Communism of Capital and Cannibalism of the Common

by Matteo Pasquinelli

Today a weird process of over-identification is occurring between the archetypes of capitalism and communism at different scales, expanding the feeling of political impasse but at the same time suggesting new spaces of conflict. First, for the irony of fate, a communist state formally ruled by a communist party — China — has become the leading capitalist superpower. […] Second, exactly 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a global credit crunch have forced western governments to nationalize de facto many private banks openly infringing one of the basic commandments of neoliberal monotheism. […] Third, the new libertarian business models that are born out of digital networks celebrate and locate the common at the center of their mode of production. The new “wealth of networks” is to be based on the “creative commons” and “peer production” of online multitudes, Yoachai Benkler is suggesting to ICT giants like IBM, whereas Wired editor Kevin Kelly confirms that a “new socialism” and a “global collectivist society” is materializing thanks to the internet. These three examples, however, refers just to the surface of economic chronicles: the ‘communism of capital’ has its roots in a more general process of financialization of the whole life that has to be unpacked properly (…).

PDF