Critique Of Political Economy On Digital Labour

There is a kind of productive labour that plays a decisive role and dominates other forms of labour in every period of history.This decisive productive labour is “a kind of universal light”,which not only conceals the brilliance of all other productive labour in the same period,but also transforms the characteristics of all existence.With the continuous development and wide application of Internet technology,mankind has entered the digital era brought about by a new round of industrial revolution.As a result,capitalism has also achieved a leap forward to digital capitalism.Under the digital capitalist system,digital technology has given birth to a new form of labour-digital labour.Under the conditions of digital labour,the“curse”that capitalism cannot be eradicated and the“terminal disease” that cannot be cured have once again become prominent.When it comes to the question that how to understand and grasp digital labour in the era of digital capitalism,Marx’s political economy criticism has returned to our field of vision with its unique theoretical perspective.For this reason,seeking adequate and reasonable theoretical defenses for Marx’s critique of political economy in the current Marxist philosophical research is not only about how to effectively respond to the controversy about the criticism of Marx’s political economy,but also the key to developing the criticism of Marx’s political economy and the unique theoretical narrative of the entire Marxist philosophy in the era of digital capitalism.Before launching the critique of the political economy of digital labour,how to define labour is a key issue that must be solved.People’s understanding of productive labour has gone through a continuous process of deepening.From the analysis of productive labour as a “creative activity” in ancient Greece and as a “religious salvation” in the Middle Ages,We can find that labour in the pre-capitalist period is not an activity for everyone to realize their own essence,but just the tasks that low-level people and slaves should undertake.The potential of labour has not yet been released and People’s productive labour in the struggle against nature is more of a forced activity.With the emergence and development of the buds of European capitalism,the status of labour gradually became prominent especially with the development of the religious reform.The division of labour has existed since ancient times,but it has reached a considerable degree only in capitalist society.Smith used labour as the source of wealth for the first time,and Hegel took labour as the essence of man for the first time which symbolized that labour entered the horizon of philosophical research.The non-historical view of classical political economy on the“antinomies” contradiction of capitalist economy cannot explain the source of the contradiction between capital and labour.German classical philosophy also confined labour to the spiritual realm and cannot grasp the relationship of reality.Marx integrated Smith’s“general labour”and Hegel’s “abstract labour”to form “employed labour”that dissected actual political and economic problems.Marx did not contact and understand reality through the study of political economy,but used the“critique”of political economy to analyze and grasp the reality.By combing and interpreting the evolution of the theory of labour of philosophers in the pre-capitalist period and early capitalism,it demonstrated the scientific nature of Marx’s critique of political economy.At the same time,the analysis and interpretation of digital labour in the current period of Digital Capitalism,the continuity and validity of Marx’s political economy critique “interpreting the world”and“changing the world” is confirmed again.Time and space are not only the basic rules of human existence,but also the key dimensions for grasping labour,especially digital labour.In Marx’s critical context of political economy,time and space also occupy an extremely important position,and they are always placed in the investigation of the concept of time and space in the reality of capitalism.Therefore,based on Hardt,Negri,and Fuchs’ s understanding of the status quo of digital labour,we“criticize”political economy from the time and space dimensions.What’s more,we can recognize the new state of digital labour in the time and space dimensions under the background of the digital capital era through investigating the reality,and disclose the time rule behind capitalist production.The inherent nature of capital accumulation determines that the capital must not only seize the world market but also use time to eliminate space.In the era of digital capital,the homogenized control of time and space by digital capital is still the only measure of control and exploitation of reality.No matter how digital and virtual capitalism is at the moment,if we want to get rid of the logical and technical control of digital capital as well as its rule over time and space,we need to face the capital itself to recognize the illusion of peace and equality created for us by the logic of digital capital and make a“critique of political economy”on it.Through the “Critique of Political Economy”to reveal the“digital”cloak and the essence of “labour”of digital labour,We have not only discovered the“secrets of existence” of “real people and their historical development”,but also found a realistic way to explore “how liberation is possible”in the criticism of digital capitalism.Digital capital has become the new “rationality”and hegemony that governs everything in the contemporary era.In the current era of digital capital,to disintegrate the logic of capital,it is necessary to analyze the inherent contradictions of the logic of digital capital,and reveal the development trend of the logic of digital capital to deny and disintegrate itself.In a word,it is necessary to criticize the ownership foundation which is the base of the privatization of digital capital Capitalist private ownership is the key to criticize the ills of capitalism.The fundamental key to solve the separation of capital and labour lies in the elimination of private ownership.Based on this,we can infer that the period of digital capitalism following the“curse”and“terminal illness”that cannot be eradicated by capitalist society is the contemporary version of capitalist private ownership in the period of digital capitalism.Through the critique of the political economy of digital labour,we can truly grasp the way of human existence in the real capitalist society and analyze the problems of human existence in the period of digital capitalism.Fetishist criticism constitutes one of the core clues of Marx’s entire critique of political economy.It can deeply see and grasp the “weird status quo”of the inversion of capitalist society than the theory of“alienation”.Traditional philosophy exposes the self-alienation of people in the“sacred image”,while Marx’s critique of political economy exposes the self-alienation of people in “non-sacred images”-commodity,currency,and capital.With the promotion and popularization of Internet technology,capitalism has leapfrogged into the era of digital capitalism.Man has fallen into a new “non-sacred image”—Re-alienation—Self-alienation in digit.Marx’s critique of political economy dispelled the self-alienation of people in the “non-sacred image”,accounting for the uniqueness and scientificity of its theoretical perspective.In the era of digital capitalism,adhering to the criticism of Marx’s critique of political economy,dispelling the new“non-sacred image”—the self-alienation in the “digit”,that is,the re-alienation of the alienation in the“non-sacred image”,become the theoretical basis for us to advance the criticism of digital fetishism.Only through the criticism of digital fetishism can the working class see the dawn of their own liberation through the fog of “fetishism”.In other words,to achieve the eradication of digital fetishism is to achieve the liberation of digital labour.By this way,people can get rid of the control of capital logic in the era of digital capital,and become ones with rich sensibility,with all-round development,and with free personality become reality.Marx’s critique of political economy does not stop at “interpreting the world”,what is more,it also contains the realistic requirements of “changing the world”.Hardt and Negri still stay in the capitalist narrative mode,thinking about how to solve the problem of digital labour exploitation and alienation within the scope of capitalist private ownership.The problem is that they only pay attention to the people themselves,not to the social relations between people.In contrast,the“commons-based Internet” proposed by Fuchs can partially alleviate the contradictions of capitalist society.But he has not touched on the issue of capitalist private ownership,so it cannot fundamentally realize the liberation of people.Scholars from both schools have overlooked that the key standpoint of Marx’s conception of a “true community”is actually to return to“socialized humanity”.Returning to “socialized humanity”is the realization path of building a“true community”.No matter in terms of content or form,“socialized human beings” is a community of relationships on the basis of cooperation and joint effort.In the era of digital capitalism,to build a real community based on big data sharing is to build a community based on “data” sharing of production materials.Only in this way can we break the data monopoly realize the free labour in Marx’s vision and complete the real liberation of people in the era of digital capitalism.Critique of political economy is not only Marx’s lifelong career,but also Marx’s tireless “unfinished business”.Launching critique of political economy on digital labour is the inheritance and development of Marx’s philosophy.