Fully Automated Luxury Communism A Manifesto

Fully Automated Luxury Communism

Fully Automated Luxury Communism

A Manifesto

Aaron Bastani

V VERSO London • New York

First published by Verso 2019 © Aaron Bastani 2019

All rights reserved

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Verso UK: 6 Meard Street, London W1F 0EG US: 20 Jay Street, Suite 1010, Brooklyn, NY 11201 versobooks.com

Verso is the imprint of New Left Books

ISBN-13: 978-1-78663-262-3

ISBN-13:978-1-78873-246-8 (EXPORT)

ISBN-13: 978-1-78663-265-4 (US EBK)

ISBN-13: 978-1-78663-264-7 (UK EBK)

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

Typeset in Fournier by MJ & N Gavan, Truro, Cornwall Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY

To Charlotte. This would have been impossible without you.

Man is a living creature of varied, multiform and ever-changing nature. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

In bad times, I did not abandon the city; in good times, I had no private interests; in desperate times, I feared nothing.

Cardinal De Retz

Contents

Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: Six Characters in Search of a Future 1
I. Chaos under Heaven

1. The Great Disorder 15
2. The Three Disruptions 31
3. What Is Fully Automated Luxury

Communism? 50
II. New Travellers

1. Full Automation: Post-Scarcity in Labour 69
2. Limitless Power: Post-Scarcity in Energy 94
3. Mining the Sky: Post-Scarcity in Resources 117
4. Editing Destiny: Age and Post-Scarcity in

Health 138

1. Food without Animals: Post-Scarcity in

Sustenance 159

contents

III. Paradise Found

1. Popular Support: Luxury Populism 185
2. Fundamental Principles: The Break with

Neoliberalism 201

1. Reforging the Capitalist State 224
2. FALC: A New Beginning 237

Bibliography 245
Index 269

viii

Acknowledgements

Special thanks are due to Leo Hollis, my editor at Verso. A congenial yet critical voice, you have made this an infinitely better book than it otherwise would have been. Thanks also to the rest of the Verso team who have assisted in making FALC a reality, at least in print. Your work is invaluable in taking radical ideas to as broad an audience as possible. Long may it continue.

I would like to extend my appreciation to the whole team at Novara Media. We started a strange journey five years ago, which has taken an interesting turn. I am particularly indebted to James Butler and Ash Sarkar, whose initial scepticism has made the arguments which follow far more robust.

Thanks also to Andrew Chadwick for giving me the space to find my own voice while writing my doctorate. Above all else you demonstrated the importance of terse prose and clear argument – two things I lacked prior to our working together.

Finally, I am indebted to the many people who fought for a political settlement which gave me free healthcare and cheap education. Without you I would not be alive, let alone writing a book. There is no greater source of inspiration for the struggles that lie ahead than your accomplishments, which, although in the past, abide in the present.

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fully automated luxury communism