KATRINA NEG
Case Arguments
2
Advantage Answers – Status Quo Solves .............................................................................................. 3
Advantage Answers – Housing Segregation Key ................................................................................... 4
Rural Vulnerability Turn – 1NC.............................................................................................................. 5
Rural Vulnerability Turn - Link ........................................................................................................................................................................ 6
Rural Vulnerability Turn – Impact – Turns Case .............................................................................................................................................. 7
Rural Vulnerability Turn – “Place” is the Key Variable .................................................................................................................................... 8
Rural Vulnerability Turn – Capitalism/Class Analysis “Solves” ........................................................................................................................ 9
Movements Turn – 1NC 1/2................................................................................................................ 10
Movements Turn – Movements Solve the AFF ............................................................................................................................................. 12
Movements Turn – Uniqueness .................................................................................................................................................................... 13
Disads and Counterplans 14
Spending Link .......................................................................................................................................... 15
States/Localities CP ................................................................................................................................. 16
States CP – 1NC Template 1/2 ...................................................................................................................................................................... 17
States CP - Solvency - Interstate Cooperation ............................................................................................................................................. 19
States CP – Solvency – Evacuation ................................................................................................................................................................ 20
States CP – A2: Permutations ....................................................................................................................................................................... 21
States CP – A2: “States Bad” ......................................................................................................................................................................... 22
States CP –Solvency for Unified Command CP Mechanism .......................................................................................................................... 23
Capitalism................................................................................................................................................ 24
Capitalism - 1NC Shell 1/3 ............................................................................................................................................................................ 25
Capitalism – Link – Capitalism Explains Katrina Better Than Race ................................................................................................................ 29
Disaster Capitalism – Shock Doctrine Link – Katrina ..................................................................................................................................... 30
Disaster Capitalism - Shock Doctrine Link – Anti-Terrorism 1/2 ................................................................................................................... 31
Disaster Capitalism Link – Federal Policymakers/”Revolving Door” ............................................................................................................. 33
Disaster Capitalism – Impact – Turns the case.............................................................................................................................................. 34
Capitalism – Impact – Armageddon 1/2 ....................................................................................................................................................... 35
Capitalism – Impact – Oppression/Exploitation ............................................................................................................................................ 37
Capitalism – Impact - Calculability ................................................................................................................................................................ 38
Capitalism – Alternative Solves – Movements. ............................................................................................................................................. 39
Capitalism – Alternative Solves – Big Movements Card 1/3 ......................................................................................................................... 40
Capitalism – Alternative Solves – Katrina as Lens of Analysis ....................................................................................................................... 43
Capitalism – Alternative Solves – Don’t Need A Blueprint ............................................................................................................................ 44
Capitalism – Big Alternative – Herod 1/2 ...................................................................................................................................................... 45
Capitalism – A2: Permutation(s) 1/2............................................................................................................................................................. 47
Capitalism – Methodology ............................................................................................................................................................................ 49
AFF – Capitalism Good 1/2 ........................................................................................................................................................................... 50
AFF (Race) – Capitalism: Permutation Solves Class + Race 1/3 ..................................................................................................................... 52
AFF (Katrina) – The 1AC is an Example of the K Impact ................................................................................................................................ 55
Case Arguments
Advantage Answers – Status Quo Solves
New Orleans has developed a plan to assist the minorities and poor the next time an
emergency occurs
Bullard , et al – 2009 (Robert D., with Glenn S. Johnson and Angel O. Torres, [Bullard is
Director, Johnson is a Research Associate, and Torres is a GIS Training Specialist, all with
the Environmental Justice Resource Center @ Clark Atlanta University] “Transportation
Matters: Stranded on the Side of the Road Before and After Disaster Strikes,” in Race,
place, and Environmental Justice after Hurricane Katrina: Struggles to Reclaim, Rebuild,
and Revitalize New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, [Robert D. Bullard and Beverly Wright,
Editors] NM
[Hurricane Katrina accentuated the need to include all modes of transportation in New Orleans-a city
that was unprepared to evacuate so many persons using other modes. Since Hurricane Katrina,
however, New Orleans has developed a plan for the use of multiple modes of transportation to evacuate
those who cannot evacuate by private vehicle. The plan identifies target populations to be evacuated by
bus, rail- road, and airplane and how persons will be transported to those modes.
In addition, the city has enhanced its sheltering plan and will provide more information to citizens early
in the season. The city has also established a 311 information hotline to register residents with special
needs for evacuations. One goal of the plan is to "create and maintain an environment where the
decision to evacuate becomes more desirable than remaining behind" (U.S. Department of
Transportation and U.S. Department of Homeland Security 2006).] p. 76
The government is making amends to accommodate the needs of those who cannot
drive in an evacuation.
Bullard , et al – 2009 (Robert D., with Glenn S. Johnson and Angel O. Torres, [Bullard is
Director, Johnson is a Research Associate, and Torres is a GIS Training Specialist, all with
the Environmental Justice Resource Center @ Clark Atlanta University] “Transportation
Matters: Stranded on the Side of the Road Before and After Disaster Strikes,” in Race,
place, and Environmental Justice after Hurricane Katrina: Struggles to Reclaim, Rebuild,
and Revitalize New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, [Robert D. Bullard and Beverly Wright,
Editors] NM
[The committee recommended that the Department of Homeland Security and Department of
Transportation provide more guidance to state and local governments on regional evacuation planning.
Emphasis was given to meeting the needs of people without cars and those with special needs, such as
the disabled and poor, as top priorities and the Achilles heel in local emergency evacuation and
response plans. Federal funding should be provided to help cities develop regional evacuation plans, and
grant recipients should be required to report on their progress. ] 78
Advantage Answers – Housing Segregation Key
Housing inequality is key – Racial inequality in housing created a community with expensive standing
homes that stood in stark contrast to flooded, African-American communities AND the same unfair
practices of housing discrimination prevent reconstruction efforts from solving.
Bullard (founding Director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center @ Clark Atlanta University) and
Wright (founding Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice @ Dillard University) 2009 (Dr. Robert D. and Dr. Beverly, “Afterword: Looking Back to Move Forward,” in Race, Place, and
Environmental Justice After Hurricane Katrina, Bullard and Wright [Editors]) KS
[How can these environmental disparities be explained? Don't all communities have a right to "equal
protection under the law"? Should your race determine whether or not the government protects you?
The historical legacy of segregation and housing discrimination quite often dictated where African
Americans could live, rent, buy homes, play, and shop. It is no accident or chance happening where
African Americans live in New Orleans. The same holds true for whites in the city.
Historically, affluent whites generally take the high ground, leaving to the poor, working-class, and
African Americans the more vulnerable low-lying land. However, even when whites occupy low-lying
areas, they get special privileges for being white, as in the case of New Orleans' affluent and mostly
white Lakeview neighborhood, which received more than five feet of increased flood protection,
compared to low-lying black neighborhoods that received significantly less or no increase in flood
protection. Despite decades of anti-discrimination laws, "white privilege" still provides an edge for white
disaster victims, while penalizing people-of-color disaster victims (Bullard and Wright 2006).
Hurricane Katrina personalized how "racialized place" operates to disenfranchise African Americans and
other people of color in their attempt to evacuate, return, rebuild, and reclaim their lives,
neighborhoods, and institutions. The slow government response to evacuate individuals who were left
in squalid conditions in the Superdome and Convention Center mirrors the differential treatment in
providing environmental clean-up of contamination, health care, including mental health, and
transportation that were devastated by the flood. New Orleans' African-American neighborhoods were
redlined before Katrina. Redlining by banks, insurance, and commercial businesses has accelerated
since the storm-killing black areas. Although it is illegal, it is still practiced. Large swaths of neighborhood
have been racially redlined-with little commercial or business activity even though many of the former
residents have returned. Katrina increased competition for housing-placing a special burden on black
renters and black home buyers seeking replacement housing--exposing them to housing discrimination.
Black New Orleanians have always faced housing discrimination. This is a fact of life in the South, but the
housing shortages in post-Katrina New Orleans have allowed housing discrimination to run rampantcausing African-American Katrina survivors to spend more time, more effort, and more money than
whites in their search for replacement housing. Hurricanes and floods marginalize already marginalized
populations. In the post-Katrina rebuilding stage, storm survivors who are lucky enough to make it back
home are exposed to price gouging, home repair scams, banking and insurance redlining, and predatory
lending practices. These unfair practices are not limited to fly-by-night business operations. They also
include well-established large banking, mortgage, and insurance companies. Homeowners are forced
into a tug-of-war with insurance companies that use the wind-or-water argument to unfairly deny
legitimate claims. Homeowners with limited means often agree to low settlement claims offered by
insurance companies, while more affluent homeowners hire lawyers. Having resources in a time of crisis
can make a difference in evacuation, and it also make a difference in disaster recovery-including
rebuilding one's home, churches, schools, and other valued institutions.] p. 267-268
Rural Vulnerability Turn – 1NC
Our society does not wish to acknowledge race place and poverty – Their omission of
people of color in rural communities reproduces the invisibility their 1AC critiques,
turning the case.
Bassett 09 (Debra Lyn Basset, Professor of Law at the University of Alabama, “Chapter 2, The overlooked
significance of place in law and policy: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina,” in Race, Place, and Environmental
Justice After Hurricane Katrina, Robert D. Bullard and Beverly Wright [Editors], p. 54-55) ta
[Race, place, and poverty-even when taken individually, our society has little desire to acknowledge, much less fully
address, any of these three issues. Each of the populations embodying these issues-minorities, the rural, and the poor - is
itself the subject of neglect and disrespect. The addition of each successive disrespected population correspondingly
reduces society's interest even further, rendering the population encompassed by all three of these issues-minorities living
in rural poverty not just powerless, but genuinely forgotten to the point of invisibility. ¶ This phenomenon was painfully
evident in the aftermath of Katrina. The media's attention was focused on urban areas, and particularly on New Orleans.
And perhaps that focus was eminently reasonable in light of the sheer number of people affected by the flooding. My
point is the "invisibility" point: that minorities living in rural poverty are unseen, and that this invisibility is not only a
function of race and class. "Rural" adds another factor-another devalued factor. We saw poor black faces on our
television screens after Katrina. But we did not tend to see poor black rural faces. Many people seemed surprised that
those stranded by Katrina were largely poor and black, because we do not see those who are poor and black as a general
matter. But the addition of the rural factor heightens invisibility even further-even though, as explained in one recent
study, rural residents represented the majority of the population affected by Hurricane Katrina in the state of Mississippi
(Saenz and ¶ Peacock 2006). ¶ About 38 percent of Katrina's rural disaster area population was African American. Forty
percent of those African Americans lived in poverty. ¶ rate of white urban residents. African Americans were also less
likely to be homeowners, more likely to own mobile homes, less likely to have a telephone, and nearly four times more
likely to lack a car (Saenz and Peacock 2006). ¶ Indeed, instead of the five-day wait experienced by survivors in New
Orleans and criticized throughout the nation as being unreasonable and outrageous-the wait experienced by rural
survivors stretched into weeks. The same lack of attention to rural areas recurred during Hurricane Rita, where the
anticipatory focus was a worry about the urban areas of Houston and New Orleans. Hurricane Rita's impact was greatest
in rural, rather than urban, communities-and perhaps for that reason, its impact was, and largely continues to be,
overlooked. ¶ Despite the preference in our laws and policies to avoid place-specific references, place in fact puts some
citizens at higher risks during natural disasters and makes them less able to recover from such disasters. In what ways
are rural areas hampered by their place in the context of natural disasters? In addition to higher rates of poverty, in
addition to their general invisibility, in addition to the often reduced availability of technology, communication, and
transportation, remote rural areas are also hampered by other disadvantages stemming from their place. For example,
many remote rural areas have unpaved dirt roads rather than superhighways, which can hinder evacuation efforts.
Another disadvantage is that due to the dispersion and lower population densities of remote rural areas, attempts to
centralize efforts-whether at the warning stage, the evacuation stage, or the remedy stage-do not tend to work effectively
in rural areas due to the dispersion of fewer people over greater distances and the related transportation issues. The
physical and social isolation, and lack of transportation, in many rural communities serves as a major barrier to the
delivery of aid to these localities. ] 54-55
Rural Vulnerability Turn - Link
The omission of rural vulnerability from the 1AC account is like color-blindness for
place – Talking about Katrina as a single experience masks the differences between
urban victims in New Orleans and rural victims in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama
and devalues the rural victims.
Bassett 09 (Debra Lyn Basset, Professor of Law at the University of Alabama, “Chapter 2, The overlooked
significance of place in law and policy: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina,” in Race, Place, and Environmental
Justice After Hurricane Katrina, Robert D. Bullard and Beverly Wright [Editors], p. 51) ZC
[In addition to these factors contributing to geographic vulnerability, there is another aspect of placeone which was not the focus of media attention after Katrina. The nation's focus was and continues to
be on urban areas, especially New Orleans. Rural areas, in contrast, attracted far less notice-a
phenomenon that is true more generally as well as in the specific context of Hurricane Katrina. A recent
study has empirically demonstrated the pervasive lack of media attention to rural areas (W K. Kellogg
Foundation 2003). In particular, the plight of the hurricane victims who lived in the urban area of New
Orleans received massive, ongoing media attention, whereas the plight of the hurricane victims who
lived in the remote rural areas of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama did not. Rural areas are often
more vulnerable in disasters, and race often compounds vulnerability-and, of course, the rural south has
a large African-American population (Saenz and Peacock 2006). With respect to Hurricane Katrina, as
well as more generally, important issues of race and poverty were, and are, exacerbated by the
additional issue of place-and rural areas create an additional dimension to issues of place.
One explanation for the common tendency to highlight urban areas and urban events is the reality that
urban areas and events typically involve larger numbers of people-and therefore are more newsworthy,
or more relevant, or more credible, or carry more significance. But there is an undercurrent, or perhaps
more accurately, an underbelly to this rationalization: An urban focus and urban bias accord greater
value to urban areas and urban dwellers, and a lesser value to rural areas and rural dwellers.
Accordingly, when laws and policies omit any references to place, this omission permits the urban
assumption to prevail.] p51
Rural Vulnerability Turn – Impact – Turns Case
Ignoring the rural dimension of place means the AFF cannot defend their assumptions
about how to ensure effective evacuation infrastructure.
Bassett 09 (Debra Lyn Basset, Professor of Law at the University of Alabama, “Chapter 2, The overlooked
significance of place in law and policy: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina,” in Race, Place, and Environmental
Justice After Hurricane Katrina, Robert D. Bullard and Beverly Wright [Editors], p. 52-53) ta
[Another writer noted: "The horror [of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath] is being felt not only in the
hell of New Orleans, but also here in rural Mississippi, where most of the victims feel forgotten-by their
countrymen, by rescuers and by the media. Nobody brings food. There are no shelters" (Associated
Press 2005). And according to another article: "Rural communities in southern Mississippi have been
especially hard hit, and unlike their larger counterparts, such as Biloxi, Gulfport and Pascagoula, there
seems to be little progress in restoring electricity to these areas" (Zarazua 2005). Some of the more
detailed stories are heartbreaking: Bond, Mississippi, isn't a town or a city, just a name on a green
signpost along the highway that means little to people who don't live here. But people do live here, back
among the pines, in small houses and single-wide trailers. Most are black, and most are poor, and they
have been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. But they have been forgotten. They have no food, no water,
no gasoline, no electricity, and little hope of getting any anytime soon. "I ain't got nothing to eat and I'm
hungry," moaned one 81-year-old resident with diabetes. Clutching at the collar of her thin cotton
housedress, the old woman moves between despair and anger, "They got to send us something. We got
nothing. People back here are going to starve," she said, her voice picking up an octave. The Red Cross
trucks and the National Guard and the local power trucks roar right by this small enclave scattered off
Highway 49, about 25 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico and smack in the path of Katrina's wrath
(Hastings 2005). Everyday assumptions are often rendered erroneous due to the differing practical
realities of place. In particular, everyday assumptions routinely held by urban dwellers often do not hold
true for rural dwellers. Urban dwellers assume the ready availability of telephone service and further
assume that if an individual cannot afford traditionai telephone service, accessibility is nevertheless
available through a neighbor's phone, cell phone, or local pay phone. However, in remote rural areas a
neighbor's phone or pay phone may be several miles away, and cell phone service may not be available
at all. Urban dwellers assume the ready availability of Internet access, when in some rural areas highspeed Internet access is unavailable (Drabenstott and sheaff2001), and dial-up Internet access not only
requires telephone service, but often is available only through a long-distance call (TVA 2001). Urban
dwellers assume access to television, but cable television is not available or affordable for all rural
dwellers, and without cable, many rural homes are located too far from television stations to receive
any signal. Urban dwellers assume the availability of transportation. Although most people in both
urban and rural areas own a car (Pucher and Renne 2004), in urban areas additional, back-up forms of
transportation also exist, whether taxicabs, subways, buses, light rail, or some other form of mass
transit. Many rural dwellers own older, unreliable vehicles (University of Wisconsin 1998), and in many
rural areas no alternative methods of transportation exist (Glasgow 2000). Moreover, although most
urban areas have ready access to an airport, nearly 83 percent of rural counties are beyond commuting
distance to a major airport (Gale and Brown 2000), We saw, in New Orleans, that forms of mass transit
can become disabled and leave people stranded. But in most remote rural areas, alternative methods of
transportation are unavailable even before a disaster strikes. These restrictions on the availability of
technology, communications, and transportation increase vulnerability-as do lower levels of education
and income. And, it turns out, poverty is also tied to place.] p. 52-53
Rural Vulnerability Turn – “Place” is the Key Variable
Analysis of place is crucial to understanding Katrina – Place is the key variable that
determines poverty, which is the foundation for inequality.
Bassett 09 (Debra Lyn Basset, Professor of Law at the University of Alabama, “Chapter 2, The overlooked
significance of place in law and policy: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina,” in Race, Place, and Environmental
Justice After Hurricane Katrina, Robert D. Bullard and Beverly Wright [Editors], p. 53-54) ta
[As a political columnist observed, until Hurricane Katrina, the issue of poverty had largely fallen off the
public's radar screen (Alter 2005). Typically, poverty is literally out of sight as well as out of mind. For
urban dwellers, aside from occasional panhandlers on city streets, most of us do not see poverty. For most
of us, poverty is not apparent on our street, at our workplace, or at our health club. We do not encounter
poverty because poverty is segregated from most of the more affluent population. Indeed, the poor are so
segregated as to render them invisible: "That the poor are invisible is one of the most important things
about them. They are not simply neglected and forgotten as in the old rhetoric of reform; what is much
worse, they are not seen" (Harrington 1981).
The poor are "politically invisible" as well. Politicians do not court the poor; the poor do not retain
lobbyists to promote their interests; the poor do not staff voter registration tables or organize drives to
"get out the vote." The poor are both unseen and unheard.
Although various factors, including race, gender, and place, increase the risk of living in poverty, it turns
out that place is the most important-in fact, often the determining-variable. America's urban focus extends
to a focus on urban poverty as well, despite the fact that rates of poverty are consistently higher in rural
areas-and have been every year since 1959 (Economic Research Service 2004).
Place is the most important factor in determining the likelihood that someone will live in poverty. Rural
dwellers are significantly more likely to be poor than urban dwellers (Cotter 2003; Weber and Jensen
2004). Of all the counties nationwide with poverty rates above the national level, approximately 84
percent are rural. Moreover, more than 80 rural counties have poverty rates of more than 30 percent; 12 of
these counties have poverty rates of more than 40 percent. In fact, counties with high rates of poverty are
disproportionately concentrated in rural areas. Not only is the level of poverty striking in rural areas - of
the 250 poorest counties in America, 244 are rural (Beeson and Strange 2000)-but poverty becomes more
acute in more remote rural areas. Poverty and place have a direct and proportional relationship: the more
rural the place, the higher the likelihood of poverty. The insidious impact of place also contributes
disproportionately to minority poverty. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the poverty rates for African
Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans are all higher in rural areas than in urban areas (Rural
Social Security Task Force 1993). Minorities bear an incommensurate burden from rural poverty, with
more than one out of every four rural African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans living in
poverty (Housing Assistance Council 2002). The connection between race and rural poverty becomes
even stronger in counties designated by the federal government as "persistent poverty" counties-those
with poverty rates of 20 percent or higher over a 40-year period. The United States currently has 382
"persistent poverty" counties-counties with consistent poverty rates of20 percent or more in 1960, 1970,
1980, 1990, and 2000. Nearly half of all rural poor blacks and Native Americans live in these persistently
high-poverty areas, as do nearly a third of all poor rural Hispanics. By contrast, only an eighth of poor
white households live in persistent poverty areas (Beale 2004). Moreover, rural poverty is geographically
concentrated in areas that correspond to racial and ethnic dimensions. Three of the highest concentrations
of American poverty exist in the rural pocket of the old southern cotton belt (where most of the poor are
black), the rural pocket of the Rio Grande Valley/Texas Gulf Coast (where most poor people are
Hispanic), and the Native American reservations of the rural Southwest (where poverty is nearly all
Native American) (Rural Policy Research institute 2003] p. 53-54
Rural Vulnerability Turn – Capitalism/Class Analysis “Solves”
An analysis of place through the lens of economic inequality explains the
transportation vulnerabilities experienced by the victims of Katrina.
Bassett 09 (Debra Lyn Basset, Professor of Law at the University of Alabama, “Chapter 2, The overlooked
significance of place in law and policy: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina,” in Race, Place, and Environmental
Justice After Hurricane Katrina, Robert D. Bullard and Beverly Wright [Editors], p. 50-51) ZC
[Place did receive some attention in the context of Hurricane Katrina, because place mattered during
Katrina and its aftermath. Place is more than an interchangeable location. Only particular places felt any
impact from the hurricane-so the Gulf Coast region was the focus. In addition, only certain places within
the Gulf Coast region suffered serious devastation. There was a geography of vulnerability – place was
not irrelevant, because some places were safer, and some were more dangerous, than others.
Who ends up in the places that carry more risk-that are less safe-and why? We know the answer: The
people who are more economically and socially vulnerable are the ones shunted into the places that are
more geographically vulnerable-including those who are less educated, who are low income, who are
elderly, or who are minorities. In New Orleans, the more geographically vulnerable places specifically
included the properties most at risk for flooding (Seidenberg 2006). Race, place, and class all overlapped
in the city of New Orleans in Katrina's aftermath when the city's poor, largely black, residents could not
escape from the water that flooded the lower-lying residential areas.
But another sense of place did not receive the same media attention, and to get to that "place," I want
to discuss some additional factors contributing to geographic vulnerability. What is it that makes a
particular place geographically vulnerable? In the context of Hurricane Katrina, we saw that geographic
vulnerability can include a number of considerations. An initial consideration, of course, is living in a
location that is warm, humid, and near a warm sea, such as the Gulf of Mexico, and therefore in a
location that is susceptible to hurricanes (or, in other contexts, in areas susceptible to earthquakes,
tornadoes, or other natural disasters). Another consideration is living in a location with a low elevation
or drainage issues, such that if flooding occurs, the location is at additional risk. Other considerations
include season and climate. Katrina hit in August in the Deep South, which meant that the residents
were vulnerable to an oppressive combination of heat and humidity from which there was no respite
due to the lack of electricity to run the air-conditioning systems.
These considerations are the most obvious sources of geographic vulnerability with respect to
hurricanes. But still other factors also contribute to geographic vulnerability. When a location lacks
access to technology, communication, and transportation, and when the residents of that location lack
the financial means to overcome these issues, this also renders the location geographically vulnerable. A
successful evacuation of New Orleans, for example, required access to information and access to
transportation. There were residents of New Orleans who never heard the order to evacuate (Hanson
and Hanson 2006), and even among the majority who did, we saw the consequences of a lack of
available and affordable transportation for thousands of residents who had no means to get out of the
city.] p. 50-51
Movements Turn – 1NC 1/2
Pre-Katrina structural inequities laid the foundation for enhanced emergency vulnerability based on
race and place, but the Environmental Justice movement arose in response and can provoke changes
in federal government policy.
Bullard (founding Director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center @ Clark Atlanta University) and
Wright (founding Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice @ Dillard University) 2009 (Dr. Robert D. and Dr. Beverly, “Afterword: Looking Back to Move Forward,” in Race, Place, and
Environmental Justice After Hurricane Katrina, Bullard and Wright [Editors]) KS
[Hurricane Katrina made clear the links between race, place, and vulnerability. What people often term
natural disasters or acts of God are in fact acts of social injustice perpetuated by government and
business on the poor, people of color, the most vulnerable of our society-groups least able to withstand
such disasters (Squires and Hartman 2006). Decades of government neglect, denial, and old-fashioned
greed created a nightmare in the aftermath of the storm.
For decades, budget cuts to the Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency charged with oversight of
the levee system, allowed New Orleans to be underprotected. It does not take a rocket scientist to
figure out which communities were least protected and most vulnerable or which communities will reap
the lion's share of benefits-who is left "high and dry" once the multi-billion-dollar levee and coastal
restoration plans are completed. Residents in New Orleans were told, "You're on your own" (Nolan
2005). One need only overlay race and class characteristics atop an Army Corps flood-protection map to
see what color communities received the sharpest increase in protection. Some would label this a not so
subtle form of "levee redlining," with people-of-color communities receiving the least amount of flood
protection.
An entire movement was founded some three decades ago to address environmental injustice. This
movement defines environment as where we live, work, play, worship, attend school, as well as the
physical and natural world. Environmental justice embraces the principle that all communities have a
right to equal protection under our nation's environmental, health, housing, transportation, energy, land
use, and civil rights laws (Bullard 2005).
The Environmental Justice Movement was even able to get a president, Bill Clinton, to sign an Executive
Order on Environmental Justice-an order that requires federal agencies such as the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA), the Army Corps, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and others to examine their policies and practices to see if
they have an adverse and disproportionate impact on low-income and minority populations. Katrina
tested the limits of the EJ Executive Order 12898 and the agencies it covers. Government policies and
practices before, during, and after Katrina allowed thousands of low-income and minority populations,
the two protected classes covered by the order, to be disproportionately and adversely affected. The
Environmental Protection Agency had contamination; FEMA subjected storm victims to toxic travel
trailers; the CDC delayed in testing toxic FEMA trailers; HUD allowing public housing to be demolished
during a housing shortage; and the Army Corps provided unequal flood protection after the levee
repair.] p. 266-267
Movements Turn – 1NC 2/2
AND, it is offense - Expectations determine political action - Individual rebuilding
decisions depend on government decisions to act or not act. Our argument is that the
AFF will convince people to shift their efforts away from movement-based rebuilding
by placing their faith in the USFG’s investments.
Chamlee-Wright and Storr 10 (Emily Chamlee-Wright is a Professor in the Department of
Economics and Management at Beloit College. Virgil Henry Storr is a professor at the Mercatus Center,
“Expectations of Governments response to Disaster”, Public Choice, Volume 144, Number 1, July, pp.
253-274. [Online] SpringerLink)
In this section we connect returning residents’ expectation type to the rebuilding strategy they adopt. In
particular, our aim is to show why it is rational for OC-PI types to adopt a mixed strategy. Although it
may seem irrational to engage in political action given the enormous costs of rebuilding, it makes sense
when their expectations are taken into account. As the collective action literature suggests, expectations
will play a key role in how recovery unfolds, both because of individuals’ expectations of what life will be
like if they return, as well as their expectations of what decisions others (citizens and government) will
make. As described above (recall Diagram 1), an individual’s rebuilding strategy will be directed, at least
in part, by the expectation set they have of government action. The most common rebuilding strategy
that Ninth Ward returnees exhibit within this field study is the mixed strategy of rebuilding while also
engaging in activities designed to enhance government’s response in the rebuilding effort, including
demonstrations, political protest, attendance at multiple and frequent neighborhood association
meetings, and redevelopment planning meetings, sometimes with fellow neighborhood residents,
sometimes with residents from other neighborhoods, and sometimes with city council representatives
and other local political leaders.
The activities people have engaged in often represent considerable commitments of time and energy
during a period when the demands of rebuilding, in terms of physical effort and/or monitoring of
contractors, are also significant. Interview subjects frequently spoke of “meeting fatigue” and “Katrina
burnout” when describing their neighborhood organizational efforts after the storm.17 Assuming then
that people are simply too busy to engage in time-consuming acts of expressive behavior, such activities
would seem to make little sense based on PI expectations alone. Such activities are rational, however,
from the perspective of the OC-PI expectation set. It is rational for individuals who believe that
government is capable of providing some public good or service (but does not want to) to believe that
government officials can be pressured, cajoled, or shamed into providing that service.
Movements Turn – Movements Solve the AFF
The people should direct recovery efforts – They have the best information and will pursue
environmentally sustainable reconstruction efforts.
Bullard (founding Director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center @ Clark Atlanta University) and
Wright (founding Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice @ Dillard University) 2009 (Dr. Robert D. and Dr. Beverly, “Afterword: Looking Back to Move Forward,” in Race, Place, and
Environmental Justice After Hurricane Katrina, Bullard and Wright [Editors]) KS
[While the government and its responses to Katrina related to rebuilding can and do determine the
speed of recovery, what we have learned is that it is the people who will determine the city's recovery.
We know that race and place can influence how you live. We also know that people of color and
residents of low-income communities are more affected by negative environmental factors and
community disparities that impact health.
The neighborhoods in New Orleans most affected by the storm are segregated by race and income. Like
other communities of color and low-income communities across the country, they were plagued with
overwhelmingly high crime rates, underfunded and ineffective schools, insufficient essential services,
poor transportation and housing options, as well as other factors that challenge individual and
community health. Many residents have had little, if any, help from government. Some residents no
longer even expect it. But they are determined to return home. Citizens in communities are leading all
kinds of rebuilding projects. They are building eco-friendly houses, steel houses, and concrete houses
instead of the traditional wood-frame houses we arc used to seeing built in the city. There are
communities that have decided to be carbon free and are installing solar panels and solar water heaters,
in addition to using the latest in eco-friendly weatherization techniques and materials. There are
neighborhoods fighting against the opening and locating of landfills and other disamenities in their
communities and fighting for a fair share of the new green economy and green jobs that are beginning
to take hold in the city (Bullard and Harden 2005; Bullard and Wright 2006).] p. 271-272
Movements Turn – Uniqueness
We control uniqueness - Status quo recovery is driven by the people, not government intervention.
Bullard (founding Director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center @ Clark Atlanta University) and
Wright (founding Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice @ Dillard University) 2009 (Dr. Robert D. and Dr. Beverly, “Afterword: Looking Back to Move Forward,” in Race, Place, and
Environmental Justice After Hurricane Katrina, Bullard and Wright [Editors]) KS
[New Orleans residents are engaged in collaboration with national organizations to green their public
schools, universities, parks, hospitals, supermarkets, and churches. From our perspective in measuring
the recovery of this city, significant progress is due in large measure not to government intervention but
to the heart and soul of the city, its people, volunteers, and nongovernmental organizations that want to
make a difference.] p. 273 conclusion
Disads and Counterplans
Spending Link
The infrastructure of New Orleans is crumbling – It will cost billions to repair.
Bullard (founding Director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center @ Clark Atlanta University) and
Wright (founding Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice @ Dillard University) 2009 (Dr. Robert D. and Dr. Beverly, “Afterword: Looking Back to Move Forward,” in Race, Place, and Environmental Justice After Hurricane
Katrina, Bullard and Wright [Editors]) KS
[The desirability of a city is often determined by its amenities, which require a functioning
infrastructure. The city of New Orleans is a very old city; in fact, it is older than the United States.
Consequently, it has a very old infrastructure. Compounding the situation is the fact that the already
stressed infrastructure of this old city was decimated by Katrina. The immediate challenges after Katrina
were the rebuilding or repairing of the structures and systems supplying electricity and water.
Provision of electricity, gas, and telephone service, although functional for most of the city, was also a
challenge, Entergy Corporation, the local electric and gas service provider, was bankrupt. The city
brokered a deal that allowed the company to survive and the city is now "powered up," However, the
connection of electrical services for persons returning to the city can take some time due to the amount
of damage to the equipment.
Racial geography plays out in service recovery. Those areas least flooded received service more quickly
than flooded areas. It should be no surprise that black areas were more flooded than white areas. While
the Lower Ninth was one of heaviest damaged areas from floodwaters, it was the last neighborhood
whose tap water was given a clean bill of health. Telephone service is still a challenge, requiring
residents to expend more time and resources to get reconnected. On the average, connection of nondigital phone service takes 30 days. Compare this to an approximately three¬day wait before Katrina.
The problems of the city's Sewerage and Water Board, with its crumbling infrastructure, are serious. The
underground system of pipes is very old and riddled with holes. Before Katrina, it was not unusual to see
broken water lines with water gushing out into the streets. Three years after the storm, the city loses
millions of gallons of water daily. It will take billions of dollars to repair the system. While New Orleans
residents presently have clean running water and flushing toilets, plumbing is a very lucrative business in
the city these days-making unsuspecting homeowners easy prey to scams and rip-off artists disguised as
plumbers, electricians, and contractors.
The word in the city is, "There are only two types of houses in New Orleans; houses wit h plumbing
problems and houses that will have plumbing problems. The city’s drainage system in many areas, is still
clogged with debris from Katrina, causing street flooding during heavy rainfall in areas that were not
problematic before the storm. But, we have still made tremendous progress.] p. 269
States/Localities CP
States CP – 1NC Template 1/2
We offer the following ___________ counterplan:
Observation 1: The Text –
Observation 2: Net Benefits:
The Counterplan solves the case and avoids the Disads to federal action.
Observation 3: The CP Solves Disaster mitigation and response is a state and local responsibility
Rivera and Miller – 2007 (Jason David Rivera [Research Associate in the Liberal Arts and Sciences Institute for Research and
Community Service @ Rowan University] and DeMond Shondell Miller PhD [Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Liberal Arts
and Sciences Institute for Research and Community Service at Rowan University], “Continually Neglected: Situating Natural Disasters in the
African,” Journal of Black Studies, Volume 37, Number 4, March, pp. 502-522. [Online] Sage)
[6. In Stage Two of U.S. disaster policy development, attention is given to social issues associated with
natural disasters such as rebuilding the local economic infrastructure and private property; however,
implementation and mitigation responsibility is primarily the responsibility of the local governments
(Rivera & Miller, 2006). 7. The most influential legislation in place to deal with Hurricane Katrina was the
Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 (PL 106-390) that placed all spending and mitigation practices in the
hands of the state and local governments.]
States CP – 1NC Template 2/2
AND, no federal action is necessary – State-level agencies can cover every sector of
disaster response.
Smith 12 (Dr. James Patterson Smith, Associate Professor of History @ University of Southern Mississippi, Hurricane Katrina: A Mississippi
Story) KS
[State-level EMAC assistance proved itself in every sector of the disaster response. With 40 percent of
the Mississippi National Guard force on station in Iraq, the widespread devastation dwarfed the 3,800man Mississippi force that could be assembled for disaster duty. Again, state-to-state aid saved the day.
By Wednesday, Florida and Alabama Guard units had added 1,100 men to the Mississippi force. As
Arkansas, Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, and other responded, the out0of state National Guard
forces on duty assisting the Mississippi Guard swelled to 9,400 on Sunday, September 4. Ten days after
the storm, on September 8, out-of-state National Guard forces in Mississippi peaked at 11,500 soldiers.
Sixty-two Army National Guard helicopters flew an average of 300 missions per day to support
Mississippi relief and recovery operations. Beyond supplemental National Guard units, the EMAC
program provided police officers, firemen, medical teams, and a wide array of other specialists. Some of
the New York fire and rescue units that came to Mississippi had worked around zero at the World Trade
Center on 9,11. In December of 2005, MEMA Director Robert Latham testified 48 states had sent 24,791
men and women for 892 specific EMAC missions in Mississippi, all of which were tasked and coordinate
under local Unified Command teams. This enabled Mississippi to tap the expertise of other states at
federal expense, which Latham valued at $293 million. The vital local community public safety backbone
was strained to the breaking point in the days after the storm. Harrison County Supervisor Marlin Ladner
concluded that without assistance from other states, the Katrina aftermath “would have been an
impossible task for local agencies to handle.”]
States CP - Solvency - Interstate Cooperation
Florida efficiently supplied interstate financial aid and assets for Hurricane Katrina
victims, showing the states’ capability to cooperate – The CP avoids the fear of federal
paperwork that leads to reconstruction paralysis.
Smith 12 (Dr. James Patterson Smith, Associate Professor of History @ University of Southern
Mississippi, Hurricane Katrina: A Mississippi Story) KS
[Getting “on track” was no small task given the untold numbers of city and county workers who had
been rendered homeless, the countless emergency vehicles that had been ruined, and the numbers of
local government buildings that had been heavily damaged or destroyed. In these chaotic circumstances
the Unified Command System that drew praise in Mississippi owed much to the responders and trained
local emergency managers who poured in from Florida. Florida responders worked under the auspices
of the FEMA- financed Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC). Before the storm hit,
Florida had offered aid, but Mississippi officials, at that time, had declined to accept. However, in a
tremendous act of leadership immediately after the storm, Florida officials moved assets and manpower
into Mississippi before the chain of paper approvals that guaranteed federal reimbursement could even
be initiated. At first glance the federal Stafford Act ooks generous in its disaster financial-aid provisions
and promises. However, its implementation involves a multilayered system by which the state must
verify before a request can be forwarded to FEMA for approval and assignment to an appropriate
agency. Brian Martin of Congressman Taylor’s staff saw instances in which local officials’ fears about the
paper processes required for federal reimbursement “started to paralyze some of the recovery.”
Fortunately, such fears did not impair Florida’s response to the Mississippi disaster.”]
Florida responders brought aid to local police and fire units, displaying that states can
cooperate.
Smith 12 (Dr. James Patterson Smith, Associate Professor of History @ University of Southern
Mississippi, Hurricane Katrina: A Mississippi Story) KS
As Harrison County Supervisor Connie Rockco saw it, the Florida first responders and emergency
operations advisors “saved our lives absolutely.” They brought technical expertise of every type. They
rescued victims from collapsed buildings. Florida vehicles stood in for destroyed Mississippi police cars
and fire trucks. In Harrison and Hancock counties, the rapid deployment of Florida state and local
emergency forces within 24 to 48 hours of the storm met a critical need for organizational advice,
manpower, and equipment. Storm-battered and physically exhausted local police and fire units that had
lost most (and in many cases all) of their vehicles absolutely needed the help. Appearing unexpectedly
as they did in the middle of a disaster scene of unprecedented scale, it was easy for Connie Rockco to
conclude that the Florida teams were our “white knights in shining armor.” However, it was Mississippi
local officials across three counties who made the decisions to adopt the Unified Command structures
that the Florida responders recommended.
States CP – Solvency – Evacuation
Better Evacuation Transportation Routes were needed for Katrina – Regional, interstate evacuation planning key to solve.
Baker and Bradbery 05 (Johnny B. Bradbery, Richard H. Baker, October 27 2005, “Rebuilding highway and transit infrastructure
on the gulf coast following Hurricane Katrina – state and local officials,” , HEARING BEFORE THE¶ SUBCOMMITTEE ON HIGHWAYS,
TRANSIT AND PIPELINES¶ OF THE¶ COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS¶ FIRST SESSION, Johnny B. Bradbery is the secretary of the Lousiana
Department of Transportation and Development, Richard H. Baker member of the committee of transportation and infrastructure)
TA
Mr. BAKER. One of the things you and I have talked about is the need for enhanced evacuation routes.
We all know, regrettably, these events are going to reoccur. I believe in the plan you submitted for
consideration, there were significant additional capacity projects to get people up north to Baton Rouge and then
east-west.
If I am understanding the earlier discussion properly, the earlier funds made available, the $60 billion plus by the Congress, those resources
aren’t available to the department for that type of work? ¶ Mr. BRADBERY. They are not, the $62 billion. The Stafford Act fundamentally does
not provide dollars to be put in FHWA relief fund. As it relates to Federal Highways, there is no money being deposited or directed to the
emergency relief pot. So I must respect- fully really say that Congress simply has not funneled the money in the proper pot. ¶ Mr. BAKER. What
has happened with gasoline tax receipts as a result of the effects of Katrina in the Orleans area? Has it had yet a measurable impact on your
ability to conduct your business? ¶ Mr. BRADBERY. At the last assessment we did, gasoline income was fundamentally flat. We anticipate a
reduction, not only due to Katrina but to high gas prices. So we anticipate a hit and thus re- duce revenues from gas taxes. ¶ Mr. BAKER. Do you
have in hand today a plan to facilitate the infrastructure problems in Baton Rouge, and what is the scope of that?
Mr. BRADBERY. We have been talking with the City of Baton Rouge. Very early on, we knew that we
had a congestion problem, a severe congestion problem. We have got an infrastructure there that can
handle 350,000 to 400,000 people; we now have about
26
700,000 people that we estimate. So we worked with them on their plan. The status of that is we have
included in this package almost $1 billion to help relieve congestion and enhance commerce and
evacuation routes in and around the Baton Rouge area.
Mr. BAKER. I don’t know that it has been discussed. I am sure each State representative would go to
their own delegation for their assistance. But it really might be quite helpful, given the mag- nitude of
the problem, and there is Katrina-Rita fatigue and soon to be Wilma fatigue I bet up here, if we had
some sort of regional transportation response to kind of help us all work together.
Not knowing the conditions or the requirements in our neighbor- ing States, I know you have them, I know it is
important that the requests be storm-related and warranted, not necessarily just in- creasing capacity because
there is an opportunity.
But if we can work together as a Gulf Coast coalition and come up with a transportation plan that is a
consolidated ask, I think our opportunities to get—I know the Chairman is favorably dis- posed, and I am
speaking really to those not on Transportation who are ultimately going to have to vote on the floor and
would prob- ably be encouraged to see some sort of regional expression of co- operation in making that
ask. Specifically, like on the Twin Spans and the interstate, we are all connected.
It is essential for that interstate to function that it function across the entire South, not just through
our own State. That is just one of the things that I wanted to suggest to the group.
States CP – A2: Permutations
The state and local government need help and resources, but do not need anyone telling them what
to do – The permutation still links to federalism because emergency response is a states right.
Smith 12 (Dr. James Patterson Smith, Associate Professor of History @ University of Southern Mississippi, Hurricane Katrina: A Mississippi
Story) KS/EH
[On many occasions his adversaries had labeled the governor’s approach “dictatorial.” Therefore no
one was surprised that Barbour joined Governor Blanco of Louisiana in refusing President Bush’s
proposed federalization of the National Guard and the whole emergency response and relief
operation. The Mississippi governor told the president bluntly that “we need help” but “we not need
somebody coming around telling us what to do.” In Barbour’s view, emergency response decisions,
or telling us what to do.” In Barbour’s view, emergency response decisions, or “incident command”
Belonged in state hands.” Such state’s rights assertions also polished the political image that made
Haley Barbour an icon for sourthern Republicans.] p. 84
The CP alone avoids the problems FEMA caused in the original disaster - State and local cooperation in
Mississippi was extremely organized, while FEMA stood by and made empty promises.
Smith 12 (Dr. James Patterson Smith, Associate Professor of History @ University of Southern Mississippi, Hurricane Katrina: A Mississippi
Story) KS
[On the coast, local officials in all three counties somehow sorted their way through the post storm chaos
to establish local unified command structures which reported to each county’s emergency operations
director- Butch Loper in Jackson county, Joe Spraggins in Harrison County, and Brian Adam in Hancock
County. At the state level, there were morning strategy meetings to formulate daily objectives. On the
county level, joint county-municipal daily strategy sessions also became a ritual for city and county
managers, members of the county boards of supervisors, and state and federal liaisons. After each
morning strategy meeting, joint operations and logistics officers met to coordinate the manpower,
equipment, and supplies needed for that day’s objectives. Each evening, managers met to report progress,
assess new problems, and formulate recommendations for the next day. All responders in all
municipalities reported to the countywide Incident Command Team and worked priorities and tasks
which the County Unified Command established across municipal jurisdictions. If the National Guard or
other federally supplied assets were needed, federal law (the Stafford Act) required local officers to draft
formal requests or task orders. The law mandated that Robert Latham and his state-level team validate
local requests before they could be passed on to Bill Carwile for federal approval and forwarding on
through the FEMA bureaucracy to be tasked to appropriate federal agencies. In all of this, FEMA’s
national logistics and tasking were seriously deficient and frustrating. When promised federal assistance
was delayed or did not materialize, it left local officials embarrassed and feeling like they were lying or
misleading their constituents at a sensitive moment.] p. 87
States CP – A2: “States Bad”
Katrina proves that states can rise above their biases and limitations to act responsibly
and collaboratively.
Smith 12 (Dr. James Patterson Smith, Associate Professor of History @ University of Southern Mississippi, Hurricane Katrina: A Mississippi
Story) KS
In a disaster that struck down the mighty and overwhelmed local institutions, essential help poured in
from other states. This outpouring demonstrated anew the genius of the federal system with its multiple
centers of strength and innovation. FEMA stumbled; yet even skeptical Mississippians saw the beauty of
the nation in the strengths that the different states deployed to good effect through EMAC and federal
financing. Katrina was thus an occasion when Mississippians saw the nation in a new light, and, with the
national disaster spotlight focused on them, Mississippians were themselves seen anew. Before Katrina,
those who looked at Mississippi from the outside or through the lens of its troubled past would have
sorely doubted its leaders’ ability to bury egos and abandon political turf wars to concentrate on the
crying human needs of the region. However, Katrina demonstrated that a state known for its stubbornly
independent-minded leaders had in fact produced officials who had the wisdom to follow good advice
and delegate the prioritization of the disaster response to the local incident command teams. This was
asking much of officials who would be held accountable at election time. Moreover, local people learned
that they could depend on each other and that they could depend on the collaborative processes behind
the Unified Command concept.
States CP –Solvency for Unified Command CP Mechanism
State and local cooperation and organization in Mississippi areas affected by the Hurricane was the
most effective, but the federal government is reluctant to go through Unified Command.
Smith 12 (Dr. James Patterson Smith, Associate Professor of History @ University of Southern
Mississippi, Hurricane Katrina: A Mississippi Story) KS/EH
[It was the high degree of cooperation across state and local agencies and jurisdictions which
distinguished the Mississippi response and made it stand out in contrast to the public struggles between
city, state, and federal authorities in Louisiana. Carwile, however, was reluctant to cast stones at
Louisiana. The very idea of Unified Command is extremely challenging in a federal system where a
multiplicity of state and local elected officials and federal agencies share responsibility for response,
resources, and personnel. Successful Unified Command scenarios require that state and local
policymakers be willing to delegate authority for day-to-day operations to incident command teams who
set disaster response priorities, allocate resources, and interface seamlessly with each other at the state
and local level. Devolving such responsibilities is a lot to ask of an elected official who will be blamed or
praised for the results at the next election. The success of Unified Command at the state level in
Mississippi stemmed from Governor Haley Barbour’s willingness to place substantial authority in the
hands of those most able to deal with the various aspects of the hurricane emergency. Barbour set the
example for others.] p. 86
Capitalism
Capitalism - 1NC Shell 1/3
A. Starting points: Oppression in Katrina was due to a capitalist exploitation
Scott and Katz-Fishman 07 (Jerome Scott [Director of Project South], and Walda Katz-Fishman [Professor of Sociology @
Howard University], "America through the Eye of Hurricane Katrina-Capitalism at its "Best" what are we Prepared to do?" Race, Gender & Class,
Volume 14, Number 1, pp. 7-16. [Online] Alt-PressWatch; Ethnic NewsWatch; GenderWatch.) NM
[The catastrophic aftermath of Katrina was a loud and clear wake-up call to our communities and our
organizations who have suffered too long from the many forms of oppression and exploitation at the
hands of the brutal system of global capitalism. The time is now and we are the leaders we've been
waiting for. The central question before us is: "Will New Orleans and the Gulf Coast be reconstructed
around the ruling class' vision and interests or will the vision of the people prevail because of the
strength of our movement?]
B. Disaster Capitalism:
Disaster capitalism is the process of using federal funding to stimulate private infrastructure projects like
disaster reconstruction in order to give the market control over a private security state – The 1AC
creates a market in disasters in order to justify selling reconstruction and future preparedness to the
survivors.
Klein ’07 (Naomi, Fellow @ The Nation Institute, Shock Doctrine, Fall. [Online] http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/) JW
[Although the stated goal was fighting terrorism, the effect was the creation of the disaster capitalism –
a full- fledged new economy in homeland security, privatized war and disaster reconstruction tasked
with nothing less than building and running a privatized security state, both at home and aboard. The
economic stimulus of this sweeping initiative proved enough to pick up the slack where globalization and the dot-com booms had left off. Just
as the Internet had launched to the dot-com bubble, 9/11 launched the disaster capitalism bubble. “When the IT industry shut down, postbubble, guess who had all the money? The government,” said Roger Novak of the Novak Biddle Venture Partners, a venture capitalism firm that
invests in homeland security companies. Now, he says, “every fund is seeing how big the trough is and asking how, How do I get a piece of the
action?” It was the pinnacle of the counter-revolution launched by Friedman.
For decades the market had been feeding off
the appendages of the state; now it would devour the core. Bizarrely, the most effective ideological in this process was
the claim that economic ideology was no longer a primary motivator of the US foreign or domestic policy. The mantra “September 11 changed
everything” neatly disguised the fact that for free-market ideologues and the corporations whose interests they serve, the only thing that
changed was the ease with which they could pursue their ambitious agenda. Now, rather than subjecting new policies to fractious public
debate in Congress or bitter conflict with public sector unions, the Bush White House could use the patriotic alignment behind the president
and free pass handed out by the press to stop talking and start doing. As the New York Times observed in February 2007, “without a public form
of debate or formal policy decision , contractors have become a virtual fourth branch government.
Rather than meet the security
challenge posed by September 11 with a comprehensive plan to plug the holes in the public
infrastructure, the Bush team devised a new role for the government, one in which the job of the state
was not to provide security but to purchase it at market prices. And so, in November 2001, just two
months after the attacks, the Department of Defense brought together what it described as “a small
group of venture capitalist consultants” with experience in the dot-com sector. The mission was to
identify “emerging technology solutions that directly assist in the US efforts in the Global Wars on
Terrorism.” By early 2006, this informal exchange had become and official arm of the Pentagon: the
Defense Venture Catalysts Initiative (DeVenCI), a “fully operational office” that can produce new
surveillance and related products. We’re \the a search engine,” explains Bob Pohanka, director of
DeVenCI. According to the Bush vision, the role of the government is merely to raise the money
necessary to launch the new war market, then buy the best products that emerge out of that creative
cauldron, encouraging industry to even greater innovation. IN other words, the politicians create the
demand, and the private sector supplies all manner of solutions – a booming economy in homeland
security and twenty-first-century warfare entirely underwritten by taxpayer dollars.] p. 358-359-360
Capitalism – 1NC Shell 2/3
AND, Corporate Interests are the states interests - Military force will be used to police
business interests abroad.
Klein ’07 (Naomi, Fellow @ The Nation Institute, Shock Doctrine, Fall.
[Online] http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/) JW
[In his 2006 book Overthrow), the former New York Times correspondent Stephen Kinzer tries to get to the
bottom of what has motivated the U.S. politicians who have ordered and orchestrated foreign coups d'etat over
the past century. Studying U.S involvement in regime change operations from Hawaii in 1893 to lraq in 2003, he
observes that there is often a clear three-stage process that takes place. First, a U.S.-based multinational
corporation faces some kind of threat to its bottom line by the actions of a foreign government demanding that
the company "pay taxes or that it observe
labor laws or environmental laws. Sometimes that company is nationalized or is somehow required to sell some of
its land or its assets," Kinzer says. Second, U.S. politicians hear of this corporate setback and reinterpret it as an
attack on the United States: "They transform the motivation from an economic one into a political or geostrategic one. They make the assumption that any regime that would bother an American company or harass an
American company must be anti-American, repressive, dictatorial, and probably the tool of some foreign power or
interest that wants to undermine the United States." The third stage happens when the politicians have to sell the
need for intervention to the public, at which point it becomes a broadly drawn struggle of good versus evil , " a
chance to free a poor oppressed nation from the brutality of a regime that we assume is a dictatorship, because
what other kind of a regime would be bothering an American company?"' Much of U.S. foreign policy, in other
words, is an exercise in mass projection, in which a tiny self- interested elite conflates its needs and desires with
those of the entire world.]
Capitalism – 1NC Shell 3/4
C. The Impact – This system of liberal governance exploits complex emergencies like
Katrina in order to advance capitalism through global humanitarian war.
Dillon and Reid 00 (Michael Dillon [Senior Lecturer in politics & IR @ University of Lancaster] and Julian Reid [Professor of IR @
University of Lapland], ”Global Governance, Liberal Peace, and Complex Emergency.” Alternatives, Volume 25, Issue 1)
As much attention is paid to civil-military communication and coordination and practices of political
negotiation in the development of the novel operational concepts and doctrines that such complex
interventions require--quite literally, their very discursive formation at an operational level--as it is to
traditional military requirements. Moreover, liberalization has applied to military security in some areas
and in some respects as much as it has applied to economics and social welfare. The complexification of
conflict has also opened new commercial possibilities for the provision of "security," and new security
discourses, practices, and agencies have flourished as a consequence. Private armies have emerged and
transnational security corporations now offer their services. States have contracted alliances with
commercial security organizations that offer assistance where formal state intervention, for whatever
reason, is eschewed. Even international organizations avail themselves of the security advice and
services that commercial security companies offer, for example with respect to protecting food
warehouses so that "spontaneous distribution" of food supplies does not occur.[ 8] Emerging political
complexes in Africa and Eurasia have therefore become the "strange attractors" around which novel
security-development alliances of states, international organizations, international nongovernmental
organizations, and local nongovernmental organizations have formed within the domain of liberal peace
and at the interface of its turbulent border terrain.[ 9] Global liberal governance thus responds to the
turbulence of emerging political complexes by forming its own emerging strategic complexes as a means
of dealing with the instances of violence that the densely mediated polities of the West periodically find
unacceptable there, or in response to the security threats that they are generally said to pose. The
resultant assemblages are often coalitions of the willing, the accidental, and the ready to hand. Their
formation and intervention are selective, influenced by media attention, and by economic and
geostrategic interests at least as much as by the calculation or anticipation of need. Such diverse
multiple international/interagency networks pose novel strategic and political questions not only for
their own contingent formations but also to the order of liberal peace as such. Their accounts of the
sources of disorder are varied and conflicting, yet they also offer new rationales for Western armed
forces and their allied arms economies. The outcome can be quite contradictory: military attaches can
be committed both to selling arms and to selling "security reform" measures designed to introduce
Western-style policing, the rule of law, and demilitarization. Through the advent of such emerging
strategic complexes, development analysts have become as interested in conflict, war, and security as
security specialists have become interested in development economics, civil society, and conflict
resolution.[ 10] In the process, the liberal peace of global governance exposes its allied face of
humanitarian war. An additional feature of these strategic complexes is, however, also a deep and
profound confusion about military purpose and military strategy. That in turn promotes a new liberal
bull market for strategic ideas in the aftermath of the dissolution of Cold War discourse.[ 11] Already,
then, discourses concerned to elucidate the practices and dynamics of interagency cooperation have
emerged, operational concepts and doctrines are formulated and disseminated, and manuals of good
practice are officially adopted. Accounts of the bureaucratic politics that characterize the intense
interagency competition and rivalry that accompany the formation and operation of such strategic
complexes are also emerging. These relish the failure and confusion that abounds in such circumstances,
but simultaneously also appeal to it in order to fuel demands for yet better governance, early warning of
incipient conflicts, and more adaptive military might to deal with them. No political formulation is
Capitalism – 1NC Shell 3/4
Dillon and Reid cont’d
therefore innocent. None refers to a truth about the world that preexists that truth's entry into the
world through discourse. Every formula is instead a clue to a truth. Each is crafted in the context of a
wider discursive economy of meaning. Tug at the formula, the pull in the fabric begins to disclose the
way in which it has been woven. The artefactual design of the truth it proclaims then emerges. We are
therefore dealing with something much more than a mere matter of geo- political fact when
encountering the vocabulary of complex emergency in the discourse of global governance and liberal
peace. We are not talking about a discrete class of unproblematic actions. Neither are we discussing
certain forms of intractable conflicts. The formula complex emergency does of course address certain
kinds of violent disorder. That disorder is not our direct concern. Recall with Foucault and many other
thinkers that an economy of meaning is no mere idealist speculation. It is a material political production
integral to a specific political economy of power. ]
Capitalism – Link – Capitalism Explains Katrina Better Than Race
Economic exploitation in housing and neo-liberal attacks on the social safety net
explain racial segregation in New Orleans – Capitalist relations of organization
structure the way racial difference is mobilized.
Giroux 06 (Henry A., Professor in English and Cultural Studies @ McMaster University, Katrina and the Biopolitics of Disposability, Stormy
Weather, p. 35) KS
[While President Bush endlessly argues for the economic benefits of his tax cuts, he callously omits the
fact that 13 million children are living in poverty in the United States, "4.5 million more than when Bush
was first inaugurated."88 And New Orleans has the third highest rate of children living in poverty in the
United States.89 The illiteracy rate in New Orleans before the flood struck was 40 percent; the
embarrassingly ill-equipped public school system was one of the most underfunded in the nation. Nearly
19 percent of Louisiana residents lacked health insurance, putting the state near the bottom for the
percentage of people without health insurance. Robert Scheer, a journalist and social critic, estimates
that one-third of the 150, 000 people living in dire poverty were elderly, left exposed to the flooding in
areas most damaged by Katrina.
It gets worse. In an ironic twist of fate, one day after Katrina hit New Orleans, the U.S. Census Bureau
released two important reports on poverty indicating showed that "Mississippi (with a 21.6 percent
poverty rate) and Louisiana (19.4 percent) are the nation's poorest states, and that New Orleans (with
a 23.2 percent poverty rate) is the 12th poorest city in the nation. [Moreover,] New Orleans is not
only one of the nation's poorest cities, but its poor people are among the most concentrated in poverty
ghettos. Housing discrimination and the location of government subsidized housing have contributed to
the city's economic and racial segregation."91 Under neoliberal capitalism, the attack on politically
responsible government has only been matched by an equally harsh attack on social provisions and
safety nets for the poor.] p. 35
Disaster Capitalism – Shock Doctrine Link – Katrina
The AFF is an opportunity for further exploitation – Destruction and reconstruction
offer maximum profit to disaster capitalists.
Scott and Katz-Fishman 07 (Jerome Scott [Director of Project South], and Walda Katz-Fishman
[Professor of Sociology @ Howard University], "America through the Eye of Hurricane Katrina-Capitalism
at its "Best" what are we Prepared to do?" Race, Gender & Class, Volume 14, Number 1, pp. 7-16.
[Online] Alt-PressWatch; Ethnic NewsWatch; GenderWatch.) NM
[Leading up to, during and after Katrina made landfall this process of creative chaos was all too evident.
The devastation in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast and the rebuilding plan offer maximum profit for
particular global corporations-in oil and energy, in military and security, in building and construction, in
tourism and in the port. This process is an essential aspect of the destruction of the old and preparing
for the new electronic-based global capitalism in our communities.]
Disaster Capitalism - Shock Doctrine Link – Anti-Terrorism 1/2
The marketing of terrorism as a threat is just an excuse to fuel the disaster capitalism
– Preparation for security is transformed into a privatized market that puts
corporations in charge of a permanent ongoing war.
Klein ’07 (Naomi, Fellow @ The Nation Institute, Shock Doctrine, Fall. [Online] http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/)JW
[Although the stated goal was fighting terrorism, the effect was the creation of the disaster capitalism –
a full- fledged new economy in homeland security, privatized war and disaster reconstruction tasked
with nothing less than building and running a privatized security state, both at home and aboard. The
economic stimulus of this sweeping initiative proved enough to pick up the slack where globalization
and the dot-com booms had left off. Just as the Internet had launched to the dot-com bubble, 9/11
launched the disaster capitalism bubble. “When the IT industry shut down, post-bubble, guess who had
all the money? The government,” said Roger Novak of the Novak Biddle Venture Partners, a venture
capitalism firm that invests in homeland security companies. Now, he says, “every fund is seeing how big
the trough is and asking how, How do I get a piece of the action?”
It was the pinnacle of the counter-revolution launched by Friedman. For decades the market had been
feeding off the appendages of the state; now it would devour the core.
Bizarrely, the most effective ideological in this process was the claim that economic ideology was no
longer a primary motivator of the US foreign or domestic policy. The mantra “September 11 changed
everything” neatly disguised the fact that for free-market ideologues and the corporations whose
interests they serve, the only thing that changed was the ease with which they could pursue their
ambitious agenda. Now, rather than subjecting new policies to fractious public debate in Congress or
bitter conflict with public sector unions, the Bush White House could use the patriotic alignment behind
the president and free pass handed out by the press to stop talking and start doing. As the New York
Times observed in February 2007, “without a public form of debate or formal policy decision ,
contractors have become a virtual fourth branch government.
Rather than meet the security challenge posed by September 11 with a comprehensive plan to plug the
holes in the public infrastructure, the Bush team devised a new role for the government, one in which
the job of the state was not to provide security but to purchase it at market prices. And so, in November
2001, just two months after the attacks, the Department of Defense brought together what it described
as “a small group of venture capitalist consultants” with experience in the dot-com sector. The mission
was to identify “emerging technology solutions that directly assist in the US efforts in the Global Wars
on Terrorism.” By early 2006, this informal exchange had become and official arm of the Pentagon: the
Defense Venture Catalysts Initiative (DeVenCI), a “fully operational office” that can produce new
surveillance and related products. We’re \the a search engine,” explains Bob Pohanka, director of
DeVenCI. According to the Bush vision, the role of the government is merely to raise the money
necessary to launch the new war market, then buy the best products that emerge out of that creative
cauldron, encouraging industry to even greater innovation. IN other words, the politicians create the
demand, and the private sector supplies all manner of solutions – a booming economy in homeland
security and twenty-first-century warfare entirely underwritten by taxpayer dollars.
The department of Homeland Security, as a brand-new arm of the state created by the Bush regime, is
the clearest expression of this wholly outsourced mode of government. As Jane Alexander, deputy
director of the research wing of the Departments of Homeland Security, explained, “We don’t make
things. If it doesn’t come from industry, we are not going to be able to get it.
Disaster Capitalism - Shock Doctrine Link – Anti-Terrorism 2/2
Klein 7 cont’d
Another is Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), a new intelligence agency under Rumsfeld that is
independent of the CIA. This parallel spy agency outsources 70 percent of its budget to private
contractors; like the Department of Homeland Security, it was built as a hallow shell. As Ken Minihan,
former director of the National Security Agency, explained, “Homeland security is far to important to be
left to the government.” Minihan like hundreds of other Bush administration staffers, has already left his
government post work in the bourgeoning homeland security industry, which, as a top spy, he helped
create.
Every aspect of the War on Terrorism has served to maximize its profitability and sustainability as a
market – from the definition of the enemy to the rules of engagement to the ever-expanding scale of
the battle. The document that launched the Department of Homeland Security declares “today terrorists
can strike at any place, any time, with virtually any weapon”- which conveniently means that the
security services required must protect against every imaginable risk in every conceivable place at every
possible time. And its not necessary to prove that a threat is real for it to merit a full-scale response –
not with Cheny’s famous “1 percent doctrine,” which justified invasion of Iraq on the grounds that if
there is a 1 percent chance that something is a threat, it requires that the US respond as if the threat is a
100 percent certainty. This logic has been a particular boon for the makers of various high-tech
detection devices: for instance, because we can conceive of the smallpox attack, the Department of
Homeland Security has handed out half a billion dollars to private companies to develop and install
detection equipment to guard against the unproven threat.
Through all its various name changes – the War on Terror, the war on radical Islam the war against
Islamification, the Third World War, the generational war – the basic shape od the conflict has remained
unchanged. It is limited by neither time nor space nor target. From military perspective, these sprawling
and amorphous traits make the War on Terror an unwinnable position. But from an economic
perspective, they make it an unbeatable one: not a flash-in-the-pan war that could potentially be won
but a new and permanent fixture in the global economic architecture.]p.358-361
Disaster Capitalism Link – Federal Policymakers/”Revolving Door”
Federal policymakers are in a revolving door between government and the private
sector – Public service is just a recon mission for the disaster capitalism complex.
Klein ’07 (Naomi, Fellow @ The Nation Institute, Shock Doctrine, Fall.
[Online] http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/) JW
[There are far too many such cases to detail here, but a few stand
out, since they involve the key architects of the War on Terror. John Ashcroft, former attorney general and prime
mover behind the Patriot Act, now heads up the Ashcroft Group, specializing in helping homeland security firms
procure federal contracts. Tom Ridge, the first head of the Department of Homeland Security, is now at Ridge
Global and an adviser to the communication technology company Lucent, which is active in the security sector.
Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and hero of the September 11 started Giuliani Partners four months
later to sell his services as a crisis consultant. Richard Clarke, counter-terrorism czar under Clinton and Bush and
an outspoken critic of the administration, is now chairman of Good Harbor Consulting, specializing in homeland
security and counterterrorism. James Woolsey, head of the CIA until 1995, is now at Paladin Capital Group, a
private equity firm that invests in homeland security companies, and a vice-president at Booz Allen, one of the
leaders in the homeland security industry. Joe Allbaugh, head of FEMA on September 11, cashed out just eighteen
months later to start New Bridge Strategies, promising to be the "bridge" between business and the lucrative
world of government contracts and investment opportunities in lraq. He was replaced by Michael Brown, who
bolted after only two years to start Michael D. Brown LLC, specializing in disaster preparedness."
"Can I quit now?" Brown wrote in an infamous email to a fellow FEMA staffer in the middle of the Hurricane
Katrina disaster.24 That is pretty much the philosophy: stay in government just long enough to get an impressive
title in a department handing out big contracts and to collect inside information on what will sell, then quit and
sell access to your former colleagues. Public service is reduced to little more than a reconnaissance mission for
future work in the disaster capitalism complex.
In some ways, however the stories about corruption and revolving doors leave a false impression. They imply that
there is still a clear line between the state and the complex, when in fact that line disappeared long ago. The
innovation of the Bush years lies not in how quickly politicians move from one world to the other but in how
many feel entitled to occupy both worlds simultaneously. People like Richard Perle and James Baker make policy,
offer top- level advice and speak in the press as disinterested experts and states- men when they are at the same
time utterly embedded in the business of privatized war and reconstruction. They embody the ultimate fulfillment
of the corporatist mission: a total merger of political and corporate elites in the name of security, with the state
playing the role of chair of the business guild - as well as the largest source of business opportunities, thanks to
the contract economy.
Wherever it has emerged over the past thirty-five years, from Santiago to Moscow to Beijing to Bush's
Washington, the alliance between a small corporate elite and a right-wing government has been written off as
some sort of aberration - mafia capitalism, oligarchy capitalism and now, under Bush, "crony capitalism." But it's
not an aberration; it is where the entire Chicago School crusade-with its triple obsessions-privatization,
deregulation and union- busting-has been leading.
Rumsfeld's and Cheney's dogged refusals to choose between their disaster-connected holdings and their public
charities were the first sign that a genuine corporatist state had arrived. There are many others] p. 378-380
Disaster Capitalism – Impact – Turns the case
Turns the Case - The alliance between the government and corporations means more
war, resource shortages, and exacerbates natural disasters.
Klein ’07 (Naomi, Fellow @ The Nation Institute, Shock Doctrine, Fall.
[Online] http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/) JW
[As proto-disaster capitalists, the architects of the War on Terror are part of a different breed of corporatepoliticians from their predecessors, one for whom wars and other disasters are indeed ends in themselves. When
Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld conflate what is good for Lockheed, Halliburton, Carlyle and Gilead with what
is good for the United States and indeed the world, it is a form of projection with uniquely dangerous
consequences. That's because what is unquestionably good for the bottom line of these companies is cataclysmwars, epidemics, natural disasters and resource shortages-which is why all their fortunes have improved
dramatically since Bush took office. What makes their acts of projection even more perilous is the fact that, to an
unprecedented degree, key Bush officials have maintained their interests in the disaster capitalism complex even
as they have ushered in a new era of privatized war and disaster response, allowing them to simultaneously profit
from the disasters they help unleash.]
Capitalism – Impact – Armageddon 1/2
Capitalism is inevitably leading to “Armageddon” Capitalist economies must expand
but our “host is finite” it cannot tolerate “indefinite growth of any human economy”
capitalism is unreformable it must grow or die.
Nichols 99 (John Nichols is an American journalist and writer, “DIVIDED PLANET: The Ecology of Rich
and Poor, Colorado Springs Independent [Colorado Springs] 01 Dec 1999: 17.) CA
I live much of my life in fear, anger and horrific anticipation. Daily, I consider myself a witness to
Armageddon. I am frightened by traffic, urban and suburban development, television commercials. To
me, our rapidly expanding market economy is like a nuclear explosion.¶ When I was 7 years old, the
Suffolk County Mosquito Commission of Long Island, New York, saturated my grandmother's wild
country estate with DDT that not only killed all the mosquitoes, but also almost eradicated birds, turtles,
snakes and other wildlife. I read Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1964 when I was 23. That year, I also
visited Guatemala, where I was appalled by the poverty, lack of human rights, and environmental
devastation, much of it attributable to the United States' economic policies in that country. I returned
home all shook up.¶ Ever since, I have had great qualms about our mode of existence. There is no doubt
in my mind that the success -- and the excess -- of our system threatens all life on earth. Today, at 59, I
fear we are on the brink of a major economic, social and environmental collapse. No product of our
rambunctious consumer society is innocent or comforts me. In fact, except for the bare essentials, I try
hard not to consume.¶ Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, climax capitalism has encouraged the
annihilation of resources (and human beings) with a fearful lack of conscience and comprehension.
Recently, I visited Phoenix, Ariz., and Austin, Texas, and I must admit that the daily buying and selling in
these populated urban centers struck me as cataclysmic. The excessive consumption implicit in
automobiles, hotels and motels, restaurants, Wal-Marts and supermarkets, air conditioning, highway
construction, housing developments, and mall expansion left me breathless. America at work and at
play is a scenario right from the Book of Revelation. Nobody cares about what is destroyed to keep our
society humming along at its grotesquely damaging pace. Yet behind every air-conditioned mall and
parking lot full of brand-new SUVs, I see untold pollution and other biological depredations, also
worldwide social collapse. Most of what we consider "important" and "necessary" is insane to me. How
can we be so intent upon our own destruction?¶ Tom Athanasiou is a more deliberate and qualified
observer than myself. His book, Divided Planet, is the most comprehensive work I have read on the
social, economic, political and ecological collapse of earth. Its macroscopic portrait of how the haves and
the have-nots exist in our rapidly deteriorating ecosystem boggles the mind. Athanasiou writes in a
measured and exhaustively researched prose, yet his book is a major portrait of human dysfunction and
pending apocalypse that every social thinker, revolutionary and environmental activist should read.
Everyone else should read it also.¶ Athanasiou outlines the causes and effects of the world's market
economy and all the damage it does. We read these statistics daily in our newspapers and magazines,
Capitalism – Impact – Armageddon 2/2
Nichols 99 cont’d
but pay little attention: Every 24 hours 15 million tons of carbon is added to our atmosphere, 115
square miles of tropical rainforest are destroyed, 40 to 100 species are made extinct, 71 million tons
of topsoil are removed, 260,000 people are added...¶ The litany is ferocious, atrocious and astonishing.
Most human populations are victims of the voracious beast, humankind. In Brazil, 1 percent of the
landowners own 50 percent of the arable land. The United States, which is but 6 percent of the world's
population, controls 50 percent of the planet's wealth. These tremendous inequalities foster
environmental and social instabities driving us toward planetary suicide.¶ Says Athanasiou, "The
urban-industrial, export-based modes of modernization and social improvement ... have caused
human suffering and ecological destruction on a grand scale." He describes how development is based
on every sort of crime against the natural and the human world. Yet we North Americans who are
blessed with plenty pretend differently, mired smugly in a self-aggrandizing denial that will eventually
eradicate us ... after cold-cocking just about everything else on the globe.¶ It has long been
understood that the rich on earth will destroy the earth, yet we refuse to acknowledge the situation.
In particular, this book is a call to environmental activists, who should know better, but who, for the
most part, don't.¶ "The time for innocence is over," declares the author. "This has been a dark century,
but the planet is wavering at the edge of even darker possibilities. Given the key role they are fated to
play in the politics of an ever-shrinking world, it is past time for environmentalists to face their own
history, in which they have too often stood not for justice and freedom, or even for realism, but merely
for the comforts and aesthetics of affluent nature lovers. They have no choice. History will judge greens
by whether they stand with the world's poor."¶ Athanasiou explains that if we are to survive, markets
must learn to function without expansion and without wars. He states, "A transition to an ecological
society must involve a vast increase in justice and democracy; unfortunately, this does not seem to be
the direction of history ... Capitalism is triumphant. It has its many variations, but few glorify equity or
justice, and few are kind to `the losers.'"¶ He continues, "Capitalist economies must expand, but the
ecosystem that is their host is finite by nature. It cannot tolerate the indefinite growth of any human
economy, least of all one as blindly dynamic as modern capitalism. Murray Bookchin has long argued
that capitalism is unreformable, that it must `grow or die.' His judgment, if correct, portends almost
inconceivable suffering, and so far there are few data to dispute it."¶ Most of the human and natural
resources on earth today are locked in this inconceivable suffering, which underscores all the opulence
radiated by car dealerships, suburban developments and massive shopping malls. There is ample
evidence, in this book (and in all our quotidian lives), that eventually (sooner rather than later), the
chickens will come home to roost. The message of Divided Planet is simple, but bears endless repeating
until eventually humanity pricks up its ears:
Capitalism – Impact – Oppression/Exploitation
Capitalism is the source of oppression – It produces exploitation by its nature.
Finkel et al 1995. (Why Socialism? Revolutionary Politics for a New Century A SOLIDARITY PAMPHLET
(1995) By Dianne Feeley, David Finkel, and Christopher Phelps. David Finkel is a journalist for the
Washington Post who has won a Pulitzer Prize.) NM
[We want to share a different perspective with you. As unrepentant socialists, we maintain that
capitalism, not socialism, is the dinosaur. We seek to replace capitalism - which by its nature produces
oppression and exploitation - with a new society, a socialist democracy confident in purpose and open
to new ideas, vigorous and self-critical, free and cooperative, humanist and ecological. Our political
project is part of a long-standing, varied socialist tradition that originated in the struggles of working
people in the nineteenth century for improved industrial conditions and a new society. Throughout the
twentieth century, our kind of socialism - revolutionary democratic socialism - stayed committed to the
cause of the international working class, refusing to rely upon either ruling power, Moscow or
Washington, for answers or guidance.]
Capitalism supports a completely unequal society that systematically excludes AfricanAmericans.
Finkel et al 1995. (Why Socialism? Revolutionary Politics for a New Century A SOLIDARITY PAMPHLET
(1995) By Dianne Feeley, David Finkel, and Christopher Phelps. David Finkel is a journalist for the
Washington Post who has won a Pulitzer Prize.) NM
The old joke still makes sense: If you think capitalism is working, ask someone who isn't. Capitalism may
be ideologically triumphant, but in practice it's a disaster, a social order in conflict with human dignity.
Marxists have often talked about capitalism's "contradictions," but never have they been more painfully
in evidence than right than now. Millions find no work while manufacturing plants lie idle. Homeless
people sleep on the stoops of abandoned buildings. The hungry rummage through garbage bins outside
of well-stocked supermarkets. Fortunes are spent on high-tech weapons to bomb small countries while
"lack of funds" excuses overcrowded classrooms and rotting schools. More young African Americans are
in prison than universities, while white-collar crime in the savings and loans industry is rewarded with
huge bailouts. National borders do not contain the process. Companies lay off workers in the US and
relocate to countries like Sri Lanka and Guatemala, where they pay workers a dollar a day and dump
pollutants into lakes and neighborhoods. Africans starve while big grain cartels sit on their storehouses
of corn and wheat so as not to "glut" the world market. Corporate agribusiness, claiming efficiency,
pushes millions of small farmers and Third World peasants off the land, destroys life-sustaining topsoil,
creates vegetables without taste or nutritional value, and sprays Chicano farmworkers with carcinogenic
pesticides. The result is systematic insanity. A system obsessed with acquisition denies a basic income to
millions. A global economy centered on accumulation underdevelops entire regions of the world. A
culture which worships growth rushes toward the terrifying likelihood that it will leave the earth an
environmental wasteland.
Capitalism – Impact - Calculability
People are the unit of Currency for the “economies of capitalism” currency is
subject to calculability, once something is rendered calculable it is then Subject to
“devaluation” this can extend to the point of “Counting as Nothing” This creates
unending genocide against humanity.
Dillon 99 (Michael, Professor of Politics & IR @ University of Lancaster, “Another Justice” Political Theory, Volume 27, Number 2, April.)
CA
Otherness is born(e) within the self as an integral part of itself and in such a way that it always remains
an inherent stranger to itself." It derives from the lack, absence, or ineradicable incompleteness which
comes from having no security of tenure within or over that of which the self is a particular
hermeneutical manifestation; namely, being itself. The point about the human, betrayed by this
absence, is precisely that it is not sovereignly self-possessed and complete, enjoying undisputed tenure
in and of itself. Modes of justice therefore reliant upon such a subject lack the very foundations in the
self that they most violently insist upon seeing inscribed there. This does not, however, mean that the
dissolution of the subject also entails the dissolution of Justice. Quite the reverse. The subject was
never a firm foundation for justice, much less a hospitable vehicle for the reception of the call of
another Justice. It was never in possession of that self-possession which was supposed to secure the
certainty of itself, of a self-possession that would enable it ultimately to adjudicate everything. The very
indexicality required of sovereign subjectivity gave rise rather to a commensurability much more
amenable to the expendability required of the political and material economies of mass societies than it
did to the singular, invaluable, and uncanny uniqueness of the self. The value of the subject became the
standard unit of currency for the political arithmetic of States and the political economies of capitalism.
They trade in it still to devastating global effect. The technologisation of the political has become
manifest and global. Economies of evaluation necessarily require calculability. Thus no valuation
without mensuration and no mensuration without indexation. Once rendered calculable, however,
units of account are necessarily submissible not only to valuation but also, of course, to devaluation.
Devaluation, logically, can extend to the point of counting as nothing. Hence, no mensuration without
demensuration either. There is nothing abstract about this: the declension of economies of value leads
to the zero point of holocaust . However liberating and emancipating systems of value-rights-may
claim to be, for example, they run the risk of counting out the invaluable. Counted out, the invaluable
may then lose its purchase on life. Herewith, then, the necessity of championing the invaluable itself.
For we must never forget that, "we are dealing always with whatever exceeds measure. But how does
that necessity present itself? Another Justice answers: as the surplus of the duty to answer to the claim
of Justice over rights. That duty, as with the advent of another Justice, is integral to the lack constitutive
of the human way of being.
Capitalism – Alternative Solves – Movements.
The Disaster in Katrina was structured by capitalist exploitation – Only a bottom-up
movement of those affected can produce structural change.
Scott and Katz-Fishman 07 (Jerome Scott [Director of Project South], and Walda Katz-Fishman
[Professor of Sociology @ Howard University], "America through the Eye of Hurricane Katrina-Capitalism
at its "Best" what are we Prepared to do?" Race, Gender & Class, Volume 14, Number 1, pp. 7-16.
[Online] Alt-PressWatch; Ethnic NewsWatch; GenderWatch.) NM
[This essay, written in the months immediately after the human-made disaster of Hurricanes Katrina and
Rita devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in 2005, contextualizes the destruction of human life,
community, and environment in history, economy, power, and peoples' struggles. The horrific
destruction reflects the intentional abandonment and criminalization of the poor, working class,
communities of color-African American, Indigenous, immigrant-especially women, children, elders, and
environmental crisis over centuries. It teaches us two critical lessons. One, that the economic and
political system of global capitalism, including the U.S. government at all levels, is broken and cannot be
fixed. Two, that only a powerful bottom-up movement led by those most adversely affected can
reconstruct New Orleans and the Gulf Coast around a transformative vision rooted in twenty-first
century economic, political, and social realities that addresses their needs and hopes. The U.S. Social
Forum, as part of a global movement building process, held in Atlanta June 27 to July 1, 2007 was an
important moment in building movement and lifting up the voices, visions, and struggles of the people
in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.]
Capitalism – Alternative Solves – Big Movements Card 1/3
Saladin Muhammad 2006 (National Chairperson of Black Workers For Justice, “Hurricane Katrina: The Black Nation’s 9/11,”
[Online] http://www.greens.org/s-r/39/39-05.html)
[The coalitions and movement that develop to aid the survivors of this disaster must understand how it
differs from other disasters throughout US history. When one analyzes the responses to Hurricane
Floyd, labeled the “Flood of the Century” that impacted 30 counties in Eastern North Carolina in
September 1999, we see at least one major difference that defines how people’s aid must be organized.
With Floyd, the evacuation of thousands of survivors to distant cities and states did not occur. People
were moved and went on their own to neighboring towns and communities, thus making it easier to
build survivors’ organization and movement in the area made up of representatives of the various towns
and communities that were impacted. There was a decision to define people as “survivors” and not
“victims” as one way of helping to empower them and to discourage a “victim’s consciousness” which
made many feel they had no right to challenge the abuses of FEMA and the state. The children were
teased at schools that their clothes and food were “handouts” from charity. Many began to deny they
were survivors of the hurricane. There was the need for a survivor’s slogan—Social Justice, Not Charity—
to promote aid as a human right. This is why it’s so important that this movement have a strong cultural
component. The largest camp housing Floyd survivors was set up on a toxic waste dump which had not
been inspected ahead of time and was located behind a women’s prison. Survivors felt they had no right
to complain and also feared that if they did, they would be put out of the FEMA camp with no place else
to go. The survivors’ organization was not a “support” or emergency “relief” organization per se, even
though it participated in “relief” activities such as food and clothing distribution centers. Survivors’
committees were organized in 15 sites throughout eastern NC and a survivors’ summit was organized to
bring survivor communities together to hammer out a survivors’ manifesto of demands to serve as their
program for recovery and reconstruction. The state of NC had established a Floyd relief fund that had
several hundred million dollars of federal money and private “donations.” The survivors’ organization
demanded that the fund address key needs and ensure that the cut-off period did not leave survivors to
fall through the cracks. The survivors’ organization and support coalitions in the areas organized
reconstruction brigades of people who came in from other cities to help repair and rebuild damaged
homes. Legal clinics were set up to deal with the massive insurance fraud and real estate speculators
who were trying to get people to sell their homes for little or nothing to get desperately needed money.
Volunteer doctors and medical people set up screening and emergency support clinics that wrote
subscriptions for medicine, and college students and educators set up schools and day care in the camp
areas. A people’s transportation service was set up to take people to work, to look for work and to shop
for clothes and other items. There were discussions about setting up survivor worker-run businesses to
help create employment such as paint crews, home repair and survivor taxi service, but they never
materialized. It is very important to draw the trade unions into this movement, the Gulf Coast-wide
coalition and national support network. They should be encouraged to contribute directly to the
survivors- and people-driven support coalition in the region, not to the Red Cross or government
agencies. The identity of the working class efforts will not be projected by the contributions made to
these agencies. It is important that workers see that trade unions have a broader concern and
commitment to the needs of the working class and not just their immediate members. They can play an
important role in supporting those evacuated to their cities, especially outside of the South. The unions
can help in adopting families and shelters in their areas. They must also play a leading role in helping to
combat the racist attempts by the media, white supremacists, the religious right and others to alienate
Capitalism – Alternative Solves – Big Movements Card 2/3
Muhammad 2006 cont’d
those evacuated to their cities by educating their members and getting them actively involved in
support efforts. During Floyd, survivors ... from ... the oldest historically Black town in North Carolina ...
organized to demand that their city council convene itself even though the town had been destroyed.
The Black Workers for Justice set up a distribution center at its Workers Center in Rocky Mount, NC, but
had to struggle to demand it be recognized as an official center so that it could receive food and supplies
from distribution warehouses that were set up by FEMA. Most of the FEMA-designated distribution
centers were the big white area churches, some Black churches, YMCAs and OICs. The white
paternalistic and missionary character of a major portion of the establishment-designated “formal”
relief efforts was overwhelming. We learned that during times of disaster, the state and federal
government declarations of a “state of emergency” allow local governmental powers to be suspended
or placed under the direct command of the state government. During Floyd, survivors, particularly from
the Town of Princeville, the oldest historically Black town in North Carolina and some say in the US,
organized to demand that their city council convene itself even though the town had been destroyed.
This was a struggle for self-determination within the context of the struggle for reconstruction. The
Princeville city council held weekly open meetings where activists organized transportation to bring
survivors by cars and church buses to the meetings to have input into decisions. The movement in the
Gulf Coast Region has major concerns that require the organization, politics and leadership of the
African-American liberation movement as a central component to help unite a broad, multi-national,
multi-racial and international campaign for social justice and reconstruction. The dispersed masses from
the region have to be organized and reconnected by a representative body that acts as a kind of
provisional government to deal with questions regarding the future of their communities, the blatant
neglect of the US government in placing them in danger, the failure of the government to have a
planned and speedy evacuation, the denial of aid from other countries and the use of the police and
National Guard as military occupation forces, among other concerns. Some of the demands that must be
included in this movement are: The right to return of the people of the Gulf Coast Region; Opening up
area military bases for no-cost temporary housing to begin moving survivors back into the region;
Extended unemployment and emergency financial relief based on a living wage until people are
returned to their homes and jobs; A people’s referendum on all decisions affecting the political and
residential issues of the Gulf Coast survivors; Establishing a public workers program funded by the
federal government and the big corporations to rebuild New Orleans and the affected Gulf Coast
Region; Employing the survivors at a living wage as required by the David Bacon Act to work on clean-up
and reconstruction of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, with the right to organize unions; That major
contracts for clean-up and reconstruction of New Orleans Black and working class communities be
allocated to Black contractors; That the US immediately allow other countries to provide aid to the
survivors; That the United Nations conduct an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the
Katrina disaster to determine if the US is guilty of human rights violations; That everyone suffering
property damage and destruction, dislocation, death and illness, including emotional and psychological,
receive reparations from the US government as victims of a racist act of placing people and communities
in danger because they are Black and poor; Issuing a massive bankruptcy executive order for Gulf Coast
survivors forgoing all debt from property lost or destroyed by the disaster; Cutting the US military
budget and reallocating finances to deal with state and local programs to address social and
environmental needs which threaten the lives, safety, health and communities of African American and
other working class populations; Ending the wars and occupation in the Middle East—bring the US
Capitalism – Alternative Solves – Big Movements Card 3/3
Muhammad 2006 cont’d again
troops home now; The immediate impeachment of George Bush for his role in placing people’s lives in
danger, thereby committing crimes against humanity. The political movement must be organized
nationally. The progressive organizations of every political tendency and humanitarian expression
should be able to support this movement. However, it is very important and politically necessary, to give
it its proper anti-imperialist character, that it be led by a national Black united front, in terms of shaping
and putting forward its main political demands and representing it at the national and international
levels. The political movement must ... be led by a national Black united front ... We must be careful
while ensuring the presence of the African-American working class and liberation movement forces, not
to narrow the scope and content of the struggle around a particular ideological perspective. A mass
movement must be built that the African American liberation movement works inside of and influences
in a more conscious anti-imperialist direction. There must be an effort to isolate and out-organize
opportunist elements using this disaster to win favor and reposition themselves within the Democratic
and Republican Parties or with sections of the corporate class by promoting their image as saviors. This
means discouraging efforts to create sole dependence on cult-of- personality saviors or liberal and
paternalist groups, however well-meaning, to solve the problems for the people or to speak on their
behalf. This is also why it’s so important to have Black working class leadership at the national and local
levels of the anti war and Millions More Movements. We must work to make this tragedy and the
struggle for Gulf Coast justice a major projection of the anti-war movement and its demonstrations, not
only in the US but internationally. Survivors must speak at anti-war demonstrations and activities in
other countries. Likewise, the major African-American and working class mobilizations must project this
disaster and struggle for justice as a major demand for the African-American liberation movement. The
US Congressional Black Caucus must help to make this struggle a congressional centerpiece for
measuring the treatment of African-American majority and working class communities, including
immigrant workers. The main tasks of the Gulf Coast struggle for justice should be to isolate and indict
US imperialism, to gain concrete international support and ongoing recognition for the plight of the
African-American people, to bring mass and international pressure on the US to win justice for the Gulf
Coast survivors, and to force US imperialism to retreat in its war on the Middle East. The AfricanAmerican liberation movement and anti-imperialist forces must take up the main tasks to carry out this
strategy.]
Capitalism – Alternative Solves – Katrina as Lens of Analysis
The Katrina disaster fully exposed the corrupted system of Capitalism
Scott and Katz-Fishman 07 (Jerome Scott [Director of Project South], and Walda Katz-Fishman
[Professor of Sociology @ Howard University], "America through the Eye of Hurricane Katrina-Capitalism
at its "Best" what are we Prepared to do?" Race, Gender & Class, Volume 14, Number 1, pp. 7-16.
[Online] Alt-PressWatch; Ethnic NewsWatch; GenderWatch.) NM
[Long before hurricane Katrina-or Rita or Wilma or Stan-made landfall, the poorest and most oppressed
communities across America, and the world, knew the system was broken. At least it wasn't working for
them. But it was the power of the unnatural aftermath of Katrina that unmasked this system. It fully
exposed the nightmare of global capitalism for working class women, children and men of all racial,
ethnic and nationality groups and the U.S. government that exists primarily to serve the interests of the
richest global corporations.]
Analysis of capitalism explains the AFF’s “biopolitics of disposability” argument.
Kellner 07 [ Douglas, “The Katrina Hurricane Spectacle and Crisis of the Bush Presidency,” Critical
Studies <-> Critical Methodologies, Volume 7, Number 2, May, pp. 222-234. [Online] Sage Publications]
[Whatever the fate of the Bush administration, it is clear that the Hurricane Katrina media spectacle put
on display the glaring inequities of race and class that define the United States in the new millennium.
The inability of the federal government to respond to the catastrophe called attention not only to the
failures and incompetence of the Bush administration but also to the crisis of neoliberalism whereby the
market alone cannot provide for the needs of citizens and deal with acute social problems and natural
disasters. As Henry Giroux (2006) argues, Katrina also called attention to a “politics of disposability”
whereby certain people are deemed disposable and not worthy of care and help. Market capitalism in
the era of neoliberalism has been increasingly predatory, with groups of poor people ready to be
disposed and pushed aside. The biopolitics of inequality and disposability was put on full display in the
Katrina spectacle and may be one of the most important aftereffects of the tragic episode.] 222
Capitalism – Alternative Solves – Don’t Need A Blueprint
Capitalism is so ingrained into the way we think that we cannot give a blueprint for
what the alt will look like, but that “does not absolve us from the task”
Hudis 05 (Peter Hudis is a PhD. In Philosophy at Loyola University College in Chicago, “Developing a Philosophically Grounded Alternative
to Capitalism,” Socialism and Democracy, Volume 19, No. 2, July, pp. 91-98, 215) CA
The problem has only become more acute since the 1980s. It isn't just that a concept of a noncapitalist society can assist today's social movements. It has become vital for their very
existence and forward motion. While spontaneous mass struggles often suggest the elements
of a new society, the task of working out a comprehensive vision of non-capitalist social relations
takes hard theoretical labor. Such labor requires more than spontaneous activity. It also requires
more than the work of "enlightened" intellectuals who are isolated from mass struggles. What is
needed today is not simply a general conception of socialism. We need more - Marx's concept of a
"revolution in permanence" that uproots the very basis of value production. Developing and
projecting that concept requires a philosophic nucleus of activists and theoreticians who establish
a dialogue with ongoing freedom struggles.¶ To achieve this, we need to recognize that the form
of organization, crucial as it is, does not exhaust the concept of organization. As Dunayevskaya
stated in 1987:¶ The burning question of the day remains: What happens the day after? How can we
continue Marx's unchaining of the dialectic organizationally, with the principles he outlines in his
Critique of the Gotha Program? The question of "what happens after?" gains crucial importance
because of what it signals in self-development and self-flowering - "revolution in permanence." No
one knows what it is, or can touch it, or can decide upon it before it appears . It is not the task
that can be fulfilled in just one generation ... It has the future written all over it. The fact that we
cannot give a blueprint does not absolve us from the task. It only makes it more difficult.
(Dunayevskaya 1988, microfilm no. 10960)
Capitalism – Big Alternative – Herod 1/2
Capitalism cannot be fought, it must be “simply rejected” in a war fought by
millions of people on the level of everyday life. Our alternative does not call for
reforming capitalism for turning it into something else, but for rejecting it
absolutely.
Herod 04 (James Herod attended years of formal schooling in Graceland College, University of Kansas, American University of Beirut, and
Columbia University he has written several essays and books on the subject of capitalism, The Strategy described abstractly section 6. Of
Getting Free, http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Strate/GetFre/06.htm)
It is time to try to describe, at first abstractly and later concretely, a strategy for destroying capitalism.
This strategy, at its most basic, calls for pulling time, energy, and resources out of capitalist civilization
and putting them into building a new civilization. The image then is one of emptying out capitalist
structures, hollowing them out, by draining wealth, power, and meaning out of them until there is
nothing left but shells.¶ This is definitely an aggressive strategy. It requires great militancy, and
constitutes an attack on the existing order. The strategy clearly recognizes that capitalism is the enemy
and must be destroyed, but it is not a frontal attack aimed at overthrowing the system, but an inside
attack aimed at gutting it, while simultaneously replacing it with something better, something we
want.¶ Thus capitalist structures (corporations, governments, banks, schools, etc.) are not seized so
much as simply abandoned. Capitalist relations are not fought so much as they are simply rejected. We
stop participating in activities that support (finance, condone) the capitalist world and start participating
in activities that build a new world while simultaneously undermining the old. We create a new pattern
of social relations alongside capitalist relations and then we continually build and strengthen our new
pattern while doing every thing we can to weaken capitalist relations. In this way our new democratic,
non-hierarchical, non-commodified relations can eventually overwhelm the capitalist relations and force
them out of existence.¶ This is how it has to be done. This is a plausible, realistic strategy. To think that
we could create a whole new world of decent social arrangements overnight, in the midst of a crisis,
during a so-called revolution, or during the collapse of capitalism, is foolhardy. Our new social world
must grow within the old, and in opposition to it, until it is strong enough to dismantle and abolish
capitalist relations. Such a revolution will never happen automatically, blindly, determinably, because of
the inexorable, materialist laws of history. It will happen, and only happen, because we want it to, and
because we know what were doing and know how we want to live, and know what obstacles have to be
overcome before we can live that way, and know how to distinguish between our social patterns and
theirs.¶ But we must not think that the capitalist world can simply be ignored, in a live and let live
attitude, while we try to build new lives elsewhere. (There is no elsewhere.) There is at least one thing,
wage-slavery, that we cant simply stop participating in (but even here there are ways we can chip away
at it). Capitalism must be explicitly refused and replaced by something else. This constitutes War, but it
is not a war in the traditional sense of armies and tanks, but a war fought on a daily basis, on the level of
everyday life, by millions of people. It is a war nevertheless because the accumulators of capital will use
coercion, brutality, and murder, as they have always done in the past, to try to block any rejection of the
system. They have always had to force compliance; they will not hesitate to continue doing so.
Nevertheless, there are many concrete ways that individuals, groups, and neighborhoods can gut
capitalism, which I will enumerate shortly.¶ We must always keep in mind how we became slaves; then
we can see more clearly how we can cease being slaves. We were forced into wage-slavery because the
ruling class slowly, systematically, and brutally destroyed our ability to live autonomously. By driving us
off the land, changing the property laws, destroying community rights, destroying our tools, imposing
taxes, destroying our local markets, and so forth, we were forced onto the labor market in order to
Capitalism – Big Alternative – Herod 2/2
Herod 2004 cont’d
survive, our only remaining option being to sell, for a wage, our ability to work.¶ Its quite clear then how
we can overthrow slavery. We must reverse this process. We must begin to reacquire the ability to live
without working for a wage or buying the products made by wage-slaves (that is, we must get free from
the labor market and the way of living based on it), and embed ourselves instead in cooperative labor
and cooperatively produced goods.¶ Another clarification is needed. This strategy does not call for
reforming capitalism, for changing capitalism into something else. It calls for replacing capitalism,
totally, with a new civilization. This is an important distinction, because capitalism has proved
impervious to reforms, as a system. We can sometimes in some places win certain concessions from it
(usually only temporary ones) and win some (usually short-lived) improvements in our lives as its
victims, but we cannot reform it piecemeal, as a system.¶ Thus our strategy of gutting and eventually
destroying capitalism requires at a minimum a totalizing image, an awareness that we are attacking an
entire way of life and replacing it with another, and not merely reforming one way of life into something
else. Many people may not be accustomed to thinking about entire systems and social orders, but
everyone knows what a lifestyle is, or a way of life, and that is the way we should approach it.¶ The
thing is this: in order for capitalism to be destroyed millions and millions of people must be dissatisfied
with their way of life. They must want something else and see certain existing things as obstacles to
getting what they want. It is not useful to think of this as a new ideology. It is not merely a belief-system
that is needed, like a religion, or like Marxism, or Anarchism. Rather it is a new prevailing vision, a
dominant desire, an overriding need. What must exist is a pressing desire to live a certain way, and not
to live another way. If this pressing desire were a desire to live free, to be autonomous, to live in
democratically controlled communities, to participate in the self-regulating activities of a mature
people, then capitalism could be destroyed. Otherwise we are doomed to perpetual slavery and possibly
even to extinction.¶
Capitalism – A2: Permutation(s) 1/2
Single Issue reforms like the affirmative fail to destroy capitalism which is the
foundation of oppression – This is an all-or-nothing question of survival.
Herod 06 (James, “Strategies that have failed” http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Strate/GetFre/05.htm)
10. Single-issue campaigns. We cannot destroy capitalism with single-issue campaigns. Yet the great bulk
of the energies of radicals is spent on these campaigns. There are dozens of them: campaigns to
preserve the forests, keep rent control, stop whaling, stop animal experiments, defend abortion rights,
stop toxic dumping, stop the killing of baby seals, stop nuclear testing, stop smoking, stop pornography,
stop drug testing, stop drugs, stop the war on drugs, stop police brutality, stop union busting, stop redlining, stop the death penalty, stop racism, stop sexism, stop child abuse, stop the re-emerging slave
trade, stop the bombing of Yugoslavia, stop the logging of redwoods, stop the spread of advertising,
stop the patenting of genes, stop the trapping and killing of animals for furs, stop irradiated meat, stop
genetically modified foods, stop human cloning, stop the death squads in Colombia, stop the World
Bank and the World Trade Organization, stop the extermination of species, stop corporations from
buying politicians, stop high stakes educational testing, stop the bovine growth hormone from being
used on milk cows, stop micro radio from being banned, stop global warming, stop the militarization of
space, stop the killing of the oceans, and on and on. What we are doing is spending our lives trying to fix
up a system which generates evils far faster than we can ever eradicate them. Although some of these
campaigns use direct action (e.g., spikes in the trees to stop the chain saws or Greenpeace boats in front
of the whaling ships to block the harpoons), for the most part the campaigns are directed at passing
legislation in Congress to correct the problem. Unfortunately, reforms that are won in one decade, after
endless agitation, can be easily wiped off the books the following decade, after the protesters have gone
home, or after a new administration comes to power. These struggles all have value and are needed.
Could anyone think that the campaigns against global warming, or to free Leonard Peltier, or to aid the
East Timorese ought to be abandoned? Single issue campaigns keep us aware of what's wrong, and
sometimes even win. But in and of themselves, they cannot destroy capitalism, and thus cannot really
fix things. It is utopian to believe that we can reform capitalism. Most of these evils can only be
eradicated for good if we destroy capitalism itself and create a new civilization. We cannot afford to aim
for anything less. Our very survival is at stake. There is one single-issue campaign I can wholehearted
endorse: the total and permanent eradication of capitalism.
Capitalism – A2: Permutation(s) 2/2
Capitalism is a robust structure that incorporates criticism to make itself stronger –
Ther permutation produces a stronger, triumphant capitalism..
Boltanski and Chiapello 05 (Luc [professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales] and
Eve [Professor of Accounting and Management Control @ HEC], "The New Spirit of Capitalism."
International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, Volume 18, Numbers 3-4, pp. 161-88. [Online]
ProQuest) NM
[The concept of a spirit of capitalism allows us to combine within one and the same dynamic the
changes in capitalism as well as the criticisms which it has faced. Indeed, we affirm that criticism is a
catalyst for changes in the spirit of capitalism. It is impossible for capitalism to avoid being at least
somewhat oriented towards the attainment of the common good, as it is this striving which motivates
people to become committed to its process. Yet capitalism’s amorality means that the spirit of
capitalism cannot be solely predicated on what capitalism alone is able to offer, that is, only the capacity
for accumulation. So capitalism needs its enemies, people who have a strong dislike for it and who want
to wage war against it. These are the people who provide it with the moral foundations that it lacks, and
who enable it to incorporate justice-enhancing mechanisms whose relevancy it would not otherwise
have to acknowledge. The capitalist system has turned out to be infinitely more robust than its
detractors, starting with Marx, had ever imagined. Yet this is also because it has discovered a road to
salvation in the criticisms it has faced. Is it not true, for example, that along with fascism and
communism, the new capitalist order that rose out of the ashes of the Second World War attributes a
significant role to the State, allowing for a certain amount of State intervention in the economic sphere?
In fact, it is probably capitalism’s amazing ability to survive by endogenising some of the criticisms it
faces, that has helped in recent times to disarm the forces of anticapitalism, giving way to a triumphant
version of capitalism.] 165
Capitalism – Methodology
[Yer on yer own for this one…The Mgt.]
Turmino 01 (Stephen Turmino is a Professor at the University of Pittsburg, “What is orthodox Marxism and why it matters now more
than ever before” http://www.redcritique.org/spring2001/whatisorthodoxmarxism.htm”stephen)
Any effective political theory will have to do at least two things: it will have to offer an integrated
understanding of social practices and, based on such an interrelated knowledge, offer a guideline for
praxis. My main argument here is that among all contesting social theories now, only Orthodox Marxism
has been able to produce an integrated knowledge of the existing social totality and provide lines of
praxis that will lead to building a society free from necessity. But first I must clarify what I mean by
Orthodox Marxism. Like all other modes and forms of political theory, the very theoretical identity of
Orthodox Marxism is itself contested—not just from non-and anti-Marxists who question the very "real"
(by which they mean the "practical" as under free-market criteria) existence of any kind of Marxism now
but, perhaps more tellingly, from within the Marxist tradition itself. I will, therefore, first say what I
regard to be the distinguishing marks of Orthodox Marxism and then outline a short polemical map of
contestation over Orthodox Marxism within the Marxist theories now. I will end by arguing for its
effectivity in bringing about a new society based not on human rights but on freedom from necessity. I
will argue that to know contemporary society—and to be able to act on such knowledge—one has to
first of all know what makes the existing social totality. I will argue that the dominant social totality is
based on inequality—not just inequality of power but inequality of economic access (which then
determines access to health care, education, housing, diet, transportation, . . . ). This systematic
inequality cannot be explained by gender, race, sexuality, disability, ethnicity, or nationality. These are
all secondary contradictions and are all determined by the fundamental contradiction of capitalism
which is inscribed in the relation of capital and labor. All modes of Marxism now explain social
inequalities primarily on the basis of these secondary contradictions and in doing so—and this is my
main argument—legitimate capitalism. Why? Because such arguments authorize capitalism without
gender, race, discrimination and thus accept economic inequality as an integral part of human societies.
They accept a sunny capitalism—a capitalism beyond capitalism. Such a society, based on cultural
equality but economic inequality, has always been the not-so-hidden agenda of the bourgeois left—
whether it has been called "new left," "postmarxism," or "radical democracy." This is, by the way, the
main reason for its popularity in the culture industry—from the academy (Jameson, Harvey, Haraway,
Butler,. . . ) to daily politics (Michael Harrington, Ralph Nader, Jesse Jackson,. . . ) to. . . . For all,
capitalism is here to stay and the best that can be done is to make its cruelties more tolerable, more
humane. This humanization (not eradication) of capitalism is the sole goal of ALL contemporary lefts
(marxism, feminism, anti-racism, queeries, . . . ). Such an understanding of social inequality is based on
the fundamental understanding that the source of wealth is human knowledge and not human labor.
That is, wealth is produced by the human mind and is thus free from the actual objective conditions that
shape the historical relations of labor and capital. Only Orthodox Marxism recognizes the historicity of
labor and its primacy as the source of all human wealth. In this paper I argue that any emancipatory
theory has to be founded on recognition of the priority of Marx's labor theory of value and not repeat
the technological determinism of corporate theory ("knowledge work") that masquerades as social
theory.
AFF – Capitalism Good 1/2
Capitalism is key to global social peace – Empirical studies prove..
de Soysa and Fjelde 2012 (Indra and Hanne [Centre for the Study of Civil War @ PRIO], “Is the hidden
hand an iron fist? Capitalism and civil peace, 1970-2005,” Journal of Peace Research, Volume 47,
Number 3, May. [Online] Sage). NM
[Current arguments about globalization suggest that global capitalism driven by the profit motive allows
capitalists the upper hand over communitarian interests, which could lead to weakened state autonomy
and ‘societal disarray’ (Rodrik, 1997; Saunders, 1995; Stiglitz, 2002; UNRISD, 1995). Using the
globalization debate as a backdrop, this article empirically assesses whether states that exhibit
capitalistic tendencies reflected by their economic policies are more likely to have serious domestic
quarrels relative to those that do not.2 If states have onsets of civil war, then by definition, a state is
unable to monopolize the use of force. We use empirical data on economic freedom in multivariate
models of civil war, comparing the effects of capitalism with other interesting, policy-relevant factors,
such as ‘good governance’ and political democracy.
Our results are easily summarized. Using data on economic freedom from 1970–2005, we find that the
higher the level of economic freedom, the lower the risk of civil war. These results are robust to several
different specifications of the models and sample size. The substantive impact of economic freedom is
quite large, relative to other significant factors. Including terms for good governance and institutional
strength makes no difference to the basic results, and economic freedom matters more than either
democracy or good governance. Our results show rather clearly that capitalistic economic policies do
not undermine a state’s autonomy to maintain social peace, as many have suggested (Mousseau &
Mousseau, 2008; Weede, 2004). If a hallmark of globalization is the spread of capitalistic economic
policies across the globe, then there seems little to suggest that social conflict would necessarily
accompany it.]
Capitalism prevents civil violence even in developing countries.
de Soysa and Fjelde 2012 (Indra and Hanne [Centre for the Study of Civil War @ PRIO], “Is the hidden
hand an iron fist? Capitalism and civil peace, 1970-2005,” Journal of Peace Research, Volume 47,
Number 3, May. [Online] Sage). NM
[The ‘capitalist peace’ argument on interstate war is based on a simple logic – the capitalist structure of
production raises the cost of theft, making exchange preferable. Capital and knowledge required for
successful production in modern economies is easily withdrawn from conquerors – the essence of
Przeworski & Wallerstein’s (1988) critique of Marxist ideas about states and internal redistribution
discussed above. In fact, the argument is valid for both the domestic and international setting. As
Gartzke (2009: 37) writes, ‘politics has simply ceased to be a feasible mechanism for the production or
acquisition of wealth. Because of this, and because modern productive processes are more dependent
than ever on the provision of public goods, politics is much less cut-throat (literally) than it used to be,
both within and between international borders’ [our italics]. Such arguments, however, are far too
imprecise to be applicable in the domestic setting. On one hand, as many observe, the threat to
property because of politics is ever present in poor countries where the median voter’s income is below
mean income. But even more seriously, the location of civil violence today is mostly, if not wholly, in
countries with less than ‘modern’ economies. In other words, when it comes to civil violence, the
benefit of sophisticated production structures for inducing peace is far less obvious. We explore below
how the basic insight of why more capitalistic economies might raise the premium on peace is still valid
in the developing-country context – i.e. why economies favor- able to entrepreneurship can matter net
of the level of economic sophistication.]
AFF – Capitalism Good 2/2
Capitalism creates spheres of peace and prosperity with little interference in
individual lives
de Soysa and Fjelde 2012 (Indra and Hanne [Centre for the Study of Civil War @ PRIO], “Is the hidden
hand an iron fist? Capitalism and civil peace, 1970-2005,” Journal of Peace Research, Volume 47,
Number 3, May. [Online] Sage). NM
[Classical liberals, such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and Bernard Mandeville, argued that individuals
in pursuit of self interested goals serve a higher social purpose ‘as if by a hidden hand’ (Stilwell, 2006).
They argue that free markets achieve prosperity and spontaneous social cooperation because of the
self-interest of individuals, rather than appeals to morality. Such arguments were expanded by political
philosophers, such as Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, and Norman Angell, who viewed the expansion
of trade, or the ‘commercial spirit’, as the triumph of exchange and civility over plunder and predation.
Commerce apparently made war unnecessary. Self-interested individuals cooperated out of a profit
motive, which supplanted parochial corporate affiliations, such as ethnicity and religion, raising the
value of individual rights. Classical liberals argued that harmony stems fundamentally from expected
gains from cooperation rather than from religious ethics or some inherent feelings of sympathy for
fellow beings preached from pulpits. In its very essence, the argument claimed that the superiority of
capitalism over the dominant economic system of the time, mercantilism, was due to the ability of
markets to create and distribute goods and services (wealth) more efficiently, serving a social good. For
markets to work efficiently, however, there had to be a system of good property rights. Capitalism is
marked by the means of production being owned by and secured for individuals and by its expansionary
tendency, since the desire for profit drives investment, which in turn benefits society by breaking down
parochial ascriptive ties. As markets expand, spheres of peace and prosperity also expand. A socialwelfare maximizing ruler, thus, would be one who interfered least in the workings of markets. At a
minimum, the state should provide public works that enhance the operation of and the expansion of
markets (Stilwell, 2006).]
AFF (Race) – Capitalism: Permutation Solves Class + Race 1/3
The permutation solves best - Capitalist exploitation and African-American oppression
caused the magnitude of racial suffering by Hurricane Katrina – A complete movement
mobilization is necessary to solve.
Saladin Muhammad 2006 (National Chairperson of Black Workers For Justice, “Hurricane Katrina: The Black Nation’s 9/11,”
Synthesis/Regeneration, #39, Winter. [Online] http://www.greens.org/s-r/39/39-05.html) JL
[The magnitude of the destruction and human suffering caused by Hurricane Katrina to the people and
communities of the Gulf Coast Region, while not the result of an act of “terror,” is directly a result of a
profit-driven system of capitalist exploitation reinforced by the national oppression of African- American
people in the US South, a region where the majority of Black people live and where the conditions of
oppression, poverty and underdevelopment are most concentrated. As anti-imperialists and activists
engage in work to build support for the Gulf Coast survivors, we must have an analysis and political
context for properly understanding the reasons for this crisis and the contradictions surrounding its
aftermath. The response to this human tragedy must be more than a humanitarian response in order to
deal with the magnitude and complexity of issues, international political ramifications, the legal aspects,
and the various levels of local, regional, national and international coalition and network building and
mobilizing that must take place to build a powerful movement for social justice.]
Trying to separate race and class is a divide-and-conquer strategy – We should unite in
our struggles.
Saladin Muhammad 2006 (National Chairperson of Black Workers For Justice, “Hurricane Katrina: The Black Nation’s 9/11,”
Synthesis/Regeneration, #39, Winter. [Online] http://www.greens.org/s-r/39/39-05.html) JL
[There is much talk about how to define the main social impact of Katrina: Whether it is mainly a major
disaster for Black people or for working class and poor people in general. This attempt to separate race
from class when dealing with issues where those workers affected are majority African- American is no
accident. It seeks to divide the character and content of the working class responses.
Thus, it is important to define the race and class character of the crisis and to call on the larger working
class to unite with its most oppressed section— the African-American working class which is also the
predominant basis of an oppressed nation and nationality historically denied real democratic rights and
subjugated by US imperialism. The government’s failure to correct this danger, known far in advance,
that led to the continuously unfolding massive human tragedy, helps all to see the racist nature of the
US capitalist system and how the system of African- American national oppression is in violation of
human rights and guilty of crimes against humanity.]
AFF (Race) – Capitalism: Permutation Solves Class + Race 2/3
National oppression contributed to the synergy of racism and capitalism—caused deaths of AfricanAmericans in New Orleans.
Saladin Muhammad 2006 (National Chairperson of Black Workers For Justice, “Hurricane Katrina: The Black Nation’s 9/11,”
Synthesis/Regeneration, #39, Winter. [Online] http://www.greens.org/s-r/39/39-05.html) JS
[African-American national oppression was/is a major factor contributing to the magnitude of the
disaster caused by Katrina. As more than 90% of Black people throughout the US are workers, AfricanAmerican national oppression places its primary emphasis on the exploitation and oppression of Black
workers and their communities. More than two-thirds of New Orleans’ inhabitants were AfricanAmerican. In the Lower Ninth Ward, a neighborhood that was one of the hardest hit, more than 98%
were Black. The slow US federal and state government responses to natural disasters like Hurricanes
Katrina and Floyd in North Carolina in September 1999 that greatly impacted predominately AfricanAmerican working class communities, make clear that the value of Black and working class life is
subordinate to capitalist property and profits. African-American national oppression was/is a major
factor contributing to the magnitude of the disaster caused by Katrina. The racist economic, social and
political policies and practices of the US government and capitalist system shape society’s attitudes
about the reasons for the historical oppression of African-Americans. It seeks to isolate, criminalize and
scapegoat African-Americans as social pariahs. The characterization of the Black working class in this
way is a part of the continuous ideological shaping of white supremacy that gives white workers a sense
of being part of another working class, different from the Black working class. This often leads many
white workers to act against their class interests, discouraging them from uniting with the Black working
class in struggling to seek common, equal and socially transformative resolutions to their class issues.
The media provided different descriptions of acts of desperation and survival by Blacks and whites in
obtaining food and supplies following Katrina; an example is “looters” and “finders.” The police and
National Guard were ordered to stop looking for survivors and to stop “lawlessness.” Bush’s statements
about getting tough on “looters” made clear that New Orleans and the Gulf Coast were becoming areas
of military occupation. The refusal by thousands of mainly Black people to leave their homes was initially
described by the media as the main problem related to the slow evacuation efforts—blaming the
victims. No one initially mentioned the low wages, level of poverty and high rates of unemployment that
prevented people from leaving. After it took almost a week for the government evacuation effort to
begin, leaving people to fend for themselves without electricity, food and water, it became shamefully
clear and unavoidable for the media to hide that the government had made no provisions for a major
evacuation. The acts of heroism by the people themselves in rescuing their neighbors, although not
emphasized by the media, could be seen throughout its coverage. The “looting” and “lawlessness” must
be addressed and placed in proper context. When it became clear that there was no emergency
evacuation plan in place—people waiting up to a week before any major evacuation effort began—
people were forced to take desperate actions for survival, both until they got “rescued” and for their
uncertain future as refugees with no resources or income. TVs, appliances, etc., become a form of
capital and a means for trade during a crisis. Some survivors were forced to “steal” cars to get their
families out of the areas. Should this be considered a crime? No! Also, when people are oppressed,
neglected and left to die, they often engage in spontaneous acts of rebellion, striking out against those
who control wealth and power. The term “racism” without the context of national oppression and
imperialism is grossly inadequate in describing the scope and depth of the impact of the US oppression
of African-American people. This is why the term “racism” without the context of national oppression
and imperialism is grossly inadequate in describing the scope and depth of the impact of the US
AFF (Race) – Capitalism: Permutation Solves Class + Race 3/3
Muhammad 2006 cont’d
oppression of African-American people. It often fails to point out the impact that African-American
national oppression has on influencing the standard of living and social conditions of the general
working class regardless of race, especially in areas where Black workers make up a majority or large
minority of the population.]
US imperialism Precede saving lives
Saladin Muhammad 2006 (National Chairperson of Black Workers For Justice, “Hurricane Katrina: The Black Nation’s 9/11,”
Synthesis/Regeneration, #39, Winter. [Online] http://www.greens.org/s-r/39/39-05.html) JL
[Not only did the US federal and state governments place the working class of New Orleans and the Gulf
Coast in danger, including failing to develop a planned emergency response to the crisis, it has also
refused the aid of other countries like Cuba and Venezuela that have offered to send hundreds of
doctors, tons of medical supplies and fuel to help the people in the Gulf Coast Region. ... the US federal
and state governments ... refused the aid of other countries like Cuba and Venezuela... US imperialism
has thus decided that it has the sole right to decide if the majority African-American and working class
people and communities in the Gulf Coast Region have the human and political right to survive or not.
This is clearly an international human rights question where the demand for self-determination must be
applied as part of the resolution.]
AFF (Katrina) – The 1AC is an Example of the K Impact
The 1AC is all about a specific example of the combination of neo-liberal capitalism
and structural racism that the kritik claims as an impact – we control the best specific
example of how all of this would play out concretely.
Saladin Muhammad 2006 (National Chairperson of Black Workers For Justice, “Hurricane Katrina: The Black Nation’s 9/11,”
Synthesis/Regeneration, #39, Winter. [Online] http://www.greens.org/s-r/39/39-05.html) JL
[Though food, water and transportation trickled in, the government made sure the oil industry was
taken care of fast. Over 10 major refineries were knocked out of commission in the Gulf region, but
many of them were back operating within the week. Bush released federal oil reserves, but oil
companies jacked up gas prices to a criminal level. Environmental safeguards were loosened for gasoline
producers to allow more pollution. All this while the four largest oil companies had profits of nearly
$100 billion in the last 18 months. Why isn’t this labeled as corporate “lawlessness?”The AfricanAmerican working class majority of New Orleans and parts of the Gulf Coast have been “evacuated” to
other cities several hundred and in some cases thousands of miles away from their communities. Many
feel that their communities will never be restored and that they won’t be returning home. Though food,
water and transportation trickled in, the government made sure the oil industry was taken care of fast.
They have good reason to feel this way, as some majority African-American communities have already
begun to experience gentrification—moving Black and poor people out of the inner cities and replacing
them with more affluent and predominantly middle and upper class whites. Many reports and scientific
papers warned that unbridled development along the coast had done away with millions of acres of
wetlands that buffered coastal communities from storms. Thus, this disaster and the racist and capitalist
circumstances surrounding its occurrence and aftermath raise the issue of “ethnic cleansing.” Many
African-Americans in particular will experience problems related to the loss of identification documents
in the flood and fall into a similar status as undocumented and immigrant workers that come from Latin
America and the Caribbean. Their residential and citizenship status will be challenged in most cases
when it comes time to get disaster relief subsistence. The racist nature of US capitalism often makes this
reality of being a refugee and undocumented worker within one’s “own” country a unique reality for
African-Americans and other oppressed nationalities, especially during times of natural and social crisis.
We should expect the US to use this disaster to increase restrictions on forced economic immigration. It
is therefore important that African-Americans and Latinos unite in challenging the refusal of survivor’s
assistance on the basis of the lack of documentation or citizenship status. Forging this unity is an
important part of a larger and more difficult and absolutely essential process of building international
solidarity and working class unity against US imperialism. This is why it’s so important for Black workers
and their organizations to play a leading role in shaping the class as well as national character of the
struggle for justice around this disaster. The future of New Orleans will be decided by the US corporate
class, the white power structure, unless there is an organized and combined African-American and
working class struggle led by the African-American working class majority in New Orleans and the Gulf
Coast. Such a struggle must take the popular form of a combined struggle for African American selfdetermination and worker power, and must have an international component.]
AFF (Katrina) – Uh…Wow…
AFF Offense…vs Politics, Spending, Relations DAs…and a bunch of other stuff…
Federal government values imperialism over emergency assistance—history proves.
Saladin Muhammad 2006 (National Chairperson of Black Workers For Justice, “Hurricane Katrina: The Black Nation’s 9/11,”
Synthesis/Regeneration, #39, Winter. [Online] http://www.greens.org/s-r/39/39-05.html) JL
[The Katrina disaster exposes how the US imperialist war in Iraq and throughout the Middle East,
including billions in support for Israel’s occupation of Palestine, is directly connected to the human
tragedy in the Gulf Coast Region. Vital resources that had been allocated by the Bush administration to
fix the substandard levees in New Orleans and the erosion of marshlands along the coast that caused
the region to experience such enormous flooding and massive loss of lives were cut and shifted to the
war budget. Both Republican and Democratic administrations have consciously refused to adequately
maintain or strengthen the levees that protect New Orleans. Both Republican and Democratic
administrations have consciously refused to adequately maintain or strengthen the levees that protect
New Orleans. Hurricane and flood control have received the steepest federal funding reductions in New
Orleans history—down 44.2% since 2001. The emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish,
Louisiana, told The Times-Picayune in June 2004: “It appears that the money has been moved in the
President’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that is the price we
pay.” Requests for an additional $250 million for Army Corps of Engineers’ levee work in the delta went
unmet. There were over 15,000 National Guards from the Gulf Coast Region in Afghanistan and Iraq
fighting unjust wars. Their equipment, including generators, water purification systems and other
needed life support and disaster preparedness supplies, were overseas as well. As was also the case
during the Vietnam and Korean wars, the US tried to conceal the racist treatment of African-Americans
on the home front. In both of these wars, the racist treatment of African-Americans in the US led to
rebellions in the military and drew many former veterans into the civil rights and African-American
liberation movements when they returned home. It is important that this connection be raised and
exposed to help African- Americans better understand the more immediate relationship to the wars
abroad and the national and working class oppression of African-Americans in the US. This will not only
serve to strengthen the current US anti-war movement, it will strengthen the US and international antiimperialist movement.]