The Core Conditions for Ending Capitalism
At the core of capitalism is universal wage labour — that is, a society where almost everyone sells their labour power for a wage or salary. Any society that relies on wage labour, regardless of the other ways in which its economy or politics is structured, and regardless of how it chooses to term itself, is capitalist.
That means that the communist or socialist societies of China, Vietnam, Cuba, and the USSR, were (and are) effectively still capitalist societies, even though they organised the surface of their societies differently. The tensions that were present in the mainstream capitalist economies — the US, UK, Europe — were also present in the communist and socialist countries, and the pressure on these societies to conform and become part of the homogenous whole of global society is a pressure internal to capitalism, not just external political, economic, or military pressures. These external pressures are also part of the internal drive of capitalism to maximise value production.
To put it differently, if our only access to goods and services is through selling our labour power, and those goods and services are created by workers also selling their labour power, then you are in a capitalist society and are subject to the same internal tensions and pressures of the system as everyone else.
We can get rid of private property, take the wealth of business owners, create cooperative businesses, install governments that are aligned with our values, and even create mass public services, but if people still work for money then we will reproduce the central dynamics of capitalism.
The only way to end Capitalism is to end it globally, and this requires the end of universal wage labour.
There are a few conditions for ending universal wage labour and, thus, moving past capitalism.
The material/concrete conditions — Automation and Public Services
The ideal/abstract condition — Social Consciousness
The socio-political condition — Mass Participatory Politics
The first condition for the end to wage labour is the full automation of industry. Large-scale production of goods and services needs to be automated to the point where human labour is almost totally unnecessary. Although this may seem like a long way off, current developments in job automation and artificial intelligence render it a possibility. But it’s always been a possibility. In fact, it’s an internal drive of capitalism to drive efficiency in a way that renders human labour superfluous.
Throughout the 20th century, there have been developments in technology, including logistical and managerial advancements, which have caused job losses. Companies have realised that some jobs are surplus to requirements, and can be cut. However, the large-scale layoffs that accompany developing productive capacity are a problem only because those who are unemployed have no access to money and no access to activity, which gives purpose. But if purposeful activity wasn’t connected to paid employment and access to goods and services was public, unemployment would cease to be a problem.
The internal drive of capitalism may be to drive efficiency in a way that makes human labour superfluous, but the other side of this is that capitalism also requires people to work in order to buy things.
Which types of work would people immediately give up if they were no longer worried about future economic and social security? Jobs that have little or no meaning, jobs that are unsatisfying, jobs which are stressful, jobs that are physically taxing to the point of health decline.
Which types of work would people do if they didn’t have to? Typically, any job that brings some sort of satisfaction to us — jobs that have an element of creativity or social meaning; jobs in the arts, sciences, education, research, and community care; jobs that stretch us creatively or intellectually, jobs that foster a sense of self or of community; jobs that feel meaningful.
The only reason unemployment is a problem for the capitalist economy is because high unemployment limits the ability to pay for the goods and services being produced. The internal drive of capitalism may be to drive efficiency in a way that makes human labour superfluous, but the other side of this is that capitalism also requires people to work in order to buy things. At one and the same time, it tries to limit human labour input while requiring labour input for its survival. This is the central tension at the heart of capitalist society. Not oppression or exploitation, which also existed in prior societies, but the absorption of labour time.
The second condition for the end of wage labour, which is bound up with the first, is ready access to the goods and services required to live a full life, regardless of employment. This is also something that is not a future possibility but has been present throughout the 20th century: free education, free transport, free childcare, free healthcare; subsidised food, subsidised energy, subsidised housing.
Automation and reorganisation of production go hand in hand with the automation and reorganisation of distribution.
We already produce a surplus of food and housing, energy and transport can be largely automated within the minimal human labour required, and a reorganisation of healthcare, childcare, and education could make these jobs less stressful, more purposeful, and open to a larger range of people who could share the work — making them true vocations.
Automation and reorganisation of production go hand in hand with the automation and reorganisation of distribution. These are possible with the right technological advancements and the right societal structure.
The third condition for the end of wage labour is ideological. There must be widespread awareness that not only is labour largely unnecessary, but that a world without labour is possible and desirable.
In modern society, we need to work in order to afford goods and services. Wage labour is crucial for our survival, so it would be difficult to get people to support full automation when there is such a great risk to livelihoods.
Wage labour is also deeply tied up with our sense of self. The work that we do often only seems purposeful if it corresponds to a wage or salary. Leisure activities are simply those which we do to relax, not things that give us a sense of self. It shouldn’t be this way — being a trusted friend, a supportive spouse, a good neighbour, or a person who enjoys playing music or sports for pleasure, pales in significance to being productive — especially when that productivity is realised in the global economic market. We view our human value in terms of our market value, even if we strive to act against this interest. Even those who are financially well-off want to feel socially useful or productive.
Capitalism is not an illusion, a lie, or propaganda; it is a social totality, and there is no ‘real’ society hiding under this one.
To end wage labour, people need to be ideologically supportive of purposeful activity outside of an individual’s social or economic value. But for ideas to hold, they must socially manifest, not be confined to utopian dreams or inspirational quotes: we have to have widespread concrete proof that life is better when we engage in purposeful activity outside of employment. This seems obvious, but despite being surrounded by this idea, we still view economic productivity as the benchmark for human value, including our own value.
For this social reality to change, hand-in-hand with ideological reality, we already need people to be spending limited hours at work — so that their social or personal value is not as tightly bound to productive wage labour. This condition then also requires movement on conditions one and two — that people don’t need to work just as much because of the degree to which work is automated or shared among larger groups, and the degree to which necessary goods and services have become free or subsidised.
When we’re living in a world of limited labour-time through 3- or 4-day weeks, with large-scale automation, substantial public goods, and a sense of purpose outside of employment, then the move to a world without work will be a short step away.
If our ideas and demands are not compatible with our lived social reality, then they will be dismissed socially and politically. Capitalism is not an illusion, a lie, or propaganda; it is a social totality, and there is no ‘real’ society hiding under this one. Because of this, capitalism will not disappear because we simply stop believing in it. We have to transform social and political consciousness and our social reality at the same time.
Capitalism habitually generates the possibility of a better society through its own operation. It seeks to create more value, which, in turn, manifests general social wealth at the expense of individual livelihoods. There is an enormous opportunity to take advantage of this value-creating dynamic with the right political strategy.
The final condition for the end of wage labour, and the movement toward a society that is designed for human flourishing, is widespread political power. Right now, political power is both weak and unevenly distributed. Political parties are often rigid and hierarchical, leaving little room for mass, meaningful political engagement.
For politics to change, there need to be organisational vehicles that allow for a greater number of people to be politically active…
Political arenas such as governments and councils are subject to lobbying by corporate interests, and the people who are elected into these positions are largely concerned with re-election, regardless of how liberal or progressive their politics are. We still need these political arenas and organisations, because they’re familiar, legitimate in the eyes of the majority of people, and give people at least some opportunity to exercise political power, but they need to be transformed.
For politics to change, there need to be organisational vehicles that allow for a greater number of people to be politically active — active to the point where mass politics becomes purposeful activity, not a sporadic superficial encounter tied to the electoral cycle. Grassroots organisations, community organisations, social movements, are all ways to increase mass political engagement, but they need to be shaped in a way that makes them more strategically viable and they need to shape their supporters into dedicated activists and organisers.
Although mass meaningful political engagement is technically not the final condition for the end of wage labour — in fact it is the one where we have to start our journey. By training as organisers and inviting others into our political movements, we can start enacting the change that is required. But we have to fight for changes that shape both consciousness and the social terrain.
We can be aware that society must change, and know that it is possible, and be part of a progressive social movement, but without a strategic path to transform society, the world will change in ways that suit the production of value, not the production of human fulfillment.
