WORLD WORLDWIDE ARGENTINA News Journal Update - (en) Argentina, FORA, Organizacion-Obrera #96: RELATIONS OF DOMINATION IN INFORMATIONAL CAPITALISM (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

It is well known that the capitalist mode of production is based on the
domination of those who own the means of production to the detriment of those who
do not. This domination not only forces the worker and the worker to have to sell
their labor power to the employer in exchange for a salary, but also forces them
to submit to the mode of organization of production that the employer wants to
impose. In recent times, profound changes have been experienced in the ways in
which capital takes advantage of the work of others, to the point that it is
increasingly difficult to recognize not only the existence of an employment
relationship, but also the traditional social classes that are linked through it.
These difficulties are due to the fact that the techniques of the disciplinary
society used by Fordism have been added to the new techniques of the so-called
control society linked to what many call "informational capitalism".

Fordism and the disciplinary society

Capitalism not only brought with it an accumulation of capital in the hands of a
few and the dispossession of it from those who previously owned it, but also
implied an accumulation of people in closed spaces. To the extent that the
incipient workshops and industrial establishments were growing in number of
workers, capital needed to resort to techniques that allow it to make that
enormous mass of people more productive and usable. For this, he needed to resort
to the techniques of disciplinary power. In this regard, Foucault understood that
the architectural form proper to disciplinary power is the panopticon, which
consists for the one who exercises power in the possibility of being able to see
everything, all the time and, for the subject, always finding himself in the
situation of being. observed. Power thus constitutes an optical effect aimed at
ordering crowds enclosed in space and time. The disciplinary power is directed
towards the body, its gestures and attitudes, with a view to reducing the
"behavioral virtues" of the observed person. It is standardized, it is normalized
and all those gestures and skills that are not desired are erased. Both Taylorism
and Fordism are modes of organization of production that respond to the
disciplinary system and that focus on the time-execution factor as a way to
reduce costs or increase production in order to obtain greater profits. The
result of all this was large industrial establishments with a large number of
workers who were required to perform a certain task within a certain period of
time and having to comply with the regulations imposed by management. The factory
is a large institution of confinement for multitudes that are transformed into
small gears where each one must function correctly and within the stipulated
time, trying to reduce to the extreme any initiative of the worker and the worker.

informational capitalism

To understand the need to introduce control techniques as a form of domination
and better use of the work of others, we have to briefly review the changes that
have occurred within the capitalist mode of production in the current
post-Fordist stage and the typical notes of what many call informational
capitalism. The crisis of the capitalist system of the 1970s was considered by
many representatives of capital as caused by the exhaustion of the Fordist
production model, characterized by concentrated production in large industrial
centers and aimed at stimulating the market through mass production and large
scale production. scale. The rigidity, standardization and high levels of
productivity of the Fordist system had to be replaced by new production
techniques more adjusted to the needs of the market and, therefore, more flexible
to changes in the demand for goods and services in order to reduce production
costs. Toyotism emerged as a new substitute for the Fordist model and consists of
demand-oriented production that becomes the one that determines what and how much
to produce, unlike the Fordist model that proposed that the market be the one
that was encouraged by mass production. and on a large scale. This imports a
varied and always changing production according to the needs of the market,
avoiding production surpluses and the losses that this imports.

The productive concentration and verticality typical of the Fordist system gives
way to the productive fragmentation and apparent horizontality of the network
company of Toyotism. The results of the company in the network are the
consequences of labor outsourcing, the relocation of production and the
fragmentation of labor groups, putting the traditional forms of union
organization in crisis for the benefit of reducing labor costs for the main
companies. . The advent of an increasingly flexible and changing production
caused industrial capital, with high costs and difficult to adapt to constant
changes in demand, to begin to succumb to financial and commercial capital.
Increasingly, the company that dominates the network of companies is the one that
concentrates commercial knowledge, the designs, the formulas and, obviously, the
financial resources. It is the sector that decides what to produce, where, with
whom, and then creates the network because it has the financial resources and
informational assets to do so.

Informational goods are intangible productive means that increasingly have a
greater relative value between the different means of production and determine,
within the structure of the network company, which company is the outsourcer and
which are outsourced. But informational goods are also finished products that
have acquired significant importance in the goods and services market due to
changes in the consumption patterns of most of the population. The growth in the
consumption of primary informational goods such as computer programs (software),
applications for mobile devices (apps), social networks, audio, video, images,
digital texts, music, movies, programs and television series, etc. is
exponential. . On the other hand, The need for companies to resort to
informational platforms to advertise their products or make their sale is
growing. Social networks, mobile network platforms (apps), websites, mailboxes,
etc., invade us with advertisements or the possibility of acquiring different
goods and services through these same means. Sales websites (Mercado Libre, OLX,
Booking, Trivago, etc.) or apps to contract services from the cell phones
themselves (Uber, Glovo, Rappi, PedidosYa, etc.) are a reality that is imposed
and modifies the conditions of competition between companies. we are invaded by
advertisements or the possibility of acquiring different goods and services
through the same means. Sales websites (Mercado Libre, OLX, Booking, Trivago,
etc.) or apps to contract services from the cell phones themselves (Uber, Glovo,
Rappi, PedidosYa, etc.) are a reality that is imposed and modifies the conditions
of competition between companies. we are invaded by advertisements or the
possibility of acquiring different goods and services through the same means.
Sales websites (Mercado Libre, OLX, Booking, Trivago, etc.) or apps to contract
services from the cell phones themselves (Uber, Glovo, Rappi, PedidosYa, etc.)
are a reality that is imposed and modifies the conditions of competition between
companies.

Informational goods have the particularity that their consumption does not imply
the depletion, wear and tear or destruction of the consumed good as it happens
with the other products. Informational goods are always there to be consumed
without their depletion occurring. On the other hand, informational goods are
easily and unlimitedly reproduced once they have been produced for the first
time. The same informational product does not need to be produced again for its
diffusion, distribution or commercialization. So, why is the production of
informational goods increasing more and more if they are not exhausted with their
consumption and are easy and unlimited reproduction. Why it is necessary to
constantly produce new informational goods. The answer is that, Although
informational goods are not destroyed or exhausted with their consumption, what
is exhausted is the flow of attention and desire of consumers who permanently
demand new and innovative informational goods. In informational capitalism, what
is aimed at is to capture the flows of attention and desire of the users.
Controlling the market means capturing the public's attention with novel and
attractive informational products that deserve to spend our attention and time on
them, and where appropriate, pay their price for them. This phenomenon also
influences the production of traditional material goods. The designs,

The organization of work in control societies

Informational capitalism aims to capture the attention flows of eventual
consumers, which is why it needs a creative production that shapes the novelty.
Capital needs to appropriate for itself the capacity of workers to carry out the
possible, the varied, the new. You need to appropriate the inventiveness and
creativity. For this, it is not necessary to confine him in space and time, nor
impose rigid work schemes, nor monitor compliance with them, as happens in the
disciplinary system. In control societies, the appropriation of work is carried
out in open spaces without limits of space and time. There are no bodies to watch
over, there are no movements to reproduce, there are no schemes to guard.

In the control society, the factory as an institution of confinement begins to be
delegated by the idea of business in its spiritual dimension of exercise of
power. There is no more inside or outside, there are no more work hours or rest
hours. The limits for the exercise of power have disappeared. The company is that
soul that is always present and that can become visible at any time. This is the
growth of new work relationships devoid of walls and schedules that determine
them: flexi work, telework, self-employed worker, self-management work, etc. But
the new technologies of action at a distance and instant communication relativize
the outside as space-time free from the reach of capital. A message, a request,
an explanation, an order, a warning, etc., can always arrive at any time and
anywhere. even from the most remote places on the planet. The control society
captures and imposes a way of life.

Now, how does capital manage to exercise its power over this supposedly
autonomous worker who does not need to be disciplined? In the control society it
is not necessary to tell another how and when to do his job. It is not necessary
to make him feel that his movements are being watched to see if he complies with
the regulation, procedure or form. But in the control society what the worker
should know is that his income, his position and the continuity of the link
depend on the achievement of the objectives, goals and results. In the end, the
capital will evaluate what he did with such freedom and if he deserves to
continue being part of that world that is "the company". Control will qualify it,
measure it and classify it, and its subsistence and continuity will depend on it.
It is the kingdom of meritocracy,

The interesting thing about all this is that capital not only tends to dominate
workers through control techniques, but it is also these same techniques that
allow them to position themselves and dominate the markets. The control of
attention, memory and the flows of desires are those that are imposed in
informational capitalism. The informational companies are those that aim to
capture the attention and desires of the clientele through the virtual and the
signs. It is no longer the intrinsic qualities of the products to satisfy certain
needs or the quality of their manufacturing that is relevant when it comes to
being able to impose a certain good. It is not the product that matters, it is
something accidental, what is important is that people's attention and desire
have been captured as the objective of a new power relationship. In the society
of control, that power is exercised through the remote action technologies of
image, sound and data. Through these technologies, the brains are modulated and
habits are formed. In the same way that control makes the worker self-exploit and
do his job without having to lock him up and give him orders, control techniques
make customers buy and consume a new way of life that enters and is permanently
renewed. .

Whoever controls the technological means of action at a distance controls the
work of others and the market for goods and services. As we have been saying,
ownership of the means of production is less and less important in this control.
This fact can be corroborated in the case of the informational sector. The need
that information workers have to sell their labor power in formal labor relations
does not mean that they do not own the means of production. The same happens in
the case of information workers who perform apparently autonomously and who must
self-exploit against the dominance of their client-companies. The primary
informational means of production (software) and secondary (PC, notebook, etc. )
are relatively accessible by information workers. On the other hand, what all
these workers cannot fully own and control are the channels, the networks, the
means through which the informational products that they themselves produce
circulate and are sold. They do not control the technological means of remote
action, which are the ones that capture the flows of attention and desire of
potential customers and by which the market is controlled: social networks,
mobile platforms, the media, advertising companies, etc. The apparently
independent information worker must therefore sell his products or services to
third-party client-companies that control his work and force him to self-exploit.
The form of that control is very simple: if the informational worker does not
make an effort, it is not updated, it is not creative or original, etc., the
client-companies will not require their services and the informational worker
will not be able to ensure their subsistence. Once again, the control society
achieves its effects by qualifying, measuring and modulating the work of the
people who live from their work and making the continuity and subsistence of the
people depend on its results. Again meritocracy, entrepreneurship and
self-exploitation disguised as independence, autonomy and self-management.
measuring and modulating the work of the people who make a living from their work
and making the continuity and subsistence of the people depend on its results.
Again meritocracy, entrepreneurship and self-exploitation disguised as
independence, autonomy and self-management. measuring and modulating the work of
the people who make a living from their work and making the continuity and
subsistence of the people depend on its results. Again meritocracy,
entrepreneurship and self-exploitation disguised as independence, autonomy and
self-management.

The workers and the workers of the Apps

The so-called "App workers" are workers whose services are required by different
clients through platforms for mobile devices (apps) owned by a company that
manages it (Uber, Rappi, Glovo, Pedidos Ya, etc. ). Although the company that
owns the platform may impose certain conditions on the workers, such as the
characteristics of the vehicles, the use of company logos, and may even suspend
or terminate their contract for not complying with the conditions of the
services, there are countless aspects that differentiate this form of contracting
from a typical employment relationship. First of all, The company is not the
owner of the vehicles used by the workers to carry out their tasks, and they may
belong to the workers themselves or to a third party. The workers themselves must
also be responsible for the expenses generated by their vehicles as well as the
risks of loss, theft or destruction of the same. There is no exercise of the
power of management by the employer as manifest as in a typical employment
relationship. These are links in which the exercise of disciplinary power is
reduced to a minimum. It would seem that app workers are independent and perform
autonomously, self-regulating the intensity of the workforce that they want to
make available to potential customers. The workers themselves must also be
responsible for the expenses generated by their vehicles as well as the risks of
loss, theft or destruction of the same. There is no exercise of the power of
management by the employer as manifest as in a typical employment relationship.
These are links in which the exercise of disciplinary power is reduced to a
minimum. It would seem that app workers are independent and perform autonomously,
self-regulating the intensity of the workforce that they want to make available
to potential customers. The workers themselves must also be responsible for the
expenses generated by their vehicles as well as the risks of loss, theft or
destruction of the same. There is no exercise of the power of management by the
employer as manifest as in a typical employment relationship. These are links in
which the exercise of disciplinary power is reduced to a minimum. It would seem
that app workers are independent and perform autonomously, self-regulating the
intensity of the workforce that they want to make available to potential
customers. These are links in which the exercise of disciplinary power is reduced
to a minimum. It would seem that app workers are independent and perform
autonomously, self-regulating the intensity of the workforce that they want to
make available to potential customers. These are links in which the exercise of
disciplinary power is reduced to a minimum. It would seem that app workers are
independent and perform autonomously, self-regulating the intensity of the
workforce that they want to make available to potential customers.

Although the app workers are not informational workers because they do not
produce informational goods, they comply with all the characteristics of
informational capitalism that we have previously analyzed. Their work is subject
to remote action control techniques, and therefore, they are immersed in a
relationship of power and dependency, in a context of absolute lack of labor
protection. This demonstrates how the control techniques and the technological
elements that are used for it can be applied to subdue workers than traditional
activities such as the transport of people, messaging and product delivery.

As we indicated previously, in informational capitalism, informational goods,
accumulated knowledge, data banks and control of consumer networks are the most
important means of production to the detriment of material means. The companies
that own the apps have the most important means of production and for which they
submit both to their competition and to the workers who join this modality of
work. App companies own the primary technological element by which they control a
vast network of consumers (the app itself). They use the data banks of other
information companies (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, E-mails, websites, other
applications, etc.) to advertise their platform, their logos and images, and so
that it can be downloaded free of charge by eventual users. This implies that the
companies that own the apps also have ample financial resources to position
themselves in the market. In this way, customers already have these platforms
installed on their cell phones, ready to be used when they need it, thus the
company that owns the app has captured the consumer network and the flows of
attention, desire, and memory. That is why the fact that the workers of the apps
are the owners of the vehicles does not rule out at all the situation of economic
dependence in which they find themselves with respect to the company that owns
the platform. In this way, customers already have these platforms installed on
their cell phones, ready to be used when they need it, thus the company that owns
the app has captured the consumer network and the flows of attention, desire, and
memory. That is why the fact that the workers of the apps are the owners of the
vehicles does not rule out at all the situation of economic dependence in which
they find themselves with respect to the company that owns the platform. In this
way, customers already have these platforms installed on their cell phones, ready
to be used when they need it, thus the company that owns the app has captured the
consumer network and the flows of attention, desire, and memory. That is why the
fact that the workers of the apps are the owners of the vehicles does not rule
out at all the situation of economic dependence in which they find themselves
with respect to the company that owns the platform.

The lack of exercise of management power by the company that owns the app to
which we referred does not rule out the existence of a power relationship
exercised through remote control techniques either. The company that owns the app
does not need to give orders, regulate, set a work schedule, monitor behavior or
penalize the worker, although this may happen in certain circumstances. The
company knows that there will always be a worker who will take the service
request and fulfill it. And this is so because the workers lack the most
important means of production: the consumer network, and if they do not take
orders directly, they will not have income to subsist on themselves and their
families. Capital in these cases does not capture and does not lock up a group of
workers within a certain physical space and period of time. Capital has captured
a way of life. There is no inside or outside. The company is ubiquitous. And the
power of direction has entered the psyche of the worker, becoming the
exploitation a self-exploitation resulting from the worker's lack of the main
means of production.

conclusions

The changes operated in the capitalist mode have introduced modifications in the
way in which capital subdues, takes advantage of and obtains profits from the
work provided by the people who live from their work. Immaterial media such as
informational media have prevailed and dominate production relations, enabling
the implementation of remote control techniques that often displace disciplinary
ones. The absence of confinement makes it impossible to differentiate inside from
outside, work from non-work. The capitalist company as a relationship of
domination has been devoid of both the establishment that was its spatial
dimension, as well as the temporary location of the workday. But in no way has
the company failed to contain in these cases a relationship of domination that is
exercised to take advantage of the work of others. The discourse of those who see
autonomy, independence, self-management and freedom in these work modalities
demonstrates the degree of conceptual confusion they have or want to have. It is
a true bastardization and redefinition of those concepts to make them compatible
with situations of domination and dependency like the ones we have been
commenting on. In these modalities of work, numerous workers are immersed in
situations of dependence on capital and devoid of all labor and union protection.
The economic dependence of people who live from their work is intact and is even
greater as a result of the high concentration of the main economic resources:
technological, informational and financial. It is essential to understand these
changes in the strategy of big capital in order to organize the struggle and
resistance against the current regime of exploitation and domination.

https://organizacion-obrera.fora.com.ar/2023/03/06/las-relaciones-de-dominacion-en-el-capitalismo-informacional/
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