakness of the corporatist
state in the Middle East, rather than the strength which is often mistakenly associated with sheer size and scope of state functions.
The state, in his view, 'is not a natural growth of its own socio-economic history or its own cultural and intellectual tradition. It is a
"fierce" state that has frequently to resort to raw coercion in order to preserve itself, but it is not a " strong" state because (a) it
lacks--to varying degrees of course--the "infrastructural power" that enables states to penetrate society effectively through
mechanisms such as taxation for example; and (b) it lacks ideological hegemony (in the Gramscian sense) that would enable it to
forge a "historic" social bloc that accepts the legitimacy of the ruling stratum'.
THE MIDDLE EASTERN CORPORATIST STATE ONLY APPEARS TO BE STRONG BECAUSE

THERE IS A LACK OF ALTERNATIVE ORGANIZED FORCES – THE COLONIAL
EXPERIENCE AND INTEGRATION IN CAPITALISM HAS DISABLED CLASS STRUGGLE.
Eteshami and Murphy, Center for Middle East Studies – U. Durham, 96

[Anoushiravan and Emma, “Transformation of the corporatist state in the
Middle East,” Third World Quarterly, Vol. 17, Num 4, pages 753-772]
//karlovic
Thus a corporatist state with praetorian tendencies may have a relatively high degree of autonomy in terms
of being immune to pressures exerted by class interests, and be able to exert its own interests, but its power
is still fragile and vulnerable to rapid social changes and economic crises.( n8) Where it appears strong, this
is in part likely to be thanks to the comparative weakness of alternative organised social forces. The late
integration of the Arab world into the capitalist European-dominated world, followed by the colonial
experience, had ensured that classes were poorly developed and ineffective as mobilisatory poles of social
organisation.( n9) Indeed, the political oppression that characterises the authoritarian corporatist state has
frustrated any inclination of classes other than the bourgeoisie to organise and mobilise themselves.
Page 7 of 103
CAPITALISM WILL INEVITABLY COLLAPSE

1/3
CAPITALISM IS AWASH IN CRISIS, MELTDOWN COULD COME AT ANY TIME
Kolko ’06 (Gabriel, historian, author of 5 books, “Factors in Our Colossal Mess,” November 26,
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=11493, uw/mjs)
As an economic system capitalism is going crazy. In late November there were $75 billion in global mergers and
acquisitions in a 24-hour period-a record. Global capitalism is awash with liquidity -- virtually free money -- and anyone
who borrows can become very rich, assuming they win. The beauty of the hedge fund is that individual risks become far
smaller and one can join with others to bet big -- and much more precariously. Henced, spectacular chances are now being
taken: on the value of the U.S. dollar, the price of oil, real estate -- and countless others gambles. In the case of Amaranth
Advisors, this outfit lost about $6.5 billion at the end of September on an erroneous weather prediction and went under. At
least 2,600 hedge funds were founded from the beginning of 2005 to October 2006, but 1,100 went out of business. The new
financial instruments -- derivatives, hedge funds, incomprehensible financial inventions of every sort-are growing at a
phenomenal rate, but their common characteristic, as one Financial Times writer, John Plender, summed it up on November
20. , is that "everyone [has] become less risk adverse." Therein lies the danger. Hedge funds will bet on anything, natural
disasters and, soon, longevity of pension fund members being only the latest examples of their addiction to taking chances.
London is fast replacing New York as the center of this activity, and the capital market in general, because the regulatory
regime of the government the British Labour Party established is much more favorable to this sort of activity than that
Bush's Republican minions allow -- though this may change because Wall Street does not like losing business. On
September 12, 2006, the International Monetary Fund released its report on "Global Financial Stability," and it was
unprecedented in its concern that "new and complex financial instruments, such as structured credit products," might wreak
untold havoc. "Liberalization," which the "Washington consensus" and IMF had preached and helped realize, now threatens
the US dollar and much else. "The rapid growth of hedge funds and credit derivative mechanisms in recent years adds to
uncertainty," and might aggravate the "market turbulence and systemic impact" of once-benign events. Hedge funds, it
warned, have already "suffered noticeable losses." At the end of October, again the Financial Times, Jean-Claude Trichet,
head of the European Central Bank, deplored these new financial products, which have been increasing and growing into the
trillions. He wrote that he could not comprehend them; that there is scant oversight over them; that many are pure hype; that
nothing prevents them from creating immense domino effects on the entire financial system were they to collapse, thereby
also dragging the well-regulated parts of the system down. Then, at the beginning of November the quasi-official UK
Financial Services Authority issued a report that detailed the existing risks to the entire world financial structure. Despite its
tone, it is dynamite. The FSA report documents the many risks to the private equity sector: excessive leverage, unclear
ownership of risk, market abuses and insider trading. There are conflicts of interest of every sort; the system is opaque;
hedge funds made inherent dangers even riskier. "Given current leverage levels and recent developments in the
economic/credit cycle, the default of a large private equity backed company or a cluster of smaller private equity backed
companies seems inevitable." Given this growing consensus of risks, on November 13 Sir John Gieve, the deputy governor
of the Bank of England, concluded, in the Financial Times, that each national state regulating full-blown financial crises was
no longer feasible: the financial system is international in scope today and no national mechanism can handle it. There have
been at least 13 borderline or full-blown financial crises since the late 1970s and some of the methods for dealing with them
would be "less easy to deploy" under present conditions-which is a polite way of saying they were irrelevant. His
conclusion: Regulators "should practise coping with global crisis," "work together" on practical examples to develop
machinery, especially to avoid the "moral hazards" of bailing out firms in trouble, including "closing down a large firm in an
orderly way." The chances of developing a common trans-national approach or rules are close to zero, if only because
nations of the world are rivals in the bid to attract financial companies and regulation, or lack of it, is a major factor on
where to headquarter. When the next financial crisis occurs, and the likelihood of that happening has grown by leaps and
bounds, it is more likely than ever to drag the entire global economy with it. At least the "experts" think so. They did not
before now.

2/3
Page 8 of 103
COMPETITION = INEVITABLE COLLAPSE, COMPLEXITY PRECLUDES A

RESPONSE
Godesky ’06 (Jason, analyst, the Anthropik Network, “Thesis 26: Collapse is Inevitable,” Jan. 12,
http://anthropik.com/2006/01/thesis-26-collapse-is-inevitable/, uw/mjs)
Competition, however, keeps driving the assemblage forward, even after further investment in complexity
has long ceased to be an economical decision. If any party does decide to make that investment--however
large it may be--then they will enjoy an edge--however slight--over everyone else, forcing all parties to
move to the next level of complexity to remain competitive. Thus, competition drives civilization headlong
towards collapse. The diminishing returns of complexity represent an escalating probability of disaster. As that
probability approaches one, disasters continue at their normal pace. Sometimes, as we can see in our own world, our own
complexity may accelerate that pace, as with our environmental problems (see thesis #17), or it may even create those
problems, as with Peak Oil (see thesis #18). Even were these not the case, there is a regular, background pace of
problems any society faces. Answering all of them with increased complexity--whether by pursuing technical solutions
to systemic problems, inventing new technologies, or creating governmental bureaucracies in response--only aggrevates
the greater, underlying crisis of complexity's diminishing returns. Following this strategy, a routine crisis will
eventually arise, but the response of greater complexity will be impossible due to its prohibitive cost.
Thus, a society faces catabolic collapse.
DEPLETION CRISIS INEVITABLE, WILL LEAD TO CATABOLIC COLLAPSE
Godesky ’06 (Jason, analyst, the Anthropik Network, “Thesis 26: Collapse is Inevitable,” Jan. 12,
http://anthropik.com/2006/01/thesis-26-collapse-is-inevitable/, uw/mjs)
A society that uses resources beyond replenishment rate ... when production of new capital falls short of maintenance
needs, risks a depletion crisis in which key features of a maintenance crisis are amplified by the impact of depletion on
production. As M(p) exceeds C(p) and capital can no longer be maintained, it is converted to waste and unavailable for
use. Since depletion requires progressively greater investments of capital in production, the loss of capital affects
production more seriously than in an equivalent maintenance crisis. Meanwhile further production, even at a diminished
rate, requires further use of depleted resources, exacerbating the impact of depletion and the need for increased capital to
maintain production. With demand for capital rising as the supply of capital falls, C(p) tends to decrease faster than M(p)
and perpetuate the crisis. The result is a catabolic cycle, a self-reinforcing process in which C(p) stays below M(p) while
both decline. Catabolic cycles may occur in maintenance crises if the gap between C(p) and M(p) is large enough, but
tend to be self-limiting in such cases. In depletion crises, by contrast, catabolic cycles can proceed to catabolic collapse,
in which C(p) approaches zero and most of a society’s capital is converted to waste. ...Any society that displays broad
increases in most measures of capital production coupled with signs of serious depletion of key resources, in particular,
may be considered a potential candidate for catabolic collapse.
Page 9 of 103

3/3
CAP COLLAPSE A MATHEMATICAL CERTAINTY
Sullivan ’06 (Charles, activist, “Sacred Ecology and Capitalism,”

http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/2006/11/sacred-ecology-and-capitalism.html, uw/mjs)
Any economic system based upon greed rather than the public good and the ruthless exploitation of nature is not only wrong, it is a
prescription for disaster. Capitalism not only embodies this self destructive ideology, it depends upon endless growth (the ideology of the
cancer cell) for its continuation. Endless growth, regardless how well it is managed, is an ecological impossibility on a finite planet. Thus
the perceived success of capitalism is short-lived at best. Because it is based upon a cycle of voracious consumption and waste, capitalism
will inevitably collapse. This is not idle speculation or wishful thinking on my part; it is a mathematical certainty based upon the most
elementary precepts of ecological science.
Page 10 of 103
ANTI-CAPITALIST MOVEMENT KEY TO

SURVIVAL
HUMAN SURVIVAL DEPENDS UPON A GLOBAL POPULAR STRUGGLE AGAINST

CAPITALISM
INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTER, “Marko, Anarchism and Human Survival: Russell’s Problem,”
March 2003. Available from the World Wide Web at: http://sydney.indymedia.org/print.php3?article_id=30393,
accessed 4/12/05
This raises an interesting issue, namely that the pursuit of Armageddon is quite rational. The dominant institutions of
capitalism place a premium on short-term greed. Rational participatory planning incorporating long-term concerns such
as human survival are of no interest to these pathological institutions. What matters is short-term profit maximisation.
One can see this most clearly in the case of such “externalities” as ecological change where the desire to pursue
short-term profit undermines the long-term viability of the system itself (also us as a species; indeed many have
surmised that we are in the era of the sixth great extinction of life on Earth this time human induced).
For those actually interested in human freedom and survival Russell’s problem is to be solved in the manner Bertrand
Russell himself sought to solve it; not by lofty speculations and social “theories” but by political dissidence in all its
manifestations. Chomsky has stated that the people of the third world rely on a thin margin of survival provided by
turbulence and dissidence within the imperial states. In fact humanity relies on a thin margin of survival provided by
turbulence and dissidence within the imperial states. The global justice movement has an awesome responsibility:
human survival depends upon its success. The concerns expressed in this essay ought to occupy more of its time.
SOCIALIST REVOLUTION NECESSARY TO AVERT CAPITAL-DRIVEN NUCLEAR

EXTINCTION
Democratic Socialist Party, “Chapter VI: Towards an Environmentally Sustainable World,” ENVIRONMENT,
CAPITALISM, AND SOCIALISM, online edition, 2004. Available from the World Wide Web at:
www.dsp.org.au/dsp/ECS/Chapter6.htm, accessed 4/22/06.
Avoiding nuclear war is a necessity if humanity is to survive. There would be no winners in a nuclear conflict. Rather
than war in the conventional sense of the term, nuclear war would be an act of suicide for the entire human race.
Nuclear war would devastate the global ecosystem, making our planet uninhabitable. Nuclear weapons were
developed and used by the capitalist rulers of United States in order to terrorise working people into submitting to the
imperialist world order. Even after the Cold War the US imperialists and their allies will not voluntarily surrender the
power nuclear weapons give them to threaten total destruction against those who seek to overturn their system of
minority rule. As long as nuclear weapons remain in the hands of the imperialists the danger exists that they will use
them, particularly if, as in 1945, they are confident there will be no nuclear retaliation, and if they judge that their gains
will outweigh the price they will pay in horror and hatred by working people at home and around the world. While mass
campaigns against imperialist militarism can limit the ability of the rulers of the major capitalist powers to wage war,
ultimately the threat of nuclear war will be ended only when the working people of these countries take political and
economic power out of the hands of the warmongers.
Page 11 of 103
CAPITALISM=NUCLEAR ANIHILATION
CAPITALISM MAKES NUCLEAR ANNIHILATION INEVITABLE
Meszaros 2000
(Istvan, Prof. of Philosophy @ Univ. of Sussex. Monthly Review. January, LN)
Given the way in which the ongoing tends of global development assert themselves, in a clearly identifiable way, we
may have perhaps a few decades to bring to a halt their destuctiveness, but certainly not centuries. The great liberal
economist, Schumpeter, used to characterize—and idalize—capitalissm as a system of “productive destruction.” This
was, on the whole, true of capital’s ascending phase of development. Today, by contrast, we have reached a stage
when, instead of “productive destruction,” we are even increasingly confronted by capital’s destructive production,
proceeding on a frightening scale. You ask: “do you think that great mass movements have a chance to blossom
again” in the age of globalization and under the “third way” of European social democracy? For me the “third way” is
nothing more than a wishful fantasy, in defense of the established, untenable, order. Sociologists like Max Scheler
have been predicting for almost a century the merging of the classes into a happy “middle-class”—one could only
wonder: the middle of what? In reality, social polarization in our time is greater than ever before, making a mockery of
the old social democratic expectations of eliminating—or at least greatly reducing—inequality through “progressive
taxation.” As things turned out, we saw the diametrical opposite. To give you just two, very recent, examples: 1.)
according to the Budget Office of the U.S. Congress (no “left-wing exaggerator,” for sure), the income of the top 1
percent is equivalent to that of the bottom one hundred million people, i.e. nearly 40 percent of the population. Twenty
years ago it was “only” 1 percent against forty-nine million, i.e., less than twenty percent of the U.S. population. Some
“equalization” and “merging of the classes into one another!” 2.) In England child poverty trebled in the last twenty
years, and continued to be aggravated under the “New Labour” government in the last two and a half years. The “new
labour” government preaches the vacuous “third way” sermon, and practices with ever greater severity the politics of
antilabor measures, imposing even such policies which Mrs. Thatcher did not dare to introduce, cutting the Welfare
State in every possible way, including even the precarious livelihood of the handicapped. Only a fool can assume that
this can go on forever. So, in answer to your question, I am firmly convinced that there is a future for a radical mass
movement, not only in England but also in the rest of the world. Or, to put it another way, if there is no future for such a
movement, there can be no future for humanity itself. If I had to modify Rosa Luxemburg’s dictum, in relation to the
dangers we face, I would add to “socialism or barbarism:” “barbarism if we are lucky”—in the sense that extermination
of humankind is the ultimate concomitant of capital’s destructive course of development. And the world of that third
possibility, beyond the alternatives of “socialism or barbarism,” would be fit only for cockroaches, which are said to be
able to endure lethally high levels of nuclear radiation. This is the only rational meaning of capital’s third way.
Page 12 of 103
CAPITALISM ROOT CAUSE OF TERROR 1/2
CAPITAL-DRIVEN HEGEMONIC IMPULSE FOSTERS TERRORISM, RISKING A

SPIRAL OF DESTRUCTION WITHOUT END
John Bellamy Foster, Professor, University of Oregon, “Imperialism and Empire,” 2001. Available from the
World Wide Web at: http://werple.net.au/~andy/blackwood/bellamy-foster.htm, accessed 4/10/05.
Socialism or Barbarism, however, would appear to suggest an altogether different interpretation, one that sees U.S.
imperialism as central to the terror crisis. In this view, the terrorists attacking the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon, were not attacking global sovereignty or civilization (it wasn’t the United Nations in New York that was
attacked) — much less the values of freedom and democracy as claimed by the U.S. state — but were deliberately
targeting the symbols of U.S. financial and military power, and thus of U.S. global power. As unjustifiable as these
terrorist acts were in every sense, they nonetheless belong to the larger history of U.S. imperialism and the attempt of
the U.S. to establish global hegemony — particularly to the history of its interventions in the Middle East. Further, the
United States responded not through a process of global constitutionalism, nor in the form of a mere police action, but
imperialistically by unilaterally declaring war on international terrorism and setting loose its war machine on the Taliban
government in Afghanistan.In Afghanistan, the U.S. military is seeking to destroy terrorist forces that it once played a role in creating. Far from
adhering to its own constitutional principles in the international domain the U.S. has long supported terrorist groups whenever it served its own
imperialist designs, and has itself carried out state terrorism, killing civilian populations. Its new war on terrorism, Washington has
declared, may require U.S. military intervention in numerous countries beyond Afghanistan — with such nations as
Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines already singled out as possible locales for further
interventions. All of this, coupled with a worldwide economic downturn and increased repression in the leading
capitalist states, seems to suggest that capital’s “destructive uncontrollability” is coming more and more to the fore.
Imperialism, in the process of blocking autocentric development — i.e., in perpetuating the development of
underdevelopment — in the periphery, has bred terrorism, which has blown back on the leading imperialist state itself,
creating a spiral of destruction without apparent end. Since global government is impossible under capitalism, but
necessary in the more globalized reality of today, the system, Mészáros insists, is thrown increasingly upon the
“extreme violent rule of the whole world by one hegemonic imperialist country on a permanent basis: an...absurd and
unsustainable way of running the world order.” (p. 73).
GLOBALIZATION BOTH MOTIVATES AND FACILITATES TERRORISM
HOFFMANN (Prof., Int’l Relations Harvard Univ.) ‘02

[Stanley Foreign Affairs, July/August, p. 112, ASP]
Terrorism is the poisoned fruit of several forces. It can be the weapon of the weak in a classic conflict among states or
within a state, as in Kashmir or the Palestinian territories. But it can also be seen as a product of globalization,
transnational terrorism is made possible by the vast array of communication tools. Islamic terrorism, for example, is not
only based on support for the Palestinian struggle and opposition to an invasive American presence, it is also fueled by
a resistance to “unjust” economic globalization and to a Western culture deemed threatening to local religions and
cultures.
Page 13 of 103
CAPITALISM ROOT CAUSE OF TERROR 2/2
GLOBALIZATION FACILITATES TERRORISM
HOFFMANN (Prof., Int’l Relations Harvard Univ.) ‘02

[Stanley, Foreign Affairs, July/August, p. 104-105, ASP]
Everybody—has understood the events of September 11 as the beginning of a new era. But what does this break
mean? In the conventional approach to international relations, war took place among states. But in September, poorly
armed individuals suddenly challenged, surprised, and wounded the world’s dominant superpower. The attacks also
showed that, for all its accomplishments globalization makes an awful form of violence easily accessible to hopeless
fanatics. Terrorism is the bloody link between interstate relations and global society. As countless individuals and
groups are becoming global actors along with states, insecurity and vulnerability are rising.
FUNDAMENTALISM IS A PRODUCT OF GLOBALIZATION
GIDDENS (Dir., London School of Economics & Political Science) 2K

[Anthony, Runaway World, p. 67-68
Fundamentalism is a child of globalization, which it both responds to and utilizes. Fundamentalist groups almost
everywhere have made extensive use of new communications technologies. Before he came to power in Iran, the
Ayatqllah Khomeini circulated videos and cassettes of his teachings. Hindutwa militants have made extensive use of
the Internet an electronic mail to create a ‘feeling of Hindu identity’. Whatever form it takes -religious, ethnic, nationalist
or directly political, I think it right to regard fundamentalism as problematic. It is edged with the possibility of violence,
and it is the enemy of cosmopolitan values.
Page 14 of 103
CRITICISM/FRAMEWORK NECESSARY FOR

SURVIVAL
EMBRACING MARXIST CRITICISM IS NECESSARY FOR SURVIVAL
BURKE LEACOCK (frmr Chair. Anthropology, CUNY) ‘93

[Eleanor. “Introduction,” The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, p. 66]
The existence of human consciousness and purpose introduced a type of complexity into the operations of human
society that is not found in the rest of nature. In the past it was common to assume that, although society still eluded
our grasp, social control of natural processes was a mere matter of time. The awesome feat of landing on the moon
would seem to verity such an assumption had it not come at a time when we have been forced to recognize that the
piecemeal approach to natural processes that has characterized Western science is powerless to stop the “blind laws’
of nature from asserting themselves at a more complex level and rendering the earth unfit for human life. The world,
like society, is a product of history, of meteorological and geological history. Comfortable regularities (in the
time and space limits of our solar system) like the atomic progression of minerals and the law of gravity function
within the context of interconnecting and changing relationships of unlimited complexity. Now the fact that
man is but an aspect of this complex whole has unavoidably asserted itself. Humanity cannot for much longer
muddle through the mess it has gotten into. It will take understanding to save us, and at the present stage of
history, at least, the kind of understanding called Marxist.
Page 15 of 103
CAPITALISM=GENOCIDE
CAPITALISM COMMODIFIES EXISTENCE--IT IS THE LOGIC OF GENOCIDE
Joel Kovel, Alger Hiss Professor, Social Studies, Bard College, THE ENEMY OF NATURE: THE END OF
CAPITALISM OR THE END OF THE WORLD, 2002, p. 141.
Capital produces egoic relations, which reproduce capital. The isolated selves of the capitalist order can choose to
become personifications of capital, or may have the role thrust upon them. In either case, they embark upon a pattern
of non-recognition mandated by the fact that the almighty dollar interposes itself between all elements of experience:
all things in the world, all other persons, and between the self and its world: nothing really exists except in and through
monetization. This set-up provides an ideal culture medium for the bacillus of competition and ruthless self-
maximization. Because money is all that ‘counts’, a peculiar heartlessness characterizes capitalists, a tough-minded
and cold abstraction that will sacrifice species, whole continents (viz. Africa) or inconvenient sub-sets of the population
(viz. black urban males) who add too little to the great march of surplus value or may be seen as standing in its way
The presence of value screens out genuine fellow-feeling or compassion, replacing it with the calculus of profit-
expansion. Never has a holocaust been carried out so impersonally When the Nazis killed their victims, the crimes
were accompanied by a racist drumbeat; for global capital, the losses are regrettable necessities.
Page 16 of 103
CAPITALISM CONTEXTUALIZES RACISM

AND SEXISM
CANNOT SOLVE RACISM OR SEXISM WITHOUT ADDRESSING CAPITALISM: (1)

IS ROOT CAUSE OF STATE-SANCTIONED DIVISIONS; (2) NEED A CLASSLESS
SOCIETY
Joel Kovel, Alger Hiss Professor, Social Studies, Bard College, THE ENEMY OF NATURE: THE END OF
CAPITALISM OR THE END OF THE WORLD, 2002, p. 123-125.
If, however we ask the question of efficacy, that is, which split sets the others into motion, then priority would have to
be given to class, for the plain reason that class relations entail the state as an instrument of enforcement and control,
and it is the state that shapes and organizes the splits that appear in human ecosystems. Thus class is both logically
and historically distinct from other forms of exclusion (hence we should not talk of ‘classism’ to go along with ‘sexism’
and ‘racism,’ and ‘species-ism’). This is, first of all, because class is an essentially man-made category, without root in
even a mystified biology We cannot imagine a human world without gender distinctions although we can imagine a
world without domination by gender. But a world without class is eminently imaginable — indeed, such was the human
world for the great majority of our species’ time on earth, during all of which considerable fuss was made over gender.
Historically, the difference arises because ‘class’ signifies one side of a larger figure that includes a state apparatus
whose conquests and regulations create races and shape gender relations. Thus there will be no true resolution of
racism so long as class society stands, inasmuch as a racially oppressed society implies the activities of a class-
defending state.’0 Nor can gender inequality be enacted away so long as class society, with its state, demands the
super-exploitation of woman’s labour. Class society continually generates gender, racial, ethnic oppressions and the
like, which take on a life of their own, as well as profoundly affecting the concrete relations of class itself. It follows that
class politics must be fought out in terms of all the active forms of social splitting. It is the management of these
divisions that keeps state society functional.
Page 17 of 103
SOCIALISM=DEMOCRACY
SOCIALIST SYSTEM WOULD INSTITUTE THE NECESSARY ELEMENTS OF A

TRULY PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY
Democratic Socialist Party, “Chapter VI: Towards an Environmentally Sustainable World,” ENVIRONMENT,
CAPITALISM, AND SOCIALISM, online edition, 2004. Available from the World Wide Web at:
www.dsp.org.au/dsp/ECS/Chapter6.htm, accessed 4/22/06.
To ensure the participation of the vast majority of citizens, a political system would require a structure in which all
officials — civil, military, and judicial — were elected and in which all elected representatives and officials were subject
to recall at any time upon the demand of a majority of their electors. To ensure that the material interests and social
outlook of these officials was not at variance with the interests of the majority of citizens, that is, of ordinary working
people, their salaries should not exceed the average wage of a skilled worker. Genuine representative democracy
would necessarily require a unique combination of centralisation and decentralisation, with a central assembly made
up of delegates elected from regional representative bodies, which in turn would be elected by local community bodies
consisting of delegates from constituencies of at most a few hundred citizens. The right of administration in broad
sectors of social and economic activity would be devolved to these regional and local representative bodies once the
central assembly had by majority vote allocated each of these sectors a part of the human and material resources at
the disposal of society as a whole. Within this democratically centralised political system, representative bodies
would be executive as well as legislative organs. The citizens would participate not simply through their votes but
by being drawn into the actual administrative work through forms of self-government in all spheres of social life
including factories, hospitals, schools and universities, transport and communications centres, and neighbourhoods.
SOCIALISM KEY TO DEMOCRACY—COMMITTED TO THE CAUSES OF THE

POOR
MILIBRAND 94
[Ralph, “The Plausibility of Socialism.” New Left Review. n. 206. July/August.]
Socialism itself must be viewed as part of a democratic movement which long sedates it, but to which
socialism alone can give its full meaning. The idea of democracy has been drastically narrowed in scope
and substance in capitalist societies so as to reduce the threat it posed to established power and privilege:
socialism on the contrary is committed to a great widening of its compass. The unenthusiastic prophet of
democracy in the nineteenth century was Alexis de Tocqueville. In his introduction to Democracy in America, published in 1835,
de Tocqueville said that democracy, which he equated with the ‘equality of condition’ he thought he had found in the United
States, was also making its way in Europe. ‘A great democratic revolution,’ he wrote ‘is taking place in our midst; everybody
sees it, but by no means everybody judges it in the same way. Some think it a new thing and, opposing it is an accident, hope that
they can still check it; others think it irresistible because it seems to them the most continuous, ancient, and permanent tendency
known to history and in a preface to the twelfth edition of the book, written in 1848, he also asked: ‘Does anyone imagine that
Democracy, which has destroyed the feudal system and vanquished kings, will fall back before the middle classes and the rich?’
Dominant classes in all capitalist countries have ever since the nineteenth century fought hard and with a considerable measure
of success to falsify de Tocqueville’s prediction: socialism is the name of the struggle to make it come true. Thus conceived,
socialism is part of the struggle for the deepening extension of democracy in all areas of life. Its advance is
not inscribed in some preordained historical process, but is the result of a constant pressure from below for
the enlargement of democratic rights; and this pressure is itself based on the fact that the vase majority
located at the lower ends of the social pyramid needs these rights if those who compose it are to resist and
limit the power to which they are subjected.
Page 18 of 103
ARMS CONTROL/DISARM GOALS LINKS 1/2
Demands on the state about nuclear weapons only strengthens statist capitalism
by legitimating its right to act, only focusing on social problems can destroy
capitalism
Martin 90 (Assoc. Prof. Science, Tech. and Society, Univ. of Wallongong.)
[Brian, Uprooting War, http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/90uw/]
The obvious point is that most social activists look constantly to the state for solutions to social problems. This point
bears labouring, because the orientation of most social action groups tends to reinforce state power. This applies to
most antiwar action too. Many of the goals and methods of peace movements have been oriented around action by the
state, such as appealing to state elites and advocating neutralism and unilateralism. Indeed, peace movements spend
a lot of effort debating which demand to make on the state: nuclear freeze, unilateral or multilateral disarmament,
nuclear-free zones, or removal of military bases. By appealing to the state, activists indirectly strengthen the roots of
many social problems, the problem of war in particular. To help transform the state system, action groups need to
develop strategies which, at a minimum, do not reinforce state power. This means ending the incessant appeals for
state intervention, and promoting solutions to social problems which strengthen local self-reliance and initiative.
Big peace movements fail—orienting action towards or against the state ensures
elite co-option and counter-mobilization
I have assumed that the groups are small and weak. If they are large and strong, mobilisation is not such a problem, though other difficult problems are likely
to exist. At the current time, it should be realised that structure-challenging movements are very weak. Some social
movements, such as the peace movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and in the 1980s, can boast a high level of participation and public
sympathy. But only a small fraction of activities even at these times systematically challenge the underpinnings of war.
Furthermore, even large and apparently strong social movements and cultures may be vulnerable to attack by
opposition forces. The European socialist and antiwar movement was smashed after the outbreak of World War One,
and the bulk of left political activism and culture in the United States succumbed to cold war suppression in the late
1940s and the 1950s. Social activists should not mislead themselves that they are in a powerful position. Almost
always they are not. On the other hand, the position of social activists is potentially powerful, since the bulk of the
population is often opposed in a general way to war, political repression, poverty and injustice. The problem is that elite
groups are often more successful in mobilising populations for their own ends, for example to support wars to defend
'freedom' or 'our way of life.' Elite groups have the powerful advantage of coercive measures and influence over
dominant communication channels. Furthermore, elites benefit from a favourable set of structures such as the day-to-
day framework of job, transport, goods and services, and privatised home life. To be successful in mobilising people,
social activists must overcome this formidable array of barriers, and overcome the mobilising power of elites.
Page 19 of 103
ARMS CONTROL/DISARM GOALS LINKS

2/2
Disarmament as the goal fails—the root of war is capitalism itself—appealing to

elites to “play nice” only entrenches the war system
Governments prepare for war, and also negotiate about how to prevent it. But disarmament negotiations have been a
continuing failure for many decades. The reason is that a permanent end to the threat of war is not compatible with the
state system. States are based on centralised power, especially centralised control over the use of organised violence
which is claimed to be legitimate. It is futile to appeal to state elites as a primary avenue for ending war, since their
actions and attitudes are premised on the continuation of the state system.This book is based on the assumption that action to
end war must come from individuals, small groups and local communities, in short from the grassroots. Grassroots action against war has a
long and inspiring history of protests, campaigns and initiatives. Unfortunately, most of this activity has had little impact on military
races because it has relied on influencing elites, which is the least promising avenue for such efforts. Moreover, many antiwar actions have been
symbolic protests with little connection with a long-term strategy to end war. And the protests are mainly against symptoms of the problem, such as
nuclear weapons, rather than directly tackling the roots of modern war. What are the roots of war? They are not the weapons or the
soldiers or the political or military elites. Take these away and new ones would soon take their places. The roots of war
are the social structures which maintain centralised political and economic power, inequality and privilege, and
monopolies over organised violence to protect power and privilege. Some of the key roots of war are the state system,
bureaucracy, the military and patriarchy.When I refer to war, I refer to 'modern war': the organised violence of professional military forces
on behalf of states. 'War' is not a timeless and unchanging category: it reflects historical and social conditions, such as the
prevailing forms of technology and the gender division of labour. In addressing the modern war system it is necessary
to concentrate on the contemporary social structures most implicated in it. Most antiwar campaigns have not focussed
on changing such social structures. The state system, for example, is usually seen as an inevitable part of the social
and political landscape, rather than being addressed as a dangerous structure in need of replacement.
Disarmament fails: Promotes secret weapons, hollow inspections, and creates

new types of weapons
Even if governments were to agree to completely disarm and major steps were made towards this goal, the whole
process could be undermined by one or more governments hiding a few key weapons, nuclear weapons for example.
The possibility of such recalcitrance is routinely invoked as an excuse for not disarming in the first place. Furthermore,
even if complete disarmament were achieved, current and future knowledge on weapons construction (for example, possible
breakthroughs in laser enrichment of uranium for making nuclear weapons) would mean that even small governments
or non-government groups could produce powerful weapons secretly. The conventional solution to this problem is
inspection. Yet the usual degree of inspection envisaged would not be enough to uncover a few hidden nuclear
weapons or to prevent the manufacture of biological weapons in ostensibly nonmilitary research laboratories. But if
inspection systems were powerful and pervasive enough to thwart such problems, the inspection operation would be
the equivalent of a powerful secret police.
Page 20 of 103
1AC METHODOLOGY LINKS 1/2
UPHOLDING RULING CLASS NARRATIVES ENTRENCHES CAPITALIST

DOMINANCE
Marx and Engels 91
(Karl and Freddy, The German Ideology. Pg 64)
The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force off
society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its
disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the
ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it. The ruling ideas are nothing more than the
ideal expression of the dominant material relationships, the dominant material relationships, the dominant material
relationships grasped as ideas; hence of the relationships which make the one class the ruling one, therefore, the
ideas of its dominance.
TRUST IN BOURGEOIS EXPLANATIONS FOR HARMS UNDERMINES

REVOLUTIONARY CONSCIOUSNESS
Meszaros 01
(Istvan, Prof of Philosophy @ Sussex, Socialism or Barbarism:From the ‘American Century’ to the Crossroads. Pg
57).
As we have seen earlier, the anti-imperialist movement in the United States at the turn of the nineteenth to twentieth
century failed because of labor’s “conciliation with the trusts and support for their foreign policy.” The conclusion of
Lincoln’s former associate, George S. Boutwell, in 1902, that, “The final effort for the salvation of the republic is to be
made by the laboring and producing classes” can bring to an end the destructive drive of global hegemonic
imperialism. No political/military power on earth can accomplish from the outside what must be done from inside by a
movement offering a positive alternative to the existing order in the United States.
Page 21 of 103
1AC METHODOLOGY LINKS 2/2
CAPITALISM UTILIZES ADVOCACIES LIKE THE AFFIRMATIVE TO PUT FORWARD

ILLUSORY GENERAL INTERESTS, PERPETUALLY JUSTIFYING THE NEED FOR
FURTHER IDEOLOGICAL CONTROL
MARX & ENGELS (social theorists) ‘91
[Karl & Frederick, The German Ideology, p. 54]
Just because individuals seek only their particular interest, which for them does not coincide with communal interest,
the latter will be imposed on them as an interest “alien” to them, and “independent” of them, as in its turn a particular,
peculiar “general” interest: or they themselves must remain within this discord, as in democracy. On the other hand,
too, the practical struggle of those particular interests, which constantly really run counter to the communal and illusory
communal interests, makes practical intervention and control necessary through the illusory “general” interest in the
form of the State.
Page 22 of 103
FOREIGN ASSISTANCE LINKS 1/3
FOREIGN AID IS A TOOL OF THE ELITES TO NORMALIZE THE

GLOBAL ORDER. IT IS LINKED TO THE INTERESTS OF THE DONORS
AND THEIR POLITICAL SITUATION. THE GIVEN AID GOES TO
MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS WHO SUCK UP ALMOST HALF OF
THE MONEY MARKED AS “AID”
Kimber, 2k5
Charlie, International Socialism, Aid, governance and exploitation,
http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=117issue=107 accessed Aug 8//WDC-
Guy
The basic lack of funding for aid is only the beginning of the debate, since aid does not mean the rich
handing over the wealth they have looted for use as the people of the poorer countries democratically decide.
It has always been used by the world’s great powers as a political weapon, a method of rewarding useful
allies and of punishing those who dare to question the global order. It has been, and still is, linked to the
interests of the donors. It is limited in two ways. First by being tied to purchases from the donor country’s firms.
Almost a third of aid from the G7 countries is tied, it includes an obligation on the recipients to buy goods or
services from the donor countries. The declared proportions range from the extraordinary 92 percent of
Italian aid in 2004 to virtually nil for Britain - at least officially. The reality is much worse. An Action Aid
study demonstrated that the top ten recipients of British technical assistance contracts offered to poorer
countries were all British, US or Canadian multinationals.7 Given that ‘consultancy spending’ now accounts
for nearly 40 percent of aid expenditure, this is an increasingly significant factor. The World Bank has now
admitted that $20 billion of the $50 billion global aid budget goes to ‘consultants’.8 Aid lines the pockets of
private firms and is used to impose disastrous neo-liberal policies on poor countries.
One example of such spending was the privatisation of electricity in Andhra Pradesh in India. In 1995 the Indian government decided to reform the state electricity
board (APSEB). Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID) united with the World Bank to propose handing over the entire operation to the
private sector, totally eliminating subsidies to farmers, and with annual price rises of some 15 percent. New Labour continued pushing this scheme through with,
for example, £1.5 million given to consultants to advise the Indian government on privatisation and then over £100 million in grants and other transfers to smooth
the way to sell-off. The plan eventually came into effect in 1999 - and it almost immediately detonated a series of protests and strikes as farmers fought back
against the huge price rises. Soaring power costs were one of the factors that indebted farmers and helped to turn Andhra Pradesh into fields of despair, a place
where thousands of farmers have killed themselves because of the agricultural crisis.9 The British government followed this up by supplying a grant of £1.65
million for a body called the Implementation Secretariat. Its task was to assess the state’s assets, decide which were worth keeping, and either sell, close down or
restructure the rest. The DFID did not operate this body itself, but gave the contract to what Christian Aid describes as ‘the right wing, free market fundamentalists
from the British-based Adam Smith Institute’.10 By the end of their orgy of privatisation, the Adam Smith Institute advisers had helped sell-off, restructure or close
43 state bodies, with the loss of 45,000 jobs. If this is aid, the poor should be grateful that the G8 countries are failing to
meet their targets!
Page 23 of 103

AID IS AN INCENTIVE GIVEN FROM THE ELITES OF THE
CONTROLLING NATIONS TO THOSE OF DEVELOPING NATIONS TO
GROW IN A MANNER SIMILAR TO THE CURRENT WORLD ORDER- AID
IS USED TO SHAPE THE COUNTRIES WHO RECEIVE INTO COUNTRIES
RULED BY CAPITALISM
Kimber, 2k5
Guy
BUT AID IS RESTRICTED, IN A MORE GENERAL SENSE, EVEN WHEN IT IS NOT TIED TO
PARTICULAR DEALS. IT IS MADE CONDITIONAL ON CERTAIN ECONOMIC OR POLITICAL
BEHAVIOUR.11 IT IS INSTRUCTIVE TO LOOK AT WHO RECEIVED AID FROM THE G8 COUNTRIES IN 2004.
THE THREE BIGGEST RECIPIENTS OF US AID WERE EGYPT, RUSSIA AND ISRAEL. THE FRENCH
GOVERNMENT’S FAVOURED TRIO WERE IVORY COAST, FRENCH POLYNESIA AND NEW CALEDONIA.
JAPAN’S MONEY WENT TO CHINA, INDIA AND THAILAND. CLEARLY SUCH PRIORITIES WERE NOT ABOUT
CHANNELLING CASH TO THE POOREST. THE AIM WAS TO BUTTRESS STRATEGIC OR TRADE INTERESTS.
AID IS USED TO SHAPE THE COUNTRIES WHICH RECEIVE IT. IN 1980 THE WORLD BANK BEGAN
‘ADJUSTMENT LENDING’ - LOANS WITH STRINGS. ‘FROM THAT MOMENT THE BANK AND THE IMF
CRACKED THE WHIP. WITH ADJUSTMENT LENDING CAME THE STARK CHOICE: TRANSFORM YOUR
ECONOMY OR THERE WILL BE NO MORE FOREIGN AID. IT WAS A THREAT THE POOREST COUNTRIES
FOUND HARD TO RESIST’.12 CONDITIONALITY, AS ADJUSTMENT LENDING BECAME KNOWN, GREW
RAPIDLY. BETWEEN 1980 AND 1998 THE IMF AND WORLD BANK MADE 958 ADJUSTMENT LOANS. MUCH HAS
BEEN WRITTEN ON THE DISASTER CAUSED BY THE NEO-LIBERAL POLICIES DEMANDED AS THE PRICE OF
AID. THE INDICTMENT IS SO OVERWHELMING THAT I WILL NOT REPEAT IT HERE. BUT AGAIN,
DON’T BELIEVE THAT THE GREAT POWERS HAVE LEARNT ANY LESSONS. OR RATHER, DON’T
THINK THEY GIVE A DAMN IF, IN ORDER TO MAINTAIN THEIR SYSTEM, MILLIONS ARE HURLED
INTO POVERTY, FAMINE AND IGNORANCE OR SENTENCED TO AGONISING DEATHS. AID IS AT
LEAST AS IDEOLOGICAL TODAY AS IT WAS 20 YEARS AGO.
FOREIGN AID PACKAGES CONFLATE SOCIAL CONCERNS AND

MILITARY CONCERNS, REIFIYING THE ROLE OF THE UNITED STATES
AS CONTROLLER OF THE WORLD ORDER
Kimber, 2k5
Guy
Clearly such packages (much of which comes from the aid budget) have nothing to do with poverty
reduction and everything to do with military concerns. This is confirmed by other examples.
In the name of a 'whole-of-government approach to global security, some donors are seeking to 'expand' the
criteria for official development assistance. In Australia for example. NGOs are concerned about an overt shift to a new agenda that conflates
the combating ot terrorism and combating of poverty, as if they were the same thing. Australian aid now includes several initiatives for counter terrorism capaotv
building, including bilateral counter-terrorism programmes with Indonesia and the Philippines, a 'Peace and Security Fund' for the Pacific Island Countries, and a
Page 24 of 103
contribution to an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gund for counterterrorism capacity building.11 John Foster of the Canadian North-South Institute
has shown that there
are in fact two different movements over aid. with two quite different agendas: 'that devoted
to the aggressive exercise ot the power of the imperial superpower and its acolytes, and the rather
phenomenal world-wide citizen response for peace and justice'.'2
Page 25 of 103
AID IN THE FORM OF FOOD AND OTHER ESSENTIAL GOODS ARE A

PRETEXT FOR IMPERIALIST INTERVENTION
KIMBER, 2K5
Guy
The politics of aid require a much more sophisticated approach than simply-saying 'give more'. Aid may be linked to pressure tor
neo-liberal change, it may be part of the 'war on terror', it may be part ot a military alliance or a 'regime change' strategy. And some
writers have argued that we need to look very critically at who gets the aid. Ales de Waal has written persuasively in this area. Looking at the
Ethiopian crisis of 1984. he wrote:
It is now no longer seriously disputed that the massive inflow of aid following Band Aid contributed more to the
survival of the Ethiopian government, whose army was the main reason tor the famine, than the famine-stricken
peasantry. Large amounts ot international food aid were diverted to the government militias. The flow of aid allowed the army
to maintain garrisons that would otherwise have surrendered and kept open roads that enabled the military to
resupply its front line. Food aid distributions enticed young men forward who were forcibly conscripted. Perhaps most
inside of relief aid into Africa for over a decade has contributed to the institutionalisation ot violence.33
De Waal also showed a clear link between the aid-distributing agencies in Somalia in 1991 and the pressure for US military
intervention there:
Somalia was a guinea-pig for post Cold War humanitarianism. It was the first time that the International Committee ot the Red Cross
hired armed guards. It was the first time that relief agencies such as the Save the Children Fund took such publicly outspoken
positions criticising the absence ot the United Nations. And finally, it was the first time that international agencies successfully called
for Western military intervention.'"
The false claim to be 'saving the starving' became a pretext for imperialist invasion.
Page 26 of 103
Page 27 of 103
UNCONDITIONAL FOREIGN ASSISTANCE

ALT
OUR ALTERNATIVE RE-ENVISIONS FOREIGN AID THROUGH A

STRUGGLE OF WORKERS AND PEASANTS IN THE GLOBAL NORTH
AND SOUTH SO THAT AID IS UNCONDITIONAL
KIMBER, 2K5
Guy
If all aid is, and will always be, a bad thing, then we cannot angrily counterpose the US arms budget, or world military spending to
the amounts provided for health and education in the poorer countries. If Gordon Brown refuses to increase the aid budget, then it is
presumably a bonus. It is much more powerful to demand real distribution from rich to poor on an international and a national scale.
Clearly this would involve greatly increased aid, without strings. I agree with Eric Toussaint and Damien Millet when they write that
after debt cancellation (for all developing countries, in full, without conditions) new sources of funding to improve the human
condition should include, 'A tripling of Overseas Development Assistance to 0.7 percent of the GDP of the rich countries and paying
it exclusively in the form of donations, as reparation for a historic, human, moral social, ecological and social debt, this time owed to
the South'.36 They estimate this would bring in $150 billion a year, enough to make a considerable difference to the lives of
hundreds of millions of people—and we could fight for much more.
Make Poverty History calls for 'More Aid and Better Aid'. If that is to be meaningful it must mean transformed aid, real aid, more aid.
It would not be a handout laced with poisonous additions, but a recompense for what capitalism has done to the Third World, and it
will be won by a joint struggle of workers and peasants in the Global South and the North.
Page 28 of 103
CALLING IRAN ISLAMIC LINK
CALLING IRAN ISLAMIC IS JUST CAPITALIST PROPAGANDA TRYING

TO IMPOSE A STATIC DEFINITION OF NATIONALITY IN ORDER TO
OTHERIZE THE PEOPLE OF IRAN. IT IS THIS OTHERIZATION WHICH
JUSTICES HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS, GENOCIDE, OPPRESSION
AND TORTURE.
Hekmat, (Marxist Author) 1999

[Mansoor, “Islam and De-Islamisation” accessed on 8-6-07 from Marxists.org
wdc-ck]
The very essence of categorising a complex reality like a society with a diminutive label such as
religion, ethnicity or nationality is in itself testimony that we are not faced with a scientific
attempt or truth-seeking explanation. The person calling Iran an Islamic society like the one who
depicts it as Aryan, monarchist, Iranian, Shiite, and so on is propagandising. The question is who is
describing Iran as an Islamic society, within what political and historical framework are they doing so and
what outcome do they seek from such a description. For instance, it is obvious that the Islamic regime of
Iran must describe Iran as an Islamic society so that it can legitimise the existence of an Islamic
state there. It is also obvious that a western racist and anti-immigrant must describe Iran as an
Islamic society so that s/he can maintain that the gap between those who have come from Iran
and the local inhabitants is unbridgeable. It is obvious that the opportunistic journalist must use
this terminology and propagate this belief because this is the preferred model and outlook of
dominant political circles in contemporary western societies. Thus, university and academic circles
obey this model; public opinion is steered in this way and so on.
In reality, this labelling and packaging is deceptive. Regardless of who is making the claim, its
aim is to declare that the Islamic character of the laws and relations dominant in Iranian society is
the result of the outlook and beliefs of the people themselves and not the result of political
coercion and pressure. If the veiling of women was really the result of their own choices and
originated from their Islamic outlook on the world, the consciences of many in the west would be
at peace. If it were so, the wheeling and dealings of western democratic regimes, yuppie intellectuals and
journalists with the Iranian government would be so much more permissible. If it were so, silencing the
protest voices of freedom-seeking women and the Iranian revolutionary opposition by labelling them
dissatisfied extremists ‘separate from the people’ would be so much simpler. The religious, cultural,
ethnic and national categorisation of people is always the first step in denying their
universal rights as human beings. If the genocide in Rwanda is the continuation of an African
tradition, if stoning is the Iranian people’s Islamic tradition, if veiling is part of the culture of
women in ‘Islamic societies’, if marrying off a nine year old girl is a tradition of the people of
those countries themselves, then they can really be forgotten, humiliated, bombed and left to the
mercy of their own rules beyond the fortresses of western civilisation and democracy. But if it
becomes clear that these people like all others live and produce in a capitalist society and global
market, if it becomes apparent that these Islamic traditions and laws have been imposed on them
by sheer force of imprisonment, torture chambers, street patrols, knives, executions, and stoning,
if it becomes apparent that these people like all others are yearning for freedom, equality and an
end to discrimination, if it becomes apparent that the strongest characteristic of these people,
despite all the pressures, is their desire for a western type of culture and lifestyle, then all this
hypocritical ideological monument will collapse and the damage will be beyond words. Iranian
society is not an Islamic society. The despotic ruling regime in Iran is an Islamic regime,
which despite all its coercion has still not been able to force people to concede to an Islamic
identity. I don’t give a whit about the intellectual who refers to the official statistics of those who
have an ‘official religion’ in order to justify this hypocritical labelling. Accepting this
categorisation – and worse than that, publicising it -continues and maintains the
catastrophe taking place in Iran and Islam-ridden societies.
Page 29 of 103
MARKET RHETORIC LINKS 1/2
THE CONTROLLERS OF THE GLOBAL CAPITALIST SYSTEM UTILIZE FREE MARKET

RHETORIC TO JUSTIFY EXPLOITATION OF COUNTRIES AT THEIR WHIM, REGARDLESS
OF THEIR OWN COMPLIANCE TO FREE MARKET IDEALS.
Noumoff, McGill Univ., 2001

[Sam, “Globalization and Marginalization,” Labour, Capital, and Society, Vol. 34, Issue 1, p51-91]
The conventional mantra of the globalists is that the remedy for poverty can be found in the neo-classical
view of the consumptionist position: permit the Third World countries to increase the sale of their goods,
thereby increasing income and their ability to purchase ignore goods from the advanced industrial countries.
The Director-General of the WTO has argued, citing Sachs and Warner, that Third World countries with "open economies" grew by 4.5% per year in the 7O's and
8O's, while "closed economies"grew by only 0.7% per year. He also drew on a World Bank study of 80 countries over 40 years, by Dollar and Kray, which asserts
that the income of the poor rises one-for-one with overall growth'^^. This position finds its echo in Third World governments with, for example, the "Rio Group" of
19 Latin American and Caribbean countries in support of this position'"^. The
record will reflect a situation at substantial variance
with the rhetoric. Europe grants favored status to banana imports from former colonies; not a prime example of an open trading system. In addition, Europe
has provided government subsidies to a new double-decker version of the Airbus, and banned the importation of US beef containing growth hormones. The
European Union's Common Agricultural Policy of restricting food imports and dumping exports has cost the rest of the world $26 billion per year'"^. The US
government, on the other hand, has granted an indirect subsidy of approximately $25 billion to 6,000 exporters by permitting them to avoid sales and customs tax if
they operate in two tax havens: one in the Virgin Islands, and the other in Barbados'^^. OECD countries subsidize domestic agriculture to the amount of $300
billion annually (equal to the GDP for all of Africa)'"^, and have introduced new protectionism within the framework of the WTO Agreements"". The US imposes a
17% tariff on textile imports from Africa, which currently comprises only 0.08% of US textile imports. Ironically, tiny Honduras exports seven times more textiles
to the US than all forty-eight nations of Africa. US textile unions have supported duty free entry of textiles (under the Africa Growth & Opportunity Act) only if all
thread, fabric and yam is imported from the US, sewn in Africa and re-exported to the US market'". This amounts to reverse preferences and trade unrelated
conditionalities, and deprives the African manufacturer of seeking lower cost supplies from other Third World countries.
THE RHETORIC OF GLOBALIZATION AND REALITY NEVER COINCIDE. FREE MARKET

REFORMS IN THE DRIVE FOR MARKET GLOBALIZATION AND SYSTEMIC
CONSOLIDATION HAS CAUSED THE SEPARATION OF WORKERS FROM THEIR MEANS OF
PRODUCTION. THIS CAUSES ABSURD SCENARIOS LIKE COLUMBIA IMPORTING
COFFEE

In the drive for market globalization and systemic consolidation, a core objective remains privatization of the public
realm, even at the international level. Former US Secretary of Commerce Lawrence Summers proposed the scaling back of the IMF and
replacing it with private financing, as well as increasing the cost of borrowing^^ This threat to reduce public debt relief was rein-forced by the
US Congress when it proposed to restrict the IMF in providing debt remedy illustrations from the three geographical regions of the Third World
will prove instructive here in order to demonstrate the limitations of private financing. In Latin America, we find the most prominent example
from Colombia. As a consequence of the elimination of the global system of producers' quotas for coffee over the past decade, Federica, the
Colombian national growers' association, has witnessed a 36% reduction in dollar terms of its national coffee fund. The fund was employed to
stabilize farmers' income and to invest in coffee growing regions. This, combined with the imminent privatization of Bancafe, the funding source
for thousands of growers, threatens their credit source. In Colombia, coffee is grown in 50% of the towns and accounts for 30%
of rural employment. The 1999 earthquake exacerbated the problem by damaging the rural infrastructure. In addition
to bad weather, there is the need to replace coffee bushes on thousands of acres of land. Colombia, the second largest
coffee producer in the world, now imports coffee to meet its domestic needs'^. Ironically, while the increasing pressures from
the IMF/World Bank have aimed at breaking marketing board type arrangements, the World Bank called in June of this year for greater
"commodity stabilization."^". The rhetoric and the reality never seem to coincide.
Page 30 of 103
MARKET RHETORIC LINKS 2/2
FREE TRADE RHETORIC DEPLOYS A MYTH OF ACCESS

Access to more open trade is also a myth among Third World countries. Nicaragua
imposed a 35% duty on Colombian goods, which were previously duty free, under the WTO
provision permitting any member to suspend trade preference in the interests of national security.
Nicaragua further canceled Colombian fishing licenses. Nicaragua's reasoning is that the Ramirez-
Lopez Treaty between Colombia and Honduras, ratified in 1999, was a 100,000 km^ encroachment
on its territorial waters by Colombia and a 30,000 km'^ encroachment by Honduras. Honduras has
increased its defense budget, engaged in a troop build-up on the Honduras- Nicaragua border and
been the recipient of Colombian warplanes"^. Moreover, while Brazil and Mexico reduced tariffs to
8% on a 40,000 quota of autos between the two, the main beneficiaries are VW, Mercedes-Benz,
GM, Ford, Nissan, and Renault"^
When we witness one of the collateral arguments that investment will increase with
trade, it is necessary to point to how bid rigging works to the disadvantage of Third
World states. AES of Arlington, Virginia and Union Eenosa of Spain were both in hostile take-over
competition to purchase the private Venezuelan power company, Gmpo EDC, for either $950
million for 45% of the tenderable shares or $2.1 billion for all assets. AES and Eenosa came to a
private agreement that Fenosa would withdraw from the bidding, in exchange for EDC agreeing to
Fenosa's purchase of EDC's non-Venezuelan assets (Electificadora de la Costa Atlantica, and
Electificadora del Caribe, of Columbia), but not to purchase two EDC owned companies in El
Salvador (Empressa Electrica de Oriente, and Compania de Alumbrado Electrico de San Salvador),
and subsequently to jointly bid on Enelven, a regional state-owned power company which the
Venezuelan government scheduled to privatize in late 2000'^°. The ultimate arrogance and
hypocrisy was expressed by Tim Neither, corporate executive, who argued that there is
"no economic case" for Third World countries to maintain their tariff system, merely
because western countries maintain "residual trade barriers"'^'. It should be eminently
clear from the above that those who argue for a more open trade regime, do so in a
highly selective and self serving manner.
Page 31 of 103
REPRESENTATION LINKS 1/3
ISLAMIC CLASSIFICATIONS OF MIDDLE EASTERN SOCIETIES ARE

IMPOSITIONS BY THE RULING CLASS TO HIDE THE HISTORICAL
MATERIAL CONDITIONS THAT EXPRESS REAL SOCIETAL
CHARACTERISTICS IN ORDER TO LEGITIMIZE STATE OPPRESSION
OF THE UNDER CLASS.
Hekmat (Marxist Author) 2001
[Mansoor, “The Rise and Fall of Poltical Islam,” www.marxists.org //wyo-ck]
Any classification and labelling has a purpose behind it. Islam has been around in Iran for one thousand four hundred
years and has obviously left its mark on certain things. But this is only one element in portraying this society -- the same
way that oppression, monarchy, police state, industrial backwardness, ethnicity, language, script, political history, pre-Islamic way of life, people's
physical characteristics, international relations, geography and weather, diet, size of country, population concentration, economic relations, level of
urbanisation, architecture, etc. are. All of these express real characteristics of the society. Now if out of the hundreds of factors that create
differences between Iran and Pakistan, France and Japan, someone insists on pointing to the presence of Islam in some aspects of life in this
society and brands all of us with this label - from anti-religious individuals like Dashty, Hedayat and you and I to the great majority who do not see
themselves as believers and are not concerned about Islam and the clergy - then they must have a specific agenda. Iran is not an Islamic society;
the government is Islamic. Islam is an imposed phenomenon in Iran, not only today but also during the monarchy, and has remained in power by
oppression and murder. Iran is not an Islamic society. They have tried to make it Islamic by force for twenty years and failed. Calling the Iranian
society Islamic is part of the reactionary crusade to make it Islamic.
Page 32 of 103

THE REPRESENTATION OF ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM IS A CALCULATED RIGHT
WING INTERPRETATION USED TO HIDE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CAPITALIST
DOMINATION AND THE MIDDLE EAST POLTICES. THE WEST USES LABELS TO
PROPAGANDA CAPITALIST FORMS OF POLITICAL ISLAM WHILE CONDEMNING
ANTI-WEST “FUNDAMENTALIST” GROUPS.
I do not use the expression Islamic fundamentalism because I believe it is a calculated Right wing
interpretation, which deliberately presents a misleading image of contemporary Islam and Islamic movements.
What is real is the emergence of political Islam. In my opinion, political Islam is a contemporary reactionary movement; which has no relation,
other than in form, to the late 19th and early 20th century Islamic movements. As for its social content and socio-political and
economic objectives, this new movement is completely rooted in contemporary society. It is not a repeat of the same
old phenomenon. It is the result of a defeated - or better put - aborted project of Western modernisation in Moslem-
inhabited Middle Eastern countries from the late 60s and early 70s as well as a decline in the secular-
nationalist movement, which was the main agent of this economic, administrative and cultural modernisation.
The ideological and governmental crisis in the region heightened. With this political-ideological vacuum and the local bourgeoisie's confusion,
the Islamic movement came to the fore as a Right-wing alternative for the reorganisation of bourgeois rule to
confront the Left and the working class, which had emerged with the rise of capitalism. Even so, without the 1978-79
developments in Iran, these movements would still not have had a chance and would have remained marginal. It was in Iran that this
movement organised itself as a state and turned political Islam into a considerable force in the region.
In my opinion, political Islam is a general title referring to the movement which sees Islam as the main vehicle
for a Right wing restructuring of the ruling class and creating a anti-Left state in these societies. As such, it
confronts and competes with other poles within the capitalist world, especially hegemonic blocs, over its share
of power and influence in the world capitalist order. This political Islam does not necessarily have any given or defined Islamic
jurisprudent and scholastic content. It is not necessarily fundamentalist and doctrinaire. This political Islam encompasses a varied and wide
range of forces- from the political and ideological flexibility and pragmatism of Khomeini, to the rigid circles in the Right faction of the Iranian
government; from the 'soft' and Western-looking Freedom Movement of Mehdi Bazargan and Nabih Berry's Amal, to the Taliban; from Hamas
and Islamic Jihad, to the 'Islamic Protestantism' of the likes of Soorosh and Eshkevari in Iran.
Western powers, the media and their academic world have put forth the notion of fundamentalism in order to
separate the terrorist and anti-Western veins of this Islamic movement from its pro-Western and conciliatory
branches. They call the anti-Western sections fundamentalist and they attack fundamentalism so they can
maintain political Islam as a whole, which for the moment is an irreplaceable foundation of anti-Socialist and Right wing rule in the
region. The anti-Western currents, however, are not necessarily the fanatic and rigid factions of this movement. The most
fundamentalist sections of the Islamic camp such as the Taliban and Saudi Arabia are the closest friends of the
West.
Page 33 of 103

THE CONCEPTS OF “THE WEST” AND “ISLAM” ARE IDEOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTS
USED TO MASQUERADE THE HISTORICAL MATERIAL CONDITIONS BETWEEN
PEOPLE. THESE CONSTRUCTS CREATE AMBIGUOUS DISCOURSE AND SOCIAL
DIVISIONS BASED ON “CIVILIZATION”
Lazarus, (Author) 2002

[N. “Marxism, Modernity, and Postcolonial Studies” PG. 44, wdc-ck]
One of the anchors of the postcolonialist critique, latent in the very term "Eurocentrism," has been the fetish of "Europe" or "the West." It is this fetish
in particular - Tim Breman calls it "a pamphleteer's fiction" (1997: 61) - that I would like to examine in this chapter. The concept of "the West" as it
is used in postcolonial theory, I want to argue, has no coherent or credible referent. It is an ideological category masquerading as a
geographic one, just as - in the context of modern ' Orientalist discourse - "Islam" is an ideologcal category masquerading as a
religious one. As Fernando Coronil has argued, the substitution enacted in the deployment of the concept of "the West" - of a
cartographic term for an ideological one - functions to gloss or represent the relatively intangible "historical relations among
peoples" in terms of "the material, thing like, tangible form of geographical entities" (1996: 77). In postcolonial theory, Coronil writes, "the
West is constituted as an imperial fetish, the imagined home of history's victors, the embodiment of their power" (78). This construction, which
positions "the West" as at one and the same time a mappable zone and a social agent, seems at first glance to resemble the trope,
familiar to us from newspapers and television news, in terms of which place names - "Whitehall," "the Vatican," "Beijing," for instance - are
used metonymically to designate social and political agencies. But there is an important difference: while the concept of "the West" certainly
functions, as does "Beijing" or "the Vatican," to specify a social a power, it serves in addition to mystify this power, rendering its so- j cia1 ground
opaque. For "the West" references neither a polity nor a state (nor even a confederation of states), but a "civilization," something
altogether more amorphous and indeterminate. As Raymond Williams has pointed out, when people speak about " 'Western values,'
'Western interests,' and even. . . of the President of the United States. . . as the 'acknowledged' leader of 'the West as a whole,'" it is
impossible to certify even the sociological actuality, still less the unity or transhistorical integrity, of what their discourse so blithely
presumes
THE SO-CALLED “WEST” DISRUPTS LOCAL NARRATIVES ABOUT HISTORY IN ORDER

TO COLONIZE IDENTITY. THIS IS THE RHETORICAL KEY TO IMPERIALISM.
Lazarus, (Author) 2002
[N. “Marxism, Modernity, and Postcolonial Studies” PG. 53-4, wdc-ck]
"The West" as "the imagined home of history's victors"; "the West" as "the embodiment of their power" (I return to Coronil's suggestive
formulation): for Ngugi, "the West" (a locus, a "white" people, a geopolitical imperative) "has" (in the sense of "is endowed with") a "cultural
personality" (a fixed disposition, a programmatic way of "performing its being"). The essentialism of the conception is abundantly clear -
and is remarkable only insofar as its active denial of the historicality of social forms seems so obviously to contradict Ngugi's
self-identification as a Marxist. But I am struck also by the fact that although Ngugi situates his narrative of conflicting cultural
personalities within a temporal register ("Over the last four hundred years . . ."), he fails to mark the historical specificity of this time
frame. The central process identified in his historical narrative is that of the slow death of African selfhood, its subordination to
the civilizational logic of "the West." Capitalism and colonialism feature in this narrative only as aspects of "the West's" "cultural
personality" - and therefore as traces of "Westernization" - not as the total social forms in which and through which diverse
"Western" powers arrayed themselves before and projected themselves onto "non-Western" polities and peoples. Ngugi cannot
in general be accused of neglecting the material basis upon which Eurocentric thought has rested. But is this not demonstrably the tendency
of his discourse, when, as here, he speaks of the "cultural death of Africans in the imperialist era, or when, elsewhere (1987: 3), he maintains
that what he calls "the cultural bomb" -whose "intended results are despair, despondency and a collective deathwish" - is "the
biggest weapon wielded and actually daily unleashed by imperialism against [the colonized population's] collective defiance"?
One cannot hope to displace or overturn Eurocentric reason by inversion, not least since such a strategy merely replicates,
rather than challenges, the thoroughgoing essentialism of the dominant optic. What I have been trying to suggest in addition,
however, is that, to the degree that Eurocentrism both derives from and helps to produce and legitimize imperialist power, it is
vital in developing anti-Eurocentric theory to "get imperialism right," that is, to understand what imperialism is and how it works.
Page 34 of 103
WAR ON TERROR LINKS 1/2

THE SO-CALLED WAR ON TERROR IS A POLITICAL CONSTRUCT; THE
US HAS NO INTENTION OF ELIMINATING TERRORISM, WHICH
JUSTIFIES POWER PROJECTION

[Mansoor, “The World After September 11th,” www.marxists.org //wyo-ck]
‘The long war with terrorism’ is actually a power struggle between the USA and political Islam.
After Afghanistan, the confrontation will be essentially political, even if both sides occasionally
turn to specific military and terrorist actions. The USA’s objective in this war is not to eliminate
political Islam. Contrary to the self-congratulatory propaganda of the so-called Reformist faction
in Iran, it is not the political skills of Mr. Khatami that has ‘saved Iran from bombardment’. An
attack on Iran and such a bombing campaign against that country is not part of the West’s agenda
at all. The notion that the USA will enter into military conflicts with country after country
according to the list of those it has once labelled terrorist is extraordinarily superficial. The USA’s
objective in this show down is neither to eliminate political Islam nor even to overthrow Islamic
governments, but rather to impose its own political hegemony and define the rules of the game.
From the USA’s point of view, the Islamic movement must know its boundaries. It must limit its
field of operation to the region, understand its own place and recognise the USA’s special
position. Not only can Islamic governments remain in power, but also even terrorism is still
permissible on the condition that its victims are the communists and the Left in Iran, Afghanistan,
Pakistan and Turkey. But an attack on American soil is going too far. The USA wants to take this
lesson and this equilibrium to the Middle East.
This is a power struggle and not a confrontation over Islam, liberalism, Western democracy,
freedom, civilisation, security or terrorism. This is a battle between the US superpower and a
regional political movement with a global reach, which is contending for power in the Middle
East. It is a struggle for defining spheres of influence and political hegemony. The West does not
intend to establish Western democracies in the Middle East. The USA, Pakistan, Iran and a whole
bunch of other reactionaries in the region are already busy plotting to impose another despotic
and backward regime on the people of Afghanistan. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the Gulf
Emirates, the most reactionary regimes in the world today, are openly or tacitly on the side of the
West in this conflict. Even if Islamic governments fall, the preferred alternative of the West will
be the local and regional Right wing and reactionary parties, military juntas and police states.
Page 35 of 103
WAR ON TERROR LINKS 2/2
WAR ON TERROR IS IMPERIAL HUBRIS, MAINTAINING THE ILLUSION

THAT THE U.S. CAN CONTROL WORLD HISTORICAL EVENTS
HEKMAT (MARXIST AUTHOR) 2001

But the West does not determine the future. The current US policy and actions will inevitably
shatter the present political framework in the Middle East, but other forces will determine the
alternative relations that will take shape. Undoubtedly, the confrontation between the West and
political Islam will weaken the Islamic movement, Islamic parties and Islamic governments. But
this confrontation does not take place on an empty stage. The Middle East, like the West, is the
scene of a confrontation between social movements that have existed prior to the conflict
between Western bourgeoisies and political Islam and which have shaped political developments
in all societies. The West’s conflict with political Islam, despite its importance, is not the engine
and the moving force of history. On the contrary, it is itself placed within this history and is
defined by it. The conflict over the new world order has more important players. Social classes
and their political movements, whether in the West or the Middle East, are facing each other over
the political, economic and cultural future of the world. It is these movements that will determine
the final course of these events, irrespective of the current designs and demands of Western
statesmen and the leaders of political Islam.
Page 36 of 103
HUMANITARIANISM AND PEACE LINKS
THE AFFIRMATIVES HUMANITARIAN MOVEMENT MERELY

REINFORCES EITHER THE EVILS OF POLITICAL ISLAM OR IS AN
EXTENSION OF AMERICAN IMPERIALISM
HEKMAT (MARXIST AUTHOR) 2001

Calling for peace and keeping the status quo is not only unrealistic, not only utopian, but also not just, not
progressive and not useful. The popular resistance movement against the war of terrorists can only be organised
around positive solutions to the critical political and economic problems of our times and around an active position –
not for maintaining the status quo but rather for changing it. We have had our own independent agenda and solutions
for all the problems that have been pushed to the fore, such as the North-South question, the Palestinian question,
the question of Iraq, the question of political Islam, the question of Afghanistan and Iran, the question of militarism
and USA and NATO’s hegemonism in the new world order, the question of racism and fortress Europe, etc. These
must form the agenda and the banner of the popular resistance movement against the war of terrorists. This is the
difference between us and the peace campaigners and pacifists, who do not see or are indifferent to the divisions,
contradictions and instability of the world prior to September 11. If we had an agenda to change the world prior to
this incident, then a principled position in the current situation means following the same agenda in the new
situation. We do not intend to leave Afghanistan under the yoke of the murderous gang of Taliban, we do not intend
to live under the rule of a trigger-happy USA, we do not intend to tolerate political Islam or Islamic governments in
the Middle East, we do not intend to accept the statelessness of Palestinians and their everyday suppression. We did
not want terrorism, be it Islamic and suicidal or military and uniformed and high-tech; we do not accept the poverty
of half the world; we do not want fortresses and barracks around Europe, we will not succumb to racism and
ethnicism. Neither the September 11 crime nor the imminent heroics of NATO in the Hindu Kush, should turn an
active movement for changing the world into uncritical and aimless retiring lot calling for peace and quiet and a
return to the day before.
The ‘humanitarian’ and ‘peace’ movement is not the right response to today’s situation. But the influence of this
movement, particularly among ordinary people in western society – because of people’s belief in non-violence,
humanism and their spontaneous sense of caution – is extremely widespread. This position condemns USA’s
intervention in Afghanistan, but shirks its responsibility to fight Taliban’s rule. It condemns racism and incitement
against Moslems but does not see any reason to put pressure on the USA and Israel in defence of the people of
Palestine. This position wishes Jack Straw success in his trip to Iran so that hopefully this pole of Islamic terrorism
can be tamed and pacified, despite the fact that this policy strengthens the rule of these wolves over the people in
Iran. This position defends the civil rights of Moslems in European countries, but in order to prevent ‘tension’
rejects and opposes criticism of the Islamic veil and lack of rights of women in Islam and Islamic communities. This
position appeals to all to back off and to leave the situation as it was before. If this movement goes to dominate the
minds and actions of discontented people, then civilised humanity will leave the stage to Western and Eastern
terrorists. If there is to be a future, it is in the formation of an active, progressive and freedom-loving policy at the
forefront of the people’s ranks.
Page 37 of 103
TRADE/GLOBALIZATION LINKS 1/3
THEORIES PURPORTING GLOBALIZATION ARE TOOLS FOR MAKING

ALLIANCES TO GUIDE POLITICAL AGENCY IN THE WAKE OF THE
COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET UNION. THE ATTEMPT OF SUCH
RHETORIC IS TO LIBERALIZE AND OPEN UP MARKETS OF THIRD
WORLD COUNTRIES.
KALB, 2005
Don, Utrecht University and Central European University, From flows to violence
Politics and knowledge in the debates on
globalization and empire, Anthropological Theory, 5, 176, //WDC-Guy
This article discusses the various currents and critiques of recent globalization theory (including empire theory) as it
reflected and helped to produce a chain of world historical events since the end of the Cold War. It argues that
globalization theories were emic as well as etic tools for the making of political positions and
alliances to guide political agency in the One World created by the collapse of really existing
socialism. In the years after 1989 globalization theories became the vehicle to express an
emergent coalition between neo-liberals/market liberals and political liberals. The liberal alliance
first claimed the cumulative convergence of the projects of market-making, democracy-making,
the strengthening of civil society and the provision of prosperity for many into one mutually
reinforcing set of forces. This set of forces, globalization, was held to be
unifying the world under a liberal aegis. Globalization theory was also translated into paradigms
for global governance – such as the Washington Consensus. This is discussed
in section 1.
From the mid-1990s onwards political liberals started to claim more ground vis-a-vis
neo-liberalism within this coalition. They expressed their growing self-consciousness
in
institutionalist critiques of market-led development and the supposed institutional
goods that would automatically spring from it. Their ascendance reflected deepening
material inequalities within all states and between the West/North and the rest of the
world as a consequence of stepped up marketization. It also responded to the unexpected
rise of national, ethnic and religious parochialisms in the course of the 1990s. Institutionalists transformed the
globalization debate by shifting attention to questions of power, history, place and agency, pointing to the continued
centrality of states and public institutions and introducing concepts such as sequencing and hybridity. They also
reopened the debate on globalization and world inequality. This is discussed respectively
in sections 2 and 3.
Page 38 of 103

LIBERALISM AND GLOBALIZATION LEAD TO CO-OPTION BY CONSERVATIVES
WHICH LEADS TO RENEWED PUSH FOR IMPERIALISM
KALB, 2005
Politics and knowledge in the debates on globalization and empire, Anthropological Theory, 5,
176, //WDC-Guy
Two political processes undermined the intellectual hegemony of the liberal alliance.
Dissent and criticism radicalized in Left directions after 1997 as labor movements,
embattled poor country governments, peasant organizations, environmentalists,
indigenous movements and associated non-governmental organizations (NGOs) joined
in the emergent anti-globalist or Global Justice Movement. After 2000, resurgent
conservatives, neo-conservatives and nationalists in the USA capitalized on the sustained
neo-liberal cosmopolitanism of the Democratic Party (as did conservatives elsewhere,
such as in Holland and Denmark) and conquered state power. White working classes in
various places increasingly felt alienated from the reformed social democratic parties and
had started to embrace conservative agendas. The conservative alliance responded to a
series of deep financial crises and the Islamist attack of September 11 to push for more
overt empire, unilateralism, and militarized institutional engineering worldwide. Both
the left and right shifts led to a new wave of theorizing about empire and imperialism,
which I see as an integral part of the globalization debate.
GLOBALIZATION IS PART OF THE POLITICAL PROJECT OF COERCIVELY

IMPOSED MARKETIZATION. GLOBALIZATION SERVES PRIMARILY THE NEEDS
OF THE CORPORATE CLASSES IN NORTHERN NATIONS. IN ITS WAVES OF POWER
GLOBALIZATION MOVES BETWEEN TECHNOCRATIC MODES OF RULE AND
MILITARISTIC MODES DESTROYING THE WELFARE STATE AND LEADS TO
VIOLENCE AGAINST POST-CITIZENS
KALB, 2005
Politics and knowledge in the debates on globalization and empire, Anthropological Theory, 5,
176, //WDC-Guy
The author does not pose as a neutral discussant. I take a position not unlike Polanyi in arguing that globalization in its recent forms should
be seen as a political project of globally imposed marketization. It is sponsored by transnational class segments within
the core northern states and its comprador allies in dependent economies, which are its first beneficiaries; and it oscillates between
liberal technocratic modes of rule (multilateralism and ‘global governance’) and more militaristic and unilateralist impositions in which the US state
pushes its own interests and the interests of its corporate classes to the foreground vis-a-vis its allies. The difference between the
modes is less fundamental than often thought; they should be seen as different varieties of the same phenomenon. I identify three systematic
social outcomes of this process: the ongoing proletarianization of the world population, including the accelerated transformation of the
peasantry into informal and mobile labor; the gradual de-legitimation of the post-welfare and post-developmentalist state, as also argued
by authors such as Friedman (2003) and Wallerstein (2003) – I claim that state collapse in the weakest zones is just the tip of the iceberg of
this more general and systemic process; and the ‘indigenization’, ethnification and parochialization of post-citizens as a response to
the formation of transnational classes with cosmopolitan agendas (also Friedman, 2003).
Page 39 of 103

NEO-LIBERALISM LEADS TO CULTURAL CLOSURE CULMINATING IN
XENOPHOBIC FASCISM
KALB, 2005
Politics and knowledge in the debates on
globalization and empire, Anthropological Theory, 5, 176, //WDC-Guy
The dynamics of cultural closure embedded in the contradictions of neo-liberal

globalization got an extra push from increasing competition for scarce resources in land,
labor, housing, education, and sometimes marriage markets. Appadurai (1996) and
others suggested that longing for belonging in the global age created strong fantasies of
home among diasporic groups in, by definition, less than friendly receiving societies.
Imaginary homelands often became more radically ‘traditional’ than ‘at home’. Some
migrant groups joined transnational radical nationalist movements, which often became powerful factors in homeland politics in countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, India,
Nigeria, Croatia, Estonia, and others. Transnationalism in general was understood as a relatively new force, facilitated by cheap communication and transport. Its complex
consequences for ‘home’ countries included, apart from the intensification of political contention through increased diaspora activism and funding, the steeply rising import-
ance of remittances as against development aid, diversion of funds from investment to conspicuous consumption, but also ‘brain drain’ (see Mazzucato, 2004; Vertovec and
Cohen, 1999; Vertovec et al., 2003).

Among refugee populations and people displaced
by civil war or prosecution, diaspora nationalisms often gave rise to violent dreams of
purification and sacrifice, as among Hutu and Tutsi fugitives in central Africa (Malkii,
1995), Tamils in India, Europe or the US, and of course among Palestinians in the West
Bank, Gaza and Lebanon. In addition to the deep play of cultural flux and closure and the intensifying boundary
patrols associated with moving and receiving populations, the globalist era featured another systemic source of anti-liberalism that originated from its very own imperatives
of democratic transition in the context of global marketization. The ‘third wave’ of democratization was less unproblematic and self-evident than initially assumed. This
became immediately clear in the unfolding drama of the breakdown of Yugoslavia. In Poland and the Soviet Union nomenclatura elites, including high party functionaries
and members of the secret services, had chosen en masse to insert themselves in time and profitably in the emerging networks of transnational trade and finance, often by taking
private control over socialist property (Lo ́ and Zybertowicz, 2001; Staniszkis, 1991; Volkov, 2002). They traded political power for property and network gains. But in complex
federations like Yugoslavia, entrenched regional elites defended themselves against rising democratic claims by playing the nationalist card (Glenny, 1996). This was facilitated by state
control over much of the media (Bowen, 1996), helping to stir traumatic memories of mutual slaughter in earlier periods.
Financial flows played a little recognized but important role in illiberal mobilizations.
Ethno-nationalism in the 1980s and 1990s became a way to mobilize local populations
threatened by ‘structural adjustment’ and IMF-imposed austerity programs. Such global
programs helped to systematically delegitimize heavily indebted central states vis-a-vis
their popular classes. Illiberal mobilizations were intended to rally local populations
behind entrenched bureaucratic and military elites in order to prolong their hold on
power and give them time to regroup, monopolize strategic resources and organize their
client networks around paramilitary booty and illegal trade. Global monetarist imposi-
tion thus sponsored both the impulse toward democratic opening and transnational
markets among elites – by weakening the state as an accumulation vehicle – as well as
the opposite: xenophobic closure tending toward fascism in the context of collapsing states.
Page 40 of 103
FOREIGN POLICY LINKS 1/4
SUPPORT FOR RULING CLASS FOREIGN POLICY UNDERMINES ANTI-

CAPITALIST SOLIDARITY
Meszaros 01
(Istvan, Prof of Philosophy @ Sussex, Socialism or Barbarism:From the ‘American Century’ to the Crossroads. Pg
57).
Naturally, this does not mean that everyone else can sit back and wait until the required action is over, because it can
never be completed in isolation. The problems and contradictions are so inextricably intertwined that their solution
requires profound changes also in other parts of the world. The deep-seated causes of the explosive contradictions
must be addressed everywhere, through the commitment of a truly international enterprise whose particular
constituents confront their own share of capital’s jungle-like network of contradictions, in solidarity with the “laboring
and producing classes” in America and elsewhere in the world. American labor’s “conciliation with the trusts and
support for their foreign policy” at the turn of the century was due, on the one hand, to the availability of outlets for
imperialist expansion and thereby the postponing displacement of capital’s contradictions; and on the side of labor, to
the absence of the objective and subjective conditions of a viable hegemonic alternative to capital’s mode of controlling
societal reproduction. Such an alternative is inconceivable without international solidarity oriented toward the creation
of an order of substantive equality.
APPEALING TO THE STATE TO SOLVE THROUGH INTERNATIONAL POLITICS IS

THE WORST FORM OF ACTION BECAUSE: (1) IT OCCURS WITHIN A FORUM
WERE WE ARE VOICELESS; (2) IT FURTHERS STATIST WAR MOBILIZATION
The state is a symbol of strength and domination with which many individuals can identify. As the traditional sources of
allegiance, such as the family, religion and local community, lose their force, the more abstract allegiance to country
and state takes its place. Patriotism is the most obvious manifestation of the mobilisation of psychology to serve the
state. More pervasive is the tendency to perceive the world from the viewpoint of one's state and to identify one's own
interests with those of the state.
The process of identifying with the state is most widespread in relation to international relations, where the influence of
the individual is least. Individual powerlessness can promote identification with what is seen as the source of power,
the state. Mobilisation of individual psychology helps mobilisation for war, and in turn war is a potent method for
generating patriotism.
Page 41 of 103
US FOREIGN POLICY FORMATION, PARTICULARLY THE POSTURING

OF TERROR, IS GROUNDED IN AN ELITE CONCEPTION OF
TERRORISM
Seymour, 2k7
Richard, In the name of decency: the contortions of the pro-war left,
International Socialism, http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=275&issue=113
accessed Aug 8 //WDC- Guy
In 2005, following the 7 July tube bombings, a statement called ‘United Against Terror’ was launched,
organised by Jane Ashworth of ‘Labour Friends of Iraq’, formerly of the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty.15
The statement is very selective about which terror it opposes. It opposes that carried out by a variety of
groups inspired by a reactionary kind of Political Islam. It doesn’t oppose that carried out by far right
Colombian militias. It doesn’t show any solidarity with trade unionists and peasants being murdered by those
terrorists. It doesn’t oppose the terrorism of states against civilian populations: the targeting of civilians by
the Russian government in Chechnya; the massacre in Fallujah; the use of death squads in the ‘new Iraq’; the
repeated assaults on Palestinians. About these, it is wordless—and culpably so. It also insists that Western
foreign policy shares no responsibility for the attacks it addresses, and invites readers to endorse a two-state
settlement for Palestine and condemn ‘terrorism’ there—not Israeli terrorism, but the resistance of the
Palestinians.
THE LOGIC OF DOMINATION IS INSCRIBED IN THE HISTORICAL

FORM OF U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
Callinicos 2k5
Alex, International Socialism, Imperialism and global political economy,
http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=140&issue=108, accessed Aug 8, 2k7
//wdc-guy
It has become a cliche to say that the ideas of empire and imperialism have enjoyed a renaissance in the early
years of the 21st century. The main reasons for this are, of course, the global primacy of the United States
and the arrogance with which the Bush administration has flaunted this pre-eminence, above all in the
military field. Marxists should be particularly well equipped to respond to this development, given the
importance that their tradition has given to the concept of imperialism. More particularly, the Marxist theory
of imperialism is distinctive in that it does not treat empire simply as a transhistorical form of political
domination—as in, for example, Michael Doyle’s succinct definition of imperialism as ‘effective control, whether formal or informal, of a subordinated
society by an imperial society’—but rather sets modern imperialism in the context of the historical development of the
capitalist mode of production.1
Page 42 of 103
STATES WHO FAIL TO CONFORM TO THE US AGENDA WILL SINGLED OUT – NON-
COMPLIANT COUNTRIES ARE SQUEEZED INTO THE US DOMINATED GLOBAL SYSTEM
RESULTING THE INCURRENCE OF DEBT BEYOND THE THRESHOLD OF MANAGEABILITY
WHICH INITIATES A VICIOUS CYCLE THAT RESULTS IN TOTAL DOMINATION BY THE
GLOBAL SYSTEM OF CAPITALISM.

If we are to speculate as to the process emerging from this very brief and selective look at Zimbabwe and Pakistan, we come to the following conclusion: states
whose external and internal policy fail to conform to the US agenda will be singled out for particular
attention. To the more immediate economic and financial elements already mentioned, we can add in the case of Zimbabwe, the Congo as an important
external issue, and clan redistribution and the ZANU-PF's commitment to its form of socialism as an internal one. In the case of Pakistan, it is her external
relations with Iran and Central Asia, while the internal issue is that of the nuclear weapons development program, the consequence being further squeezing the
country into the US dominated global system. Another conclusion is that there is a modest lag time between the imposition of structural adjustment programs and
the precipitation of a crisis, and that extrication from the crisis can only be achieved by further concessions. The
incurrence of debt beyond the
threshold of manageability appears to be the critical leaver of pressure. The systematic offering of short-term
relief by either rolling over the debt, freezing repayment, and/or offering new small IMF tranches only
increases ultimate leverage, and the insertion of IMF/World Bank functionaries into the government structure
ensures compliance.
Page 43 of 103
HUMAN RIGHTS LINKS 1/2
CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS ONLY FUEL GLOBAL MARKET EXPANSION,

WHICH IN TURN VIOLATES HUMAN RIGHTS
Tony Evans, “Citizenship and Human Rights in the Age of Globalization,” ALTERNATIVES: SOCIAL
TRANSFORMATION & HUMANE GOVERNANCE v. 25 n. 4, October/December 2000, pp. 415-436.
This article set out to investigate how the idea of universal human rights was co-opted by the prevailing neoliberal
consensus in support of processes associated with globalization. Civil and political rights form the core of neoliberal
values upon which free market, laissez-faire economics are based. Through an examination of the idea of the
international citizen, it was argued that the attempt to introduce a duty to promote the widest possible social good falls
far short of an obligation to respond to claims for economic and social rights. Indeed, while proponents of the idea of
the international citizen might claim to be responding to the global political economy, it serves only to obfuscate
important facets of the human-rights debate. Those who stand in the way of the "imperatives" of globalization risk
violations of their rights--civil and political, economic and social.
LIBERTY IS CONCEIVED AS ONLY THE FREEDOM FROM GOVERNMENT

INTRUSION--LEAVES THE PRIVATE SPHERE OPEN TO CAPITALIST
EXPLOITATION
How then does the individual claiming universal human rights differ from the citizen claiming the rights of citizenship?
In his essay On the Jewish Question, Marx argues that civil society holds the key to this question. For Marx "the so-
called human rights, the rights of droits de l'homme in contrast to droits de citoyen, are nothing but the rights of
members of civil society."[69] Since civil society represents the private sphere, a sphere intended to guarantee the
liberty necessary to pursue private satisfactions, human rights are concerned with the egoistic, atomized, isolated
individual, separated from community. The exercise of human rights in civil society is therefore concerned with rights to
enjoy and dispose of property arbitrarily, free of all social or political responsibilities, except those commensurate with
the equal rights of others.[70] In such a society, a society where the individual is free to exploit others and is
encouraged to do so, the possibility of developing the necessary emotional ties associated with community are
severely constrained: community and exploitation are incompatible.[71] Nonetheless, to maintain social order there
remains a need to create an imaginary space, the state, in which to fabricate the institutions of unity, including those
associated with equality, democracy, and citizenship.[72] Human rights therefore offers support for the egoistic
individual, withdrawn into private interests and separated from community. All that is left to hold people together is
"natural necessity, need and private interests, the conservation of their property and their egoistic person."[73]
Page 44 of 103
HUMAN RIGHTS LINKS 2/2
NEOLIBERAL POLITICAL RIGHTS ARE USED TO JUSTIFY THE EXPANSION OF

FREE TRADE AND GLOBALIZATION
Two broad arguments are used by neoliberals in support of human rights defined as civil and political rights, which I
shall call, respectively, the altruistic arguments and the pragmatic arguments. Taken together, these arguments support
the contention that neoliberals are concerned with promoting a particular set of human rights that places property
rights at the top of any list of rights. The altruistic argument for promoting civil and political freedoms at the expense of
economic and social rights is that encouraging free trade and ever greater levels of economic interconnectedness has
a positive and beneficial effect on the human-rights record of countries that do not comply with internationally
recognized human-rights standards. According to this argument, the social contacts generated by the unregulated
exchange of goods and services is paralleled by an inevitable and unregulated exchange of moral values. If tyrannical
governments want to enjoy the benefits of globalization and free trade, they cannot avoid the transmission of ideas that
make people more aware of their rights. Free trade, therefore, has an important educative role: it has the potential to
raise peoples awareness to their rights and increases the demand to be treated in accordance with internationally
agreed standards of civil and political rights. In short, free trade has a "civilizing" influence on the "uncivilized" and
should be actively promoted in the name of human rights.[5]
NEOLIBERAL RIGHTS FOCUS ONLY ON RESTRAINING THE GOVERNMENT--

LEAVE NO ROOM FOR SOCIAL OR ECONOMIC RIGHTS
With the end of the Cold War, resistance to the neoliberal approach to rights seems to have all but evaporated. The
now-unmatched dominance of civil and political rights derives from a set of principles that emphasize the freedom of
individual action, noninterference in the private sphere of economics, the right to own and dispose of property, and the
important principle of laissez-faire. In the absence of any champion for economic and social rights, the neoliberal
consensus upon which the practices of globalization are built has succeeded in establishing the language of civil and
political rights as the acceptable voice--indeed the only legitimate voice--of human-rights talk. In the current period,
legitimate human rights can be defined only as that set of rights that require government abstention from acts that
violate the individual's freedom to innovate and to invest time, capital, and resources in processes of production and
exchange.[3] For neoliberals, economic, social, and cultural claims may be legitimate aspirations, but they can never
be rights. The move to reduce state support for economic and social programs in all Western countries during the last
two decades should be seen as indicative of the predominance of the neoliberal approach to rights.[4]
Page 45 of 103
MICROPOLITICS LINK
MICROPOLITICS CAN ALWAYS CARVE OUT MYOPIC VICTORIES IN THE MARGIN

WHILE CAPITALISM GOES ON DESTROYING EVERYTHING
[Istavan, Beyond Capital: Towards a Theory of Transition, // wyo]
p. 189
By the same token, to envisage the articulation and sustainable internal functioning of the capital system’s
‘microcosms’ on the basis of substantive equality is not less problematical. For to do so would require either to assume
the existence of a totally different — harmonious — comprehensive socioeconomic ‘macrocosm’, or to postulate the
my4sterious transformation of the hypostatized truly egalitarian ‘micro-structures’ into an antagonistic whole. Indeed the
latter would bring with it the additional complication of having to explain how it is possible to secure the simultaneous reproduction of the antagonistic whole
and its antagonism-free constituent parts. Isolated couples may be able to (and undoubtedly do) order their personal
relationships on a truly egalitarian basis. There are in existence in contemporary society even utopian enclaves of
communally interacting groups of people who can lay claim to being involved in humanly fulfilling and non-hierarchical
interpersonal relations and a way of bringing up children in forms very different from the nuclear family and its splinters,
But neither type of personal relations can become historically dominant within the framework of capital’s social
metabolic control. For under the prevailing circumstances the ‘ubergefreindes Moment’ is that the reproductive ‘microcosms’ must be able to cohere in a
comprehensive whole which cannot conceivably function on the basis of substantive equality. The smallest reproductive ‘microcosms’ must
deliver without failing their share in the exercise of the overall social metabolic functions which include not only the
biological reproduction of the species and the orderly transmission of property from one generation to the other. It is no
less important in this respect their key role in the reproduction of the value system of the established social reproductive order which happens to be—and
cannot help being —totally inimical to the principle of substantive equality. By concentrating too much on the property-transmission aspect of the family and
the legal system linked to it, even Engels tends to paint a highly idealized picture of the proletarian household, discovering non-existent equality in it.
Page 46 of 103
ELECTIONS LINKS 1/2
PARTICIPATION GIVES THE ILLUSION OF CONTROL—IT IS CO-OPTED BY THE

STATE AND MAKES US INSTUMENTS OF OUR OWN OPPRESSION
In many cases agencies of the state can act without consulting or involving members of the public. But when
community disenchantment or outright opposition begins to play a major role, then the state may sponsor limited
participation which helps to mobilise consent for its policies and actions.
For example, city planners for many years simply proceeded without consulting the public. But in the late 1960s and
1970s community resistance developed: local pressure groups were established to oppose freeways, new airports,
demolition programmes, uncontrolled commercialisation of neighbourhoods, and other aspects of urban 'development.'
One official response to this grassroots resistance was to sponsor limited forms of participation in urban planning, for
example by setting up neighbourhood councils to advise planners. Participation as used and promoted by state
bureaucrats served to mobilise support and legitimacy for the state. Low-level participation can serve as a form of
social control. It ensures that 'participation' takes the form of consultation or placation rather than community control. It
also serves to coopt and absorb many social activists, and to isolate radicals from their constituency.
A crucial way in which the state mobilises support is through elections. Voting seems to offer some citizen control over
the state; its less obvious effect is to foster acceptance of the state's system of bureaucratic administration. Benjamin
Ginsberg, in his insightful book The Consequences of Consent, argues that elections aid the state's authority and help
persuade citizens to obey. Elections channel political activity into electing representatives who become part of the
state, and away from potentially dangerous mass action. Contrary to common belief, governments have often
introduced voting and expanded suffrage on their own initiative, in order to prevent 'disorder.'
State sponsored participation serves to mobilise consent both to support particular policies and to support the
prevailing system of top-down administration. This is similar to the use of limited forms of worker participation in
corporations.
Page 47 of 103
ELECTIONS LINKS 2/2
ELECTIONS ARE SIMPLY TOOLS USED BY THE ELITE TO CHECK

REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE
Bob Avakian, Chairman, Revolutionary Communist Party, “Part 3: The Bourgeois View of Freedom and the
Individual,” REVOLUTIONARY WORKER n. 1216, October 19, 2003. Available from the World Wide Web at:
http://rwor.org/a/1216/2hdem3.htm, accessed 5/2/05.
Elections in bourgeois society provide a way in which the system can have a "legitimizing" impact throughout society
while maintaining the bourgeoisie's monopoly of actual political power--and, as a concentrated expression of that, a
monopoly on "legitimate" armed force. They provide a means and a mechanism through which the illusion can be
played out that the masses of people have a decisive role in influencing affairs of state. This goes back to the
argument of bourgeois-democratic apologists like Dahl* that, even if we recognize that the state is dominated by elite
strata, as long as there are contending and competing forces among these elite strata, the masses can play a decisive
role by siding with one or another of these elite groups. And even people with revolutionary aspirations, such as
Malcolm X, for example, have gotten caught up in this kind of logic-- falling into the argument that the oppressed (or an
oppressed people, such as Black people) can act decisively in their own interests through the electoral process by
remaining "independent" and, as a bloc, rewarding or punishing those among the contending elites who do something
beneficial for or something harmful to the oppressed. Once again, this ignores the fundamental reality of what state
power represents--the institutionalized power, the dictatorship, of one class or another--and how elections relate to that
fundamental reality. What really and essentially happens, with regard to competition and contradictions within the
ruling class, is that they are resolved through the workings of intra-bourgeois politics, which utilizes various
mechanisms of the state. They are not resolved through elections. But, at the same time, the appearance is created
and maintained that contradictions among the elite in society are being "opened" to the people, and are being
struggled out in the forum and arena of elections, and therefore the people can exert significant influence by siding
with now one, and now another, faction or organized force within the bourgeois political structure. This serves the
bourgeoisie in that kind of all- around way and--particularly with regard to middle strata which the bourgeoisie relies on
for a kind of social stability and anchor--it serves to institutionalize and maintain a political process whereby these
strata feel that they have some sort of influence on affairs of state and the governance of society and a stake in the
perpetuation of this system.
PARTICIPATION IN ELECTIONS EMPIRICALLY ‘SHIPWRECKS’ REVOLUTIONARY

STRUGGLES
Bob Avakian, Chairman, Revolutionary Communist Party, “Part 3: The Bourgeois View of Freedom and the
Individual,” REVOLUTIONARY WORKER n. 1216, October 19, 2003. Available from the World Wide Web at:
http://rwor.org/a/1216/2hdem3.htm, accessed 5/2/05.
Beyond that, with regard to the revolutionary vanguard in particular, elections under the present system represent a
kind of quicksand--or, to use another metaphor, a kind of siren song continually beckoning the vanguard to shipwreck.
We can see this, for example, in places like El Salvador and Nicaragua. There wasn't a genuine MLM vanguard in the
struggles there in recent years, but there were forces that claimed to be revolutionary, and even Marxist, who were
playing a leading role in the struggle. Within the past few years--and, significantly, with the collapse of the Soviet
Union--we have seen these forces giving up whatever form of armed struggle they might have been engaged in and
entering into the bourgeois electoral process; we have seen how in fact this has led them to shipwreck.
Page 48 of 103
INTERNATIONAL LAW LINKS
INTERNATIONAL LAW FACILITATES GROWTH OF CAPITALIST STATE SYSTEM
CASSESE (former President, International Tribunal) ‘86
[Antonio, International Law in a Divided World, p. 107]
Another significant consideration is that law played an important role in the birth of capitalism (which in turn was
decisive in the formation of strongly centralized national States). The economic system evolving in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries was based on free enterprise and free competition. One of the social mechanisms necessary for the
new system was a body of predicable and ascertainable standards of behavior allowing each economic factor to
maintain a set of relatively safe expectations as to the conduct of other social actors (including the State authorities, in
case of transgression). Thus law became one of the devices permitting economic activities and consolidating and
protecting the fruits of such action. It soon appeared to be one of the major agencies of social relations, and no one
raised the question as to whether it was necessary or not.
TRANS NATIONAL RULES ARE PILLARS OF NEW CAPITALISM
HARDT & NEGRI (Professors and good marxists) 2K
[Michael & Antonio, Empire, http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/negri/hardt_negri_empire.txt]
In the passage of sovereignty toward the plane of immanence, the collapse of boundaries has taken place both within
each national context and on a global scale. The withering of civil society and the general crisis of the disciplinary
institutions coincide with the decline of nation-states as boundaries that mark and organize the divisions in global rule.
The establishment of a global society of control that smooths over the striae of national boundaries goes hand in hand
with the realization of the world market and the real subsumption of global society under capital.
Page 49 of 103

METHODOLOGY=CONSCIOUSNESS SHIFT
1/2
SPREAD OF ANTI-CAPITALIST CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE U.S. IS CRITICAL TO

FOSTERING THE REVOLUTION
Bob Avakian, Chairman, Revolutionary Community Party, “We Have a ‘New Millenium’--What We Need is a
New World,” REVOLUTIONARY WORKER n. 1036, December 26, 1999. Available from the World Wide Web
at: http://rwor.org/a/v21/1030-039/1036/millenium.htm, accessed 6/1/05.
In an imperialist country like

The MLM party must take up and concretely apply this ideology to solve the practical problems of the revolution.
the U.S., this means leading the masses of people in fighting against the outrages and injustices of this system, and to
do this in a way that prepares for the great revolutionary showdown ahead--the revolutionary war that will finally overthrow this
system. The party must develop, through all its work, and all the struggles of today, the fighting capacity and organization of the proletariat and its
allies. It must continually develop the class consciousness of the proletariat--an understanding of what is the problem and what is the solution, who
is the enemy and who are friends and potential allies, how the struggle has to be waged and what the final aim of that struggle is. It must enable
growing numbers of people to see the necessity and possibility of the historic mission of communism and train the
revolutionary-minded people in the scientific world outlook and method of communism. In the U.S. today, there is such a party carrying out this
revolutionary work--the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. And, in turn, our Party is part of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM),
uniting MLM parties and organizations throughout the world. The purpose and goal of all these parties and organizations who are united in the RIM
is to develop the worldwide proletarian revolution toward the final aim of communism--a world without exploitation, without inequality, without
oppressive relations based on distinctions of class, or sex, or race or nationality. It is a tremendous achievement of the revolutionary struggle of
masses of people in the U.S. and all over the world that our Party and the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement exist; and this Party and this
Movement are tremendously important forces for the masses of people in fighting for their liberation. We call on our class, the proletarians,
on all oppressed people, on everyone who would love to see a radically different world, where the great creative
potential of the people is not beaten down and twisted into chains on the people themselves--where instead this
potential is unlocked and unleashed to serve humanity.
CONSCIOUSNESS RAISING CRITICAL TO FOSTERING RADICAL SOCIAL

MOVEMENTS
Bob Avakian, Chairman, Revolutionary Community, “Create Public Opinion, Seize Power,”
REVOLUTIONARY WORKER n. 1000, March 28, 1999. Available from the World Wide Web at:
http://rwor.org/a/v20/1000-1009/1000/barw.htm, accessed 5/2/05.
Lenin drove home over and over again the fundamental point that the workers cannot fully develop their political
consciousness and political struggle against the system unless and until the communists carry out consistently Marxist
propaganda and agitation, and in particular penetrating exposure of all manifestations of tyranny and oppression
perpetrated by the ruling class, and all aspects of the life, the interests and outlook of the various classes and strata of
society. Lenin insisted on the decisive role of the communist newspaper, as educator of the masses and as a collective
organizer of the party itself and the revolutionary forces generally.
Page 50 of 103

METHODOLOGY=CONSCIOUSNESS SHIFT
2/2
EXPOSING THE SHORTCOMINGS OF CAPITALISM IS KEY TO CONSCIOUSNESS RAISING
Bob Avakian, Chairman, Revolutionary Community, “Create Public Opinion, Seize Power,”
REVOLUTIONARY WORKER n. 1000, March 28, 1999. Available from the World Wide Web at:
http://rwor.org/a/v20/1000-1009/1000/barw.htm, accessed 5/2/05.
Creating public opinion for revolution is not a mere "battle of ideas"--though it definitely involves that--but the heart of it, the key link,
is exposure: penetrating and all-around exposure of the features and nature of this hideous and death-bound system, of the class
that rules it and of all the classes, strata and groups in society, not just in this country but the world as a whole, including both those
that are enemies and those that are (at least possible) allies of the proletariat. Life itself is the inexhaustible source for such
exposure.
COMMUNICATION BUILDS AWARENESS
Martin and Varney 03
(Brian and Wendy. “Non-violence Speaks: Communication Against Oppression.” Pg. 5-6)
If violent and visible actions are more newsworthy than nonviolent and diffuse ones, than even further down the scale
is the everyday campaigning aimed mainly at trying to raise people’s level of awareness and convince them that
involvement in resistance is worthwhile. This can involve talking amongst friends, small group meetings, writing about
issues, trying to promote nonviolent solutions among acquaintances, suggesting relevant books for libraries, teach-ins,
leafleting, stickers, graffiti, individual stands as an example to other forms of campaigning, often local. These are seldom a
focus of attention, whether by media or anyone else, including nonviolent activists. If there is a war—especially one involving or close to the
dominant Western states—then it is likely to be a focus of attention. Little notice is given to those regions of the world where there isn’t a war,
terrorism, or famine, or at least a prospect of violence or suffering.
It is important to acknowledge that resistance to aggression, repression, and oppression occurs all the time in all sorts
of wars, large and small. Even in situations of severe repression, such as slavery or Nazi death camps, there are expressions and acts of
autonomy, defiance, and insubordination. Subtle uses of language and gestures can express resistance, as can religious ceremonies, songs, styles
of work, and a host of other aspects of everyday life. Resistance is possible, and routinely occurs, in every conceivable circumstance.
NOT ENOUGH FOR MATERIAL CONTRADICTIONS TO INCREASE; WE ALSO HAVE TO

AFFIRM THE METHODOLOGY COMMUNICATIVELY
Miliband (Authror) 1977
[Ralph, “Marxism and Politics” pg. 118 wdc]
Ruling classes have at their disposal a formidable range of weapons for the maintenance of their domination and the defense of their power and privileges. How
then are these ruling classes to be undone, and how is a new social order to be established? That this can be achieved is an essential theme of the Marxist message:
but a no less essential theme of that message is that it does have to be achieved. No doubt, the desired transformation must largely depend
upon, or at least be linked with, the deepening of the contradictions of capitalism and their consequent and manifold
impact upon the superstructure. But even so, the transformation will have to be brought about by human intervention
and practice, and will be the result of growing class conflict and confrontation, in which the working class must play a
predominant role
Page 51 of 103
NEGATION ALT SOLVENCY
DON’T SUCCUMB TO TEMPTATION TO ACT
ZIZEK 2004 [Slavoj, Serbian Nationalist and Historical Revisionist, Revolution at the Gates, p. 169-171 //wyo-tjc]
Indeed, since the “normal” functioning of capitalism involves some kind of disavowal of the basic principle of its functioning (today’s model capitalist is
someone who, after ruthlessly generating profit, then generously shares parts of it, giving large donations to churches, victims of ethnic or sexual abuse, etc.,
posing as a humanitarian), the ultimate act of transgression is to assert this principle directly, depriving it of its humanitarian mask. I am therefore tempted to
reverse Marx’s Thesis 11: the first task today is precisely not to succumb to the temptation to act, to intervene directly and
change things {which then inevitably ends in a cul-de-sac of debilitating impossibility: “What can we do against global
capital?”), but to question the hegemonic ideological co-ordinates. In short, our historical moment is still that of
Adorno: to the Question “What should we do?” I can most often truly answer with “I don’t know.” I can only try to
analyse rigorously what there is. Here people reproach me: When you practice criticism, you are also obliged to say
how one should make it better. To my mind, this is incontrovertibly a bourgeois prejudice. Many times in history it so
happened that the very works which pursued purely theoretical goals transformed consciousness and thereby also
social reality. If, today, we follow a direct call to act, this act will not be performed in an empty space—it will be an act
within the hegemonic ideological cooridinates: those who “really want to do something to help people” get involved in
{undoubtedly honourable} exploits like Medecins sans frontiers, Greenpeace, feminist and anti-racist campaigns, which are all not only tolerated but even
supported by the media, even if they seemingly encroach on economic territory (for example, denouncing and boycotting companies which do not respect
ecological conditions, or use child labour) – they are tolerated and supported as long as they do not get too close to a certain limit.
This kind of activity provides the perfect example of interpassivity? Of doing things not in order to achieve something,
but to prevent something from really happening, really changing. All this frenetic humanitarian, politically correct, etc.
activity fits the formula of “Let’s go on changing something all the time so that, globally, things will remain the same!” If
standard cultural studies criticize capitalism, they do so in the coded way that exemplifies Hollywood liberal paranoia: the enemy is “the system”, the hidden
“organization”, the anti-democratic “conspiracy” not simply capitalism and state apparatuses. The problem with this critical stance is not only that it replaces
concrete social analysis with a struggle against abstract paranoic fantasies, but that – in a typical paranoic gesture – it unnecessarily redoubles social reality,
as if there were a secret Organization behind the “visible” capitalist and state organs. What we should accept is that there is no need for a
secret “organization-within-an-organization”: the “conspiracy” is already in the “visible” organization as such, in the
capitalist system, in the way the political space and state apparatuses work.
RESISTANCE TO CAPITAL MUST BE A TOTAL NEGATION OF THE SYSTEM FROM OUT-

SIDE OF GOVERNMENT—ANY POLITICAL GAINS ARE TRUMPED BY THE ABILITY OF THE
SYSTEM TO USE REFORMS TO RESTABILIZE CAPITAL AND MARGINALIZE LABOR AS A
SOCIAL ALTERNATIVE
MESZAROS (Prof. Emeritus @ Univ. Sussex) 1995 ([Istavan, Beyond Capital: Towards a Theory of Transition, // wyo] p. 738)
Thus the role of labour’s extra-parliamentary movement is twofold. On the one hand, it has to assert its strategic
interests as a social metabolic alternative by confronting and forcefully negating in practical terms the structural
determinations of the established order as manifest in the capital-relation and in the concomitant subordination of
labour in the socioeconomic reproduction process, instead of helping to restabiize capital in crisis as it happened at
important junctures of the reformist past. At the same time, on the other hand, the political power of capital which
prevails in parliament needs to be and can be challenged through the pressure which extra-parliamentary forms of action can exercise
on the legislative and executive, as witnessed by the impact of even the ‘single issue’ anti-poll-tax movement which played a major role in the fall of
Margaret Thatcher from the top of the political pyramid. Without a strategically oriented and sustained extra-parliamentary
challenge the parties alternating in government can continue to function as convenient reciprocal alibis for the
structural failure of the system towards labour, thus effectively confining the role of the labour movement to its position
as an inconvenient but marginalizable afterthought in capital’s parliamentary system. Thus in relation to both the material reproductive
and the political domain, the constitution of a strategically viable socialist extra-parliamentaty mass movement — in conjunction
with the traditional forms of labour’s, at present hopelessly derailed, political organization, which badly needs the radicalizing pressure and support
of such extra-parliamentary forces — is a vital precondition for countering the massive extra-parliamentary power of capital.
Page 52 of 103
ALTERNATIVE SOLVES: WE
RECONCEPTUALIZE DISCUSSION
ASKING DIFFERENT QUESTIONS EXPOSES THE ROLE OF EXPLOITATION IN

MATERIAL SYSTEMS OF POWER: ALTERNATIVE VISIONS SERVE AS
ANALYTIC TOOLS

Exploitation is an inevitable consequence of unequal power. The challenge is to systematically reduce it as

the prerequisite to systemic transformation. The central strategic question is how to combine the struggle for
authentic national independence with the struggle for workers' rights. Clearly, the sheet is not blank, but
neither is it replete with predetermined answers. The major lesson is to face the objective situation with
principle and integrity. This requires a comprehensive analytic discourse which compares the reality on the
ground with an alternative vision of society. In other words, a strategic reassessment of objective reality, and
a creative exploration of elastic responses which test its limits.
Page 53 of 103
ALT: ENVISIONING NONCAPITALIST

POSSIBILITIES SOLVES
CRITICISM OF CAPITAL IS PRIOR TO ANY QUESTION OF AN ALTERNATIVE—WE

MUST FIRST ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THERE ARE OTHER POSSIBILITIES—THIS
OPENS UP POLITICAL SPACE TO IMPLEMENT VARIOUS POLITICAL
STRATEGIES
DE ANGELIS 2003
[Massimo, Dept of Economics at East London, The commoner, p. online: http://www.ainfos.ca/03/jan/ainfos00479.html

//wyo]
Once we acknowledge the existence of the galaxy of alternatives as they emerge from concrete needs and aspirations, we can
ground today's new political discourse in the thinking and practice of the actualization and the coordination of
alternatives, so as each social node and each individual within it has the power to decide and take control over their lives. It is this actualization
and this coordination that rescues existing alternatives from the cloud of their invisibility, because alternatives, as with
any human product, are social products, and they need to be recognized and validated socially. Our political projects
must push their way through beyond the existing forms of coordination, beyond the visible fist of the state, beyond the
invisible hand of competitive markets, and beyond the hard realities of their interconnections that express themselves
in today forms of neoliberal governance, promoting cooperation through competition and community through disempowerment. As I will argue,
this new political discourse is based on the project of defending and extending the space of commons, at the same time building and strengthening
communities through the social fields.
Page 54 of 103
FRAMEWORK: POLICYMAKING BAD
FIAT IGNORES THE COMPLETE CONSUMPTION OF THE POLITICAL BY

THE ECONOMIC, REGARDLESS OF THEIR PARTICULAR POLITICAL STANCE
AMIN 2003
[Samir, Dir. Of Third World Forum in Senegal, Monthly Review, Jul-Aug, p. online //wyo]
Throughout its history, U.S. capitalism has shown itself to be readier than European varieties to take such steps.
Politically, the U.S. state is
designed to serve the economy and nothing else, abolishing the contradictory and dialectical relationship between
economy and politics. The genocide carried out against the Native Americans, the enslavement of the blacks, the successive waves of immigration into
the United States leading to the predominance of ethnic and racial conflict, as manipulated by the ruling class, at the expense of the
maturation of class consciousness-have all combined to produce the political monopoly of U.S. society by the single
party of capital. Both segments of this party share the same strategic global vision, though addressing their rhetoric to
different "constituencies," themselves drawn from the less than half of U.S. society that believes sufficiently in the
system to bother voting.
Not benefiting from the tradition by which the social democratic worker's parties and the communists marked the formation of modem European political
culture, American society does not have the ideological instruments at its disposal to allow it to resist the dictatorship of capital. On the contrary, capital
shapes every aspect of this society's way of thinking, and reproduces itself by reinforcing the kind of deep-seated
racism that allows U.S. society to see itself as constituting a master race. "Playboy Clinton, Cowboy Bush": this slogan
from India rightly emphasizes the nature of the single party that manages the so-called American democracy.
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO SEPARATE POLICY-MAKING FROM CLASS—THEIR

RELATIONSHIP TO THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION IS EXPRESSED THROUGH
POLICY DECLARATIONS
PASHUKANIS 32
[Evgeny, “the Marxist Theory of State and Law”, p. online:

http://www.marxists.org/archive/pashukanis/1932/xx/state.htm#top //wyo]
This definition stresses three aspects of the matter. First is the class nature of law: every law is the law of the ruling
class. Attempts to consider law as a social relationship which transcends class society, lead either to superficial
categorization of diverse phenomena, or to speculative idealistic constructs in the spirit of the bourgeois philosophy of
law. Second is the basic and determinant significance of production relationships in the content that is implemented by
law. Class interests directly reflect their relationship to the means of production. Property relationships occupy the
prominent place in the characterization of a specific legal order. Communist society, where classes disappear, where
labour becomes the primary want, where the effective principle will be from each according to his abilities, to each
according to his needs: this does not require law. The third aspect consists of the fact that the functioning of a legal
superstructure demands a coercive apparatus. When we say that social relationships have assumed a legal
expression, this means inter alia that they have been given a coercive nature by the state power of the ruling class.
Withering away of the law can only occur simultaneously with the withering away of the state.
Page 55 of 103
CRISIS POINT ATTACK CRITICAL
ECONOMIC CRISIS INEVITABLE; MUST ATTACK CLASS AT CRISIS POINT OR

CAPITALISM CONTINUES TO REASSERT ITSELF
Mayer ’06 (Tom, professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado, “Review,” CULTURAL
LOGIC, http://clogic.eserver.org/2006/mayer.html, uw/mjs)
14. Despite the various institutions designed to protect profits and accumulation, economic crises are
endemic to the capitalist system. The basic cause of capitalist economic crises, according to Yates, is a
persistent tendency for profit rates to fall as the accumulation process proceeds. Capitalist crises temporarily
weaken the system creating opportunities for significant social change. If class relations remain intact,
however, capitalist crises restructure the accumulation process and eventually restore both profit levels and
business confidence.
Page 56 of 103
ALT: REJECT IN EDUCATIONAL SETTINGS

SOLVES
MUST REJECT CAPITAL EVERYWHERE—INCLUDING THIS CLASSROOM
McLaren ’06 (Peter, Professor of Education at UCLA, in Samuel Fassbinder, “Peter McClaren’s Recent Work: An
Annotated Summary,” CULTURAL LOGIC, http://clogic.eserver.org/2006/fassbinder.html, uw/mjs)
McLaren and Nathalia E. Jaramillo, in an essay on George W. Bush ("God's Cowboy Warrior," 261-333). This
passage explains both McLaren's style and his substance:
. . . any revolutionary struggle must be dedicated to educating the emotions as much as the intellect and why anti-
imperialist struggle must be waged on the triple continents of reason, passion, and revolution. It must take place not
only on the picket line or protest march, but also in the schools, places of worship, libraries, shop floors, and corporate
offices -- in every venue where people come together to learn, to labor, and to love. In order to shift critical pedagogy
into a new register, we need to rethink the very premises of critical pedagogy, not as some grand contemplative act,
but as part of a philosophy of everyday life. This challenge has to do with creating a living Marxism, a way of
negotiating the reality of a racist and class society on a daily basis so as to transform such a society. (324)
Page 57 of 103
METHODOLOGY COMES FIRST
SOCIAL THEORIES ARE INEVITABLE, WITHOUT A THEORY TO FIGHT AGAINST

CAPITALISM DOMINANT FORCES WILL REMAIN IN CONTROL
Sewell ’02 (Rob, member International Marxist Tendency, “What is Dialectical Materialism?”
http://www.marxist.com/Theory/study_guide1.html, uw/mjs)
Whether we like it or not, consciously or unconsciously, everyone has a philosophy. A philosophy is simply a way of
looking at the world. Under capitalism, without our own scientific philosophy, we will inevitably adopt the dominant
philosophy of the ruling class and the prejudices of the society in which we live. "Things will never change" is a
common refrain, reflecting the futility of changing things and of the need to accept our lot in life. There are other such
proverbs as "There is nothing new under the sun", and "History always repeats itself", which reflect the same
conservative outlook. Such ideas, explained Marx, form a crushing weight on the consciousness of men and women.
METHOD IS KEY BECAUSE IT’S A NECESSARY COMPONENT OF RESISTANCE—

IDEOLOGY IS THE ONLY REASON CAPITALISM STAYS AROUND
Just as the emerging bourgeoisie in its revolution against feudal society challenged the conservative ideas of the old
feudal aristocracy, so the working class, in its fight for a new society, needs to challenge the dominant outlook of its
own oppressor, the capitalist class. Of course, the ruling class, through its monopoly control of the mass media, the
press, school, university and pulpit, consciously justifies its system of exploitation as the most "natural form of society".
The repressive state machine, with its "armed bodies of men", is not sufficient to maintain the capitalist system. The
dominant ideas and morality of bourgeois society serve as a vital defence of the material interests of the ruling class.
Without this powerful ideology, the capitalist system could not last for any length of time.
Page 58 of 103
WE’RE A BETTER METHOD
WE ARE A BETTER FRAMEWORK BECAUSE POLICIES AREN’T MADE BASED

ON THE SUPERIOR ARGUMENTS—THEY ARE BASED ON WHAT RICH PEOPLE
WANT, UNLESS POPULAR OPPOSITION IS MOBILIZED OUTSIDE OF POLICY
CIRCLES
Tabb ’06 (William K., professor of economics at Queens College, “The Power of the Rich,” MONTHLY REVIEW,
July/August, http://www.monthlyreview.org/0706tabb.htm, uw/mjs)
Let me conclude by putting some of these aspects together. The investor theory is clear enough in its predictions that
issues of interest to the majority of citizens will be ignored if the rich contributor class does not want them considered.
Likewise, issues of interest to the rich will be put forward and reinforced in media discussion even though they lack
popular support. The legislation that results, as shown in the case of tax policy in the foregoing discussion, seems to
confirm a correlation between investments and government policies favoring investors. The rise of income inequality,
while it has many causes, has been powered by federal taxation policies of bought politicians and ruling-class
representatives who hold control of the federal government. The last conclusion is that simply voting for Democrats
may not essentially change what needs to be changed. Only when elected officials face a well-organized and
mobilized popular opposition do they pause in simply voting for what the rich want.
ONLY DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM CAN EXPLAIN SOCIAL CHANGE
Only dialectical materialism can explain the laws of evolution and change, which sees the world not as a complex of
ready-made things, but as a complex of processes, which go through an uninterrupted transformation of coming into
being and passing away. For Hegel, the old logic was exactly like a child's game, which sought to make pictures out of
jigsaw pieces. "The fundamental flaw in vulgar thought", wrote Trotsky, "lies in the fact that it wishes to content itself
with motionless imprints of reality which consists of eternal motion."
Page 59 of 103
METHODOLOGICAL ALTERNATIVE
SOLVENCY 1/3
DUE TO THE DIFFERENCES OF HISTORICAL MATERIAL CONDITIONS

BETWEEN WESTERN AND EASTERN SOCIETIES WE NEED TO LOOK
TO THE MODES OF PRODUCTION TO UNDERSTAND SOCIAL
FORMATIONS.
Turner, (Professor, Flinders University of South America) 1984
[Bryan S, “Capitalism and Class in The Middle East: Theories of Social Change and Economic
Development” Pg. 106, wdc]
In the twentieth century, the Middle East has undergone a massive transformation, namely,
incorporation within the capitalist world via colonialism. This incorporation has involved
profound changes in pre-capitalist modes of production in these societies. Changes in these pre-
capitalist modes have had effects at the political level in the form of revolutions, riots, uprisings
and confrontations. It would be naive to expect these political phenomena to be exact replicas of
the political struggles of European capitalism, since there are basic differences in the combination
of modes between European and Middle East social formations. Thus, the primary contrast
between west European and Middle East social formations could not be discovered by merely
concentrating on political differences; it can only be discovered at the level of modes of
production.
APPLYING MARXISM TO INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS SOLVES

CAPITALISM AND COLONIZATION ON AN INTERNATIONAL LEVEL.
Kubalkova and Cruickshank(Marxist Authors) 1985
[V. and A.A., “Marxism and International Relations” PG. 126-7 wdc]
In countries on the verge, but not yet Marxist, theories of international relations are to be found in
the context of revolutionary tactics and military writing, and of manuals on strategies devised for
the purpose of the coming-to-power of Marxist political leaders. Preoccupied as these works
inevitably are with 'national strategy' the internationalist dimension tends to become obscured,
vague, overlaid, or lost sight of, unless the particular national revolution-happens to coincide with
the struggle against a foreign intruder (such as imperialism of external origin, colonialism,
national oppression, etc.). The sole, or chief, purpose of theories of international relations is often
an attempted justification of the introduction of Marxism into a new milieu in which Marxism has
not previously been 'applied'. Lenin's theory of imperialism or Li ta Chao's concept of 'proletarian
nation' are examples. A later example is Amilcar Cabral's new theory of imperialism in which he
has as surrogate for the class struggle (absent in Africa) the mode of production as motive force.
Again, Cabral, like Lenin and Li ta Chao before him, has no purpose beyond the incorporation of
his 'national' circumstances into the Marxist ambit. His purpose (akin to that of Gramsci's 'theory
of international relations'), far from the exposition of international relations, is an explanation of
the revolutionary failure in the West and the contriving of a new, improved strategy to deal with
capitalism in the metropolises or ex-colonies. Unless such politicians become the 'diplomats' their
theories of international relations, having performed their 'bridgehead' role, fade as a rule into the
background, to be replaced by considerations of other more immediate domestic concerns.
Page 60 of 103
Page 61 of 103
SOLVENCY 2/3
THE HISTORICAL CONDITIONS OF THE MIDDLE EAST REVEAL THAT MAJOR

OPPRESSIVE INSTITUTIONS LIKE POLITICAL ISLAM, TOTALITARIAN STATES, AND
SECTARIAN VIOLENCE ARE PRODUCTS OF CAPITALIST ASSIMILATION VIA
COLONIALISM.
Turner, (Professor, Flinders University of South America) 1984

[Bryan S, “Capitalism and Class in The Middle East: Theories of Social
Change and Economic Development” Pg. 220-2, wdc]
The cultural response of Islam to the disruption and decline of traditional society can be seen in three stages. In the late
nineteenth century, Islamic reformers attempted to come to terms with western capitalist culture by asserting
that pure Islam was compatible with modem rational society. Islamic decadence was caused by foreign accretions
and folk religiosity, which had corrupted the original message of the Prophet. This message was an active, ascetic call to
humankind to face the challenge of social existence in a responsible this-worldly ethic. Mystical Sufism was seen as one
significant medium of cultural decay. Paradoxically, the way forward was a return to scriptural, authentic and
original koranic othadoxy. This cultural response to westernization did in fact involve a thorough
reinterpretation of Islam, which was, in principle, transformed into a democratic, active and modern ideology.
In the second stage, Islamic reformism was overshadowed by more overtly national, secular creeds that
regarded Islam as a personal faith and not the civil religion of an industrializing civilization. The failure of
nationalist ideology and politics has resulted in a third stage, in which populist Islam has come to
prominence as a radical critique of both western secularism and authoritarian nationalism. Although in
societies like Iran, popular opposition to pro-western regimes was often inspired by the progressive
doctrines of intellectuals like Ali Shariati, post-revolutionary Iran has witnessed a determined repression of
workers, students and peasants by a regime which is unable to solve the economic and political problems of
the current crisis.35 The unity of Arab culture, based on urban merchants in alliance with nomadic tribes, was broken
by the growth of western capitalism, based on the autonomy of the nation-state: the Arab world, because it was
tributary and commercial, had to keep a more unified character despite the vicissitudes of history - and could
not orient itself towards capitalism until it was integrated, by outside aggression, into the imperialist system
dominated by Europe.36 No social class exists today which has such transnational loyalties and which can
transcend the numerous regional, religious and ethnic interests dividing the Middle East. In the context of
the modem Middle East, it would be impossible to write as Warburton did over a century ago of the
'immutability' of the East. The region has been galvanized by capitalist development, revolution, cultural
revival and war. Capitalism, as Marx predicted, has created a world in its own image, but Marx could not
have foreseen how diverse and complex that global image would become. The traditional divisions of
East/west, traditional/modern and backward/advanced make little sense in a world economy dominated by
production of exchange values by capitalist enterprises for the market. Marx also said that the present was
subject to the dead hand of the past, and this is perhaps nowhere more true than in the Middle East, where
the legacy of colonialism is oppressive. A new social stationeries may be developing which is characteristic
of the post-colonial state. Colonial administrations developed extensive state bureaucracies to achieve
political control and internal security. The post-colonial state provides patronage and employment in
societies where traditional capitalist roles are underdeveloped. In Algeria and Iraq, the planned development
of industrialization has been blocked by the absence of foreign markets for its commodities. In the under-
populated oil kingdoms of the desert, there is no local capacity to absorb the revenues from oil exports. In
Pakistan and Bangladesh, chronic underdevelopment has been accompanied by a rigid military,
bureaucratic alliance. In addition to Shiite and Sunni conflicts, the Islamic cultural region is deeply divided by
national rivalry and competition. Internal class divisions are thus constantly reinforced by the external
constraints of inequalities in the global economy. The class dynamic of peripheral regions within the global
economy is now closely tuned to the dynamic processes of capital growth and decline.
Page 62 of 103
SOLVENCY 3/3
WE HELP DEVELOP A LANGUAGE FROM WHICH TO DISCUSS ALTERNATIVES—EVERY

SOCIAL NODE BUILDS THIS COHERENCE
De Angelis ’03
(Massimo, Department of Economics University of East London, THE COMMONER, Winter,
http://www.commoner.org.uk/previous_issues.htm#n6, uw/mjs)
This movement has posed the question of a plurality of “alternatives” to the social processes and
arrangements that produce the horrors of modern global capital. In order to take the many calls for and
practices of alternatives seriously, we have to make them relevant to the real people at the fringe or outside
the movement. In other words, we want to move from movement to society not so much by persuading
people to “join” our movement, but through a language and a political practice that by tracing the
connections between diverse practices attempts to dissolve the distinctions between inside and outside the
movement, i.e., actually moves ‘from movement to society’. To make the possibility of a new world that contains many worlds an
actuality, we have to be able to shape our own discourse in such a way as to echo the needs and aspirations coming from below. We have to give coherence
to their plurality, without imposing a model or reiterating dead ideologies. We need a discourse that helps to
articulate the many alternatives that spring out of the points of crises of neoliberal capital, which seriously threaten to
dispossess people of their livelihood and impose on them new or more intensified commodified patterns of life. We need a discourse that builds on the
plurality of the many concrete struggles and their methods and help us to articulate a vision – not a plan – of the whole. Then we can better
evaluate what are the global implications of our local struggles, as well as the local implications of global struggles for the building of a world that contains many worlds.
we need a discourse that recognizes the power we have to shape alternatives, at every level in
But most of all,
society, that sets out from the simple fact that, contrarily to common belief, alternatives do exist, are
everywhere and plural. To clarify, I think that every social node, that is every individual or network of individuals is a bearer of alternatives. This is evident not
only when struggles erupt in any of the waged or unwaged local and trans-local nodes of social production. We just need to look around in the relative normality of daily
routines to see that every social node “knows” of different ways to do things within its life-world and sphere of action longs for a different space in which things can be done
in different ways. Each social node expresses needs and aspirations that are the basis of alternatives.
Page 63 of 103
ENVIRONMENT IMPACT SCENARIO 1/2
CAPITALISM IS DESTROYING THE ENVIRONMENT
Foster ‘04
[John Bellamy, “Ecology, Capitalism, and the Socialization of Nature,” Monthly
Review. Nov 2004 wdc//kq]
Of course, we are all responsible for our individual actions to a certain
point, but many of these actions are not entirely freely chosen, but
are elicited and compelled by the particular social structures within
which we operate. Marx, for instance, did not exactly paint capitalists
in rosy colors, and yet he, perhaps more than any other major social critic
of his time, refrained from blaming the failings of capitalism upon the
greedy motives and misdeeds of individuals. He realized that if people
are institutionally placed in the capitalist class, they can hardly be
blamed for operating according to the established rules of the market
and trying to get high returns on their stocks and investments. The
problem is that this impersonal, profit-driven market process tends
systematically to expropriate wealth from other people and destroy
the environment.
ECOLOGICAL DEVASTATION OF CAPITALISM IS DESTROYING DIVERSITY
Foster ‘04
Sadly, this basic principle holds little sway in our own society, which
is rapidly using up the natural environment on which future generations
depend. Most scientists now agree that 30–50 percent of all living
species are going to be killed off in this century. They call this “the sixth
extinction.” The last mass extinction on a comparable scale took place
65 million years ago, when the dinosaurs were killed off. We human
beings are doing this to the earth—not merely as individuals, but as part
of a social system that drives us in that direction and refuses to value
anything but the accumulation of capital.
(GET IMPACT)
Page 64 of 103
ENVIRONMENT IMPACT SCENARIO 2/2
CAPITALIST INSTITUTIONS CANNOT SIGNIFICANTLY ALTER THEMSELVES

TO COMBAT ENVIRONMENTAL DANGERS
Foster ‘04
I think so. As you know, I’ve recently been quite critical of the
the
strategies adopted by some groups. Take the example of
International Forum on Globalization and other similar organizations,
which are very good and very progressive in many respects. In some of
main policy prescription is to
their recent reports, however, their
“green” the World Bank, the WTO, and so on—that is, to somehow
make these institutions “greener” and more environmentally friendly.
I think that this approach is completely ludicrous. These institutions
are controlled primarily by capital, and their basic nature is not going to
change. They are merely instruments of other powerful forces that need
to be addressed. The whole purpose of the WTO, for instance, is to
expand global capital accumulation, primarily to the benefit of the rich-
est countries, by removing barriers to the international mobility of capital,
eliminating state subsidies and regulations, and basically applying
neoliberal prescriptions everywhere. To this extent, there is no way that
it can be “greened” in some way or turned into an environmental organization.
To move forward, we need to be not only a lot more organized, but
more realistic about the forces we’re up against, and more willing to
address the larger economic issues at the heart of today’s environmental
crisis. Most of all, the environmental movement needs to stop believing
that simply talking to elite groups will somehow lead to a
compromise that will save the environment. For the powers that be, the
primary goal of “sustainable development” has come to be that of sustaining
development—that is, sustaining economic development in the
rich countries and sustaining the process of capital accumulation. There
is no basis for a compromise with that kind of institutional reality.
WE HAVE A MORAL OBLIGATION TO FUTURE GENERATIONS
Foster ‘04
Any institutional reality that destroys the environment and leaves
future generations more impoverished in their relation to the natural
world is a kind of higher immorality. Marx once wrote that human
beings don’t own the earth, that we simply use it and have to conserve
and maintain it together for future generations. I think of this as the
basic moral principle underlying all questions of sustainability—a universal
guidepost for any society that believes that future generations
should have an equal chance to our own.
Page 65 of 103
MARXISM IS KEY TO ENVIRONMENT 1/2
MARXIST RATIONAL MATERIALISM AVOIDS SIMPLISTIC FRAMEWORKS

OF ENVIRONMENTALIST AND OFFERS INSIGHTS TOWARDS
SUSTAINABILITY
Foster ‘04
The failure to appreciate fully the contributions of Marx arises, in part, from the growing tendency to regard ecological values and forms
Today, it is often assumed that being
of understanding as fundamentally at odds with scientific and materialist modes of thought.
“ecological” means approaching the environment in a highly spiritualized and idealistic
manner, and steering clear of the instrumental, reductive, and antagonistic attitude toward nature supposedly exemplified by science
Accordingly, being an environmentalist means rejecting “anthropocentric” ideals,
and the Enlightenment.
cultivating a spiritual awareness of the inherent value of nature, and maybe even placing nature
above human beings. In contrast to this, there is another environmental tradition that has adopted a more
materialist outlook and has actually produced most of the ecological science on which current debates
over sustainability rest. This tradition in many ways recognized the environmental problem earlier
and more substantively and—in my opinion—has a lot more to contribute to our understanding of what to do about it today. What’s
more, it doesn’t create a simplistic binary framework in which you’re either anthropocentric or
ecocentric, pro-human or pro-nature. Instead, it has realized that our main object of concern needs to be the nature of the
interaction between humans and nature, the ways in which we organize our relation to nature. We have to recognize the intrinsic value of the
we also need to recognize that we cannot avoid transforming
natural world and strive to protect it, of course; but
nature as we work and live within it. To this extent, our goal should be to transform it in sustainable
ways, to develop a rational regulation of our relation to nature. Here, Marx actually provides a lot of insights about regulating our
relationship to the natural world, and about the ways in which environmental processes are intricately bound up
with the development of society and social relations. Unfortunately, subsequent traditions of Marxist analysis did not really
follow him, at least not for very long, in this direction, and the kernel of his ecological insights was lost. The anti-positivism of Western Marxism often
manifested itself in a simple neglect of or hostility toward science. In contrast, the “dialectical materialism” coming out of the Soviet Union was overly
positivistic and rested on a fetishized and distorted conception of science. Nuanced ecological analyses have tended to get lost in this split between, on
the one hand, a mechanized science that doesn’t leave room for human beings and, on the other hand, a hermeneutic, humanistic tradition thatrejects
science altogether. What
we need is a more rational materialism that squarely addresses ecological issues
and incorporates a concern for ecological crises and the need for sustainability into its economic
perspective. To the extent that Marx was one of the thinkers that first laid out the principles for this
type of materialism, I think that his work remains crucial for us today.
ADDRESSING MATERIAL NEEDS AND SYSTEMS IS A PREREQUISITE FOR

ENVIRONMENTAL SOLVENCY
Foster ‘04
My main point here is that if environmentalists adopt a single-issue approach, then they will simply
drive workers into the arms of capital. To be politically effective and to connect with a broader base,
they need to confront the issue of class. Most people in capitalist society are working class, and the
environmental movement isn’t likely to get very far if it gets too middle- or upper-class in its orientation, or simply ignores
class issues and says that the fate of laid-off workers should be left to the sanctions of the market.
Environmentalists need to avoid presenting people with a stark choice between protecting the environment and protecting the means by which they
live. Instead, they need to have a political program that addresses the social and material needs of workers
at the same time that it strives to protect the natural environment. This would help to develop a
common labor-environmentalist political strategy that is capable of promoting real change.
Page 66 of 103
MARXISM IS KEY TO ENVIRONMENT 2/2
LIFESTYLE CHANGES DON’T CHECK ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS—CAPITALISM

RENDERS CHOICE USELESS
Foster ‘04
Let me give you a concrete example. People are often told that, to be
environmentally responsible, they should make the personal choice not
to drive cars, and should instead make the effort to walk, ride a bicycle,
or use public transport. Practically speaking, however, this is not a
viable option for most people. Our roads, our jobs, and our whole urban
infrastructure are set up in ways that render it virtually impossible for
people to get along in their daily activities by walking or cycling, and
public transport is inadequate or nonexistent in most places. Under
these circumstances, it is not enough for us to say that people should
make personal choices that are compatible with the environment. We
need to organize politically to create the social structures—public
transport, intercity train systems, flexible work routines, new forms of
urban planning and land development, and so on—which will enable a
greater number of people actually to make those choices.
Page 67 of 103
Page 68 of 103
ISLAM CAN FIGHT CAPITALISM 1/6

ISLAMIC THEORISTS CONCEIVE OF THE HEGEMONIC STATE AS THE RESULT OF THE
CONSTRUCTED LINK BETWEEN THE STATE APPARATUS AND CIVIL SOCIETY. THIS
POWER RELATIONSHIP EXPLOITS THE ABILITY OF THE STATE TO DOMINATE CIVIL
SOCIETY AND CRUSHES ALL ELEMENTS THAT SEEM TO BE SUBVERSIVE TO THIS
ORGANISM'S MOVEMENT TO CONTROL CULTURE.
Butko, prof of poli sci @ U. Alberta, 04

[Thomas, “Revelation or Revolution: A Gramscian Approach to the Rise of Political Islam,”
British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 31(1), 41-62]
In their examination of the State, the contemporary Islamic theorists also conceive of the modern State as a
hegemonic formation by focusing on its ability to construct an organic link between state apparatus and civil
society. Sayyid Qutb allots the most attention to studying this type of hegemonic formation, primarily because of all
the writers examined here Nasser in Egypt had been the most successful in constructing a true hegemonic force.24
In Milestones, Qutb is clear on the symbiotic relationship that existed between the State and civil society in his
time, and the power such a relationship allowed the hegemon to possess. It [the hegemon] always takes on the
form of a living movement in a society which has its own leadership, its own concepts, and values, and its own
traditions, habits, and feelings. It is an organized society and there is close cooperation between its individuals, and
it is always ready to defend its existence consciously or unconsciously. It crushes all elements which seem
dangerous to its personality.
THE ISLAMIC CONCEPTION OF THE HEGEMONIC STATE AS A COMPOSITE ORGANISM IS

CRITICAL IN RAISING CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND BUILDING THE COUNTER-
HEGEMONIC FORCE. ONLY A COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF THE FOUNDATIONS THAT
ALLOW HEGEMONY TO EMERGE – THE VERY FOUNDATION FOR THE INFILTRATION OF
A DYNAMIC NEW WORLD VIEW IN OPPOSITION TO THE CURRENT ORDER.

In their analysis of the State, like Gramsci, the Islamists realise that an appreciation of the hegemonic
composition of the State has a more practical purpose in the construction of the revolutionary movement. Thus,
their conceptualization of the State is also primarily valued for its role in instructing and educating the supporters
of the counter-hegemonic force, while exposing the ‘evilness’ of the regime and the surrounding ja¯hiliyya
society.30 Like Gramsci, Qutb’s attempts to ‘know thine enemy’ and study its power structure is predicated on
the need to understand its fundamental strengths and weaknesses.31 Consequently, while Qutb rejects the
values and practices of the current hegemon, he realizes that only a complete understanding of its foundations
will allow the Islamists to seek its eventual destruction—through both word and deed. [A] Muslim can study all
the opinions and thoughts of the jahili writers, not from the point of view of constructing his own beliefs and
concepts, but for the purpose of knowing the deviations adopted by Ja¯hiliyya so he may know how to correct
these man-made deviations in the light of true Islamic belief and rebut them according to the sound principles of
Islamic teaching.32 For it is only after such ‘deviations’ have been analysed, and the differences in the structure
and superstructure acknowledged, that the counter-hegemon can begin a gradual infiltration of civil society
through a dissemination of a new and dynamic world-view.
Page 69 of 103

BY ACCEPTING ISLAM AS A POLITICAL IDEOLOGY INDIVIDUALS CAN
PROMOTE A CRITICAL SELF-AWARENESS OF THE ALIENATION BROUGHT
ON BY MODERN SECULAR SOCIETY AN SUCCESSFULLY DIVERGE FROM
THE FALSE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE HEGEMONY.
In addition to its role as a unifier of divergent interests, Gramsci understands that

an effective ideology must also promote a type of critical self-awareness (i.e.,
change of consciousness) within the individual.39 For the Islamists, it is clear that
accepting Islam as a political ideology, and rejecting the secularism of modern
Muslim society that has attempted to contain Islam to the private realm,
constitutes a fundamental change in orientation for the majority of Muslims.
While this change in consciousness bears similarities to Marxist arguments
regarding the ‘false consciousness’ of the working class and Gramsci’s usage of
‘common sense’, for Islamic writers such as Mawdudi and Qutb, this new
understanding involves the need for one to emancipate him or her self from
one’s ‘secular’ environment and become more aware of God and one’s duty
towards Him. Perhaps ‘God consciousness’, or the term Mawdudi employs,
‘taqwa’, is a more accurate description.
ISLAM FUNCTIONS AS A COMPLETELY NEW IMAGINATION OF THE WORLD BECAUSE IT

IS SELF-SUFFICIENT, AUTONOMOUS IDEOLOGY CAPABLE OF REMEDYING
CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS IN MODERN MUSLIM SOCIETIES. THE HOLISITIC NATURE
OF ISLAM ALLOWS IT TRANSFORM INTO A POLITICAL MOVEMENT WITH SOCIAL
JUSTICE AS THE CLEAR SOCIOECONOMIC AIM.

If the role of a legitimately ‘revolutionary’ ideology is to seek a total and

separate world conception by providing a clear and distinct counter-discourse to
the dominant ideology,44 a central feature of Islam, as a political ideology, is that
it is conceived as both self-sufficient and autonomous in its ability to address and
rectify all the contemporary problems confronted by modern Muslim societies.
In fact, Hasan al-Banna, as the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, emphasised
the holistic nature of Islam and established it as a core component of his
organisation’s platform and, in the process, transformed his movement from
solely a religious organisation into a political movement with clear socioeconomic
aims.45 In terms of this totality, Hasan al-Banna writes ‘we believe that
Islam is an all-embracing concept which regulates every aspect of life, adjudicating
on every one of its concerns and prescribing for it a solid and rigorous order’.
Page 70 of 103
THE VANGUARD IS THE CRITICAL ORGAN OF ANY REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT

BECAUSE OF THE ABSOLUTE COMMITMENT TO THE REVOLUTIONARY GOAL. ISLAMIC
POLITICAL MOVEMENTS HAVE THE NECESSARY VANGUARD TO OVERCOME THE
CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY IN THEIR STRUCTURE TO BEAR THE BURDEN OF SERVING
GOD AND THE MESSAGE.

The second core component of any revolutionary organisation is the vanguard

of the party. In other words, for a counter-hegemonic force to be successful there
must be present a small ‘inner circle’ of individuals who are willing to lead the
movement in all facets of its ideological teachings, organisational structure, and
strategic planning. While the strategic role of the vanguard within the Marxist
tradition is well established,59 contemporary Islamic theorists also focus on the
importance of an inner circle in the Islamic struggle. For his part, Mawdudi
addresses the moral qualities and personal attributes necessary for those particular
(i.e., ‘special’) individuals who seek to assume a more prominent role in the
development of the Islamic movement.60 Meanwhile, according to Mitchell,
al-Banna’s vanguard or inner circle is ‘a group of the most dedicated and active
members, on whom could be placed the primary burden of serving God and the
message’.61 Yet, it is Sayyid Qutb, in his book Milestones,62 who most succinctly
examines the essential role the vanguard must perform in terms of the overall
revolutionary struggle.
It is necessary that there should be a vanguard which sets out with this determination and
then keeps walking on the path, marching through the vast ocean of Jahiliyyah which has
encompassed the entire world. During its course, it should keep itself somewhat aloof
from this all-encompassing Jahiliyyah and should also keep some ties with it.63
While the role of the ‘vanguard’ is more closely associated with Qutb than
Mawdudi or al-Banna, it is clear that all three share the view that a ‘coalition of
committed individuals’ is necessary in forming the core and the ‘vital organic
cell’ of the Islamic movement,64 since without such a dedicated group the
ja¯hiliyya society will never be confronted, let alone destroyed.
Page 71 of 103
THE SELF-DEDICATION AND DISCIPLINE REQUIRED BY ISLAM CREATES THE

INDIVIDUAL MASS TO OVERCOME THE DOMINANT ORDER AND ACHIEVE A NEW WAY
OF LIFE.

[Thomas, “Revelation or Revolution: A Gramscian Approach to the Rise of Political Islam,” British Journal of Middle Eastern
Studies, 31(1), 41-62]
The final organisational component of the revolutionary movement Gramsci stresses is the ‘mass’, or
the individual element. In fact, it is the necessity of having the individual members of the organisation
actively participate in the revolutionary struggle that differentiated Gramsci most significantly from
many of his predecessors within both the Marxist movement and his own Socialist/Communist Party
in Italy. Gramsci stresses the inherent value of each and every individual by declaring that since ‘all
men are philosophers’,65 they should be considered ‘intellectuals’ in the grander sense. Thus, it is
only through the active participation of the individual members of the party and the concrete
interaction between the leadership and the masses that the type of environment conducive to
revolutionary activity will be created. In the end, an increased level of mass preparation is central to
the revolutionary process since Gramsci believes that: ‘The [entire] problem [of revolutionary
construction] was to reconstruct a hegemonic apparatus for these formerly passive and apolitical
elements.’66 Like Gramsci, the Islamists focus on the centrality of the individual in the counter-
hegemonic struggle. In fact, at its heart Islam is an individualistic religion that requires self-dedication
and discipline in terms of many of its core practices (e.g., five daily prayers). For Mawdudi, the
individual remains the essential foundation of the movement and, thus, the success of the
organization is necessarily rooted in individual commitment, conduct, and character, and the
willingness of individual members of the movement to translate Islam from simply a religion (i.e., as it
is conceived in the West) into a total and complete way of life.
THE OBEDIENCE OF INDIVIDUALS TO THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT IS

ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL FOR THE SUCCESS OF ESTABLISHING A COUNTER-
HEGEMONIC BLOC. ISLAMIC POLITICAL IDEOLOGY BASES THE SOLIDARITY OF THE
MOVEMENT ON THE CONVICTION TO THE LEADERSHIP BECAUSE IT IS BASED ON A
FREE CHOICE TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE MOVEMENT'S PURPOSE.

Studies, 31(1), 41-62]
While the formal structure of the movement is essential to Gramsci’s formulation of a successful counter-
hegemonic bloc, he also advocates those more traditional characteristics and qualities sought by all political
organisations. Thus, Gramsci understands the importance of attributes such as discipline and obedience to
the leadership of the movement. In that sense, Gramsci argues ‘that obedience must be automatic’ and
‘must be unquestioning’.68 Each of the Islamic theorists examined here also comprehend the importance
of those qualities and characteristics emphasised by Gramsci. Consequently, a primary requirement is an
unswerving obedience towards the leadership and complete discipline in terms of the greater movement,
forming what al-Banna refers to as a ‘social contract’ (aqd ijtima i) between the ruler and the ruled.69 On the
issue of obedience to the movement’s leadership, al-Banna is unequivocal: ‘Listen and obey your leaders
both in duress and comfort, in good times and bad, for this is the token of your conviction and the bonds of
solidarity among you.’70 Yet, like Gramsci, al-Banna also realises that individuals cannot be
coerced into giving obedience, but that such adherence must be granted freely and willingly.71 Of course, in
the case of al-Banna, it was his own leadership qualities and personal charisma that allowed him to
consistently receive the unquestioning support of his followers.
Page 72 of 103

FAITH IS ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL TO SUCCESSFUL REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS
BECAUSE THEY REQUIRE UNWAVERING SUPPORT OF THE METHOD AND GOAL OF THE
MOVEMENT. THE ROLE OF UNQUESTIONED FAITH IN THE AIMS OF THE REVOLUTION IS
THE ONLY WAY TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS THROUGH CONCRETE ACTION.

Studies, 31(1), 41-62]
As a political ideology rooted in religious belief it is not surprising that the

Islamists also emphasise the determining role of faith and conviction towards the
leadership in general and, consequently, the ultimate objectives of the movement.
Al-Banna is very clear on the need for individual Brethren to have
credence in one’s ideology and a deep-seated conviction in one’s religion and its
goals,75 while Mawdudi argues that only a solid and unquestioning faith can
provide the foundations for a truly Islamic system.76 Yet, once more, it is Qutb
who most succinctly summarises the crucial role to be performed by a resolute
faith and absolute belief in the ‘truth’ of one’s conviction. According to Qutb:
‘The superiority of faith is not a mere single act of will nor a passing euphoria
nor a momentary passion, but is a sense of superiority based on the permanent
truth centred in the very nature of existence.’77 In each case, the role of an
unquestioned faith in the ultimate aims of the movement form the foundation on
which any revolutionary organization must be constructed if the ‘truth’ of these
goals is to be realised through concrete action.
THE ONLY POSSIBILITY OF AVOIDING COOPTATION BY THE STATE IS TO CREATE A

TOTALLY DIFFERENT GOVERNING IDEOLOGY OF THE COUNTER-HEGEMONIC
MOVEMENT WITH UNWAVERING FAITH IN TOTAL SEPARATION FROM THE HEGEMONIC
ORDER AS YOU DESTROY IT.

Studies, 31(1), 41-62]
In much the same vein, the main Islamist writers argue that once the masses have been
sufficiently (re)educated in the principles of Islam, the next step is the active creation (i.e.,
separation) of two dialectically opposed forces. It is imperative that these two blocs be both total
in their opposition and universal in their confrontation, for only a counter-hegemonic bloc
presenting a truly alternative conception of the world, separate and independent from its
opponents, can eventually embark on a strategy of jihad.101 In terms of constructing this
movement in complete and total opposition to the current socio-political order, Emmanuel Sivan
is the most succinct. The counter-society must be capable of being self-enclosed in order to avoid
fragmentation or abdication. It must prevent alien influences from penetrating it, yet remain
sufficiently open and aggressive to draw from the outside whatever it cannot produce. It must
pursue the dream of ultimately being a majority. It struggles to demolish the old society while at
the same time hoping to become the heir to that society.102 Consequently, the aim of this
movement must be to consciously separate itself from the current social order, while
simultaneously attempting to destroy it entirely.
Page 73 of 103

JIHAD IS NOT JUST ARMED STRUGGLE, IT IS A CONSTANT PHYSICAL,
MORAL, SPIRITUAL AND INTELLECTUAL EFFORT TO CREATE A JUST AND
DECENT SOCIETY WHERE THE POOR ARE NOT EXPLOITED.
Studies, 31(1), 41-62]
While the precise meaning of jihad remains a contentious issue of debate

within the Islamic discourse,109 it is clear to most observers that jihad does not
infer solely military conflict but, instead, encompasses all aspects of the
revolutionary struggle. According to Armstrong:
[T]he root jhd implies more than a ‘holy war’. It signifies a physical, moral, spiritual,
and intellectual effort …it was and remains a duty for Muslims to commit themselves to
the struggle on all fronts—moral, spiritual, and political—to create a just and decent
society, where the poor and vulnerable are not exploited in the way that God had
intended man to live.110
Gilani also argues that despite what many may ascertain, especially in the West,
jihad does not simply infer physical confrontation.
THE ISLAMIC REJECTION OF THE SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL EMPTINESS

OF MODERNIZATION AND GLOBAL CAPITALISM IS THE BINDING AGENT IN
THE FORMULATION OF A COUNTER-HEGEMONIC MOVEMENT.

Studies, 31(1), 41-62]
The Islamic theorists also realise that for a revolutionary movement to be successful it
must gain the support of a significant segment of society and address the concerns of
that ‘group of individuals’ most inclined to back a new counter-hegemonic bloc. Like
Gramsci, the Islamists do not seek to define ‘the group’ specifically in economic terms
(i.e., class-based); instead they argue that many relevant factors influence an
individual’s decision to support a counterhegemonic bloc that cannot be reduced solely
to economics. Consequently, the discourse of political Islam seeks to unify individuals on
the level of ideas and a common world perception, not necessarily by economic status
or on the basis of material deprivation. With rapid modernisation and, in many cases,
failed economic development, many individuals in the Muslim world are searching for
greater meaning in life, brought about by increased feelings of ‘spiritual’ inadequacy.
Consequently, recent attempts at industrialisation have only assisted in exacerbating the
malaise created by the failures to construct a modern capitalist society. In the end, it is
this vacuum—both economic and spiritual—that the contemporary Islamic movements
hope to fill.
Page 74 of 103
LEFTISM-ISLAM ALLIANCE BUILDING
MANY MEMBERS OF LEFTIST-MARXIST GROUPS IN ISLAMIC NATIONS ARE

FINDING THAT IF ONE SHELVES THE QUESTION OF SECULARISM THEY ARE
ABLE TO FORGE COMMON GROUND, BUILDING SOLIDARITY IN THE MOVEMENT
BOWERS, 2004
Michelle,Assistant Professor at Wake Forest University. “Arab Socialism: Crisis and
Marginalization”, Theory and Event, 2004, 7:2 //WDC-Guy
On the other hand, as the opening speeches of the three "Nationalist-Islamist" Conferences held by the Center for Arab Unity
Studies (CAUS) in Beirut during October 1994, October 1997, January 2000, and January 2002 attest, a new trend in Arab
nationalism/socialism is based on the view that the Islamists can be they can nationalized (Arabized)
and rationalized.7 There are many trends in Islam and these socialists find that if they are willing to
shelve the question of secularism they are able to find plenty of meeting points with at least some of
the Islamists.8 Further, Arab nationalists likely have some political strategic interests in allying
themselves more closely with the predominant oppositional force in the region. According to the Islamist
historian, Basheer Nafi, In the root of the [Arab Nationalist-Islamic Conference's] founding were some of the
fundamental changes that the Arab state and politics experienced after the third Arab-Israeli war of 1967. The
1967 defeat was not only seen as the ultimate failure of the Arab state but also signaled the beginning of the end
for the alliance between the ruling clique and the Arab nationalist intellectual. For the great majority of Arab
intellectuals, disengagement from the state's bankrupt project looked now as the only way for survival. While the
Arab nationalist intellectual joined the forces of opposition, the state entered the postnationalist age
in which ideological authoritarianism was replaced with self-serving policies of limited political
openness.[A]s the distance between the Arab intellectual and the state evidently increased, the
intellectuals discourse grew more and more to resemble that of the Islamist.
CURRENT COALITION BUILDING BETWEEN ISLAMISTS AND

NATIONALIST-SOCIALISTS HAVE LEAD TO FORGING ALLIANCES ON
MANY ISSUES INCLUDING PALESTINE, WEST-ARAB RELATIONS, AND
ANTI-AUTHORITARIANISM
BOWERS, 2004
Michelle,Assistant Professor at Wake Forest University. “Arab Socialism: Crisis and
Marginalization”, Theory and Event, 2004, 7:2 //WDC-Guy
The most striking change is that, although the first conferences took the title of "The National- Nationalist-
Religious Conference" (al-Mu'tamar al-qawmi al-dini), the later conferences were specified as dialogue
between nationalist and Islamic thinkers (al-Mu'tamar al-qawmi al-islami). Despite some continuity among
the participants, less effort was exerted at the later conferences to account for the plurality of religions
in the region, while the central importance of Islam as a regional political force is duly acknowledged.
In general, there is a shift from the "National-Religious" and the "National-Islamist" conferences -- and even a shift
between the first and second "National-Islamist" conferences toward including fewer university professors and
more heads and members of movements, parties and organizations, as well as professionals, predominantly
lawyers, doctors and politicians. Further, the backgrounds of the participants in the 1997 conference are less
readily known from the names and, in a number of instances, it is difficult to differentiate the representatives of
Islamism from those representing nationalism.11 The exceptions to this are the increasing number of party and
movement representatives, including several well-known Islamists -- most significantly, Hizbullah Secretary-
General al-Sayyid Hasan Nasrallah (b. 1960), whom CAUS director Khayr al-Din Hasib describes as "the
representative of the new discourse of the Arab movement."12 As the opening remarks of the conference
attest, Arab nationalists/socialists and the Islamists unite around the Palestinian issue, relations
between the US/West and the Arabs and, to varying extent, around the issue of democracy,
understood as anti-authoritarianism.
Page 75 of 103
ISLAM BAD 1/2

CONSCIOUS STRUGGLE AGAINST RELIGION IS A PREREQUISITE FOR POSITIVE CHANGE

Secularism must be defined as it is usually understood in everyday usage. Without

attributing too much radicalism to it. Secularism means the separation of religion from
the state and education, the separation of religion from a citizen's identity and the
definition of a citizen's rights and responsibilities. Turning religion into a private affair.
Where a person's religion does not enter the picture in defining their social and political
identity and in their interaction with the state and bureaucracy. In view of this, secularism
is a collection of minimum requirements. I, for example, cannot fit my entire stance
regarding religion and its place in society into this concept. I do not just want secularism,
but also society's conscious struggle against religion - in the same way that a segment
of society's resources are spent on fighting malaria and cholera, and conscious policies
are made against misogyny, racism and child abuse, some resources and energy ought
to be allocated to de-religionisation. By religion I of course mean the religious machinery
and defined religions and not religious thought or even belief in ancient or existing
religions. I am an anti-religious person and want society to impose more limitations,
beyond mere secularism, on organised religion and the 'religion industry.' If the law
required religions to register as private foundations or profit making companies, pay
taxes, face inspection and obey various laws, including labour laws, children's rights,
laws controlling the prohibition of sexual discrimination, defamation, libel and incitement
as well as laws protecting animals, etc. and if the 'religion industry' was treated like the
'tobacco industry,' only then would we approach a principled position on religion and the
legal scope of its expression in society.
SHOULD TREAT RELIGIONS LIKE MATERIAL, CORPORATE INSTITUTIONS;

CRITIQUE OF INSTITUTIONAL RELIGION DOESN’T CONSTITUTE AN ATTACK ON
BELIEFS
As I have mentioned, I am referring to organised religion and 'religion industries' and not
religious beliefs. Anyone can have any beliefs, express them, publicise them and organise around
them. The question is what regulations society puts in place to protect itself. Today society tries
to protect children from the tobacco industry's advertising. The religion industry's advertising
could be treated in exactly the same way. Smokers have all their rights and can establish any
association and institution to advertise the benefits of tobacco and unite all smokers, but this does
not mean giving a green light to the tobacco industry. The machinery of Islam and the other main
religions (Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, etc.) are not voluntary societies of believers of
specific ideas; they are enormous political and financial institutions, which have never been
properly scrutinised, have not been subject to secular laws in society and have never accepted
responsibility for their conduct. No one took Mr. Khomeini to court for issuing a death fatwa
against Salman Rushdie; notwithstanding that inciting to murder is a crime in all countries of the
world. And this is only a small corner of a network of murder, mutilation, intimidation,
abduction, torture, and child abuse. I think that the Medellin drug cartels (Escobars), the Chinese
triads, and Italian (and American) mafia are nothing in comparison to organised religion. I am
speaking of a legitimate and organised struggle by a free and open society against these
enterprises and institutions. At the same time, I regard believing in anything, even the most
backward and inhuman doctrines, as the undeniable right of any individual.
Page 76 of 103
ISLAM BAD 2/2

MODERATION OF ISLAM IS IMPOSSIBLE--THE PREVIOUS ATTEMPTS
TO REFORM RELIGIOUS MERELY HIDE THE TRUE NATURE OF
REVOLUTION AND SECULARIZATION. WHAT IS NEEDED IS A MASS
ANTI-RELIGIOUS UPRISING.
I think the Left's intellectual fatigue and the blows which radical and critical thought and social
idealism took from the mid-70s onward, have also afflicted many Left and well-wishing
intellectuals with a regrettable tactical, stage-ist, gradualist and evolutionist view of the struggle
for basic human ideals. A hundred years ago, the avant-garde humanity would have laughed at
the proposition that human liberation could be achieved through priests, moderation of religion
and the emergence of new interpretations from within the church. Today, sadly, 'professional
scholars' and academics can prescribe that the Iranian woman can for now take secularism to
mean the addition of a lighter shade of black to the officially approved colours for the veil. In my
opinion, this overlooks the dynamics of revolution and change in society. Up to now, the world
has advanced through upheavals - spectacular and swift transformations in thought, technique and
social relations.
In my opinion, what is utopian and impossible is moderation of Islam and a gradual
transformation of Islamic regimes to secular governments. And what is real and probable, and in
the case of Iran, now inevitable, is the realisation of secularism through a mass anti-religious
uprising, against existing governments and all the different interpretations and readings of Islam.
Page 77 of 103
AT PERMUTATIONS
FIRST, YOU CAN’T PERMUTE A METHOD K. OUR ARGUMENT IS THAT YOUR

CONSTRUCTION OF THE 1AC IS FAULTY. YOU CAN’T PERMUTE THAT
ARGUMENT.
AND, ANY PERMUTATION THAT INCLUDES ACTIONS OF THE RULING ORDER

ENTRENCHES A “THIRD WAY” ILLUSION THAT WILL CULMINATE IN NUCLEAR
ANIHILATION
MESZAROS (Prof. Emeritus, Philosophy, Univ. of Sussex) ‘01

[lstvan, Socialism or Barbarism: From the American Century to the Crossroads, p. 37-38]
Those who talk about the ‘third way” as the solution to our dilemma, asserting that there can be no room for the revival
of a radical mass movement, either want to deceive us by cynically calling their slavish acceptance of the ruling order
“the third way,’ or fail to realize the gravity of the situation, putting their faith in a wishfully non-conflictual positive
outcome that has been promised for nearly a century but never approximated even by one inch. The uncomfortable
truth of the matter is that if there is no future for a radical mass movement in our time, there can be no future for
humanity itself. If I had to modify Rosa Luxemburg’s dramatic words, in relation to the dangers we now face, I would
add to ‘socialism or barbarism” this qualification: “barbarism if we are lucky.” For the extermination of humanity is the
ultimate concomitant of capital’s destructive course of development. And the world of that third possibility, beyond the
alternatives of “socialism or barbarism,” would be fit only for cockroaches. which are said to be able to endure lethally
high levels of nuclear radiation.
AND, NO SOLVENCY, LIBERATION IS ALL OR NOTHING
Hekmat, (Marxist Author) 1993

[Mansoor, “Democracy: Interpretations and Realities” accessed on 8-6-07 from
Marxists.org wdc-ck]
The discussion of freedom, from a Marxist viewpoint, is carried out on an entirely
different plane. The subject matter of democracy is ‘legitimate government’. Freedom,
however, is not a concept related to the form of government, or the relation of the
individual to the state. It is related, rather, to state per se and the existence or non-
existence of the state. The pivotal issue in the discussion of freedom is class, class
exploitation, and class suppression. This is the origin of state. The condition for the real
freedom of human beings is the elimination of class division, termination of the
exploitation of a part of society by another, the annihilation of the foundations of
suppression and exclusion from freedom, and, as a result, the withering away of the
state as the instrument for imposing class interests and maintaining class superiority.
Not only does the parliamentary system fail to come one step closer to these concepts,
it is itself one of the obstacles humanity has to surpass on the way to total and real
freedom. The concept of freedom in Marxism is not divisible into the domains of politics
and economics or society and the intellect. Liberation is total liberation, internally and
externally. The very process that eliminates the external obstacles for the exercise of the
free will of human beings, will also eliminate his/her alienation and all the material
interests and the topsy-turvy spirituality that drives the people to be morally resigned to
inequality and subjugation, and accept the roles of the suppressor and the suppressed.
Page 78 of 103
AT CAP GOOD GENERAL

FIRST, THIS ‘FREE’ MARKET IS IMPOSSIBLE—THE CONTRADICTIONS BETWEEN CAPITAL
AND LABOR MAKE IT SO
MESZAROS (Prof. Emeritus @ Univ. Sussex) 1995 [Istavan, Beyond Capital: Towards a Theory of Transition, // wyo] p. 163
The impossibility to either make competition happily prevail, through the instrumentality of the mythical ‘free market’, or
to achieve the unchallengeable dominance of monopoly, thanks to the permanent cornering of all important domains of both production and
distribution, puts into relief the insoluble contradictions of the capital system both on the plane of the material
reproductive structures and in the field of politics. The ‘individuality’ stressed with the customary ‘uncritical positivism’ by Hegel imposes
its ultimately insurmountable negative limits even on the biggest of the giant monopolistic (or quasi- monopolistic) corporations, as well as on the
most powerful national states. There can be no way out of these structurally limiting constraints on capital’s material ground: ‘infected with
contingency’ and suffering from incurable instability. For capital’s material productive structures cannot be reproduced, on the
required expanded scale, without the perpetuation of the — by its very nature unstable — capital/labour antagonism.
AND, THEIR “CAP GOOD” ARGUMENTS DON’T EVEN GET THROUGH THE DOOR—THE
MARKET FAILS IN AT LEAST FIVE WAYS, IN COUNTRIES WITH AND WITHOUT GROWTH
Mayer ’06 (Tom, professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado, “Review,” CULTURAL
LOGIC, http://clogic.eserver.org/2006/mayer.html, uw/mjs)
7. The critique of neoclassical economic theory, with its market fetishism and insistence upon a minimal economic role for
government, is one of the strongest features of Naming the System. The text provides evidence about five different kinds
of
market failures: (1) failure to provide goods whose benefits are general rather than specific (e.g. lighthouses), (2)
failure to eliminate established economic inequalities, (3) failure to consider social and environmental costs to
which no prices are attached, (4) failure to allow entry into markets dominated by large firms, and (5) failure to
reduce involuntary unemployment during economic depressions. Although Yates identifies many problems with
neoclassical theory as a whole, he also differentiates two important camps within it: liberals and libertarians. 8. The liberals, of whom
Keynes is the most important thinker, recognize the existence of market failures. They see that full employment will not occur
automatically, and favor an activist government to make it happen. This government should manage the economy in the public interest
using methods like differential taxation, minimum wages, government spending, income subsidies, and regulation of capital flows.
World War Two, which finally pulled the United States out of the Great Depression, validated the liberal approach, and the quarter
century following the war was the heyday of liberal economic policy. 9. The libertarian branch of neoclassical theory, which currently
includes the great majority of professional economists, has dominated the discipline over the last three decades. Libertarians --
sometimes called market fundamentalists -- fervently reject most forms of government economic intervention including price subsidies,
restrictions on foreign trade, and environmental regulations. Regulation of the money supply by a central bank is sufficient to prevent
depressions and iron out recessions. The Great Depression of the 1930s resulted from bad government policy. Libertarians claim that
globalization and the electronic revolution have made Keynesian macroeconomic policies impotent and irrelevant. 10. The
inadequacies of neoclassical economic theory are most glaringly evident in the poor countries of the capitalist
world system. The poverty of these countries, according to the theory, results from insufficient capital. Economic policy should aim at
attracting capital from abroad by removing all barriers to foreign investment. In particular, poor countries should specialize in lines of
production that involve cheap labor, with which they are well endowed. But empirical evidence does not support these policies. Most
poor countries adopted neoliberal policies after 1980, but their growth rates subsequently declined. NAFTA [North
American Free Trade Agreement], which was crafted along neoliberal lines, increased inequality both within and between the
participating countries. In general, the condition of poor countries deteriorated substantially after opening their
economies to foreign capital. Their problems derive from the structure of the global capitalist system and their
positions within it, not from the misguided behavior of their people. 11. The deficiencies of neoclassical theory
are also apparent in the rich countries of the capitalist world system. Contrary to its predictions, minimum wage laws do
not cause more unemployment. Indeed, careful research shows that the relationship between wage and unemployment
rates tends to be inverse -- higher wages associated with lower unemployment -- rather than direct -- higher
wages associated with higher unemployment -- as neoclassical economists proclaim. The popularity of this
theory among business elites and professional economists is not due to scientific success or predictive power,
but to its use in justifying capitalism.
Page 79 of 103
AT “CAPITALISM INEVITABLE” 1/2
ASSERTING CAPITALISM AS INEVITABLE MYSTIFIES THE CONSTRUCTED

NATURE OF THE SYSTEM, NATURALIZING OUR SUBJUGATION TO CAPITAL
p. 94
THE self-serving slogan of ‘there is no alternative’ is often coupled with an equally tendentious clause of
self-justification which proclaims that ‘in the real world there can be no alternative to the advocated course
of action (or inaction). This proposition is supposed to be a self-evident truth, automatically exempting all
those who continue to assert it from inconveniencing themselves with the burden of proof.
Yet, the moment we ask the question, what sort of ‘real world’ are they talking about, it becomes clear that
it is an utterly fictitious one. For the structural defects and explosive antagonisms of the world in which we
actually happen to live are apologetically denied or blindly disregarded by those who expect us to believe
that in the ‘real world’ there is no alternative to the meek acceptance of the conditions necessary for the
trouble-free functioning of the global capital system.
In the name of reason, common sense, and ‘real politics’ we are invited to resign ourselves to the existing
state of affairs, no matter how destructive its antagonisms. For within the parameters of the established
order — eternalized as the rational framework of the fundamentally unalterable ‘real world’, with ‘human
nature’ and its corresponding ideal reproductive instrumentality: the ‘market mechanism’, etc. — no
solutions can be envisaged to the ubiquitous contradictions.
Thus we are expected to pretend to ourselves that classes and class contradictions no longer exist or no
longer matter. Accordingly, the only viable course of action in the thus postulated ‘real world’ is supposed
to he to ignore, or to ‘explain away’ the evidence of structural instability provided by our own eyes,
wishfully sweeping under an imaginary carpet the chronic problems and crisis symptoms of growing
severity with which our social order confronts us every day.
Page 80 of 103
AT “CAPITALISM INEVITABLE” 2/2
CLAIMS OF CAPITALISM’S HISTORICAL INEVITABLITY ARE LIES—APOLOGISTS FOR

CAPITALISM DISTORT AN IDEALIZED MODEL FOR AN ETERNAL SYSTEM, DAMNING US
ALL TO EXTINCTION
p. 136-137
THE defenders of capital cannot acknowledge the historical character and limits of the
established mode and structures of reproductive mediation. In their eagerness to eternalize the
capital system as one to which there can be no alternative they try to characterize a highly
specific mode of socioeconomic based on the historically constituted rule of capital, as if it was in
its substance timeless and possessed an absolutely unquestionable, universal validity. Nothing
illustrates this better than Hayek’s category of ‘the extended order’. For even with regard to the
most remote past, ‘time’ appears on its horizon only as a mechanical quantitative notion — the
inexplicable but wholly commendable ‘extension’ in the quantity of material reproduction, which
in Hayek’s view equals ‘civilization’. Only a madman, opting for the liquidation of humanity,
could question the necessity of maintaining ‘the extended economic order’, whose ‘extension’,
according to Hayek, constitutes its absolute justification forever in the future. Naturally, in the
course of such reasoning all of the specific — positive or negative but always qualitatively
significant — defining characteristics of capital’s mode of ‘extended reproduction disappear from
the picture, in the interest of eternalizing apologetics. The primary social metabolic functions
without which humanity could not possibly survive even in the most ideal form of society —from
the biological reproduction of the individuals to the regulation of the conditions of economic and
cultural reproduction — are crudely equated with their capitalist varieties, no matter how
problematical the latter might be. Even the qualitative redimensioning of the specific second
order mediations of the historically earlier forms of hierarchical domination and subordination is
ignored or obliterated, reaching the desired conclusions of capital-eternalizing apologetics on the
basis of the telling assumption that domination as such is ‘natural’ and insurmountable. From this
position only a short step is needed, of course, to Hayek’s earlier quoted absurd assertion
according to which the poor owe their very existence and ‘well being’ to the rich, and they should
be eternally grateful for it.
Page 81 of 103
AT “HUMAN NATURE”
MULTIPLE FORMS OF HISTORICAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION DISPROVE

CAPITALISM IS HUMAN NATURE
Harry Magdoff, editor, and Fred Magdoff, Professor, Plant and Soil Science, University of Vermont,
“Approaching Socialism,” MONTHLY REVIEW v. 57 n. 3, July-August 2005. Available from the World Wide
Web at: www.monthlyreview.org/0705magdoffs1.htm, accessed 4/12/06.
Among the arguments against socialism is that it goes against human nature. “You can’t change human nature” is the
frequently heard refrain. That may be true of basic human instincts such as the urge to obtain food to eat, reproduce,
seek shelter, make and wear protective clothing. However, what has usually been referred to as “human nature” has
changed a great deal during the long history of humankind. As social systems changed, many habits and behavioral
traits also changed as people adapted to new social structures. Anatomically modern humans emerged some 150,000
to 200,000 years ago. Over the tens of thousands of years since, many different kinds of social organizations and
societies have developed. Initially, most were based on hunting and gathering, while for about the last 7,000 years
many have been based on agriculture. These societies were organized as clans, villages, tribes, city-states, nations,
and/or empires.
Page 82 of 103
AT BACKLASH
DIFFICULTY AND BACKLASH ARE NOT REASONS TO REJECT THE MOVEMENT

—THERE’S NO OTHER WAY OUT, AND ALLOWING THE WORKING CLASS TO
CONTROL THE ALTERNATIVE SOLVES
North 2004
(David, Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/nov2004/dnor-n15.shtml)
We neither deny nor minimize the difficulties that will arise in the struggle for socialism in the
United States. The impact of decades of anti-Communist propaganda and witch hunting, the
corruption and betrayals of the trade unions, the relative absence of a politically-engaged
intelligentsia, the low level of popular culture and the degrading influence of the mass media, the
traditions of national insularity, the persistence of “rugged individualism,” and the pragmatic
disdain for history and theoretical generalizations—all these are factors which complicate the
struggle for socialist class consciousness. But we take as our point of departure the objective
implications of the crisis of American and world capitalism. Moreover, however complicated the
process, social being does in the final analysis determine social consciousness. As Leon Trotsky
once said so well, history will in the long run cut a path to the consciousness of the working class.
American workers will find no other way to solve the problems arising out of the crisis of
capitalism except along the path of socialism and internationalism. All other paths lead to
catastrophe. That is the alternative that confronts the working class. The responsibility of the
Socialist Equality Party and the World Socialist Web Site is to confront the working class, as
clearly and precisely as we can, with this alternative. As long as we do this, we can leave it to the
working class to decide which alternative they prefer.
Page 83 of 103
AT: YOU’RE TOO RIGID/STRUCTURALIST

OR VANGUARDISM BAD
WE NEED A SELF-CONSCIOUS ORGANIZED WORKERS MOVEMENT IN

ORDER TO MOVE BEYOND CAPITAL AND ANSWER BACK ANTI-
COMMUNIST MOVEMENTS
Hekmat,(Marxist Author) 1992

[Mansoor, “Marxism and the World Today” Accessed on 8-6-07 at
www.marxists.org, wdc-ck]
I also think that this is a tangible fact and is a cause for serious concern. Working class’s political self-
expression is not a simple continuation of economic struggle. ‘Workers’, in the demographic sense of the
term, have hardly ever intervened in politics. Worker participates in political struggle through worker parties,
be it reformist or revolutionary. Today we have situation where all organizational and political traditions that,
in one way or another, served as a vehicle for political intervention of workers in society, like social
democracy and various strands of communism, have hit the bottom. To expect that workers, without political
parties to rally around, can step much beyond the economic arena is an a- historical and absurd expectation. I
don’t think that the social democracy is even interested any more to be portrayed as the political expression
of the unionist labour movement. They have to a large extent abandoned workers and focused on the middle
social strata. Furthermore, social democracy lacks a clear social and economic programme. Everything,
therefore, depends on the course of worker- communism. I think serious efforts must be made to, firstly,
neutralize the current anti-communist offensive and secondly, form worker-communist parties engaged in
organizing workers as a class and involved in the political struggle. Without this, even if workers manage to
defend and preserve certain economic gains, we shall still end up with a much more anti-worker political and
ideological balance. The period we are just entering will not be lacking in working class protest movements
and actions. But the outcome of these struggles and specifically their impact on the general conditions of
workers in society, their power and dignity, is another question. This requires an active communist
movement in society and within the workers’ movement.
Page 84 of 103
GRAMSCIAN HEGEMONY STARTER SET 1/5

HEGEMONY ERASES TRUE CONSCIOUSNESS THROUGH THE ELEVATION OF
IDEOLOGICAL CONTROL TO THE LEVEL OF COMMON SENSE – THE HEGEMON
FABRICATES CONSENT FROM THIS FALSE CONSCIOUSNESS AND IMPOSES ELITES'
INTERESTS ON THE MASSES AS IF THEY WERE ABSOLUTE TRUTHS.

In Gramsci’s multi-layered analysis of society, he aims to provide a more

concise understanding of the various elements which influence the individual
and, consequently, prevent he or she from achieving what he deems as one’s
‘true consciousness’. Central to his conceptualisation of society and societal
actors is that each individual is fundamentally influenced by the ideas of the
ruling ‘Hegemon’. In most cases, this influence is felt unconsciously through the
hegemon’s projection of ‘common sense’.3 Consequently, it is through the
promotion of a certain ‘common sense’ conception of the world that the
hegemon prevents the masses from realising their true consciousness and, hence,
their own fundamental interests.4 Therefore, the common sense ideas of the
hegemon—used to acquire the ‘consent’5 of the masses to its rule—are nothing
more than the narrow and selfish interests of the elites superimposed on the
general interests of the people. As a result, the masses accept the morality, the
customs, and the institutionalised rules of behaviour disseminated throughout
society as absolute truths that cannot or should not be questioned.
THE HEGEMONIC PROLIFERATION OF COMMON SENSE AS UNIVERSAL TRUTH IS THE

MANIPULATION OF CONTRADICTORY AND AMORPHOUS IDEAS INTO TOOLS OF
CONTROL BY THE HEGEMONIC ORDER. ONLY BY EXPOSING THESE FABRICATIONS CAN
AN INDIVIDUAL FIND A NEW WAY OF THINKING FREE FROM OPPRESSION.

In refuting these supposed ‘universal truths’. Gramsci argues that ‘common

sense’ is neither a universal given nor an unquestioned truth. Instead, Gramsci
argues ‘that common sense is an ambiguous, contradictory, and multiform
concept, and that to refer to common sense as a conformation of truth is
nonsense’7. It is at this stage Gramsci argues that only by exposing these
supposed ‘universal truths’, and assisting the individual in rejecting this socalled
‘common sense’ (i.e., objective) conception of the world reproduced by
the hegemon, can the individual assume the first step in the creation of an
alternative hegemon, a new way of thinking free from the constraints of the
ruling class.
Page 85 of 103
INDIVIDUALS MUST COALESCE INTO LARGE AND EFFECTIVE MOBILIZATIONS AGAINST

THE DOMINANT ORDER – THE GATHERING UP OF THE DISENCHANTED WITH THE
CURRENT SOCIOECONOMIC STRUCTURE IS THE BINDING FORCE FOR FORMATION OF A
COUNTER-HEGEMONIC FORCE.

The other principal segment of society which Gramsci examines is the group,
or what he terms ‘collective man’. It is obvious that for any revolutionary
movement to be successful it must be able to garner extensive support throughout
society. Consequently, if a change in individual consciousness represents
Gramsci’s first stage in personal liberation from the ‘common sense’ world of
the hegemon, for this novel world conception to be most effective, various
individuals must necessarily unite in the formation of a larger group, concordant
in their ultimate aims and sharing in this new perception or world-view.
According to Gramsci:
An historical act can only be performed by ‘collective man’ and this presupposes the
attainment of a ‘cultural—social unity’ through which a multiplicity of dispersed wills,
with heterogeneous aims, are welded together with a single aim, on the basis of an equal
and common conception of the world.
In terms of the greater revolutionary process, since Gramsci seeks to garner the
support of all those individuals who are disenchanted with the current socioeconomic
structure and desire its overthrow, it is a commonality or similarity in
experience—a shared perception of repression, exclusion, and marginalisation—
which coalesces the members of a counter-hegemonic bloc regardless of a
common or shared economic condition.
Page 86 of 103
HEGEMONIC CONTROL IS CONTINGENT ON CONSTRUCTION OF ORGANIC

RELATIONSHIPS THAT EXIST AS A RESULT OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE
STRUCTURE AND THE SUPERSTRUCTURE. THE RESULTING DIALECTIC CONCENTRATES
POWER IN THE HEGEMON AND PROTECTS ITS CONTROL OVER THE SUBJUGATED
MASSES.

[Thomas, “Revelation or Revolution: A Gramscian Approach to the Rise of Political
Islam,” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 31(1), 41-62]
As a central tenet of Marxist theory, Gramsci demonstrates that hegemonic control is contingent
on the relationship that exists between the structure (economic base) and the superstructure
(ideology of the ruling class).20 Clearly, both the structure and the superstructure are part of a
dialectic in which economic factors (the forces of production) and cultural forces (the realm of
ideas) reinforce one another and combine to form an ‘organic relationship’ known as the ‘historic
bloc’. The sole purpose of this relationship is to preserve and protect the hegemon’s control over
the subjugated masses. However, in contrast to traditional Marxists, Gramsci argues that it is the
superstructure, rather than the structure, that determines the context and extent of the hegemon’s
supremacy within society.21 Gramsci assumes this position to refute the Marxist belief that the
superstructure is solely dependent on the structure, in essence, that economics is everything.
According to Gramsci: The claim, presented as an essential postulate of historical materialism,
that every fluctuation of politics and ideology can be presented and expounded as an immediate
expression of the structure, must be contested in theory as primitive infantilism.
THE PURPOSE OF INTERROGATING THE LINK BETWEEN THE STATE APPARATUS AND
CIVIL SOCIETY IS TO DETERMINE THE MOMENT OF RESISTANCE OF THE COUNTER-
HEGEMONY ON THE OCCASION OF THE DIVERGENCE BETWEEN THE STRUCTURE AND
THE SUPERSTRUCTURE.

Of course, as is true of all of Gramsci’s writings, his extensive examination of the State’s
formation serves primarily as a guide to concrete and practical revolutionary activity by
providing a framework to assist in furthering the objectives of the counter-hegemonic movement.
Thus, Gramsci stresses that the primary reason to examine the link that exists between the
structure and the superstructure is to determine the exact moment when the two have deviated to
a sufficient extent to permit the counter-hegemon its opportunity to strike. It is the analysis and
awareness of this divergence—between between structure and superstructure—and the ability to
anticipate its occurrence, that constitutes the true worth in understanding the symbiotic
relationship that exists between these two forces. Therefore, according to Gramsci:
It is the problem of the relations between structure and superstructure which must be
actively posed and resolved if the forces which are active in the history of a particular
period are to be correctly analysed, and the relation between them determined.
Page 87 of 103
THE ONLY TRULY REVOLUTIONARY IDEOLOGY IS THAT IS CAPABLE OF PROVIDING AN

ALTERNATIVE CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD AND BRING INTO BEING A NEW OF THE
STATE BY DIVORCING ALL REMNANT CONCEPTS AND IDEAS BORNE FROM HEGEMONY
INTO A COMPLETELY NEW CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD.

[Thomas, “Revelation or Revolution: A Gramscian Approach to the Rise of Political Islam,” British Journal
of Middle Eastern Studies, 31(1), 41-62]
Of course, a genuinely ‘revolutionary’ ideology must be able to provide the

counter-hegemon with a truly alternative conception of the world. In other
words, according to Gramsci, a counter-hegemonic ideology must be able to
bring ‘into being a new form of State’, ‘construct a new intellectual and moral
order’, and ‘create a new type of society’.41 In addition, as Gramsci asserts, the
actual world-view and the type of State projected by the revolutionary bloc must
be primarily conceived through its opposition to the ruling hegemon. In that
sense, to be successful an ideology must include a separate and absolute
conception of the world free from the contaminating influences of the ruling
hegemon and be ‘sufficient unto itself, that it contains in itself all the fundamental
elements needed to construct a total and integral conception of the
world …’.42 According to Gramsci, in the most succinct sense:
[A] theory is ‘revolutionary’ precisely to the extent that it is an element of conscious
separation and distinction into two camps and is a peak inaccessible to the enemy
camp …The philosophy of the praxis [Marxism] has no need of support from alien
sources.
IDEAS HAVE THE REVOLUTIONARY FORCE TO ACTIVELY INTERVENE TO CREATE A

NEW TYPE OF CULTURE AND MORALITY WHEN COUPLED WITH PRAXIS – THE IDEAS
BECOME TRANSFORMED INTO AN UNSTOPPABLE FORCE CAPABLE OF CHANGING THE
PSEUDO-TRUTHS OF THE DOMINANT ORDER.

In the end, one of Gramsci’s most unique contributions to the revolutionary

process is to demonstrate that ideas do have an independence and force all of
their own and that they have the power to actively intervene to create the new
type of culture and morality sought by the revolutionary movement. By intervening
practically and concretely in the real world, ideas are transformed into an
autonomous force able to change the conceptions and beliefs held by a
significant segment of the population as truth. As Joll argues: ‘… he [Gramsci]
went further than any other Marxist thinker in recognising the importance … and
the force of ideas in producing historical change …’.47 Ideas influence events,
man’s will can impact history and, in the end, perhaps Gramsci’s greatest
consideration is not just ‘the problem of how to establish a new State’, but ‘the
problem of how to intervene in a concrete reality in order to bring about [this]
certain aim’.
Page 88 of 103

THE NEED FOR ORGANIC UNITY WITHIN A COUNTER-HEGEMONIC SUPERSEDES ALL
OTHER CONCERNS BECAUSE IT IS NECESSARY TO CREATE A MONOLITHIC PARTY
BASED ON THE ORGANIC UNITY BETWEEN PRAXIS AND THEORY, LEADERSHIP AND
FOLLOWERS TO ENSURE THAT THE MOVEMENT IS SUCCESSFUL.

In constructing a viable counter-hegemonic bloc, for Gramsci, the eventual success or failure of
such an organisation will be determined, most specifically, by the degree of homogeneity or unity
that can be preserved within the movement. Yet, such unity is not to be characterised solely by
the sharing of similar aims through an identical ideology and a common communal structure, but
is to be expressed as an ‘organic unity’.79 Hence the conclusion that in building a party, it is
ecessary to give it a ‘monolithic character’ rather than base it on secondary questions; therefore
painstaking care that there should be homogeneity between the leadership and the rank and file
between the leaders and the mass following. Consequently, it is this absolute need for organic
unity which supersedes all other issues relating to the organisational framework of a movement.
Gramsci best summarises his view of the ideal revolutionary movement when he states
that ‘it [the proper organisation] requires an organic unity between theory and practice, between
intellectual strata and popular masses, between rulers and ruled’.81 In the end, it could be asserted
that this statement represents Gramsci’s conception of the entire revolutionary process.
THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT MUST WAGE A WAR OF POSITION TO WEDGE THE

CONNECTION BETWEEN THE STATE APPARATUS AND CIVIL SOCIETY BY CONSTANTLY
DISCREDITING THE MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL LEADERSHIP OF THE HEGEMONIC
ORDER TO THE POINT WHERE THE LOSS OF SUPPORT FOR THE HEGEMON HAS
ERODED TO THE POINT WHERE DIRECT CONFRONTATION IS THE LAST NECESSARY
STEP TO SET UP THE NEW STATE.

Studies, 31(1), 41-62]
The final component in Gramsci’s long-term strategy involves judging the precise moment when
the ‘war of position’ has reached its climax and must necessarily be transformed into a ‘war of
movement’.104 It is at this juncture that the ruling class, although still dominant (i.e., force and
coercion), is no longer hegemonic (i.e., ideas and consent).105 At such a crisis point a power
vacuum emerges in which the discredited moral and intellectual leadership of the hegemon leads
to a loss of consent, and erosion of support, from the subordinate classes.106 It is also at such a
moment that the counter-hegemonic force is afforded its most propitious, and perhaps only,
opportunity to supplant the dominant ideology of the time that has become incidental, if not
irrelevant, to the real needs of the people. Of course, as already demonstrated, this development
can only occur after a prolonged and deliberate strategy of active mass participation in which the
‘new’ ideas of the counter-hegemon have had a chance to permeate society. It is only after these
aims have initially been achieved that such a ‘direct’ confrontation with the current hegemon is
both desirable, and has any likelihood of success.
Page 89 of 103
AFF ANSWERS: PERMUTATION
PERMUTATION: DO THE PLAN AND ENGAGE IN MARXIST CRITICISM.

THE PERMUTATION SOLVES BOTH THE 1AC AND THE CRITICAL
IMPACTS: THE STATE CAN BE A SITE FOR REVOLUTIONARY
STRUGGLES—SOME DEMANDS HELP THE MOVEMENT EVEN IF THEY
AREN’T “REVOLUTIONARY.”
HARMAN, 2K6
Chris, International Socialism, “The state and capitalism today”,
http://www.isj.org.uk/?id=234 accessed Aug 6//wdc-guy
Poulantzas argued that this was to see a merely contingent relationship between the state and capitalism, to
see the state’s character as depending simply on who manned its top structures. He argued what has been
called the ‘functional’ view: the state has to fulfil the needs of the society of which it is part; since this is a
capitalist society it is necessarily a capitalist state. The state is, as Poulantzas puts it, ‘a condensate of class
forces’, and the forces it ‘condenses’ are capitalist forces.4
Despite their apparent opposition to each other, both Miliband’s and Poulantzas’ views can lead to the
conclusion that the capitalist state can be used to reform capitalist society. If it is the character of its
personnel that guarantees the capitalist nature of the state, then changing the personnel could change the
character of the state, allowing it to be used for socialist purposes. If the state is a function of the society of
which it is part, then if that society is racked by deep class struggles, these would find their expression
through the state.
Page 90 of 103
AFF ANSWERS: MARXIST METHOD BAD

YOU SHOULD REJECT THE MARXIST METHODOLOGY:
FIRST, IT’S HISTORICALLY INVALID
DOMHOFF ‘05
(g. William, Professor of Sociology at UC-Santa Cruz, “A Critique of Marxism,” April,
http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/theory/marxism.html
The idea that all power is rooted ultimately in the ownership and control of the means of
production, with the ensuing class struggle providing the motor of history, does not fit the origins
of civilization in the years from 3000 to 2300 B.C.E., when most property was held by the state
and there was no class conflict; nor the 2500 years of empires of domination, when military
networks were in the ascendancy; nor the 900 years after the fall of the Roman Empire, when the
ideology network called "Christendom" combined with the independent armies of the nobility to
create the framework within which a class-ridden capitalism and a closely intertwined system of
nation-states began to rise to the fore. In short, there have been great stretches of history when
economic forces, no matter how broadly conceived to accommodate the Marxian claim about the
primacy of the "mode of production," were not primary in either the first or last instance.
Moreover, there were other epochs where the activities of the ruling class were far more
important in understanding new developments than any "class struggle" with direct producers,
who were far too localized and lacking in organizational infrastructure to challenge the dominant
class, let alone to be considered a class themselves.
SECOND, THE TOTALIZATION OF ECONOMIC CONTROL DESTROYS

CIVIL SOCIETY AND CULMINATES IN TOTALITARIANISM
Kurzman ‘94
(Charles, Department of Sociology, UNC, “Conditions of Liberty: Civil Society and its Rivals,”
http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/gellner/Kurzman.html)
Communism also undermines civil society by mandating a "secular Umma" in Gellner's phrase, in
which public control of the means of production is intended to usher in a new form of liberated
human relations. It failed not because of Stalinist excesses or Brezhnevian mismanagement --
though the squalor of the Brezhnev years hurt it more than the terror of the Stalin years -- but
because state control of the economy is necessarily fatal to civil society. Gellner makes the
provocative argument that not only is Marxism totalitarian, but "under modern conditions, any
totalitarianism will also inevitably be Marxist" It may not reproduce or revere Marx's philosophy
per se, but it will plow under the capitalist economy in order to eliminate rival centers of power.
Page 91 of 103
AFF ANSWERS: CAPITALIST COLLAPSE

NOT INEVITABLE 1/2
CRISES ARE NOT A SIGN OF IMPENDING COLLAPSE: CAPITALISM IS NOWHERE NEAR AN

END
HEINRICH JULY 27 2007

(Michael, mathematician and political scientist, managing editor of Prokla “Profit without end: capitalism is just getting started,”
MONTHLY REVIEW, mrzine.monthlyreview.org/heinrich280707.html)
Debates concerning the "Socialism of the 21st Century" are experiencing an upswing at the
moment. However, this century will initially be rather one of capitalism than socialism. Not
because there is once more an economic recovery. Prosperity and crisis alternate constantly in
capitalism, but behind this up-and-down process are tendencies towards an extension and further
development of capitalism, which is nowhere near its end.
INDIA AND CHINA PROVE CAPITALISM NOT COLLAPSING ANYTIME SOON

The capitalist development of India and China is at its very beginning; it may have a substantial
influence upon global economy and politics in the future. If in the course of the next few decades
a middle class with purchasing power emerges -- albeit comprising merely 20 to 30 percent of the
population, with the rest living in poverty -- in them, that alone would constitute a market of 600 to
700 million people, far larger than the expanded European Union. At the same time, the massive
army of poor people ensures a stream of cheap labor for the decades ahead. For capital, all
manner of things might become scarce in the 21st century, but cheap labor will not be among
them. The rate of surplus value will increase worldwide -- relative surplus value increases with
technological development, absolute surplus value with the extension of the working day and the
sinking of real wages.
Page 92 of 103
AFF ANSWERS: CAPITALIST COLLAPSE

NOT INEVITABLE 2/2
NEW CAPITALIST POWERS EMERGING, PLUS MILITARY FORCE IS ALWAYS AN OPTION
TO PREVENT SYSTEM COLLAPSE

The USA as the sole remaining superpower is faced with a number of emerging intermediate powers: the
BRIC states (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), as well as the sometimes more, sometimes less, unified
European Union. In international institutions such as the World Trade Organization, conflicts have already
led to a partial paralysis; the International Monetary Fund has also undergone a substantial decline in
importance in the past few years.
But competition does not occur solely over scarce resources such as oil, but also over global currency. The
dollar as a global currency has allowed the USA a massive indebtedness which not only contributes to its
welfare but has made possible a military budget which is as large as that of all other countries put together.
The role of the dollar can then in turn be supported by economic strength and the threat of military force.
Page 93 of 103
AFF ANSWERS: CAPITALISM GOOD 1/2
CAPITAL IS KEY TO STOPPING ETHNIC WAR, GENOCIDE, MILITARISM, PROLIF,

SOLVES AIDS, DEMOCRACY AND POLLUTION
Leonard Silk, Professor, Economics, Pace University, “Dangers of Slow Growth,” FOREIGN AFFAIRS v. 72
n. 1, Winter 1993, p. 173-174.
In the absence of such shifts of human and capital resources to expanding civilian industries, there are strong
economic pressures on arms-producing nations to maintain high levels of military production and to sell
weapons, both conventional and dual-use nuclear technology, wherever buyers can be found. Without a
revival of national economies and the global economy, the production and proliferation of weapons will
continue, creating more Iraqs, Yugoslavias, Somalias and Cambodias - or worse. Like the Great Depression,
the current economic slump has fanned the fires of nationalist, ethnic and religious hatred around the world.
Economic hardship is not the only cause of these social and political pathologies, but it aggravates all of them,
and in turn they feed back on economic development. They also undermine efforts to deal with such global
problems as environmental pollution, the production and trafficking of drugs, crime, sickness, famine, AIDS
and other plagues. Growth will not solve all those problems by itself But economic growth - and growth alone -
creates the additional resources that make it possible to achieve such fundamental goals as higher living
standards, national and collective security, a healthier environment, and more liberal and open economies and
societies.
THE COMING MACROINDUSTRIAL ERA WILL SOLVE ALL RESOURCE

PROBLEMS
Michael G. Zey, sociologist, “The Macroindustrial Era: A New Age of Abundance and Prosperity,” THE
FUTURIST v. 31 n. 2, March 13, 1997, p. 9+.
We are not moving into an Information Age, but rather a Macroindustrial Age of turbocharged economic and
technological growth. We are entering a time in which humankind will develop an enhanced ability to solve the
majority of economic, social, and technological problems that have heretofore plagued our species. I label this
period the Macroindustrial Era. This exciting new stage of societal development has already begun;
developments in fields such as manufacturing, space, and medicine, as well as a general improvement in the
human condition on a global scale, attest to the birth of a new age that will afford us a greater ability to control
our future.
Page 94 of 103
AFF ANSWERS: CAPITALISM GOOD 2/2
ADDITIONAL GROWTH WILL HELP SOLVE POVERTY, SPREAD DEMOCRACY,

AND CHECK CONFLICT
Gregg Easterbrook, Visiting Fellow, Brookings Institution, “The Capitalist Manifesto,” Review of The
Moral Consequences of Economic Growth by Benjamin M. Friedman, THE NEW YORK TIMES, November 27,
2005, p. 16.
Though ''The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth'' may not quite succeed in showing an iron law of
growth and liberalization, Friedman is surely correct when he contends that economic expansion must remain
the world's goal, at least for the next few generations. Growth, he notes, has already placed mankind on a
course toward the elimination of destitution. Despite the popular misconception of worsening developing-world
misery, the fraction of people in poverty is in steady decline. Thirty years ago 20 percent of the planet lived on
$1 or less a day; today, even adjusting for inflation, only 5 percent does, despite a much larger global
population. Probably one reason democracy is taking hold is that living standards are rising, putting men and
women in a position to demand liberty. And with democracy spreading and rising wages giving ever more
people a stake in the global economic system, it could be expected that war would decline. It has. Even taking
Iraq into account, a study by the Center for International Development and Conflict Management, at the
University of Maryland, found that the extent and intensity of combat in the world is only about half what it was
15 years ago.
Page 95 of 103
AFF ANSWERS: CAP KEY TO SPACE 1/2
SPACE EXPLORATION IS SO EXPENSIVE THAT CAPITALISM AND MASSIVE

GROWTH IS NECESSARY FOR ITS SUCCESS
Suri 2004
[Jeremi, William C. Bark National Fellow at the Hoover Institution & Assistant professor of history at the University of
Wisconsin, “The New Age of Space Exploration,” Hoover Digest, no. 2 – Spring 2004,
www.hooverdigest.org/042/suri.html, acc 12-4-04//uwyo-ajl]
Space exploration will cost a lot of money. Republicans and Democrats have recognized this fact. As a consequence,
many have shown a disinclination to embrace the president’s program. Bush’s speech at NASA headquarters
contributed to this reaction by skirting the issue of funding. He pledged to raise the space agency’s annual budget by a
paltry 5 percent in each of the next three years and just 1 percent in the subsequent two years. This is unrealistic.
Transporting human beings to distant and unknown territories requires huge technological, institutional, and labor
expenses. In the case of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe, overseas exploration necessitated an entirely
new financial system to raise and sustain sufficient capital. We should expect a similar reorganization of our economy
in a new age of space travel. The United States might be able to fight the war on terror with minimal economic
dislocation (and even this is unlikely), but extending a human presence across our solar system will involve a profound
reassessment of earthly priorities. The president should not allow costs to dissuade him from his important vision, but
he must address financial concerns forthrightly, showing that he is willing to pay the high price of space exploration by
raising and allocating the necessary government revenues.
GROWTH KEY TO SPACE DEVELOPMENT
Robert Zubrin, space expert, AD ASTRA, May/June 1996, p. 8-9.
Today there are many who assert, following Malthus, thatin our world of finite resources, future aspirations
must be curtailed. They postulate that both population and economic grwoth and living standards must be
restricted, and that the impoverished nations of the world can hope for little better than they have now,
because there just isn’t enough to go around. In the past, support of this outlook by large numbers of people
has led to tyrannical regimes and genocide, as various nations or elites have striven to enforce their exclusive
rights to what they perceived as the limited resources of the Earth. If we accept such limits to growth, we are
sentencing posterity to centuries of war, poverty and enslavement. A future without an open frontier will be a
future without hope. But there is no reason to accept such limits of the political baggage that will accompany
them. In the past, Malthusian predictions of a dismal future for humanity were always upset by the opening up
of new lands or the creation of new technologies, both of which had the effect of placing in human hands vast
resources no one had supposed to exist. The space frontier offers another such opportunity, but on a scale
vastly greater than any humanity has ever encountered before. It is a domain of infinite resources, holding the
key to an infinite future.
Page 96 of 103
AFF ANSWERS: CAP KEY TO SPACE 2/2
WE MUST GO TO SPACE OR FACE EXTINCTION
Gerard K. O’Neill, President, Space Studies Institute, THE HIGH FRONTIER, 1989, p. 325-326.
We need, I believe, to lift our eyes above those daily tasks occasionally, to remind ourselves of the shared
vision for which our work is done. Ultimately, that vision will expand our physical, political, and mental
boundaries from the confines of a single planet to the much broader limits of a race freely expanding its habitat
throughout our solar system. And from there to the stars. Even the beginning of realization of that vision will
bring profound benefits to our planet and its life: The sure survival of all the races of humanity, and of the plant
and animal life forms we cherish as part of our Earthly heritage, in colonies dispersed throughout our solar
system and beyond it. The preserveration of the Earth and its fragile biosphere; as a place of great beauty,
deserving our care and our nuturing, as it has nurtured us through our evolution. Opening a hopeful future for
individual human beings, with increasing personal and political freedoms, a wider range of choices, and
greater opportunities to develop individual potentials. Reducing the incidence of wars and the constant threat
of wars by opening a new frontier with virtually unlimited new lands and new wealth.
Page 97 of 103
AFF ANSWERS: CAP COLLAPSE BAD 1/2
A GLOBAL ECONOMIC COLLAPSE WOULD ESCALATE TO FULL-SCALE

CONFLICT AND RAPID EXTINCTION
Thomas Bearden, Lt. Colonel, U.S. Army (ret.), The Unnecessary Energy Crisis: How to Solve It Quickly,
June 24, 2000. Available from the World Wide Web at:
www.cheniere.org/techpapers/Unnecessary%20Energy%20Crisis.doc, accessed 5/10/06.
History bears out that desperate nations take desperate actions. Prior to the final economic collapse, the
stress on nations will have increased the intensity and number of their conflicts, to the point where the arsenals
of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) now possessed by some 25 nations, are almost certain to be
released. As an example, suppose a starving North Korea launches nuclear weapons upon Japan and South
Korea, including U.S. forces there, in a spasmodic suicidal response. Or suppose a desperate China-whose
long-range nuclear missiles (some) can reach the United States-attacks Taiwan. In addition to immediate
responses, the mutual treaties involved in such scenarios will quickly draw other nations into the conflict,
escalating it significantly. Strategic nuclear studies have shown for decades that, under such extreme stress
conditions, once a few nukes are launched, adversaries and potential adversaries are then compelled to
launch on perception of preparations by one's adversary. The real legacy of the MAD concept is this side of
the MAD coin that is almost never discussed. Without effective defense, the only chance a nation has to
survive at all is to launch immediate full-bore pre-emptive strikes and try to take out its perceived foes as
rapidly and massively as possible. As the studies showed, rapid escalation to full WMD exchange occurs.
Today, a great percent of the WMD arsenals that will be unleashed, are already on site within the United States
itself. The resulting great Armageddon will destroy civilization as we know it, and perhaps most of the
biosphere, at least for many decades.
TURN: COLLAPSE LEADS TO RIGHT-WING FASCIST STATES
Martin Lewis, Professor, School of the Environment, Duke University, GREEN DELUSIONS, 1992, p. 170-
171.
While an explosive socioeconomic crisis in the near term is hardly likely the possibility certainly cannot be dismissed.
Capitalism is an inherently unstable economic system, and periodic crises of some magintude are inevitable. An
outbreak of jingoistic economic nationalism throughout the world, moreover, could quickly result in virtual economic
collapse. Under such circumstances we could indeed enter an epoch of revolutionary social turmoil. Yet I believe that
there are good reasons to believe that the victors in such a struggle would be radicals not of the left but rather of the
right. The extreme left, for all its intellectual strength, notably lacks the kind of power necessary to emerge victorious
from a real revolution. A few old street radicals may still retain their militant ethos, but today’s college professors and
their graduate students, the core marxist contingent, would be ineffective. The radical right, on the other hand, would
present a very real threat. Populist right-wing paramilitary groups are well armed and well trained, while establishment-
minded fascists probably have links with the American military, wherein lies the greatest concentration of destructive
power this planet knows. Should a crisis strike so savagely as to splinter the American center and its political
institutions, we could well experience a revolutionary movement similar to that of Germany in the 1930.
Page 98 of 103
AFF ANSWERS: CAP COLLAPSE BAD 2/2
ANY ALTERNATIVE TO GROWTH RISKS EXTINCTION
Michael Zey, Sociology, Montclair State University, SEIZING THE FUTURE, 1994, p. 29.
The Imperative of Growth states that in order to survive, any antiona, indeed, the human race, must grow, both
materially and intellectually. The Macroindustrial Era represented growth in the areas of both technology and
human development, a natural state in the evolution of the species’ continued extension of its control over
itself and its environment. Although 5 billion strong, our continued existence depends on our ability to continue
the progress we have been making at higher and higher levels. Systems, whether organizations, societies, or
cells, have three basic directions in which to move. They can grow, decline, or temporarily reside in a state of
equilibrium. These are the choices. Choosing any alternative to growth, for intance, stabilization of
production/consumption through zero-growth policies, could have alarmingly pernicious side effects, including
extinction.
Page 99 of 103
AFF ANSWERS: CAP SOLVES

ENVIRONMENT
AFFLUENCE DRIVES ECO-DEMAND AND TECH CHANGE, IMPROVING ENVIRONMENT
Indur M. Goklany, PhD & Independent Visiting Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, “Affluence,
Technology, and Well-Being,” CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW v. 53, Winter 2002,
p. 385.
The wealthier such a society, the more affordable - and more demanding - its laws. At the same time, increasing affluence
and the secular march of technology enables society to better and more cheaply improve its environmental quality.
Affluence also makes R&D targeted on cleaner technologies more affordable, as it does the purchase and use of such
technologies, especially if their up-front costs are higher. Thus, EI undergoes a period of transition. Ultimately, greater
affluence and technological change should result in a decline in EI. n64 Other factors have reinforced ETs in the richer
countries for traditional (industry-related) pollutants. Historically, economic development involved technologymediated
transformations from, first, an agrarian to an industrial society and, then, an industrial to a post-industrial knowledge-and information-
based society.
GROWTH IS QUALITATIVE—DOESN’T INCREASE RESOURCE CONSUMPTION
Martin Lewis, Professor, School of the Environment, Duke University, GREEN DELUSIONS, 1992, p. 184-
185.
belief—that expansion
The notion that economic growth may benefit the environment is anathema to the radical greens. Their foundational
will ultimately destroy the planet—is, however, growing more untenable year by year. Recent economic history
demonstrates that an economy can expand while significantly reducing its consumption of both energy and key resources.
“Since the oil embargo of 1973, energy intensity—the amount of energy required to produce a dollar of U.S.
(GNP)gross national product—has fallen by 28 percent” (Fickett, Gellings, and Lovins 1990:65). Similarly the growing American economy
has been continually reducing its dependency on numerous mineral resources. Some two decades ago, the Club of Rome
(Meadows et al. 1972) predicted that copper shortages could soon spell the end of civilization, a view that now appears quaint as copper telecommunications
lines yield to fiber optic cables made ultimately from sand. As Piers Blaikie (1989:130) tersely writes, the limits-to-growth thesis has been subjected to a
“number of thorough debunkings.” In fact, as early as 1973 a group of environmentally concerned economists demonstrated clearly that the imperative was to
reform rather than to end economic growth (Olson and Landsberg 1973). Several of these writers discerningly pointed to the dangers present in a no-growth
economy notably including a loss of freedom (McKean 1973) and the possibility that in “the stationary economy unfortunately investment in exploitation may
pay better than in progress” (Boulding 1973:95). It is not at all coincidental that American liberals have consistently advocated economic expansion, whereas
traditional conservatives have been far more concerned with stability (Kuttner 1991). As a fitting epitaph to the exhausted idea of economic limits, one might
inscribe the terms and the outcome of the Ehrlich-Simon wager of 1980 (Tierney 1990). In that year the ecologist Ehrlich bet that the prices of five key
minerals would increase over the following decade as natural deposits were consumed; the economist Simon countered that prices would drop as substitutes
were developed and new deposits discovered. When the price trends were tallied in 1990, not only did Simon come out ahead, but he would have triumphed
even if the terms had not been indexed for inflation. In light of this and other evidence, I believe that we can now safely conclude that the future of advanced
technology and of capitalism does not ride on the continued availability of tungsten or tin. The “limits to growth” hypothesis is ultimately similar to Jeremy Rif
kin’s notion that we should expend as little energy as possible in order to forestall the eventual heat-death of the universe. Limits do exist for
specific resources, but in the most important cases they are so remote as to be virtually meaningless. Using the same logic one could declare all
human endeavors futile, seeing that the sun will eventually go supernova and consume everything. More importantly environmentalists must come
to understand that economic growth increasingly entails not the ever mounting consumption of energy and raw materials, but
ever increasing value added—which as often as not is accomplished through miniaturization, partial
rather
dematerialization, and the breakdown of the very distinction between goods and services (The Economist, “Survey of
Industry and the Environment,” September 8, 1990, p. 25; see also Reich 1991).
Page 100 of 103

AFF ANSWERS: CAPITALISM UNLIMITED
ECONOMY IS BECOMING DEMATERIALIZED, SOLVING RESOURCE LIMITS
Ronald Bailey, journalist, “Dematerializing the Economy,” REASON ONLINE, September 5, 2001. Available
from the World Wide Web at: http://reason.com/rb/rb090501.shtml, accessed 5/10/06.
Since 1977 the value of the U.S. economy has doubled, yet the amount of physical stuff it took to supply all the
needs and wants of Americans fell from 1.18 trillion pounds to 1.08 trillion pounds. Even more astonishing: the
"weight" of the economy fell while U.S. population grew by some 55 million people. This is no small matter.
Economic growth using less physical resources was not supposed to be possible, according to the infamous
1972 Club of Rome report, The Limits To Growth. That document, still referenced in all sorts of economic and
environmentalist debates, saw economic growth as dependent upon ever greater amounts of material
resources. The production of those resources, went the argument, would eventually lead to a depleted planet
and then a massive population die-off. The report concluded that humanity must accept "a state of global
equilibrium" in which there was no economic growth. Kate Kane and her colleagues at the Cap Gemini Ernst
and Young Center for Business Innovation, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, weighed the economy by estimating
the cost per pound of finished product for 500 different Standard Industrial Classifications (SIC) codes in
agriculture, mining, construction, and manufacturing. For a first estimate, Kane divided the annual gross output
within each of these SIC categories by her cost-per-pound estimates. Since many industries produce inputs for
other industries, this first estimate involves some double counting, which Kane handled by taking the gross
weight of output for each SIC code and multiplying it by the proportion of real Gross Domestic Product
produced by that industry. Based on these rough calculations, Kane estimates that the value of GDP per
pound rose from $3.64 in 1977 to $7.96 in 2000. Kane’s work confirms former Vice-President Al Gore’s claim
made at the 1999 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science: "Throughout
our economy, skills, intelligence, and creativity are replacing mass and money -- which is why, in the past 50
years, the value of our economy has tripled, while the physical weight of our economy as a whole has barely
increased at all." In other words, we got richer not just by using more stuff, but by being smarter about the stuff
use.
Page 101 of 103

AFF ANSWERS: CAP GOOD FOR THE POOR

FOLKS
MARKETS SOLVE POVERTY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
Stephen Moore, President, Club for Growth, “Surer Way to Sustain the Planet,” THE WASHINGTON
TIMES, August 30, 2002, p. A21.
What has been the driving force behind this miraculous progress. Three words: free market capitalism. If only
the intellectual elite and the power-holders around the world in South Africa this week would go home and
deregulate their economies, cut tax rates, expand democracy, and cut government rules and bureaucracies,
we could blaze a path to alleviating world poverty in a generation or two. If only markets, not governments,
controlled the price and usage of natural resources, we would see a further abundance of food, minerals and
energy - enough for the entire world to share in the bounty. The U.N. Earth Summit is based on a cancerous
and discredited creed of limits to growth. It is insane to hope that people who believe in limits to growth will
create the conditions that nurture growth. Even the term "sustainable development" is offensive and suggests
that economic development and improving the environment are somehow incompatible - which is precisely the
opposite of the historical record. Where there is economic development and capitalism, there is clean air and
clean water and well-educated citizens and abundant resources and low disease rates. Where there is no
capitalism, there is an abundance of these maladies.
GLOBALIZATION IS GOOD FOR THE POOR--PROVEN BY EVERY MAJOR SOCIAL

INDICATOR
Johan Norberg, analyst, “Poor Man’s Hero: Controversial Writer Johan Norberg Champions Globalization
as the Best Hope for the Developing World,” interviewed by Nick Gillespie, REASON ONLINE, December
2003. Available from the World Wide Web at: http://www.reason.com/0312/fe.ng.poor.shtml, accessed
2/20/05.
Reason: What’s the evidence that global capitalism benefits people in poor countries? Norberg: Take just
about any statistic, any indicator of living standards in the world, and you can see the progress that has been
made over the exact period that worries globalization critics. In the last 30 years we’ve seen chronic hunger
and the extent of child labor being halved. In the last 40 years, we’ve seen life expectancy going up to 64
years in developing countries. We’ve seen literacy levels approaching the maximum in most countries in the
world. According to World Bank statistics, 200 million people have left absolute poverty -- defined as living on
the equivalent of less than $1 a day -- over the past 20 years. What’s more, the most progress is found in the
countries that increased trade and contacts with the outside world.
Page 102 of 103

AFF ANSWERS: MARXISM=TOTALITARIANISM
THERE IS A DIRECT LINE BETWEEN MARXIST THINKING AND TOTALITARIANISM
ARENDT ’02
(Hannah, world’s foremost philosopher on totalitarianism, “Karl Marx and the Tradition of Western Political Thought,”
Social Research, Summer, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2267/is_2_69/ai_90439534/pg_1)
But the challenge with which Marx confronts us today is much more serious than these
academic quarrels over influences and priorities. The fact that one form of totalitarian
domination uses, and apparently developed directly from, Marxism, is of course the
most formidable charge ever raised against Marx. And that charge cannot be brushed off
as easily as can charges of a similar nature--against Nietzsche, Hegel, Luther, or Plato,
all of whom, and many more, have at one time or another been accused of being the
ancestors of Nazism. Although today it is so conveniently overlooked, the fact that the
Nazi version of totalitarianism could develop along lines similar to that of the Soviet, yet
nevertheless use an entirely different ideology, shows at least that Marx cannot very well
stand accused of having brought forth the specifically totalitarian aspects of Bolshevik
domination. It is also true that the interpretations to which his teachings were subjected,
through Marxism as well as through Leninism, and the decisive transformation by Stalin
of both Marxism and Leninism into a totalitarian ideology, can easily be demonstrated.
Nevertheless it also remains a fact that there is a more direct connection between Marx
and Bolshevism, as well as Marxist totalitarian movements in nontotalitarian countries,
than between Nazism and any of its so-called predecessors.
Page 103 of 103

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2007 Wyoming Debate Cooperative Marxism

Solidarity at 7200 Feet 1 of 103

MARXISM SHELL 1/4

AND, WORKING PEOPLE HAVE NO FOREIGN POLICY

(Jack, National Secretary of Socialist Workers Party, New International. Pg 199)

MARXISM SHELL 2/4

AND, OUR DESCRIPTION OF THIS WORLD CONSTITUTES BOTH PERFORMATIVE

[Marta, Dir of MEPLA, Links, p. online: http://www.dsp.org.au/links/back/issue16/harnecker.html //wyo]

MARXISM SHELL 3/4

AND, WE SHOULD SET LIMITS TO CAPITALISM IN EVERY SPHERE OF SOCIAL LIFE

AND, OUR METHOD SOLVES—INSTEAD OF ENDORSING THE AFFIRMATIVE NARRATIVE,

MARXISM SHELL 4/4

MESZAROS (Prof. Emeritus @ Univ. Sussex) 1995

WE MUST ACT NOW. DESPITE APPEARANCES OF HEGEMONY – CORPORATIST STATES

Eteshami and Murphy, Center for Middle East Studies – U. Durham, 96

THE MIDDLE EASTERN CORPORATIST STATE ONLY APPEARS TO BE STRONG BECAUSE

Eteshami and Murphy, Center for Middle East Studies – U. Durham, 96

CAPITALISM WILL INEVITABLY COLLAPSE

CAPITALISM IS AWASH IN CRISIS, MELTDOWN COULD COME AT ANY TIME

CAPITALISM WILL INEVITABLY COLLAPSE

COMPETITION = INEVITABLE COLLAPSE, COMPLEXITY PRECLUDES A

DEPLETION CRISIS INEVITABLE, WILL LEAD TO CATABOLIC COLLAPSE

CAPITALISM WILL INEVITABLY COLLAPSE

CAP COLLAPSE A MATHEMATICAL CERTAINTY

Sullivan ’06 (Charles, activist, “Sacred Ecology and Capitalism,”

ANTI-CAPITALIST MOVEMENT KEY TO

HUMAN SURVIVAL DEPENDS UPON A GLOBAL POPULAR STRUGGLE AGAINST

SOCIALIST REVOLUTION NECESSARY TO AVERT CAPITAL-DRIVEN NUCLEAR

CAPITALISM MAKES NUCLEAR ANNIHILATION INEVITABLE

(Istvan, Prof. of Philosophy @ Univ. of Sussex. Monthly Review. January, LN)

CAPITALISM ROOT CAUSE OF TERROR 1/2

CAPITAL-DRIVEN HEGEMONIC IMPULSE FOSTERS TERRORISM, RISKING A

GLOBALIZATION BOTH MOTIVATES AND FACILITATES TERRORISM

HOFFMANN (Prof., Int’l Relations Harvard Univ.) ‘02

CAPITALISM ROOT CAUSE OF TERROR 2/2

GLOBALIZATION FACILITATES TERRORISM

HOFFMANN (Prof., Int’l Relations Harvard Univ.) ‘02

FUNDAMENTALISM IS A PRODUCT OF GLOBALIZATION

GIDDENS (Dir., London School of Economics & Political Science) 2K

CRITICISM/FRAMEWORK NECESSARY FOR

EMBRACING MARXIST CRITICISM IS NECESSARY FOR SURVIVAL

BURKE LEACOCK (frmr Chair. Anthropology, CUNY) ‘93

CAPITALISM COMMODIFIES EXISTENCE--IT IS THE LOGIC OF GENOCIDE

CAPITALISM CONTEXTUALIZES RACISM

CANNOT SOLVE RACISM OR SEXISM WITHOUT ADDRESSING CAPITALISM: (1)

SOCIALIST SYSTEM WOULD INSTITUTE THE NECESSARY ELEMENTS OF A

SOCIALISM KEY TO DEMOCRACY—COMMITTED TO THE CAUSES OF THE

[Ralph, “The Plausibility of Socialism.” New Left Review. n. 206. July/August.]

ARMS CONTROL/DISARM GOALS LINKS 1/2

Martin 90 (Assoc. Prof. Science, Tech. and Society, Univ. of Wallongong.)

[Brian, Uprooting War, http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/90uw/]

Martin 90 (Assoc. Prof. Science, Tech. and Society, Univ. of Wallongong.)

[Brian, Uprooting War, http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/90uw/]

ARMS CONTROL/DISARM GOALS LINKS

Disarmament as the goal fails—the root of war is capitalism itself—appealing to

Martin 90 (Assoc. Prof. Science, Tech. and Society, Univ. of Wallongong.)

[Brian, Uprooting War, http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/90uw/]

Disarmament fails: Promotes secret weapons, hollow inspections, and creates

Martin 90 (Assoc. Prof. Science, Tech. and Society, Univ. of Wallongong.)

[Brian, Uprooting War, http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/90uw/]

1AC METHODOLOGY LINKS 1/2

UPHOLDING RULING CLASS NARRATIVES ENTRENCHES CAPITALIST