[P2P-F] My review (bauwens) of Alex Foti's General Theory of the Precariat

Fri Jan 26 13:38:00 CET 2018

hi alex,

very happy to engage, and I fully understand the legitimacy of your
strategic choices, though your vision of a successful new new deal is also
a sign of optimism in itself .... I agree we have to fight for it

this is a very good overiview of the other polarity, I think at the p2p
foundation, we are somewhere in between, even as we are very liberally
cited in this overview of commons-based relocalization:
https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Networked_Cities_as_Resilient_Platforms_for_Post-Capitalist_Transition#Excerpt

On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 10:34 AM, Alex Foti <alex.foti at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Michel, Dear Friends,
>
> a trillion thanks for this thoughtful and appreciative review. i look
> forward to co-developing a veritable post-capitalist strategy by embodying
> the commons-based approach and i find your criticism of an excessive
> capitalist realism justified (lost a few nights' sleep about it, but i am
> very fearful of cryptofascist reaction, and think we can force liberal
> capitalism into a social compromise - which you're right would make funding
> and reclaiming the commons a central feature of society - and also i guess
> i wanted to avoid excessive utopianism given that current historical
> reality is so dystopian). again thanks for taking the time to read and
> engage with the book's arguments.
>
> best milanese ciaos,
>
> lx
>
> On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 9:25 AM, Michel Bauwens <michel at p2pfoundation.net>
> wrote:
>
>> see also link here at https://wiki.p2pfoundation.
>> net/General_Theory_of_the_Precariat#Evaluation
>>
>> "This book is essential reading for all commoners that want to think
>> through the right strategy for social change. It squarely places itself
>> from the point of few of the new social groups (or class in formation, as
>> Foti would have it) that have grown under the conditions of neoliberalism
>> and its decline, or in other words under the emergence of cognitive
>> capitalism or 'informationalism'. This key group are the various
>> constituent parts of the precariat, all the people who can no longer work
>> with dependable classic labor contracts and the steady income and
>> protection deriving from it.
>>
>> This book should be read through its end, i.e. chapter five, because its
>> first four chapters on the precariat are only set in a more complex
>> geopolitical context in that last chapter. To be honest, I was quite
>> reactive at times during the reading of the first four chapters, because
>> two very important structural elements were missing in his analysis. First
>> is the commons itself, the other side of the antagonistic struggles of the
>> precariat; and second is the ecological crisis, the very material
>> conditions under which this struggle must occur today. Foti indeed calls
>> for economic and monetary growth, and sounds like an unabashed
>> neo-Keynesian but only in the last chapter stresses that this growth should
>> be thermodynamically sound (i.e. he calls for monetary growth, but not
>> growth in material services). Foti also almost completely ignores the role
>> of the commons and 'commonalism' in the first four chapters, only
>> acknowledging in a few parts of chapter 5, that it is a vital constituent
>> part of the precarious condition. If you don't read chapter 5, you could be
>> mistaken for seeing Foti's analysis as an exercise in re-imagining the
>> class dynamics and compromises of the New Deal and post-WWII european
>> welfare states, and has simply replaced working class with precariat,
>> working class parties with social populism, and the New Deal with a social
>> compact for green capitalism.
>>
>> So, the fact that this is a remarkably thought out book about
>> contemporary strategy for social change, should be tempered by a few
>> paradoxes that the author has not completely resolved.
>>
>> Indeed at the heart of the book lies also an enduring paradox: Foti calls
>> for the most radical forms of conflict, and identifies with the more
>> radical cultural minorities, acknowledging their anticapitalist and
>> anarchist ethos, yet calls for mere reformism as a focus and outcome. This
>> is therefore not a book about transforming our societies to post-capitalist
>> logics, this is a book about a new reformism. This is a book against
>> neoliberalism, not against capitalism. At times, it is plain 'capitalist
>> realism', as Foti explicitly acknowledges he sees no dynamic value creation
>> outside of capitalism. For Foti, it is clear, if sufficient conflict and
>> precariat self-organisation can occur, then a new regulation of capitalism
>> can occur. He justifies this by a detailed analysis of the different
>> regulatory modes of capitalism (smith-ism, fordism, jobs-ism) and how they
>> relate to the kondratieff economic cycles, drawing on the insights of
>> Carlota Perez and others. Foti distinguishes crises of demand, where there
>> is too much accumulation of capital, and not enough distribution. These
>> crises he says, are essentially reformist crises, as people mobilize to
>> restore balance in the redistribution, but not against the system per se.
>> The crisis of the 30's and the crisis after 2008, are such crises, he in my
>> view convincingly shows. Other crises are caused by a failing supply, due
>> to over-regulation of capital and falling profit rates, such as the crisis
>> of the 70s, and these crises, which are inflationary, are revolutionary.
>> This distinction between crises of accumulation and crises of regulation,
>> is in my opinion very insightful, and true. This recognition may of course
>> be troubling, but if true, we have to take serious stock of it. We are
>> simply not in revolutionary times, right now, but rather in a struggle
>> between national populism and social populism. From this analysis, Foti
>> then argues that the first priority is for the precariat to re-regulate for
>> a distribution of wealth, much like the old working class achieved after
>> WWII.
>>
>> But even if we acknowledge this conjuncture, I would argue that Foti
>> insufficiently balances his outlook between reforming capitalism and
>> constructing post-capitalism, beween antagonistic conflict and positive
>> construction of the new. He argues that without income, there can be no
>> such construction. This is very likely true, so we need to rebalance
>> redistribution, in a way that income growth can lead to immaterial growth
>> that is compatible with the ecological limits of our planet, and use these
>> surpluses to transform societal structures. Foti calls for social (or 'eco'
>> populist movements and coalitions as the political means to that end,
>> pointing to Podemos and En Comu, and perhaps Sanders and Corbyn, as such
>> forces, supported by to be created Precariat Syndicates. He also puts
>> forward the thesis that the enemy is national populism, an alliance between
>> retrograde fossil fuel capitalism and the salariat, with on the other side
>> a possible alliance of green capitalism (a real effort not a marketing
>> ploy) with the precariat, with the former fighting for top-down coalition
>> and the second for bottom-up regulation. This division of the working class
>> is in my view way too stark, and perhaps even defeatist. I would very
>> strongly argue to seek alliances and develop policies that can give hope to
>> the salariat. The thrust of our work for the Commons Transition aims at
>> precisely that. (elsewhere in the book, Foti does call for an alliance with
>> progressive middle classes, but if these are not the workers with jobs,
>> where are these then ?)
>>
>> Now Foti correctly critiques in my view, people like Mason and Rifkin for
>> failing to problematize the post-capitalist transition, they make it seem
>> like an inexorable process if not affirming that we are already
>> post-capitalist, as some others do, but in my view then in his turn he
>> fails to pay proper attention to it. What if the re-regulation of
>> capitalism doesn't work for example ? Then at some point, say in about 30
>> years, as Kondratieff cycles would indicate, we would still face a crisis
>> of over-regulation, and a more revolutionary moment. For Foti, we have to
>> take it on faith that green capitalism will be a successful new regulatory
>> mode of capitalism. What if it turns out to be a unworkable compromise and
>> that more drastic action is needed. But Foti has no faith in alternatives
>> to capitalism, which means that the only alternatives would then be
>> eco-fascism as a new feudalism with only consumption for the rich, lifeboat
>> eco-hacking, a situation akin to that of medieval communes, or dictatorial
>> eco-maoism, say Cuba on a global scale.
>>
>> Contra this 'capitalist realism', our contention at the P2P Foundation is
>> that post-capitalism is both necessary and possible, even if we recognize
>> that today is a possible reformist moment in that evolution/transformation.
>> In that context, the construction of seed forms, the recognition of other
>> forms of value creation (which can be monetized!), of other forms of
>> self-organization is absolutely a vital side of the coin in the dialectic
>> of construction and conflict. Foti seems to forget that the traditional
>> working class did not simply 'fight', but constructed cooperatives (both
>> consumer coosp and producer coops), unions, parties, mutualities and many
>> fraternal/sororal organizations. The very generalization of the welfare
>> system was an extension by means of the state, of the solidarity mechanism
>> of the working class, which had taken decades to develop. Also vitally, the
>> identity itself of the working class was not just as a part of capitalism,
>> but as a movement for another type of society, whether that was expressed
>> through socialism, social-democracy, anarchism, and other variants. When
>> that hope was lost terminally, that was also the end of the strength and
>> identify of working class movements. There can be no offensive social
>> strategy without a strong social imaginary, and mere reformist designs
>> won’t do. So commonalism is not just something that we do when we come home
>> from work, or tired from our conflictual organizing against an enemy from
>> whom we want mere redistribution. On the contrary, it is vital part of the
>> class formation and identity, this is why we stress our identity not just
>> as precariat, which is a negative formulation that characterizes us as the
>> weaker victims of the capitalist class, but as commoners, the multitude of
>> co-constructors of viable futures that correspond to contemporary
>> emancipatory desires. We cannot just trust green capitalism, we vitally
>> need to build thermodynamically sound and mutualized provisioning systems
>> as commons even if we have to compromise with capitalism. Post-capitalism
>> should not be essentialized as something occuring 'after the revolution',
>> but as an ongoing process, dynamically inter-linked with political
>> self-organizing and conflict. Foti in this book, is only really good at
>> conflict. Even if we look at conflict, I would argue that the strength of
>> the reformist compromise after WWII was very much linked to the fear of the
>> however flawed alternative that existed, and that the forms of compromise
>> were the result of decades of invention of new forms.
>>
>> If we take that view, then I believe the contradiction in Foti's book can
>> be resolved. Indeed in that case we do not have to ask the radical
>> precariat to give up it's values for a reformist compromise, but to
>> productively combine radically transformative post-capitalist practice.
>>
>> There is another issue with Foti's book. He very much stresses the
>> superdiversity of the precariat, and the key role of gender and
>> race/migration unity in their struggles. He also mentions en passant the
>> need for a potential eurasian alignment between Europe and China , now that
>> the Atlantic unity has been broken by Trump. But , at the same time, this
>> is really a very eurocentric book, calling for a new compromise in Europe
>> and 'advanced western states'. Obviously, since in the Global South it is
>> the salariat and proletariat which is growing, there is a theoretical
>> difficulty here. But what if a thermo-dynamically sound economy would
>> require a cosmo-localization of our global economy, as we contend at the
>> P2P Foundation, combining global sharing of knowledge with substantial
>> relocalization of physical production (as even big bank reports now
>> recognize) ? Only if we recognize this, can we actually have a new global
>> view of solidarity, as both elements benefit workers, salaried and
>> precarious, in the whole world.
>>
>> So, in conclusion, I find Foti's book to be an excellent first half of a
>> book, which would have been much better and sound, if it had more
>> extensively struggled with the commons equation of the precariat. The
>> commons is not something we do 'afterwards' , after a successful New Green
>> Deal, it is is something that is as ongoing and vital. Theoretically, in a
>> few paragraphs at the end of the book, Foti seems to recognize it, but it
>> is not integrated in his strategic vision, or only marginally.
>>
>> Readers who miss this aspect, could look at the ten years of research and
>> analysis we have conducted on that other half of the equation, at the P2P
>> Foundation. We may have the other weakness though, and in fact we purposely
>> have focused not on the conflict part, which is the natural inclination of
>> the left and needs no help, but in pointing out how any self-organization,
>> and construction of the commons, which inevitable comes with conflict, is
>> just an essential part of the programmatic alternatives of the precariat.
>> Not just as proposals of electoral parties and syndicates, but as
>> expressions of actual practice. Our orientation is to try to achieve a
>> greater understanding by emancipatory forces, of both the salariat, the
>> precariat, and progressive entrepreneurial groups, of the importance of
>> integrating the commons as a programmatic element in their struggles, and
>> their proposals. We will probably stick to this bias towards the
>> constructive side of the equation, tempered by a full awareness that this
>> is by itself insuffient, and requires the kind of understanding of
>> struggle, and its attendant strategies, as provided by Foti.
>>
>> In conclusion, Foti's enduring quality is to have worked out
>> systematically, what the conflict part of the equation entails, and that is
>> a very important achievement. Bearing in mind what we think is missing in
>> this book, there is much to be learned, and I believe the different
>> perspectives and different weaknesses in the approaches of people like Foti
>> and the P2P Foundation (and other) commons-centric approaches, there is
>> room for a lot of convergence and mutual enrichment."
>>
>> --
>> Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at:
>> http://commonstransition.org
>>
>> P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
>>
>> <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates:
>> http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens
>>
>> #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/
>>
>
>

-- 
Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org

P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net

<http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates:
http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

#82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/
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