From Capitalist Realism to Anarchist Idealism, Part Six

This is Part Six of an ongoing thought-stream. Here are links to Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, and Part Five.

Where Do We Go from Here?

In recent years, a number of authors on the Left have tried to define a new utopian vision and pragmatic program for the future. Relevant manifestos include Fully Automated Luxury Capitalism by Aaron Bastani, Post-Capitalism by Paul Mason, Inventing the Future by Nick Srnicek, and Four Futures by Peter Phrase. Similar ideas and proposals repeat in all of these books. Inventing the Future boils it down to a lucid four-point program:

Institute Full Automation

Distribute a Universal Basic Income

Reduce Working Hours to the Minimum

Establish the Right to Be Lazy / Diminish the Work Ethic

To this list, I propose adding:

Remove Restrictive Intellectual Property Rights

To accomplish these objectives, Srnicek believes the Left must reinvent itself, rediscover its power to reach the multitude, and become a unifying force. Such a large-scale transformation won’t happen naturally. It requires purpose, intention, and large-scale mobilization: “There is no technocratic solution, and there is no necessary progression into a post-work world. The struggles for full automation, a shorter working week, the end of the work ethic and a universal basic income are primarily political struggles.” He then looks at what it would take to build a “counter-hegemonic” movement to bring about these goals, which I will explore later.

I admire Aaron Bustani for rehabilitating the term “Communism” in his provocative manifesto, Fully Automated Luxury Communism. He writes:

‘Communism’ is used here for the benefit of precision; the intention being to denote a society in which work is eliminated, scarcity replaced by abundance and where labour and leisure blend into one another. … With the emergence of extreme supply in information, labour…