Abstract
This text gathers reflections on the theme of resistance, trying to associate them in a speculation about the financing of a “social wage and guaranteed income for all”, proposed in the “political program” designed by Negri and Hardt in Empire.
Starting from the identification of signs of unsustainability of the contemporary form of life – in spite of capitalism’s apparently unbeatable capacity of self-preservation and expansion – it speculates about the alternatives to the belief in the market as the absolute cornerstone of society. Afterwards, it goes over the issue of the resistance, as it was formulated by Foucault, particularly the notions of biopolitics and biopower and the paradox of a power which controls everything and seems to generate its own dissolution.
The text associates it to the growing participation of the “immaterial labour” in contemporary capitalism, suggesting the advent of new forms of subjectivity and the herald of a new mode of production in post-industrial society. It also links Negri and Hardt’s formulations concerning the concepts of multitude and constituent power, pointing out that the current configuration of the capitalist power (Empire) creates a greater potential for revolution than did the modern regimes of power.
The proposal of a “social wage for all” or a “guaranteed minimum income independent of paid labour” is discussed from the generality of production and the concept of proletariat in contemporary society. Everyone produces independently of having a job or not, or even, of working or not.
Following that, we compare these considerations to Marx’s reflections in the Grundrisse about advanced capitalism. Considering the technical-scientific development, Marx prophesies that man’s immediate labour would stop being the pillar of production and wealth, replaced by knowledge itself, the power of the intellect applied to production. However, the capitalist will insist on reducing this power to the limits of the labour time value, leading the system to consume itself.
The social wage is, then, examined in the light of Andre Gorz’s diagnosis: the system gradually produces more wealth with less capital and less work; however, at the same time, the surplus of capital seeks profit without the mediation of the process of production. Therefore, the social wage would become a solution to the deadlock towards where capitalism is heading as it insists on patterns of distribution of wealth from industrial economy using the reference labour time as value.
The subject also is analyzed in the context of the centrality of technoscience in the contemporary capitalism, considering itself the financing of the social wage with the profits generated for the technological innovations.
This discussion is, then, contextualized in the scope of the changes in contemporary society, revealing the limits of capitalism and advancing a new mode of production and a new society, as well as the coming of new values, categories of thought and even a renewed lexicon, including the idea of revolution itself as a infinite process, the multitude’s fate of always building and rebuilding.
Starting from the identification of signs of unsustainability of the contemporary form of life – in spite of capitalism’s apparently unbeatable capacity of self-preservation and expansion – it speculates about the alternatives to the belief in the market as the absolute cornerstone of society. Afterwards, it goes over the issue of the resistance, as it was formulated by Foucault, particularly the notions of biopolitics and biopower and the paradox of a power which controls everything and seems to generate its own dissolution.
The text associates it to the growing participation of the “immaterial labour” in contemporary capitalism, suggesting the advent of new forms of subjectivity and the herald of a new mode of production in post-industrial society. It also links Negri and Hardt’s formulations concerning the concepts of multitude and constituent power, pointing out that the current configuration of the capitalist power (Empire) creates a greater potential for revolution than did the modern regimes of power.
The proposal of a “social wage for all” or a “guaranteed minimum income independent of paid labour” is discussed from the generality of production and the concept of proletariat in contemporary society. Everyone produces independently of having a job or not, or even, of working or not.
Following that, we compare these considerations to Marx’s reflections in the Grundrisse about advanced capitalism. Considering the technical-scientific development, Marx prophesies that man’s immediate labour would stop being the pillar of production and wealth, replaced by knowledge itself, the power of the intellect applied to production. However, the capitalist will insist on reducing this power to the limits of the labour time value, leading the system to consume itself.
The social wage is, then, examined in the light of Andre Gorz’s diagnosis: the system gradually produces more wealth with less capital and less work; however, at the same time, the surplus of capital seeks profit without the mediation of the process of production. Therefore, the social wage would become a solution to the deadlock towards where capitalism is heading as it insists on patterns of distribution of wealth from industrial economy using the reference labour time as value.
The subject also is analyzed in the context of the centrality of technoscience in the contemporary capitalism, considering itself the financing of the social wage with the profits generated for the technological innovations.
This discussion is, then, contextualized in the scope of the changes in contemporary society, revealing the limits of capitalism and advancing a new mode of production and a new society, as well as the coming of new values, categories of thought and even a renewed lexicon, including the idea of revolution itself as a infinite process, the multitude’s fate of always building and rebuilding.
posted by Altamir at 12:43 PM
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