Capitalism 1

To protest in the name of morality against “excesses” or “abuses” is an error which hints at active complicity. There are no “abuses” or “excesses” here, simply an all-pervasive system.

Naomi Klein (2010: 179, German edition)

Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) was a French writer and feminist. She was friends with the anti-colonial resistance fighter and psychoanalyst Franz Fanon, who was active against the Algerian war and French colonial aspirations. She analysed and critiqued different power structures such as capitalism, racism and sexism. She also took on many leftists because she argued that women's oppression would not automatically resolve itself under communism. Being of the opinion that women also contributed to their own oppression and must free themselves from it, she also argued with other feminists.

It is often the case that only capitalism’s extreme effects are criticised, but not the economic system itself, which is presented as the only one that is feasible (cf. Klein 2010: 36). Calling for radical systemic change was far more common in the 1960s than it is today. When Pope Francis said in 2013 that, in general, ‘capitalism kills’, there was a great outcry in the German media (welt.de (2013): Die Kirche sollte den Kapitalismus schätzen, Zeit.de (2013): Heillose Kapitalismuskritik). In the 1960s, many social movements and anti-colonial struggles on all continents campaigned for radical systemic change. Back then, the idea of an alternative to the existing economic and social system was much more conceivable for many people than it is today.

*Naomi Klein (2007): The Shock Doctrine. The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Toronto: Knopf Canada.