The Capitalism Kritik

N.O.T.E - Please read the Introduction to Kritiks guide first. 

What is the Capitalism K?

The Capitalism Kritik, sometimes denoted as the ‘Cap K’, is simply an attack/critique of the Affirmative team’s reliance on an assumption, policy, or an endorsement of a capitalistic ideology. Capitalism is an economic system of private ownership for the means of production and their operation for profit. This means that individuals, corporations, factories, etc. own the means of production. The main argument of the Cap K is that capitalism often serves as the root cause of structural violence and certain existential disasters, and that it will lead to extinction.

People read the Cap K for various reasons - it is extremely strategic. One of these reasons include the power of its alternative’s solvency, which we’ll expand on later.

Parts and Arguments of the Cap K

We’ll break down this section into five main subsections: Marxist Theory, the link, the impact, the alternative, and framework. 

Marxist Theory and Neoliberalism

Let’s briefly talk about the theory of power. Recall that the theory of power is the way the Kritik portrays the world. In the case of a Cap K, the theory of power card would usually sound along the lines of how capitalism is an all-encompassing system of structural violence that treats nature and people as exploitable objects. Marxist theories often provide the base of the Cap K Theory of Power. Essentially, Marx posits that history is defined by class struggle and that capitalism, which exploits the working class (proletariat) to enrich owners (bourgeoisie), will inevitably collapse due to its own crises.

Marxism is a structuralist philosophy – humans can be accounted for structures, and capitalism as a structure explains how people operate. Marx says our existence as workers is the fundamental thing. According to Marxist theory, to get past capitalism, we need to have a kind of dialectical historical materialism.

-        Dialectics: The method of understanding change, motion, and development through internal contradictions, rather than through static or linear processes. Marx’s dialectic insists that everything material is interconnected and in a constant state of becoming, driven by conflicts between opposing forces (like class struggle) that eventually resolve into a new, higher form of reality. Marx says that these swings are the capitalist rule of class and the exploited worker, you cannot have socialism without having capitalism previously. This part might be a bit confusing for you, so I encourage you to read Hegel or any articles about dialectics that don't necessarily need to be source-Hegel. 

-        Materialism: About the material practices and the totality of the practices like labor. It is the labor power or means of production. Focus on materiality, not epistemology.

“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 of power but inequality of economic access. This systematic inequality cannot be explained by gender, race, sexuality, disability, ethnicity or nationality – they are all secondary contradictions that are determined by capitalism. Those things matter insofar as they intersect with class.”

• Stephen Tumino

-        Historical:  We need to find historical knowledge on how capitalism pervades in society. We have a map of those radical swings to understand how capitalism has sustained itself. History is not “here’s what happened”, but rather a heuristic to figure out what should be done next. 

Karl Marx thinks of capitalism as enabling a hierarchy of order where the proletariat (workers) works and sells labor to the bourgeoisie in exchange for wages or food. But, it is often unequal because commodities that are produced are worth more than your labor or the wages you receive. This process is capital. According to Marx, capital is defined as value in motion; it is the value of the process created over time of this production system, and a commodity is the object that is made. 

Now, Neoliberalism is similar to capitalism, but not exactly capitalism. It is capitalism expanding beyond the market. It is a political rationality that says the way people should live their lives and the way society structures itself should be by the process of capital. 

A good example of this is Immigration. A neoliberalist viewpoint of immigration might be that they should be let in because they could be good labor and production. Another example of neoliberalism at play is student loans. Colleges and education is viewed as a business interest because of how expensive it is now. Not only that, our mindset has also shifted when thinking of school and college. Instead of thinking “I’m going to school to learn”, we think “I’m going to school to get a job” showing how capitalism can be expanded beyond the market.

An important note about this is that neoliberalism is epistemological, not ontological. It is not an ideology of how people are, but rather how people should be. Neoliberalists think markets should be there because it’s the best way of approaching life.

The reason why this is relevant to our discussion is because it really explains the effects of capitalism and the distinction that can be made in round. Neoliberalism and capitalism links are technically different, so theoretically, you could critique neoliberalism but not capitalism. 

The Link

Recall that the link is the actual thing that is connecting the Kritik to the AFF, it is what you are critiquing. They question the epistemology and assumptions of the AFF - without a link, you’re not really critiquing anything. A Capitalism K link would be some connection that the AFF’s assumptions and ideologies are inherently capitalist. 

Popular links to the Cap K are identity politics links by saying that focus on identity politics goes against forming the working-class solidarity to revolt against the bourgeoisie by focusing on singular identities/fragmented struggles and not the overall, more important (according to Marx) class identity. It covers up the true history and by doing so, actively perpetuates capitalism.

Another popular link is critiquing just trying to orient our epistemology. A lot of K-AFFs will tell you that we need to change our mindset/epistemology and decenter stuff as a method without actually engaging in a material action. A Capitalism K link would say that causes a sort of passive violence and hides material organizing of a (socialist/communist/etc.) party. As we will talk later, the alternative tends to be this material organizing of a party that can claim to solve for the AFF with materiality. 

Other popular links are just generic links to the resolution or policy plan explaining how the plan or the resolution is somehow based upon the economic system of privatization. Resolutions that have a good deal with the economy are usually cap k farmlands. The wealth tax topic ND 2024-2025, for example: 

The Impact

The impact of capitalism, and thus the capitalism link, is usually something along the lines of extinction or structural violence. Ks have impacts to the link for possible strategic ‘link turns case’ arguments and they’re often used as root cause claims, aside from the obvious reasons why someone would include an impact. The impact warrants can usually be found in almost any of the cards - theory of power, link, alternative, framework; but sometimes, it might be strategic to include the impact of capitalism in a whole separate card to really nail down the extinction part. 

The Cap K will claim that capitalism will cause extinction for various reasons. One reason being that profit incentivizes us to destroy the environment (factories, pollution, fossil-fuel consumption, etc.) and thus perpetuate climate change, an existential threat.

Other claims the Cap K might make are root cause claims. A Cap K root cause claim would be saying that capitalism is the root cause to something that the AFF talks about. For example, if a Cap K is going against an Antiblackness K-AFF, they might make a root cause claim that capitalism is the root cause of antiblackness because rather than focusing on social constructs like race, we should be focusing on the material conditions that perpetuate and cause racism. Slavery and the conversion of Africa into a commercial center can all be found effects of a capitalist economy for profit. 

The reason the Cap K root cause might be strategic is that it directly turns the case, because they’re not addressing capitalism, they’re linking into it, yet capitalism causes their impact. Other reasons entail that they’re good for method debates, which are essentially K v K debates, by saying that our method/alternative is better because we solve for everything via our root cause claim. 

The Alternative

The alternative is one of the main things that makes the Cap K really strong - it’s alternative solvency. The alternative is usually advocating for a material strategy like organizing a Maoist/Socialist party. Paired with the root cause argument and materiality links, the alternative can have really good alternative solvency for a 1AC, specifically a K-AFF, because a party alternative might say that forming a party around forming a proletariat revolution against the bourgeoise will solve for all of the AFF’s subjugation/exploitation claims by addressing the root cause: capitalism. Their method attempts to solve by changing mindsets; but rather, we should be forwarding a material strategy that can actually solve. That’s X link evidence.

Framework

Framework operates similarly to any Kritik; the arguments for framework that are unique to the Cap K are usually in regards to a Role of the Ballot. Framework probably isn’t as important to the Cap K as other Kritiks like Psychoanalysis or Death Ks since the Cap K has a really good alternative solves case and links provide uniqueness and establish mutual exclusivity. 

Now, talking about the ROBs - popular ROBs for the Cap K will emphasize revolutionary roleplaying, materiality, and basically essential elements of Marxism, i.e. a Role of the Ballot might be to vote for who offers the best strategy for the proletariat to be liberated, etc.

Additional Information

We will be attaching a Cap K file some time this year. For now, here are some books you can read:

Cruel Optimism, Lauren Berlant

The Society of the Spectacle, Guy Debord

Black Marxism, Cedric Robinson

Elite Capture, Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò 

The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx

Wage Labour and Capital, Karl Marx

Capitalist Realism, Mark Fisher

The Meaning of Marxism, Paul D’Amato