It’s frustrating to take stock of the 2020s and see that capitalism is alive and well. Tempting, certainly, to wish capitalism dead, and then to pen that wish as a declaration as if the wish were real. But wanting something, or even claiming something, does not magically make it so. Capitalism has turned out to be remarkably adaptable, and, despite repeatedly causing misery, hardship, and murder, it has survived. Yanis Varoufakis, in his 2023 book Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, declares capitalism dead and that it has been replaced with “something much worse,” which he refers to as “technofeudalism.” Varoufakis is, quite simply, wrong: capitalism has most certainly been adapting to recent developments in computer and communications technology, but we nonetheless continue to live under capitalism and this matters for how we organise to defeat it.
Varoufakis puts forward two claims in support of his overall thesis. First, he claims that those who remain in the capitalist class have become “cloud vassals” to “cloudalists”, a new class of feudal overlords who control Big Tech “fiefs” such as Google, Meta, PayPal, and Amazon. In fact, capitalism produces massive near-monopolies as the “losers” of each capitalist competition are absorbed or destroyed by the “winners”. The present-day face of this process – the mere existence of massive and powerful capitalists – does not somehow equate to feudalism. In most cases, those who Varoufakis describes as “cloud vassals” are simply smaller capitalists and the self-employed class engaging in normal business relationships with larger exploiters. The existence of this arrangement in the context of computer technology does not in any way change how we fight against the system: we don’t look to the petty bourgeoisie (small businesses owners) for our liberation. The emancipation of the working class will come about from the struggles and the victories of the working class itself.
Varoufakis’ second supporting claim is that ordinary people who use technology have become “cloud serfs” to the “cloudalists” – that the masses perform unpaid labour for the “cloudalists” in the same way that serfs were required to work the feudal lords’ lands. It’s true that, while all capitalists exploit their workers, the Big Tech capitalists are additionally exploitative in other ways: these companies have refined processes of data collection that essentially amount to mass surveillance; manipulative marketing practices weaponise mass-collected data; and their so-called Artificial Intelligence systems essentially steal the creative work of artists and writers. But surveillance, manipulation, and theft do not automatically equate to feudalism. The users of internet-enabled services from Uber to Google might be receiving steadily more invasive and costly services and products, but in those interactions they are still the (ever disadvantaged) consumers of those services and products. They are not active producers, for themselves or for their overlords, in a manner that would be characteristic of feudal relations.
I introduced this article by highlighting how it can be tempting to view the current time as something different; it is true that technology introduces a sense of change. But the working class, as both workers and consumers, continue as ever to be exploited by the capitalist class, and the wonders of digital technology have not changed that relationship. In 1880, 146 years ago, Friedrich Engels paraphrased Marx to summarise the way in which technology enables the capitalist exploitation of the working class in his pamphlet Socialism: Utopian and Scientific:
machinery becomes the most powerful weapon in the war of capital against the working-class; that the instruments of labor constantly tear the means of subsistence out of the hands of the laborer; that the very product of the worker is turned into an instrument for his subjugation.
So this exploitation isn’t a new thing, and it certainly isn’t specifically about “cloud capital,” “cloudalists,” or a new system of “technofeudalism.” This isn’t simply an issue of irrelevant technicalities. Varoufakis’ proposed fightback is essentially just a consumer boycott. And sure, boycotts can be useful in particular targeted circumstances, like the Boycott Divest Sanction campaign against Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and genocide of Palestinians. But a boycott is an utterly inadequate strategy for the overthrow of the entire capitalist system. Recognising that Big Tech is nothing more than near-monopoly capitalism equipped with the communications model we call “the internet” allows us to see that the way we defeat these capitalists is the same way we defeat all capitalists: through unified grass-roots, working-class power. We must withhold the labour required to transport essential manufacturing equipment, connect data centres to the grid, and keep them maintained. Though capitalism is not dead yet, we have the power to bring about its demise. The workers, united, will never be defeated!
Banner Image: Saint Anthony of Padua, by the Romagna School of Painting, c. 1520, from the Walters Art Museum and thecollector.com. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.
