For Work / Against Work
Debates on the centrality of work

Paths to Paradise: On the Liberation from Work

by Gorz, André (1985)

Abstract

We are moving into a world where a power elite allocates jobs: where commodities buy consumers: where socialist as well as capitalist dogma is an obstacle to comprehension. In this book, Andre Gorz returns to Marx's Grundrisse and the prophecy of early nineteenth century socialists and re-discovers a vision of post-capitalist society founded on the automation of work and the transcending of the exchange economy. He argues that we have reached the precise stage where these utopian insights become a reality. If the socialist movement is to have something to say to a generation whose identity is no longer shaped at work, it must grasp these insights.

Key Passage

The sphere of individual sovereignty is based (…) upon activities unrelated to any economic goal which are an end in themselves: communication, giving, creating and aesthetic enjoyment, the production and reproduction of life, tenderness, the realisation of physical, sensuous and intellectual capacities, the creation of non -commodity use-values (shared goods or services) that could not be produced as commodities because of their unprofitability - in short, the whole range of activities that make up the fabric of existence and therefore occupy a primordial rather than a subordinate place. (p.240)

Keywords

Socialism, Capitalism, Capital, Marx, Marxism, Grundrisse, Post-Capitalism, Automation, Utopia

Themes

Gorz Citations

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