INVI

SIBLE
HAN
Editors
Magdalena Taube
Krystian Woznicki

Contributors
Dario Azzellini

D(S)
Christine Braunersreuther
Niccolò Cuppini
Kerstin Guhlemann
Tom Holert
Angela Mitropoulos
Katja Schwaller

Hidden Labor
AI-Driven Capitalism
and the COVID-19
Pandemic

Mi2
Table of Contents
Magdalena Taube and Krystian Woznicki
Introduction: Whose Invisible Hand(s)?
4

Niccolò Cuppini
The Explosion of Authoritarianism and Labor
Struggles in Italy’s ‘War on Corona’
5

Dario Azzellini
Capitalism’s System Error as ‘Disaster’ and
Opportunity for Labor Struggles
9

Katja Schwaller
How Invisibilized Work is Made Visible During the
COVID-19 Pandemic
14

Kerstin Guhlemann
Health Protection in Industry 4.0 and Human Labor
as a Disruptive Factor
17

Christine Braunersreuther
Why the ‘System Relevance’ of Care Workers Can
No Longer Be Denied
21

Angela Mitropoulos
Unboxing the Hidden Labor of Saving Lives and
Saving Capitalism
25

Tom Holert
Learning as Labor: Re-Inventing ‘the School’ Along
the Lines of ‘the Factory’
29

Biographies
34

Imprint
35
Introduction: The latter would mean pushing “capitalism as a self-
running machine” further towards independence
Whose Invisible Hand(s)? from humans in general and human labor in
particular. This is why it is high time to vigorously
Magdalena Taube and Krystian Woznicki confront that this ostensible independence has –
from the outset – been a myth. Meaning: “capitalism
In the past 30 years, globalization has been as a self-running machine” was never independent
underpinned by ideas and laws that have enabled of human labor, but dependent on the devaluation,
governments to deprioritize the needs of their decomposition, and, ultimately, dehumanization
citizens. After the financial crisis of 2007-08, this of labor. Enforcing the belief in the high-tech
tendency was driven by punishing austerity, including version of Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” enabled
ever harsher cutbacks and accelerated privatization. the invisibilization of hands essential to upholding the system
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates the such as laborers in basic supply (people in logistics,
devastating consequences of these tendencies. delivery, and tech work) and social reproduction
The neoliberal restructuring of health care – as work (people in childcare, elder care, and healthcare
one of the key frameworks for deprioritizing the on the one hand, and in cleaning, maintenance, and
needs of citizens – reveals itself as a (racialized) repair on the other). In other words, while AI is
death machine that enables capital’s requirements being promoted and mystified, old and new forms
to be prioritized. If this tendency reshuffles the of what we call “hidden labor” are thriving. In fact,
dehumanizing of capitalism from previous historical unrecognized, underacknowledged, undervalued,
episodes such as colonialism and industrialization, unwaged, illegalized, and, ultimately, unhumaned labor
it also consolidates the idea that “capitalism is an is increasing and diversifying. And the underlying
intelligent computer”— a computer that turns structures of subjugation are becoming ever more
qualities into quantities, enshrines calculating as elusive hybrids of old and new forms of power.
the dominant form of labor, and promotes the
idea of self-learning, quasi-autonomous machines In all probability, governments aligned with
running production and the economy at large. The corporations will advance AI-driven capitalism
SILENT WORKS project explores this Western in one way or another. The reasons for this are
phantasm as AI-driven capitalism, thereby expanding wide-ranging: from the fact that governments,
on the already established notion of “computational despite ostensibly shifting their agenda during
capitalism” (Beller, 2017). Conceived thus, the the COVID-19 pandemic to “saving humans,”
COVID-19 pandemic can be seen as a crisis of this remain committed to capitalist priorities, to the
very system, coming about as, all of a sudden, the fact that tech industries are emerging during the
ostensible frictionlessness of self-running machines pandemic as the major driving forces (be it cloud
has been interrupted and distorted by an unexpected infrastructure, fintech, or platform-driven services
disruptive factor: de-humanized humans, whose as varied as online learning and food supply). This
vulnerability (also read: contagiousness) necessitates said, a radicalization of AI-driven capitalism would
the shutdown of the system and thus the suspension of entail a stronger dehumanization and invisibilization
capital’s allegedly seamless and incessant circulation.of labor. This presupposes that we as laborers
consent to being invisibilized and dehumanized.
The pandemic-related crisis as a crisis of AI-driven But what if we don’t? Could we then become
capitalism shows the limits of the tendency to capable of confounding, contesting and recoding
dehumanization. Hence, we are at a crossroads. Will the structures of power to emancipatory ends—
governments and corporations take the crisis as an and turning AI-driven capitalism against itself ?
opportunity to rethink and remake the “operating One thing seems certain: The more we become
system” in accordance with human as well as aware of how dehumanizing and invisibilizing labor
environmental needs? Or will the shutdown be used consolidates structures of power that continuously
for a radicalization of AI-driven capitalism? Meaning, aggravate inequality and injustice, the more we gain
will the shutdown be followed by upgraded AI a perspective on how labor could be mobilized
fantasies/technologies as a way to diminish the risks from within underacknowledged, unrecognized,
that vulnerable humans (and environments) could undervalued, unwaged, or illegalized workplaces
pose to capitalism? against the very structures of power that are
circumscribing them. This could activate the potential

4
of the growing “reserve army” of workers. After The Explosion of
all, if our labor is indispensable – but presented as
disposable and even nonexistent – then capitalism’s Authoritarianism and Labor
dependency on labor has reached a critical limit. At Struggles in Italy’s ‘War on
this limit, labor gains a unique political quality.
Corona’
The interviews published in this volume were
conducted between March and June—a period Interview with Niccolò Cuppini
in which, following China’s example, drastic
containment measures were also being introduced One could say that the current pandemic –
in the West, including shutting down air traffic, structured and operating like a network – is a
closing state borders, ordering the population to stay logistical phenomenon. For this reason, some
at home, and allowing – if not in fact compelling – argue that the pandemic can only be ‘combated’
“systemically relevant services” to be kept up. The if it is met on the very ground of logistics,
related explosion of labor struggles would probably reminding us that logistics is a minor art of
have gone unnoticed had the invisibilized work of war, e.g. the work of supply to and around
people who actually provide “systemically relevant the battlefield. This line of argument enables
services” not become more visible in the COVID-19 projecting the dream of frictionless capitalism
pandemic. Exploring this critical moment, this series – with logistics at its core – onto the emerging
of interviews brings together our findings from market to ‘wage war against pandemics.’ This
within emergencies in Austria, Germany, Italy, and dream of frictionlessness presupposes that
the US, among others. All of the interviews emerged ‘things simply work’ – as if operated by an
under the almost paralyzing impression of the artificial intelligence – rather than that ‘someone
escalating pandemic, many of them within just a few actually works to make things work.’ Before we
days, in a fit of work fever at our privileged retreats go into these issues, let us start where one could
(read also: “home offices”), with quick exchanges of say this story begins: in March 2020, several
emails. The selected texts intend to be representative governments, including France, declared ‘war
neither of the results overall nor of the struggles in on corona.’ In Italy, the first and most pre-
question. Putting them together, we were bound by eminent European laboratory of the pandemic,
a page limit and by our quest for a balance between war itself was not explicitly declared. One could
discursive density and diversity. As a consequence, say that Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte was
the selection mainly conveys views from the West more managerial about the challenge, instead
and on emergent struggles in the West, albeit often declaring rule by decree, a style of governance
in a self-critical manner. The German versions of the that is defined as allowing “quick, unchallenged
interviews have been published on Berliner Gazette promulgation of law by a single person or group,
and the English versions in our blog on Mediapart.fr. and is used primarily by dictators, absolute
monarchs and military leaders.” How can this
Last but not least, the two images included here are difference be explained?
intended to mark the field of tension: protective
gloves as one of the most telling symbols of the Italy has been the first epicenter of the pandemic
crisis photographed from the TV screen at home in the West, and the country slipped slowly into
in March and outraged laboring subjects at a Black the crisis rather than experiencing an instant shock.
Lives Matter protest in Berlin photographed at This circumstance gave rise to a gradual approach
Alexanderplatz about two and half months later. by public institutions, media, unions, and in the
scientific debate on how to deal with the emerging
Berlin, June 2020 pandemic. Hence, the growing social danger of the
virus was initially perceived ‘at the bottom of society’
(where, for instance, Volunteer Emergency Brigades
emerged) rather than in a top-down configuration.
Then, in a second phase, the authoritarian, military
imaginary about COVID-19 came into play. In the
course of this, so-called “emergency procedures”

5
were adopted according to the “coronavirus decree” often uses Facebook live streaming to communicate
announced by Conte, first with regard to the North the government’s decisions, even if these decisions
of Italy, and then to the entire country. are not yet contained in official documents. This
direct link between a leader and the population
What happened when the management of the echoes a period of war during which verticalization
crisis became a top-down matter? of the decision making process thrives.

A turning point was the images of an impressive ‘National security’ is a major objective of
column of military vehicles crossing the heart of authoritarianism and exceptional politics
Bergamo on March 17th, transporting corpses that alike. However, ‘national security’ seems to be
Bergamo’s cemetery could no longer contain. After contradicted by the fact that Italy’s primary
that moment, many politicians started to call for health care and basic supply need to be upheld
total curfew, tanks in the street, drones, all sorts of through extensive networks that are not limited
surveillance, abolition of privacy, and increasingly to the quarantine zone borders of hot spots like
severe penalties for those who did not stay at the Lombardy region, that in fact often extend
home. In this context it is important to note that beyond the boundaries of national territory as
the deployment of a police-military dispositive is a such. How do these contradictions play out in
practice but also a rhetoric, intending to transfer guilt the public debate, e.g. with regard to primary
to individual subjects, while freeing those in power health care and basic supply need?
from any responsibility.
It is possible to sketch two poles in the public
The authorities can also be said to free debate about these contradictions. On the one hand,
themselves from responsibility and there are people maintaining that the pandemic
accountability by mobilizing the self-explanatory has definitely shown the unsurmountable limits
and self-evident appeal of a state of emergency. of the form in which contemporary economies
‘Everybody can experience the disaster as are shaped. In other words, they declare the end
given, so nobody has to ask why the head of so-called globalization, pointing to the need
of state is reverting to extralegal measures.’ for a re-nationalization and stricter control over
Authoritarianism appears just as self-explanatory national boundaries. On the other hand, it has been
and self-evident as the threat it claims to combat. said that global value chains are both the problem
How did Conte make use of such mechanisms? and the solution. That is to say: it is quite evident
that the pandemic first developed in the North
After a sort of state of exception was officially part of the country because it is the territory most
declared in mid-March, a securitarian mobilization interconnected and entangled in the global economy,
started with a great emphasis on police controls in but at the same time those thinking in this direction
the street, the use of the military corps to guard the maintain that the solution can only be found at the
cities, and so on. However, it is remarkable that, apart global level.
from these “visible” aspects, the more profound
transformation in the power dynamics was resorting From my perspective, the two poles include both
absolutely to complete management of the crisis by truth and misleading elements at the same time.
the executive power. The power of the legislative I think we should criticize and go beyond this
has basically been suspended due to the COVID-19 opposition, one that somehow again proposes the
pandemic, and for many days the national and dichotomy that has shaped the political arena in the
regional governments were the only actors on last years—the opposition between a sovereign/
the field. Rule by decree was the legal instrument populist side and a neoliberal globalization approach.
adopted to define all institutional procedures. At this juncture, I cannot go deeper into this debate,
but what can be said, for example, is that both
This is not a novelty. In the last decade the balance approaches tend to conceal that in the last ten years
of public powers has progressively moved toward all governments (from the right to the left) have
the executive and law decrees have often been supported radical cuts to public health care and de-
implemented. Yet, these tendencies exploded during invested in research, two aspects that need both local
this crisis. Another aspect to consider is how the and transnational responses.
Prime Minister uses the media. Giuseppe Conte quite

6
How did workers respond to this paradoxical In the first moment its definition was really extensive,
and conflictual scenario? but it was reduced after the pressure of the unions.
What is remarkable is that logistics, from the first
There were and still are a great number of struggles. moment, was considered “essential”—and still is.
The first step of these worker struggles during the Therefore, the logistics sector is still at work, even
COVID-19 pandemic was a reaction in the field if a “silent” struggle made by mass absence from
of what could tentatively be designated ‘social workplaces and temporary interruptions of logistics
reproduction work,’ which is usually invisibilized but chains is ongoing. So logistics has finally become
was the first to pay for the crisis situation. Here, I am visible to the general public as a crucial vector for
referring to people working in childcare, elder care, capital reproduction. However, in Italy there are still
and healthcare on the one hand, and in cleaning, millions of workers going to their workplaces, and
maintenance, and repair on the other. Then, a radical the rapid proliferation of “smart working” conditions
cycle of riots occurred within the Italian penitential is another element to be analyzed.
system. More than 25 jails erupted, with prisoners
occupying the jails and destroying some parts of If workers in Amazon warehouses and supply
them. This rebellion was violently repressed, and 16 chains are nowadays forced into compulsory
people died. It was a sort of thermometer for the labor that is even more ‘dull, dirty, and
‘corona crisis,’ with heat emerging from the lowest dangerous’ than before the pandemic, then this
sector of society. The second step was the massive dark moment also opens up new opportunities
spontaneous wave of strikes in factories and different to expand on the strikes within and against
workplaces, mostly in Northern Italy. The third step, logistics companies such as Amazon. Could
concentrated in the South, was a social fibrillation you dwell on the strikes and struggles in Italy’s
that took the form of some attempts to take goods logistics sector during the COVID-19 pandemic?
from supermarkets without paying for them. Within
this context, workers in the logistics sector mobilized Worker struggles in Northern Italy have been taking
since the beginning. place for many years before the ‘war on corona’
transformed the logistics sector into the open secret
At the end of March it was announced that Italy of the ‘last-standing’ economic domain in Italy. In
is ‘shutting down all sectors of production’— these many years of struggles within the logistics
making it sound like all sectors of the economy sector, workers have accumulated power. This power
would now be switched to ‘sleep mode.’ made it possible that all the logistics companies – like
Tellingly, there is no mention of logistics, which TNT, DHL, UPS – were disrupted by strikes and
is not reducible to the production sector, as it mass absence from work.
is primarily about circulation, last but not least
in the realm of basic supply. How does the A slightly different situation occurred in the
orchestrated shutdown – supposedly of Italy’s companies of the “new metropolitan logistics,”
entire economy – block out this particular or “last-mile logistics,” such as Amazon and the
economic dimension of the ‘war on corona’? platforms for home delivery (Deliveroo, UberEats,
Glovo, etc.). Here, worker struggles and worker
Confindustria (the general confederation of Italian organization are more recent and erratic. Some
industry) and the government did not want to shut strikes happened in Amazon’s fulfillment centers,
down workplaces. Workers who suffered from a though without a strong effect, while as far as I
sanitary situation that was becoming ever more know this has not happened on digital logistical
difficult had a different opinion and went on strike. platforms. However, I think that the brutal work
It was an extraordinary mobilization that finally intensification and the health risk posed to workers
led to “the blocking of production.” The crucial in these contexts is somehow nurturing an awareness
point of these struggles is that this conflict led the among workers at these companies about their own
government to act by declaring the shutdown of role. This awareness is in turn mirrored in a broader
production, with the exception of what was labeled public awareness about the systemic relevance of
“essential services.” The very definition of what these workers. That is to say: it is becoming clear
should be considered “essential” became the front that working here is not a “gig job,” but an essential
line of this conflict.

7
job for capital reproduction. Therefore, it is possible act as an intermediary between the workers and
to hypothesize that this logistics branch will also be companies, and as such have become an instrument
shaken in the future by new mobilizations. for management to divide and discipline the labor
force. Since cooperatives are often undermined by
Is there something new in the current worker organized crime syndicates, their mediation enables
struggles in Italy’s logistics sector? ‘New’ in the particularly ‘ungovernable’ and ‘unaccountable’
sense that this extreme situation either brings forms of management and discipline.
new aspects to light or accelerates the evolution
within this force field of power? At the end of the day, cooperatives are first of all
an institutional arrangement. That said, logistics
I think it is possible to hypothesize some main struggles in the last decade clashed directly with
tendencies emerging within this crisis. The this system, somehow “regulating” it within
confirmation of the cruciality of logistics to the the framework of new power relations. And an
system and of the (actual or potential) counter- ambivalence emerged: if in the first struggles workers
power of logistics workers will lead to capital’s used to see cooperatives as their primary “enemy,”
restructuring within the sector, with different tools: they then discovered that direct employment by
investment in technology and automation; new forms logistics firms also has many disadvantages (less
of bargaining and a selective repression of some “freedom” of the workers). So, at the moment,
worker organization; an acceleration in the use of we could say that logistics is passing through
digital platforms as forces of intermediation that are a transitional phase in terms of labor force
becoming the concrete infrastructure of everyday organization.
life; an – at least partial – change in workers’ social
composition (the strategic role of logistics will However, the crisis related to the COVID-19
probably attract new segments of the labor force); pandemic has somehow “verticalized” the
an increased form of concentration/monopoly of conflict: new actors (the national government, the
logistics companies. management of multi-national companies that
usually delegates to their local subsidiaries, public
However, I think that even within this scenario of security agencies) are on the field, and it seems that
radical transformation of the logistics sector on the organized crime actors and the small cooperatives are
capital side, logistics will remain a strategic terrain “silent” at the moment.
of organization and conflict from the class struggle
perspective. In these weeks, some organized rank and In her book “The Deadly Life of Logistics”
file unions in the logistics sector are becoming more (2014), the political geographer Deborah Cowen
receptive to social issues and more willing to grant suggests that logistics has come to shape
workers greater public recognition. The hypothesis war and trade. Here, logistics are considered
of ‘logistics becoming a hub’ through connections the main realm in which, on the one hand,
with heterogeneous social and workers struggles corporate and military strategy and tactics, and,
remains an intriguing political option. on the other, grassroots counter-strategies of
disruption are organized. This said, exceptional
Speaking of the power structure underlying the politics are increasingly deployed in realms
logistics sector, we would like to address the role such as special economic zones and corridors
of so-called ‘cooperatives.’ How can economic to optimize the ‘flows of capital.’ In what
practices endow the ‘things simply work’ fiction sense are the exceptional politics deployed by
with the appeal of a seemingly uncontestable the Italian government during the COVID-19
formula of capitalism? How are cooperatives pandemic creating a framework in which the
circumscribing the struggles in the logistics contemporary entanglement of war and trade
sector in Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic? can be recalibrated in the name of logistics once
again?
The system of cooperatives is the main managerial
tool through which big and small logistics companies Even if the link between logistics and war is
have precarized labor. Quite a paradoxical toppling. unquestionable, I opt for a more heterogeneous
Cooperatives used to be the socialist form of self- set of genealogical trajectories of contemporary
organization of workers and peasants. Now they logistics. In other words, I think that focusing only

8
on the command and control side of the logistics Capitalism’s System Error as
evolution blocks out many histories of struggles,
rebellions, and also of a desire for freedom contained ‘Disaster’ and Opportunity for
in the logistical attempt to move that also need Labor Struggles
to be taken into consideration when we discuss
contemporary logistics. In this sense, I think that the
angle through which it is more productive to look Interview with Dario Azzellini
at exceptional politics here is not to focus on the
exception itself, but rather on ‘the light of normality’ As a scientist and activist you’ve been dealing
that exceptional times ‘switch on’. with workers’ struggles for about 15 years.
Your work seems to be taking a dramatic turn
In this sense, a series of logistical processes will in the current pandemic, with a seemingly
probably become more visible and tricky: from unprecedented mobilization, as evidenced by
the implementation of the Chinese Belt and Road your recent participation in an online conference
initiative in Italy to the logistical management of with 170 trade unionists from all over the world.
migration in the Mediterranean; from energy supplies What was the subject of the conference? What
through transnational corridors managed by Russia to concerns did the trade unionists raise?
big European projects of infrastructural connectivity;
from the territorialization of multi-national logistics The online conference was organized by the Trade
companies like Amazon to the implementation of a Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED), a global
logic of “special economic zones” in some ports of network of trade unionists for climate justice and
the North or in some agricultural areas in the South; sustainable transformation. The network is now
and so on and so forth. being used for global exchange on the situation
regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Trade unionists
But I do not think that exceptional politics in itself from many countries participated: there were reports
will radically transform all these processes connecting from the US, South Korea, the Philippines, India,
war and trade in the name of logistics. It is the whole Australia (and other countries in the Asia-Pacific
framework of capital reproduction that is going to region), and South Africa. There were talks about
change. Again, not because of exceptional politics, workers’ struggles and attacks on workers’ rights
but due to a set of latent contradictions that have and their health and safety. They all emphasized that
exploded during the ‘corona crisis.’ The current the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the many
“state of exception” was not declared as an act of deaths, is by no means a “natural” consequence of
power, but as a reaction to a condition that no power the pandemic, but the consequence of decades of
was equipped to manage. As Carl Schmitt famously cutbacks and neoliberal policies that have privatized
stated, the sovereign is he who is able to decide on the public health care systems and services and made
state of exception, not within the state of exception. them worse, abolished workers’ rights, and made
We are living in exceptional times, but I think that the employment precarious.
development is completely open. Things can move in
many different directions. Dramatic accounts were delivered from, for example,
the president of the New York City Nurses’
Berlin/Bologna, April 2020 Association, who reported on the collapse of the
health care system, and from India, where hundreds
of millions of people have no means to survive long
isolation. I participated as an interested party, not as a
trade unionist (although I have been unionized since
my master’s degree). I am a scientist and activist. In
this situation, I can offer my knowledge and contacts
from 15 years of global involvement with factory
occupations for takeover under workers’ control.

Are there common concerns across borders,

for example, in the face of the current rise of
authoritarianism worldwide?

9
Yes. Despite all the dramatic reports, everyone possible to develop a generally convincing alternative
stressed the opportunities to use the current situation with great appeal. The left – in the broadest sense,
to strengthen international solidarity and wage i.e., including all movements and organizations that
battles for radical change. There is a clear awareness advocate overcoming inequality and exploitation
that nothing will ever be the same again. After all, and a sustainable perspective for the future – is in a
the COVID-19 pandemic is merely a trigger and process of reorganizing and reframing itself.
an amplifier for the obvious crisis. The impact is
immense. The Global North has never raised so Turning workers into patients and thus
much government funding to support the economy, depriving them of political participation—this is
and I dare to predict that once those resources are a central feature of the current quarantine policy.
used up, there will be still more mass layoffs and What kind of influence does this policy have in
countless company closures. The US has turned out Latin America?
to be a failed state, and not only in terms of its health
care system. In the first four weeks since March 18th, We have to be careful about general statements
22 million people have lost their jobs—meaning like that. The spread, the countermeasures and the
that many have lost their health insurance. The dead general situation differ greatly in different countries.
and the unemployed are predominantly black and The dictatorship in Bolivia is using the pandemic
Latinxs—in NYC, 72% of the dead are black and to consolidate its position; the military and police
Latinxs. And this is happening in one of the richest repression against members of the former ruling
countries in the world. party of Evo Morales, the MAS, and against leftist
movements has increased strongly; Bolivians from
What consequences are emerging for joint, abroad are being prevented by force from entering,
transnationally networked action? and the presidential elections have been postponed.
The regime in Chile is also using the pandemic to
In the US and many other countries there will quell the uprising that has been going on for months;
be spontaneous labor struggles and strikes. The they have postponed their constitutional referendum.
response of capital to the pandemic – and to
the ‘human uncertainty factor’ – is accelerated In El Salvador, the recently elected right-wing Nayib
automation. The relationship between labor and Bukele ordered a complete curfew – before there was
capital is in a process of complete change and this even one known COVID-19 case – and imposed a
will have far-reaching consequences. Including for kind of military law in collusion with the criminal
capitalism and its ability to survive. Surplus value can gangs of the maras. The right-wing government of
only be created from living labor. Nothing will be the Lenin Moreno in Ecuador, which a few months ago
same as before. There are two possible developments. was forced to retract various neo-liberal measures
On the one hand, the absolutely authoritarian and as a result of a popular uprising that paralyzed the
ultimately militarily violent assertion of capital country, has also imposed a curfew throughout
interests; on the other, strong structural changes, the the country, including in regions that have hardly
emergence of new political and economic systems. been affected by the pandemic—but which were
It is probable that both will happen. The struggles leading the protests. In Colombia, there has been
now and in the coming years are about which a frightening increase in paramilitary killings of
direction to take. Workers play a fundamental role activists and ex-guerrillas.
here. A little more than half a year ago, a major study
was published which, after examining more than Authoritarianism is considered a typical feature
150 years of social struggles worldwide, concluded of a crisis. But though any specific crisis is
that the participation of workers in social struggles only aware of the present as its time horizon,
is crucial for democratization. I don’t find that the current forms of authoritarianism have
particularly surprising. been clearly evident for several years. You
have dealt with the case of Venezuela in films
But there are many who have lost sight of this in and publications, including the documentary
recent decades. It will not be easy. The crisis and the “5 Factories – Worker Control in Venezuela”
attack are hitting trade unions and movements in a (2006), which was filmed together with Oliver
difficult phase. Although there have been massive Ressler, and the book “Participation, Worker
mobilizations in the last ten years, it has not been Control and the Commune. Movements and

10
Social Transformation in Venezuela” (2010). government, the Consejos Comunales (municipal
Even before the corona crisis, mainstream councils), of which there are about 47,000 in the
reporting on Venezuela considered it a “crisis whole country, and the higher level of the Comunas,
state” and an “experimental laboratory of of which there are about 1,700. Where they function
authoritarianism” . How do you assess this well, they have proven to be the best structures
classification of Venezuela since Hugo Chávez to counteract the effects of the crisis. Whereas
died? under Chávez they were still central to the targeted
transformation to socialism, today they have been
A lot has changed for Venezuela since 2013. Most of strongly pushed out of the government discourse.
the center-left governments in Latin America were They have always stood in a relationship of conflict
voted out of office, or removed by coup, or turned and cooperation with the government. At the
into the opposite, as in the case of Ecuador. This same time, however, they see the only possibility
was all done with the active support of the U.S. and of continuing their work as under the current
the EU. Starting in 2016, oil prices have collapsed government.
completely, and international support for the extreme
right-wing opposition has been boosted. Venezuela Has the quarantine policy promoted a new kind
was subjected to blockades; the most important of ‘corona authoritarianism’ in Venezuela?
sources of income, eight refineries and a huge
network of petrol stations, were confiscated by the Venezuela was the first country to comply with
US government and handed over to the opposition; all WHO guidelines, namely to cease all work that
tens of billions of Venezuelan dollars were frozen was considered “not system-relevant,” to close the
in banks in the U.S. and the EU; the country was borders, and for the most part to stop international
subjected to economic and financial blockades; and air traffic. Precisely because its health care system
a self-proclaimed “president” was recognized as the was severely weakened by the crisis and blockade,
only legitimate president by the U.S., EU countries, Venezuela had little choice but to focus as much as
and the radical right-wing governments in Latin possible on prevention. In fact, Venezuela has the
America. lowest infection rate of all Latin America and also
the fewest fatalities. On April 15 there were 204
There has never been such an action against a cases, 111 of which had recovered, and nine deaths.
country before. In Venezuela itself, this has led to Apart from a few isolated opposition voices, the
a very difficult economic situation; the political population also does not perceive the measures as
impact was negative. The left has for the most part authoritarian. Quite the contrary.
been pushed out of the government, decisions have
been strongly centralized, there is distrust of critical My acquaintances tell me about how even die-hard
opinions, the beginnings of workers’ control in state- opposition members, when they are standing in line
owned enterprises have disappeared. There’s not to buy groceries, complain on the one hand about
much of socialism left. The high inflation and poor the government, but then are quite happy about
supply situation lead to massive speculation, and to a how the government is dealing with the situation,
parallel economy where almost everything is charged and that they are in Venezuela and not somewhere
at the dollar exchange rate. The only people who can else. Venezuela has done the most tests per capita
live well are those who obtain foreign currency from in Latin America and still has more test equipment
relatives abroad. Those who have enough money for laboratories than, e.g., Colombia. That’s why
can still buy everything. The government is trying to they have offered to donate two test machines to
maintain a minimum level of supply by a tremendous Colombia. Colombia has only one lab test machine
distribution of subsidized food. The situation in the whole country! In addition, Venezuelan
has been very difficult for a good five to six years aeroplanes are flying Cuban doctors around the
now. The Maduro government is not very popular. Caribbean, and Venezuela has donated and flown
However, it is also nonsense to claim that it is only thousands of test kits to various Caribbean countries.
through repression that it keeps itself in power.
This does nothing to change the precarious situation
Most Venezuelans consider all other options much in which the Venezuelan health care system finds
worse. A left-wing alternative is developing only itself. But you cannot assess the entire crisis on that
from below, from the structures of territorial self- alone. Perhaps the situation can be compared with

11
Greece. It is well-known that Greece – thanks to the obvious: in many countries this kind of labor
austerity imposed by the troika – has a completely was already underfinanced and structurally weak
dilapidated health care system, but far fewer people even before the ‘corona crisis.’ In New York, for
are infected and have died than in almost any other instance, health workers are fighting within and
European country. In Venezuela, the latter is due not against the health care system in the ‘war against
only to the security measures taken, but also to the corona.’ Are such struggles also taking place in
population’s organization and to people’s awareness. Latin America?
A Venezuelan friend who’s a musician and radical
left-wing hip hop and reggae culture activist wrote to First of all I would like to warn against using
me a few days ago: “We have been living in a state of terms like the “war against corona”. This abets
emergency for six years. In that time, we have learned authoritarianism. A war is waged against an external
to cope better with such a situation.” enemy, it justifies a state of emergency, is based on
the ‘friend or foe’ scheme, and encourages thinking
In Venezuela, measures to prevent and combat the in terms of false blocs. But the only “war” we are
pandemic are based on the broad self-organization in here is a class war, and it is primarily fought from
of the population, with which the government is above.
cooperating. This includes, for example, the local
structures of self-government, the municipal councils In Venezuela, there are protests in various
(Consejos Comunales). They are informing the sectors which are usually not directed against the
households (a book with reports from the population government in order to overthrow it, but demanding
of Wuhan on how to deal with the quarantine and better working conditions, higher wages, etc. In my
the virus was distributed to all 47,000 municipal opinion, however, the most successful struggles have
councils), supporting those in need, and coordinating been linked for years to the Comunas: the organized
with the health care structures. The provision of population occupies abandoned and inefficient state
basic food packages (CLAP) by local committees that farms and estates, and in some cases private ones,
already existed is also an important element of the taking them over on their own under the collective
crisis management. management of the Comunas.

According to media reports, many people from Comparable protests and fights are also taking
Venezuela are currently forced to leave the place in many other countries of Latin America. In
neighboring country of Colombia because they most Latin American countries, a significant part,
are being driven from their homes and shelters. sometimes the majority, of the working population
They no longer have any money to pay their rent is employed in the informal sector. For them, their
because their low-wage jobs have disappeared, immediate livelihood has been lost. They do not
along with the informal economic sector. know whether they should be more afraid of dying
Reportedly, this is all due to the “preventive of COVID-19 or of hunger. In Colombia there
isolation” decreed by Colombia’s President Ivan are street protests and looting in various regions.
Duque. The demonstrations are often just small, but are
supported by thousands of people banging on pots
Thousands are returning not only from Colombia, from their balconies and windows; starving people
but also from other Latin American countries, are also trying to stop trucks containing food and
especially Ecuador, but also Chile. The Venezuelan loot them.
government is supporting those who want to return
with special flights. Venezuelans have even had The Cacerolazos are also present in Brazil and Chile.
themselves flown back from the US by Venezuela There are also demonstrations in Bolivia. The health
with special flights because they feel safer there sector and other “systemically relevant” jobs are
than in the US (because of the US blockade they under great pressure. Radical demands are springing
often had to fly first to Mexico and from there to up. They existed before as well. After the pandemic
Venezuela). has abated, they will certainly express themselves
in enormous waves of protest. Rebellions and
Once the “system relevance” of basic supply protests, as well as a ‘return of the left,’ already had a
and social reproduction work now openly comes significant impact on Latin America in the 12 months
to light, then the system error also becomes before COVID-19. But now everyone feels an

12
enormous responsibility to maintain supply for the There are still certainly major battles to be fought.
population. A direct relative of mine works 24-hour The same applies to the US Postal Service, because
shifts in a hospital in Buenos Aires. And Argentina is the government has already announced that it will
still one of the countries that is managing the crisis not rescue it with financial support. In the past years,
better. teachers in many US states have also led significant
labor struggles. Their working conditions and pay are
How do you assess the call to the workers to atrocious. Many teachers can only finance their lives
sacrifice themselves? Can workers in a ‘rich by having another part-time job. Shortly before the
North American country’ such as the US react pandemic, I ordered a car from a transport service;
differently than in a ‘poorer South American the driver was a primary school teacher who also
country,’ where the population is even more drove her private car several hours a day to make a
existentially dependent on the already precarious living.
basic supply?
In such a crisis, what can workers’ struggles look
The US is in many respects a ‘Third World country.’, like that are not denounced as ‘selfish’ and are
That was even stated by a UN special rapporteur in supported by larger parts of the population?
a comprehensive report a few years ago. Access to
health care is worse than in many newly industrialized Basically, it is about developing labor struggles that
countries. Even before the pandemic, 30-40% of resist capitalist ‘business as usual,’ ensuring the
the US population had no health insurance. After protection of working people – who are also part of
22 million people lost their jobs in four weeks, that the population and have families and friends – in this
proportion has once again risen massively. And even way also improving the supply to and safety of the
many people with health insurance cannot afford the whole population, particularly those most affected by
high deductibles for treatments and medication. The the pandemic and its consequences. The possibilities
US also has the highest percentage of prisoners in are many and varied. In the U.S., workers and trade
the world. Almost two percent of the US population unions in automobile and aircraft manufacturing have
is incarcerated. In prisons, the number of people called for a switch to producing medical equipment;
infected with COVID-19 is alarmingly high and there in France, the employees of a McDonald’s branch
is no adequate medical treatment. Public services are decided to occupy it and distribute food to the
loss-making, many housing situations are hygienically needy for free. During the rampant pandemic, the
unacceptable, and the number of homeless people is main concern is to guarantee the workers’ safety and
very high. At the same time, workers’ rights are worse health and thus also render a service to the entire
than in all other 35 OECD countries, and even worse population.
than in some countries of the Global South.
It is a difficult situation. The challenge can be
In recent years, however, there has been a sharp summarized like this: “How can I best serve those
increase in trade union organization and industrial who need it, not my boss or my company?” For the
action. Even now, there are numerous industrial time after, as this crisis clearly shows, the central
disputes in the US. Workers in various industrial question will be “capitalism or life?” It should be
enterprises have advocated for and gone on strike to clear to everyone that this question constantly arises
convert their production to medical devices. There under capitalism. But we usually just don’t perceive
have been protests and work stoppages at Amazon it with such clarity and force. This can be clearly
and other mail order companies. Nurses in the US seen with climate change: we’re dealing with it like a
are comparatively well unionized and also quite left- lobster in a pot that is gradually reaching a boil; we
wing. The call for more financial resources, general know that for our mobile phones, petrol and cheap
health insurance for all, more staff, better working bananas, people in the Global South are dying, and
conditions, and expansion of health care are already yet it remains far away; the class differences in life
commonplace there. In the wake of the pandemic, expectancy are known, and so on.
more and more voices are being raised calling for the
socialization of health care under the control of the You are a founding member and editor of
working people. the Internet archive workerscontrol.net,
founded in 2011, which collects scientific and
journalistic texts on the topics of collective self-

13
administration and workers’ self-administration. How Invisibilized Work is Made
How could the observations of current
developments be placed in the larger picture of Visible During the COVID-19
this discourse? Pandemic
Solo el pueblo salva al pueblo, it is said in the
movements in Venezuela. This is difficult to translate, Interview with Katja Schwaller
because “pueblo” is not “the people,” but rather it
has a clear class dimension, roughly meaning “only In your book “Technopolis” (2019) you explore
those from below save those from below.” The urban struggles in the San Francisco Bay Area,
question of collective democratic control and self- drawing connections to European metropolises
management of the means of production (including such as Berlin. You investigate how, in the
services) is more topical than ever. Only the control course of 24/7 network capitalism, life and
of production by workers and the organized work are merging in new ways, how workers of
population will be able to guarantee an economy Big Tech companies serve as guinea pigs for
that serves society, rather than a society that serves their own innovations, and how, in doing so,
the economy. It is about the discontinuation of the users are instrumentalized in a new way, while
artificial separation between politics, economy and at the same time new forms of expropriation
social affairs. This is not only the emancipation of are “normalized.” Are users the workers of the
humanity, but also its survival. The demands for future?
direct control of the means of production by the
workers are now coming back to the fore. I hope and What we can certainly observe are new forms of
expect that these struggles will increase. This goes monetizing social activities and everyday tasks when
much further than the mere ‘nationalization’ that is they take place on “social” media or digital platforms.
sometimes talked about now. In the past, the state The resulting data is the actual raw material of tech
has not proven to be a reliable representative of the companies, which is then analyzed, mined, resold,
interests of the majority of the population. This is and transformed into market shares and often
about socialization. exorbitant stock market valuations. In a sense, digital
companies live from the unpaid labor of their users.
I doubt that the health care systems worldwide Every click, every “like,” and every “shared” posting
would be in their current states of weakness had it thus ultimately contributes to the power of these
been the workers and the population who had made companies. It is no coincidence that smart phones
the decisions. I doubt that most of the workers at and social media are based on the principle of the
Rheinmetall are longing to produce weapons for slot machine. After all, the “like factor” can be just as
wars, and I bet that in cooperation with organized addictive as a slot machine.
populations they would quickly discover many other
needs. A transformation of production, a transfer of Gamification also plays an increasingly important
bankrupt companies to workers, and the introduction role in the workplace, as demonstrated by the use of
of democratic decision-making structures of workers targets, ratings, 360° feedback and other “incentives.”
and affected people in services of all kinds will not Work is increasingly made to simulate play, to feel
be introduced by governments. The workers at the like self-actualization within the “game.” These
RiMaflow factory in Milan, which has been occupied mechanisms also play out on social media, where the
for many years, put it this way: “We have discussed recognition generated from posting and participating
how to improve the situation for the benefit of the is said to be its own reward in the so-called attention
working population and have come to the conclusion economy, so the work that goes into it can remain
that the situation is not going to change: If we want uncompensated. In this vein, unpaid digital labor can
the factories to be handed over to us, then we must even contribute to the glorification of precarious
occupy as many factories as possible. You can be sure working conditions.
the state will then want to come and regulate this
with laws.” If users represent an important pool of the
workers of the future, doesn’t that also mean
Berlin/New York, April 2020 that networked life as work is only worth
something when it is particularly vibrant,

14
without having to provide the workers with real- The Internet and the computer are products of the
life foundations such as job security, old-age Cold War. The tech industry – or what is commonly
security, and so forth? known as ‘Silicon Valley’ – benefited more than
almost any other industry from massive public
What’s important for these platforms, for the time subsidies and contracts with the Pentagon and
being, is not the content of a post or a tweet—the other state institutions. Tech companies want to be
main thing is that it generates a buzz and thus seen as subversive, and they emphasize innovation,
contributes to increasing activity on their digital independence and self-initiative. In their techno-
networks. Whether it’s scandals, fake news, trolling or utopian manifestos, they stylize themselves as
“Facebook revolutions,” what’s crucial is the data it antidotes to authoritarian, bureaucratic governments
generates. and praise their digital platforms as a liberating force
for the individual. However, this rhetoric should not
Networked life is capitalized on in various ways: users blind us to the fact that companies such as Google,
are only one of the new categories that increasingly Twitter and Amazon benefit massively from state
replace employees in the traditional sense. For institutions and public amenities, even while they
example, I am thinking of the Airbnb “hosts,” the simultaneously undermine and even try to replace
“fast rabbits” who work for “Task Rabbit,” the them.
“independent contractors” who work for Uber, and
so on. They call it “sharing,” but what it does is Examples include tax deals negotiated with cities
exacerbate the precarization of workers who work in return for setting up company headquarters
without social benefits, without contracts, by using or fulfillment centers, or how the negative
their own car, at their own risk, or even without pay. effects of digital platforms and related working
conditions are being externalized to society at large
Companies like Uber profit from the increasing (think unemployment, depression and anxiety,
precarization that they co-produce, to a certain environmental pollution). This creates a paradoxical
degree, by disrupting unionized sectors and situation: on the one hand, states like to schmooze
undermining public transport—or in the case of with Big Tech, but at the same time companies are
Airbnb, by driving up rents and exacerbating the often a few steps ahead of democratically elected
housing crisis. Then they offer their own services as governments when it comes to exploiting legal
“solutions.” Those who can no longer afford their loopholes or simply establishing new socio-political
rent can become a “host” and drive for Uber in their realities. Today, more than ever, we can see that those
“free” time. These activities, in turn, produce data who have the data – and know how to make use of
that is analyzed and strategically exploited by these it – have the power.
companies, whether it’s to monitor their workers or
to beat out competitors in the run for market share. In this sense, states are also dependent on tech
companies when it comes to upgrading their
During the ‘corona crisis,’ networked life has own repressive police forces and border regimes.
taken on a particular significance. “Social Companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, or Palantir,
distancing” is considered crucial, and “social for example, collaborate with the US immigration
media” is being hyped up even more. Now even authorities and promote their surveillance tools –
the heads of governments advise us to make such as Amazon’s video Doorbell Ring – to other law
use of them. Certainly, the Internet can also enforcement agencies.
be seen as a tool that can be helpful in a crisis
situation. But under the present conditions, Eerily empty streets in metropolises like Rome,
it fuels capitalist exploitation like nothing Berlin and New York. Occasionally you see
else. Is it a bitter irony that states that have parcel and food deliverers with neon vests. This
repeatedly appeared as opponents of Big Tech image may seem characteristic of the COVID-19
(for example in the area of data sovereignty) pandemic—but doesn’t it tell us more about
are now promoting Big Tech? Or does it instead the present than merely about this particular
reveal something that would otherwise remain moment of crisis?
underexposed: the complicity between states and
Big Tech?

15
What becomes more visible in the course of the machines: those who need to take an unpaid day off
COVID-19 pandemic are relations of exploitation due to illness are punished. If you cannot function
and dependencies that are otherwise deliberately seamlessly, you risk being cast out.
obscured. If you press “order” in an app, nothing
at all would happen were it not for the workers in The coronavirus has finally arrived in the clean
the background who haul the parcels around in the and smooth world of a logistics empire like
fulfillment centers, deliver the food as couriers, and Amazon. As the headline of a US publication
train the “smart” devices and algorithms that are reads: “An Amazon warehouse worker in NYC
then shipped to our homes in the form of Amazon’s has coronavirus. They probably won’t be the
digital assistant Alexa, for example. It is ironic, and last.” Considering that supply chains are an
downright tragic, that it is precisely these jobs that integral part of the “critical infrastructure” in
meet basic needs – e.g. in health care, in the food the current situation, and deploying Amazon
supply chain or in transportation – that are often the employees seems to be imperative, isn’t this
least appreciated. Uber drivers, nurses, parcel delivery the best time for protest and activism, as
staff, bicycle couriers—they all work on the “COVID documented in your book “Technopolis”? What
frontline” and are exposed to particular risks, but forms of resistance are necessary now and in the
often have no paid sick leave, no job security and future?
here in the US sometimes not even health insurance.
The current crisis exacerbates exploitative conditions
But the picture of eerily empty cities with the and renders society’s dependence on precarious
lonely parcel delivery person also shows that cutting workers more visible. It hurts all of us if people
ourselves off from the outside world is an illusion. have to go to work even if they are sick because they
Instead, the virus might simply enter your home with simply cannot afford to be ill; if precarious workers
the next Amazon order. Because for many people in are under so much strain that they fall asleep at the
the supply chain, staying home when they are sick is wheel of an Amazon delivery van; and if health
not a viable option. care workers are deprived of their breaks and home
care has to be provided on a piecemeal basis. In this
In view of the ‘corona crisis,’ government sense, quite literally, capitalism makes us sick—and
representatives such as Angela Merkel demand not only during the COVID-19 pandemic. This hurts
that public life should be virtually shut down, all of us.
but the flow of goods must not come to a
standstill. Logistics networks should continue Or at least almost all of us. One of the big profiteers
to operate. The people who work in this field – of the current crisis is already known: Amazon.
and who are rendered invisible – are deployed The online trading giant is currently recording
without any precautions being taken. Doesn’t massive gains in market share and plans to hire
this reflect exactly the same problem that 100,000 new employees, while smaller businesses
activists were denouncing again and again are going bankrupt in droves. Amazon’s increasingly
before the COVID-19 pandemic, namely that monopolistic position has also upended political
people are being turned into robots? power relations. Or as a journalist for the Guardian
recently put it: Welcome to the “US of Amazon.”
One of the main arguments invoked in favor of
automation is that robots would eliminate hard But even Amazon – one of the most powerful
and dangerous manual labor. What we are seeing companies in the world – can be defeated, as a broad
instead is that workers in Amazon fulfillment centers coalition of neighborhood groups, grassroots unions,
today are subjected to intelligent algorithms that critical tech workers and migration activists recently
monitor every step in the work process, down to demonstrated in Queens, New York, where Amazon
the smallest detail, while constantly subjugating tried unsuccessfully to open its HQ2 after months of
workers to new “targets” and even faster production pitting cities against each other in a cut-throat race to
rhythms. Sometimes it happens that workers have to the bottom. And now activists in Berlin have picked
pee in bottles in order to keep up with the rhythm up the torch and are continuing the struggle—in a
enforced by the machine. Amazon still depends on city that, mind you, has already sent Google packing.
human labor, but expects that labor to behave like

16
And perhaps the COVID-19 pandemic may heighten Health Protection in Industry
awareness of certain social interdependencies, which
in turn could lead to new priorities in the distribution 4.0 and Human Labor as a
of resources and perceptions of what a “good life” Disruptive Factor
could be. Strikes in Italy against the obligation to
work during the lockdown, certainly, have achieved
some initial successes, and here in California, Interview with Kerstin Guhlemann
people are currently working towards an eviction
moratorium and calling for collective rent strikes in The politically decreed shutdown has only
times of widespread income loss. apparently caused all work to be halted. As can
be seen not least in the widespread closure of
Currently, the 175,000 gig workers of Instacart are hotels and restaurants: the businesses must be
threatening to stage a US-wide strike. These are maintained, cleaned and managed. In this ‘dead
precarious workers who can be hired via an app to time’ (without regular customer activity), it is
do the shopping for other people—a business model theoretically possible to rethink one’s current
that is currently experiencing a boom similar to business model. This is a reminder that the
Amazon’s. However, if the company fails to comply shutdown option can be a targeted strategy
with the demands for improved protective measures when it comes to the planned renewal of a
and working conditions, we might soon see another ‘business’ or ‘system’: you shut everything down
painful reminder of our social dependency on the to renovate during the closure time; during
labor of invisibilized workers. this time, only work that for the most part has
been made invisible takes place. Against this
Berlin/San Francisco, March 2020 backdrop, the question arises: What kind of
work is taking place during the pandemic-
related shutdown?

The radical change in the world of work that

has resulted from the sudden shutdown has –
unsurprisingly – in the first instance widened
the existing gap between ‘good’ and ‘strenuous/
precarious’ work, despite the ennoblement of
the latter by granting it the attribute ‘systemically
relevant.’

Although the logic of the reorientation primarily

followed the immediate protection of health,
economic issues followed at a close second: how do
I work as efficiently as possible in my home office,
was the question self-organized screen workers asked
themselves throughout Germany. How can I keep
my business running while adhering to the required
distancing and hygiene rules? That was a question
asked by large and small companies that didn’t have
to close, while sectors that did have to close or
radically reduce their operations, such as hospitality,
personal services and retail, feverishly sought new
sources of income.

It was too rare that questions were asked that in fact

gained new relevance as a result of the changes—
questions about how to reconcile family and work
remained the employees’ problem everywhere, while
questions about health-conscious work design were
without further ado reduced to the prevention of
17
infection. It is unfortunate yet understandable that As the success of Deliveroo and Amazon
in times of crisis the potential of humane work shows, the digital industry is booming in the
design is not a priority. But it would be even more current pandemic. Under the imperative of
regrettable to ignore this potential even after the health protection, the ‘vision’ of Industry 4.0
shutdown. Obviously, we must remain vigilant. After is once again gaining momentum. As is well
all, the danger is great that – in an “economic best- known, the CeBIT (at that time “the largest and
of ” digital and analogue working conditions – we internationally most representative computer
will fall into a kind of regression in the areas of trade fair” in Germany) was used as a platform
occupational health and safety and work design as the to present and advocate this ‘vision.’ The
new normality. ‘vision’ was soon adopted by other countries
like the USA (“Industrial Internet”), France
Restaurants that were closed during the (“Usine du futur”), China (“China 2025”) and
pandemic will be largely replaced by Japan (“Industrial Value Chain Initiative”). It
algorithmically optimized delivery services. The is significant that Industry 4.0 was launched in
infection-free Gastro-Palace will come to us on this context after the financial crisis in 2008—in
two wheels – just as a fantasy. After contact-free line with the motto: ‘If we reach our limits with
delivery of food, we are forced to wait in the finance now, we should open up new business
‘protective castle’ that our home provides for a areas in machinery.’ Could you outline the role
time when we might possibly go out to eat again of labor in the ‘vision’ of Industry 4.0?
and take advantage, for instance, of very real
offers of a Gastronomy 4.0. What are the current The vision of a networked, self-managing industry
indicators for this? 4.0, in which work equipment, machines, rooms
and products exchange information via the Internet
In the corona crisis, the hospitality industry has once and thus plan, control, execute and optimize the
again revealed the sector’s flexibility. Accommodation production process, initially gets by without people,
providers, who could scarcely offer a digital despite the “human being at the center” which was
solution, gave priority to expanding their offer to subsequently demanded. In reality, people are still
other customer groups. For example, they created needed in these processes to deliver parts, monitor
day offices for employees banned from companies the process, troubleshoot, monitor discrepancies, and
without suitable home office facilities. In addition, pass on the finished products.
they have occasionally made their capacities available
to compensate for shortages of hospital beds or At the moment, machines are used for more
emergency accommodation. repetitive processes, including those that are highly
onerous or involve hazardous substances, such as
Apart from the basic discovery of hygiene concepts soldering, painting and overhead assembly. But here
as a new sales argument, no major change in the and there there are also fully automated processes
structure of supply is expected here. It’s different for and production lines. In principle, productivity can be
the food- and beverage-oriented gastronomy sector: increased by implementing this vision. An industrial
Large-scale to-go offers, including with “proper robot does not need three years of vocational
plates,” sending out prepared restaurant meals to be training, rarely gets “sick,” takes no vacation, has no
warmed up by the customers themselves, “touchless” children to look after, and costs an average hourly
menus, digital wine tasting, and parties with virtual wage of 5 euros over three years of operation.
drinks – the industry’s efforts to offer competitive
shutdown-compliant services are extremely If the austerity politics that became socially
multi-faceted, though they cannot completely acceptable after the financial crisis of 2008 bore
compensate for the losses. And it’s not only the traits of dehumanization, as the neoliberal
restaurant industry that is fighting for its existence: restructuring of the health care system shows,
the elimination of service provision inherent to then one cannot help but notice these same
gastronomy 4.0 is hitting the already poorly paid, traits in Industry 4.0. Against this backdrop,
tip-dependent occupational category of service austerity measures and Industry 4.0 appear to
employees particularly hard. be two sides of the same coin. How do you see

18
this connection, especially with regard to the or schedules. The request for the closest nurse as
devaluation of the human being in the world of identified by GPS signal is certainly rationally logical,
labor? but it could also lead to a complete imbalance in the
distribution of work. The fundamental problem is
On the operational side, the digital transformation always the loss of autonomy of agency, which can be
usually follows a path-dependent logic. The a major source of psychological stress.
technologies definitely offer promising potential
for improving working conditions. For example, It seems necessary to think beyond the question
hazard warnings can be integrated into work ‘is the human being placed in the center or in
equipment, workstations can be individually adapted the way’? After all, digital capitalism addresses
ergonomically in real time, and work processes can the problem of the ‘human disruptive factor’
be planned in a load-optimized manner. not least by instrumentalizing this factor and
making it a source of accumulation of data and
But where a culture of profit maximization at capital. The worlds of work should be tailored to
the expense of employee health already prevailed the needs of the individual. In addition to such
before their use, these possibilities are certainly not ‘personalization,’ ‘participation’ is also of great
being exploited. Moreover, there are unintended importance: it is intended that the individual
negative effects: If, for example, work processes be involved in all processes, not least in order
and deployment routes are optimized by algorithms, to create data profiles that are as in-depth as
employees omit not only time-consuming planning possible. In this way, the subjectivity of workers
tasks, but also lose the scope that provides flexibility, is tapped—as a capitalizable value in itself, but
and thus possibly needed short breaks, reaction also as an instrument for optimizing machines
possibilities to short-term customer requirements, or and enabling the work of machines in the first
their own needs. place, for example, to create new products on
the basis of accumulated data. In view of these
In the digital transformation of working worlds, contradictions, what does it mean for you to
the question often arises: are human beings think and demand the humanization of labor
placed at the center or are they in the way? The 4.0?
former rarely seems to be the case, the latter
seems more realistic. After all, most of the I think we need to distinguish conceptually here
tendencies of digital capitalism seem to want between the economic sector of collecting,
to digitalize away the ‘human disruptive factor.’ processing, and trading in human data, in which the
This means, for example, that it is a matter human being is actually the product in the illusion
of replacing humans by machines or making of being the consumer of a free service, and the
humans machines’ vicarious agents (keyword: data that is generated in the work process. In most
human as robot). cases, this data is easier to protect than the traces that
people leave behind in their leisure time with average
In an interview with personnel managers of a media consumption.
German industrial company, we were once told
in the presence of the works council that humans A humanization of work therefore also naturally
were purely a source of error and contamination includes an increased awareness on the part of
and would be eliminated from processes as soon as employers and managers, as well as employees, of
technically possible. There the processes were already how to handle personal and personal-related data
mechanically controlled, so that the employees generated by work processes. This includes, for
were ordered to their workplace by the system at example, efforts to find software and hardware
short notice. In another company, the production providers that fall under European data protection
logic means that the systems assign half-hour time guidelines, as well as well thought-out concepts for
windows for delivery to suppliers of required parts. the collection, storage, retention and deletion of data.

It doesn’t take much imagination to envision the In simple terms, the fact that the intelligent hand
impact of such specifications on the everyday work drill automatically collects data does not mean that
of truck drivers. Even in trade and maintenance it should be used to compare employees’ working
there are reports of automatically generated routes tempos, nor does it mean that the drill should be

19
allowed to simultaneously send the vital data of Of course, downtime in production plants could be
employees from the sensors in its handle to the used to make work processes more humane with
manufacturer. the help of the technology deployed. Virtual health
circles would even be conceivable here, on the basis
In the fully digitalized working world of of which systems and processes could then be
Industry 4.0, even health protection seems to adapted. However, such processes can only function
be a question of algorithmic optimizability. By on the basis of security and stability, not with the
the way, the danger of viral infection seems uncertain future prospects generated by this crisis.
to be reduced to a minimum. After all, almost
everything is mediatized by machines, while Accordingly, it is not surprising that such efforts
interpersonal contacts have mostly been are not currently noticeable, especially since the
reduced. Is this a fiction, or is health protection pandemic has brought with it, in addition to
in Industry 4.0 actually guaranteed quasi- economic threats to existence, new and urgent health
automatically? protection problems for which the priority was to
find solutions. Initiatives are therefore currently
Remaining conceptually in the area of production, mainly concerned with averting new dangers by
the deployment of 4.0 technologies actually reduces improving hygiene, not with general improvements in
the risks for employees, whether because physically conditions.
demanding or hazardous work is automated and
the activities are transformed from physical tasks to What problems that were already apparent
monitoring / planning ones, or because the same in the context of health protection before the
processes simply require less personnel. pandemic should be given greater consideration
from now on?
However, these changes have led not so much to
a reduction in the overall number of workers, but It would be necessary to take a look at the problems
rather to a shift in the hazards from physical to that have further intensified or become more
psychosocial ones—for which occupational health obvious due to the pandemic measures. Firstly,
and safety unfortunately still provide too few problematic working conditions in systemically
functioning procedures and routines. Stress is caused important professions, where the imbalance
here, for example, by the fact that occupational between performance, workload, working time on
expertise is no longer applicable if the work being the one hand and remuneration – in many cases
carried out is automated. Isolation is also a problem also reputation – on the other can in no way be
in increasingly empty production plants, as is compensated by one-off bonus payments.
the “pilot dilemma” – the necessity for constant
attention while being for the most part inactive – in Secondly, unevenly distributed working conditions
monitoring activities and, of course, the loss of in the context of the compulsion to work in flexible
autonomy of agency described above. It should also locations, which in the past required employees
not be forgotten that the job insecurity or loss of to have a degree of self-organization skills and
jobs associated with these developments can be an opportunities that could not be achieved by everyone
immense source of stress. through indirect control mechanisms.

In your work you repeatedly point out that a Thirdly, precarious employment contracts which
later change in technical systems – and thus leave employees without security in times of
also adaptation to the workers’ needs – is crisis. Fourthly, particularly questionable working
basically impossible because the costs are too conditions at particularly powerful global companies
high. Among other things, the costs arise from which have gained even more market power as a
downtimes during which such readjustment result of the crisis. All in all, despite the current
would be possible. Now the shutdown decreed physical-viral threat, attention must be focused more
by the government has generated such strongly on the increasing psychosocial burdens that
downtime. How could it be used to improve continue to accompany the digital transformation.
working conditions in Industry 4.0?

20
Health protection was imagined and tried Why the ‘System Relevance’ of
out with the help of apps even before the
pandemic. In this scenario, workers constantly Care Workers Can No Longer
provide personal data—‘voluntarily,’ as often Be Denied
emphasized, without reflecting the inherent
constraints, including the fact that workers
are also concerned with optimizing their Interview with Christine Braunersreuther
performance, which is to employers’ liking.
Healthy workers work better than sick ones. In the ‘corona crisis,’ all those care workers
The fact that health – and thus also functionality who otherwise get little to no attention and thus
– can also be digitally optimized is shown in usually have to work under miserable conditions,
the military version of Industry 4.0. Here, for are unexpectedly being appreciated. In her
example, cyber helmets enable soldiers to stay big speech on TV on March 18th, German
awake and functional for several days. During chancellor Angela Merkel thanked all those
the shutdown, the German detective series who are “keeping the shop running,” which has
“Tatort” presented such future workers to a now become a popular expression for ‘keeping
mass audience in a cautionary way. things going.’ In her turn of phrase, the “shop”
is nothing less than the nation, the economy and
The possibilities of influencing the performance of the system.
employees, for example by adjusting light, climate or
the activation level of tasks, can certainly be useful Yes, the big THANK YOU ... I don’t know
in certain areas, for example to prevent accidents whether in Germany people were also clapping on
while driving or to support other focused activities. their balconies every day at 6 pm to thank those
In the same way, data from employee wearables such maintaining the system. Here in Austria that ceased
as wristbands could be used to identify unfavorable after a while because there was a lot of criticism
peak loads, distribute work evenly, or optimize about this immaterial form of recognition from
breaks. those affected and from support groups. This is very
typical for care work. Care work is not only work
However, these tools also offer the possibility done out of love, but very often it is work against
of overwork, digital performance monitoring, or love – and nothing or not much else. When care
interference with employees’ private lives. A constant work does not take place on a completely unpaid
activation leads to performance improvements in the basis in “private households,” then it is precariously
short term, but to negative consequences of stress paid – whatever the profession. This applies just as
and illness in the medium and long term. Suppressing much in medical care as in child care and 24-hour
signals of exhaustion with permanent technical home care.
support is basically as much of an encroachment
as enriching water dispensers with caffeine, which This type of recognition is specious under the
certainly nobody would approve of. conditions of ‘quarantine nationalism’ currently
prevalent, based on the strict exclusion of
Not only but also during a pandemic, these signals all those who do not belong to the nationally
of exhaustion could also be signals of illness, which constructed ‘we.’ But where do all the workers
could endanger others but go unrecognized. A come from who work in the care sector in
corresponding sensitization of company and inter- countries like Austria and Germany, those who
company actors is therefore urgently required, even are keeping the shop running?
– or especially – in times of other priorities.
The 24-hour caregivers about whom and for whom
Berlin/Dortmund, May 2020 I can speak, in both Germany and Austria, come
for the most part from eastern or southeastern
Europe. Their exact places of origin vary from
region to region. On the one hand, it depends on
what countries are close to the border. In Berlin, for
example, most of the caregivers come from Poland,
in Vienna from Slovakia (by the way, there are also
many medical nurses from there in clinics); in Styria
21
there are caregivers from Slovenia. Women from however, as it euphemistically ignores the racist
Bulgaria and Romania, in contrast, are represented atrocities of slavery. But what both systems do have
everywhere, but they come from different places. in common is that they forget the people behind the
How agencies or persons are recommended mostly service. When people talk about vulnerability in the
has to do with word of mouth among neighbors. context of care work, they are usually referring only
Only a few caregivers come from countries that to the vulnerability of those being cared for. All you
are not part of the Schengen area. The others are want from the care givers is that they have a big heart
allowed to work here as EU citizens, but cannot and a lot of patience—but you don’t worry about
obtain a right of permanent residence because they their vulnerability. This is due not only to Balkanism,
are working transnationally, i.e. they retain their but rather to a great extent to the nature of care
official place of residence outside the country. work: referred to as invisible work, it is carried out by
‘good spirits.’
The Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) writes
that “throughout Europe the pandemic is This actually answers both points that you were so
endangering the home care of old people surprised by: blame for the problem can be shifted
because care workers can no longer visit to the pandemic so easily because in the past it was
them—or have left the country in a hurry to kept completely under the lid of the precarious
return home.” Two things surprise us: firstly, system that was nonetheless still running. And of
that blame for the political and economic course, there is a story behind this. Many stories, in
responsibility for current problematic situations fact. The story of the former Austrian chancellor
is being shifted to the pandemic. Secondly, that whose mother-in-law was looked after by an irregular
previous history is being ignored here. In short, worker from Slovakia is a beautiful one. This was
the current care crisis is not primarily due to the uncovered by an investigation in 2006. The Home
fact that the Schengen area has been constructed Care Act, which regulates the regular work of 24-
as a ‘borderless’ circulation sphere that favors hour caregivers, was passed in 2007.
the movement of goods while imposing
conditions on the movement of people: the The Schengen system, which is intended
work of mobile laborers is made precarious to ensure the uninterrupted flow of goods,
while budgets are cut in the care sector. In raw materials, data and people, contributes
other words, isn’t the current debate distracting significantly to the illusion of ‘frictionless
from the real problem, namely the neoliberal capitalism.’ An illusion which, last but not least,
restructuring that the Schengen system itself enables the devaluing of care work. After all,
enables? when everything runs more or less by itself, no
human work is required, or at least it can be
There is actually a third surprising thing about that considered “not systemically relevant.” If, at the
quote. The SZ could have written: “Hooray, finally moment of the ‘corona crisis,’ it becomes clear
the elderly in Eastern Europe can be cared for by that this is an illusion, then this is also due to
their relatives again.” But they don’t say that—and the fact that countries like Hungary are refusing
probably don’t even realize that they are reproducing transit for reasons of “national security”—and
a classical Balkan stereotype. Maria Todorova coined care workers no longer come to Austria by bus
the term Balkanism to describe this special form of from, for example, Bulgaria as they usually do.
racist devaluation of eastern European regions and To circumvent the problem, special planes are
people. As you can see, it has hardly entered public now being chartered, so you simply ‘fly over’ the
awareness. How else could it happen that a renowned barrier to an uninterrupted flow. In this manner,
daily newspaper does not notice that it has simply much more is suddenly being invested and it
forgotten about the elderly people in half of Europe, seems like a lot is being done to ensure that the
regarding those countries as merely the carers’ – i.e. working conditions are ‘right.’ But the question
the service providers’ – countries of origin? arises: have the working conditions really been
optimized as desired?
No wonder that this form of transnational
outsourcing of care work is called neo-colonialism in No, the conditions have not improved at all. We
academic thinking. Colloquially, it is also often called are a long way from optimizing here, even if it is
“new slavery.” I find the latter term inappropriate, ‘nobly’ announced that flights and accommodation

22
are paid for. The caregivers are expected to spend The fact that this isn’t happening is also due to the
two weeks in quarantine before starting their service. dehumanized view of them as invisibilized service
Unpaid, in rooms with three to four beds, sometimes providers, which makes it almost logical. The people
with strangers. After that, another two weeks of behind ‘the service provided’ are only seen when
quarantine in their places of origin. That is four you have personal contact with them—for example,
weeks of unpaid work. For this they get a bonus of when the Romanian caregiver had better be nice to
€500, which is even less than they normally earn per the granny suffering from dementia. To some extent
month. The average income of a caregiver is €1,000, the carers’ needs are also perceived in this personal
but almost €300 of that goes to social security. And: contact. Institutionally, the existence of such needs is
No one gives a damn about what would happen if suppressed on the capitalist care market. Otherwise,
the virus started spreading in one of the so-called this precarious system could not and would not work.
“quarantine hotels.”
And it is in the same spirit that nobody asks whether
These accommodations are paid for by the Chamber the care workers can actually come to work. The
of Commerce. This is not as generous as they keep main concern is that the international care chain
claiming. In Austria a large share of the regular works. But what about the personal care chains
caregivers work on a self-employed basis, and they of the care workers themselves? What do they do
make up the largest group among the EPUs (one- when their children have no school and they are not
person companies). This means they are responsible allowed to go to their grandmother’s in the afternoon
for the greatest share of the contributions to the because she is in a high-risk group? Will the care
Chamber of Commerce, from which they otherwise workers board a plane to spend six weeks abroad
hardly receive any benefits (some provinces such doing care work rather than being home? And if not,
as Styria are an exception here). The caregivers how will they pay their next month’s rent?
have thus long since paid for their accommodation
themselves. Care work is based on a direct, often personal
connection to a specific person who would be
The fact that the caregivers are mostly self-employed in dire straits if there was a strike or refusal
can be attributed to the above-mentioned Home to work. Unlike in Italy’s logistics sector, for
Care Act. Self-employment has the disadvantage that example, striking and refusing to work therefore
no labor law standards apply. The profession would appear less viable options…
not otherwise be possible: over the course of weeks
the daily working hours can be up to 22-24 hours Of course a strike would be feasible! It is more
without days off. In Germany this regulation does difficult to wage strikes in care work, however,
not apply; there, care workers must be employed by because it requires greater solidarity. For 24-hour
families. The result is absurd working hours: 7:00 – caregivers in Austria this applies in two respects. On
7:30 prepare breakfast. 7:30 – 8:00 break, 8:00 – 8:30 the one hand, it is difficult to show solidarity with
clear breakfast and brush teeth. 8:30 – 9:00 break, each other. The fact that they are self-employed
etc., so that the 40-hour week is not exceeded. To makes it almost impossible to organize in trade
put it sarcastically: there really isn’t much friction left unions. With Vidaflex, the ÖGB (Austrian Trade
in neoliberal capitalism. The many people working Union Federation) has kicked off an attempt to
irregularly are not even mentioned here. In Germany, establish an insurance with simultaneous trade union
it is estimated that the share of irregular working support, including for strikes, for self-employed
conditions in the care sector is much higher, as carers. The approach is a good thing in itself. A
many families are not willing or economically able to membership fee of €25 for this may not sound high
employ carers. at first. But with their monthly earnings of €700, it is
still too much for most of the carers.
Another striking feature of the current media Nevertheless, the care workers are quite well
narrative is that they say that care workers connected, although they hardly see each other due
“cannot come to work” (i.e. are passively to their working hours. The Facebook group of
affected). Shouldn’t the question be asked Romanian care workers has close to 35,000 members,
whether they want to come to work at all under and there is a lively exchange of information. One of
the current conditions? the consequences of this is that exploitative agencies
or overpriced travel services no longer find clients. A

23
lot of information about the measures related to the release or for upping qualifications. Does this
COVID-19 pandemic was provided in more detail not apply to the care sector in particular, and to
and in better quality, especially about the situation of what extent does this open up or block paths to
the people who have been flown in. And there has politicization?
been solidarity with the unpaid carers and nursing
family members. That is good—and should not be In my conversations with caregivers I have learned
underestimated. that there are hardly any expectations of further
training measures, but that their motivation for
However, solidarity on the part of the people cared further training is nevertheless very high. Due to
for or their families would also be important. If this the work situation, mostly informal channels are
solidarity were strong, a strike would certainly be used for this purpose. German courses, for example,
possible. The strikes of kindergarten teachers, which are hardly taken up at all; instead, if the persons
were supported by parents, have shown this. After supported are willing, they learn and practice
all, it would be in everyone’s interest if the caregivers whatever is possible. Online offers are also very
were highly motivated and economically well served. popular. Some family doctors have also already
But of course private persons cannot finance this; started to train caregivers in medical activities. For
the state social system must play a role and either the doctors it is a great relief if they don’t have to
co-finance it or, as would be absolutely necessary in come to the house for every injection, and for the
the long run, provide alternative forms of coping caregivers it is an important asset in their portfolio,
with old age which are also effective against the huge guaranteeing them better payment because they can
problem of isolation. Intergenerational housing and then also take on cases requiring a higher care level.
shared flats are models whose implementation have
already tested well in Scandinavia. Here, however, we Self-employment and transnationalism are preventing
have deliberately missed the boat on implementing the process of politicization. Many caregivers behave
them, because the system works anyway as it is, on with great reserve in the workplace because they are
the carers’ shoulders. constantly aware that they are in a foreign country.
They know neither the legal system nor the political
Another point is that people think care workers structures and do not want to get actively involved,
just can’t go on strike. This is due not least to a as they do not even have a residence permit. Similar
poor assessment of their work. A (monetary) value to the so-called “Gastarbeiter” (guest workers) of the
is attributed exclusively to production work, while 1960s and ’70s, they are treated as guests and so of
care and reproduction work have never really been course they feel that way. And guests are not usually
considered from an economic point of view. Slowly politically active. Especially not guests from Eastern
but surely, something is changing about this way Europe. For it is not only Western Europeans who
of thinking. There is hope that this kind of critical have internalized Balkanism. It of course has had
thinking will be able to leave the bubble of feminist and still has effects on Eastern Europeans, who now
economists and attract political attention. Because often have the feeling that they have to adapt to
the caregivers themselves are very well aware of the neoliberal Western European capitalism, which was
value of their work. their ideal, as they were led to believe for so long and
intensely.
The labor struggles in the 1970s, which were
associated with numerous strikes, showed how, The new bargaining power of the care sector
for example, female cleaners in Great Britain is indicated by nurses in Hong Kong who
worked basically around the clock like machines threatened to go on strike during the ‘corona
– cleaning offices at night and doing household crisis.’ What does it mean to cry out for “a new
and care work during the day – and had to get world after the virus” – across those boundaries
by practically without sleep. Today, the ‘low that separate workers from those who speak for
pay economy’ poses a similar problem, as can them?
be seen in the words of Angela McRobbie.
This is because in the low-pay economy, parts First of all, it means taking a critical look at oneself
of the population are “incarcerated” with long and at the well-oiled, smoothly running system. This
working hours, which means there are little or is because the international care chain often begins
no opportunities for further job training, for day with precisely those academics and journalists who

24
can only exercise their professions because they Unboxing the Hidden Labor
externalize care work and ignore social inequalities.
In the short term, it is easier and often cheaper to of Saving Lives and Saving
organize au pairs and care givers for the elderly Capitalism
from Eastern Europe—at wages far below those
in Western Europe. Had people always thought
like that, there probably wouldn’t even be childcare Interview with Angela Mitropoulos
facilities today. Therefore, it is important that
academics and journalists in particular see themselves In your books “Contract & Contagion:
as advocates and make political demands and get From Biopolitics to Oikonomia” (2012) and
loud. I demand and want to see an academic activism! “Pandemonium: Proliferating Borders of Capital
and the Pandemic Swerve” (2020), you advocate
To make this more feasible: When the previous a “social understanding of health and disease.”
government coalition undertook an indexation of Could you briefly explain what you mean by
the child benefit for employees whose children were “social”?
registered abroad, there were quite a few media
reports on this. For one thing, because this measure There are two points I think are important in this.
is still controversial under EU law. But the injustice Firstly, a social understanding of health and disease
done to those affected was mentioned much more is a rejection of the premise of neoliberal health
frequently, however. Since then, Bulgarian women, policies, according to which individuals’ health and
for example, only receive half of this lump sum, ill-health is understood as a matter of ‘personal
which, however, represents for them a significant and responsibility’ and, implicitly, of ‘personal’ decisions.
often necessary increase in their earnings. Already at That tenet of ‘personal responsibility’ mystifies the
that time there was a wave of fear that a crisis of care material conditions though which people become ill
could occur. Unjustifiably, as I could have predicted, or enjoy good health. Since the late twentieth century,
since a majority of the caregivers don’t have children and far longer in countries such as the United
of eligible age. Nevertheless, I found the feedback States, neoliberal policies have emphasized the
as reflected in newspaper forums, among other commercialization of healthcare, the transformation
places, positive. Politically it still didn’t change of public health into private insurance, referring to
anything. Neither the transitional government nor patients as clients, and, not least, shifting the burden
the current coalition of ÖVP and the Greens have so of risk to individuals and private households.
far reversed this controversial reduction. I hope that
the care crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic has As I point out in “Pandemonium,” the privatization
at least raised awareness of the fact that these care of healthcare in China since the 1980s has been
workers exist, that there are indeed a great many of largely erased from discussions of the pandemic.
them, and that they work under degrading conditions, In the United States, this system of private
so that positive political measures will finally be taken insurance has produced the most expensive and
to improve the care situation. technologically intensive healthcare system in the
world, and the largest commercial retail market
Berlin/Vienna, April 2020 for pharmaceutical drugs. It is also a system that
undermines preventative healthcare, produces high
rates of chronic illnesses, and is therefore terrible at
handling a pandemic (particularly where the impact
of COVID-19 is worsened by so-called underlying
illnesses). Moreover, while the privatization of
healthcare is certainly a function of capitalism, it
is important to be clear that the idea of ‘personal
responsibility’ is moral-economic, in that it is derived
from conservative theologies of sin and redemption,
according to which the causes of health and disease
are mystified, treated as an effect of individuals’
moral conduct. Selective healthcare establishes the

25
uneven material conditions of health—while its agencies, has not given credence to quarantine
results are explained away as if they are the effect of nationalism and, in some notable instances, has
moral failings or providence. pointed out that this course would not be effective in
stemming the transmission of disease.
Secondly, in the history of the social sciences (and
other disciplines such as law and philosophy), ‘social’ At the same time, social media and the Internet have
has often been seen as synonymous with ‘national.’ changed the spatial terms of publics—less national
This is not the sense in which I have used it, but it is in scope. While this has enabled conspiracy theories
important to understand its circumstances and how about the origins of the disease to circulate and
this has changed. The eighteenth-century conflation dangerous ‘miracle cures’ to be promoted, it has also
of ‘social’ and ‘national’ came about because the involved the sharing of information, research and
social sciences, and particularly those fields associated discussion of measures which would be effective
with public health such as epidemiology, are involved in interrupting the transmission of SARS-CoV-2.
in the statistical mapping of populations within the For instance, the early open sourcing of genome
borders of a defined state. In politics, or healthcare sequences meant that it was possible to develop
policy, this assumption has been carried over as a tests far more quickly. I do not want to understate
defined split within the availability of healthcare— the continuing influence of nationalist affect, since
and this split has become more pronounced in recent for many people the disease was not serious until it
decades. This selectivity should be made explicit and affected those who look like them. But I do think
rejected—in “Pandemonium” I describe this as a that a conversation emerged, particularly among
distinction between the political representation of health workers, that, by placing the emphasis on
the demos and the economic concept of populations. what is effective or will work to save lives, powerfully
Everyone should be able to access healthcare where pushed back against both conspiracy theories and
they live and work, but the split between the demos ineffective government policies.
and populations renders (working) populations
disposable because it has evaluated their worth in Before getting deeper into the potentialities
terms of productivity. The restriction of healthcare of social approaches to health care in the
to citizens is, among other things, a disaster for present pandemic, let us expand the critique
public health, and this is particularly clear in the of ‘quarantine nationalism.’ It thrives on
circumstances of a pandemic. authoritarianism, coupled with the privatization
of health care. What for you are the most
In the present pandemic, social approaches to problematic contradictions inherent to this
health care seem to be ruled out by ‘quarantine trend? And how are they becoming visible
nationalism.’ Or do you see signs of social during the present pandemic?
approaches nonetheless?
The powers of surveillance, detention and
I think there are two, perhaps three tendencies deportation have always existed at the thresholds
which have overlapped to create something outside of citizenship and legal personhood, as do selective
of this nationalist framing. The most obvious is the approaches to healthcare. It has never been the
emergence of a global system of health governance, case that neoliberal governments have facilitated
namely the World Health Organization. The WHO the movements of people—which is to say, not
should not be treated uncritically. Like other agencies, outside a system that converts those movements
it has often been influenced by neoliberal approaches into the circulation of commodities, or labor as a
to health and disease and, in any event, is comprised commodity. So, at one level it appears as if there
of national governments, and dependent on is a contradiction, but not when these seemingly
wealthier governments for funding. In the past, it has contradictory tendencies are understood as
sometimes sought to persuade governments to fund geared toward facilitating the circuit of capital.
its activities by fostering fears of diseases crossing My argument in “Pandemonium,” as earlier in
borders or moving from poor countries to the global “Contract and Contagion,” is that neoliberalism
North. Nevertheless, there were key divergences involved endogenous turning points to authoritarian
between the WHO and national governments during government (including fascism), and that many of
the pandemic that illustrate the different stakes these were present in colonial circumstances. Those
involved. The WHO, as with other public health turning points, in short, are where the threshold of

26
surplus value is situated—and this is the importance where they are also usually most needed—in the
of racism and misogyny, in that these naturalize domain of basic supply and social reproduction
higher rates of exploitation (as evidenced by work?
gendered and racial wage gaps).
I agree that it has been revealed as a dangerous
The most visible aspect of this during the pandemic illusion. But that will not halt the trajectory, no
has been the reliance of locked-down, private more than it has in the past. The emerging tendency
households on the offline work which has been in mainstream trade unions and those parties
deemed necessary—but which, as it happens, with which they are associated, particularly their
tends to be low-paid, and where Black and Brown conservative wings whose membership is drawn
people, many of whom are women and migrants, from the repressive apparatus of the state (police,
predominate. Much of that work has become border security and immigration detention), is
increasingly dangerous, particularly in the absence of toward corporatism. That is, excluding migrant
adequate personal protective equipment. But what and unemployed workers, and largely indifferent to
we can say is that this aspect of pandemic policy has precarious workers, and enforcing a reckoning of
only functioned inasmuch as the threat of starvation, national debts in ways that will expand that repressive
homelessness and deportation hung over the heads apparatus. That does not mean corporatism will
of those who ensured the work of those who were triumph. The Black Lives Matter movements, in
capable of locking down and shifting to online work. circumstances where Black people are more likely to
die from encounters with the police and in prisons
What potential do labor struggles have for no less than from their encounters with a virus, is
making visible, addressing, and potentially a powerful movement against this trajectory. How
overcoming the contradictions in question? we treat the connections between the pandemic,
exploitation and repression is key. Those connections
How we understand and reckon with that are not forged within national spaces but instead
interdependence in the coming months (and years) occur along the fragile lines of supply chains and the
will shape a great deal. There are suggestions of a extent (or not) of solidarity.
new ‘social contract’ or political-economic contract
in a projected post-pandemic world, one that focuses For us, globalization also has something to do
on the repayment of government debts accrued with “world revolution,” also in the sense of
through stimulus packages and any expansion of “das Weltweite” (approximately, the worldwide)
healthcare and welfare during the pandemic. I discuss as Karl Marx thought and anticipated it. This
this at greater length in “Pandemonium,” but suffice became tangible in the 1960s, in the form of
to say here that it demands a view of debt that does worker (and student) revolts in the Global
not sacrifice those who have already sacrificed the North and resistance movements in (former)
most. colonies. Such a “world revolution” goes beyond
the borders of the nation state. And that is the
In your essay “Workers of the World Unite” crux of the matter. This became clear for the
(2019), you deconstruct claims that migrants first time when the idea of the nation state fully
bring down the wages of non-migrant shifted to the center of politics from the 18th
workers. In doing so, you are intervening in a century onwards. The viral spread of the idea of
discourse that foregrounds the resurgence of the nation state and the nationalism associated
the nation-state as an answer to the challenges with it managed to contain the nascent “we”
of globalization. In the current pandemic the of the “globally” oppressed and disadvantaged
discourse in question is reemerging with great and to redirect the energies of this emerging
force. As ‘quarantine nationalism’ proliferates “we” to the national: instead of global class
and the separatist undertones of the lockdown struggle, a struggle among nations flared up. It
get stronger, migrant workers are played out seems that this mechanism is still at work today.
against non-migrant workers. Yet isn’t the Do you nonetheless see potential in the current
phantasmagorical ground of this tactic revealed pandemic such a transnational “we” emerging?
as such, making it clear that ‘quarantine And how can (and how do) workers in the
nationalism’ is a dangerous illusion? After all, domains of basic supply and social reproduction
aren’t migrant workers now openly in demand contribute to this?

27
It is important to keep recalling that the nation- divestment. Moreover, some of those systems of
state is a modern invention and not a phenomenon surveillance have expanded with the introduction of
that occurs naturally. I also agree that it contained tracking technology that is noticeably less effective at
(and split) workers’ movements at pivotal historical stemming disease transmission than tracking workers’
moments. As to your question, and besides my dissent or surveillance. One vivid example is, for
remarks above, two of the most powerful moments example, suggestions by police in the US to use such
I saw during the Black Lives Matter protests in the systems to trace the contacts of those arrested during
US recently were of medical staff lined up outside protests. Intervening in these processes requires
of a New York City hospital, in full protective not only understanding supply chains, but also a
equipment, applauding protesters as they walked clear assertion at each juncture of the difference
by, most of whom were also wearing masks. The between protecting lives and protecting capitalism.
other moment was of ambulance drivers using their The precise answer given to this in each instance is
ambulance megaphone as they were driving past a complex, but it is a reckoning that I think is already
protest march in support of those protests. These occurring. Whether corporatism or the increasing
moments are poignant illustrations of solidarity levels of unemployment will manage to undermine
during the pandemic that has particularly taken its this is still an open question—but, either way, it will
toll on Black lives, and in one of the most diverse be answered by whether and how austerity will be
and largest protests occurring in circumstances of a imposed on the unemployed and the scope of (or
massive rise in unemployment. The mask is a method exclusions from) any ‘social contract’ assembled to
of protection against both the virus and surveillance reinstate a social peace and order. Will there be social
during protests and, at the same time, has come to and industrial peace without justice?
represent those who have a social understanding of
care—and those who do not, like Trump, who has How can (re-)emerging worker movements
refused to wear one. Black Lives Matter emerged contribute to the spreading of a “social
in the US, but it is nevertheless to some extent understanding of health and disease” and to a
global. As with other antiracist movements in recent “social approach” to health care?
years which focus on immigration detention, it has
prioritized divestment and boycotts of prisons. The As above, and put more bluntly, there is a sharp
importance, here, is that there are already solidarities distinction between saving lives and saving capitalism.
which have emerged that, firstly, value health and The distinction only becomes obscured because,
lives (over the circuit and value of capital) and, on the one hand, many have become habituated
secondly, illustrate the strategic importance of to placing a lower value on the lives of Black and
intervening in the materialities of that circuit, from Brown people, women, migrants and those who
financial investments to supply chains which can be are not of the same nationality and, on the other,
interrupted at each point, from the extraction of raw capitalism has fostered a metaphysical view of life,
materials to the point of sale. as a Way of Life that, in reality, is often lethal and
dangerous. Since capitalism has yet to be abolished,
In the aforementioned essay you write that “The in the meantime the question becomes how risks
‘movement’ in ‘workers’ movement’ is not a are defined and distributed. It is possible to reckon
metaphor.” How do care, maintenance, logistics these differently, to insist on other values and another
and cleaning workers assert their right to accounting of liabilities.
freedom of movement in the present pandemic?
And how is this becoming the basis for the (re-) We wonder whether and how the expanded
emergence of worker movements? notion of both worker movement and labor
could also be mobilized by those at what is
As with all other markets, the labor market is defined presumably the other side of the spectrum: tech
by contracts. In some instances, those contracts workers and tech users who are increasingly
are shaped by immigration and related policies that becoming aware of themselves as laboring
set the terms of, for instance, ‘guest worker’ status subjects in a shifting political economy that the
and give rise to systems of surveillance. The most big data-police state is fostering in complicity
powerful response in any market, including labor with Big Tech companies?
markets, is the refusal or breaking of contracts—
classically, this is the strike, but it is also boycott and

28
The first thing, as perhaps your question implies Learning as Labor: Re-
by including tech users, is to understand that
labor exists even where they may not be a wage Inventing ‘the School’ Along the
contract or a standard contract. The use of software Lines of ‘the Factory’
and technology in surveillance, in systems of
incarceration, policing, detention and deportation,
is the most obvious. Tech workers, not the owners Interview with Tom Holert
of technology companies, build and maintain those
systems. They also know how they work, and know In the beginning of April, Wuhan factories
(though not always) who has purchased or uses them. that had been closed during the COVID-19
We have not seen tech workers wield the enormous pandemic-related shutdown were reopened.
power that they have as yet, in part because of Reportedly, high-level security measures have
the workplace culture of tech, the ways in which been introduced. Workers who enter a factory
migration policies subdue conflict, and the contracts are being disinfected with highly concentrated
under which most tech workers work. Those things alcohol, and they get their temperature
have to be addressed, but even in the absence of measured. Workers’ temperatures are checked
doing so, tech workers still know how technology twice again during their shift. Inside the factory
works in ways that most outside of tech do not. all workers must wear a mask and a special
Indeed, all workers know how their systems work— protection suit at all times. The places which
or don’t. workers used to use for social gatherings or
potential encounters are closed—break rooms,
Can there be a common ground for struggles? conference rooms, smoking corners, etc. They
are forced to ‘take food in’ at the work place
I think I would say that ‘common ground’ cannot itself, where each worker has her or his own
be a point of departure or assumption so much table placed in security distance to other tables.
as something that can only be constructed—by An AFP image taken in a break room of a re-
which I mean, we have to honestly admit that the opened Honda factory in Wuhan powerfully
conditions of living are not all the same, nor are captures the ‘social distancing’ logic of that
the risks, and understand the dynamics that both labor environment. Weirdly enough, the situation
split and merge movements in particular directions. depicted vaguely resembles a classroom setting.
But there is nevertheless a clear choice between the How do you read this image?
corporatist path (in which workers’ interests are said
to be aligned with those of a company and economic That’s an interesting observation, but I don’t
nationalism) and those approaches which emphasize necessarily share its underlying assumption. Spatially
a defense of the most vulnerable—as I put it in separating workers in the name of hygienic measures
“Pandemonium”: on the understanding that all liquid and in the interest of fighting the pandemic may
incomes (or wages and social incomes) will gravitate resemble other forms of separation and prohibition
to the lowest point. This is not a moral position. It is (of assembly, of association, of labor politics, of
strategic, focused on where the threshold of surplus “unruly” behavior at the workplace, etc.). However,
value is situated at each juncture. I’d acknowledge that these measures bear a minimum
of reasonability in light of the current situation. The
Berlin/Sydney, April-June 2020 pandemic at least complicates any criticism, justified
as it may be, that falls back on venerable traditions of
the analysis of power and discipline.

Sure, comparing the choreography of work depicted

in the image of the Honda plant in Wuhan with
images of separation and isolation of students in
class is to some extent valid. Separate seating in
classrooms has been a continuous feature in the
history of education. Although distancing measures
have been the subject of repeated contestation
since the early days of reformist and progressivist
pedagogy in the early twentieth century, they tend
29
to be redeployed time and again. Against all the of panic-ridden, drilled students being seated in large
trends towards group work, team teaching and the numbers in huge school halls or sometimes stadiums,
unraveling of the disciplinary, geometric spatial an ornament of the (joyless) masses if there ever was
orders of the classroom (which have always served one. The “super high schools” that prep students for
as reminders of the structural kinship among this ordeal are aptly called “educational factories,”
factory work, prison time, and formal education), since they resemble the old assembly-line type of
the “egg crate” model of schooling has proven quite factory (a metaphor/analogy popular in the 1960s
persistent. when Workerism, André Gorz, and others put it to
productive conceptual and political use). It might
Before you go deeper into the spatial politics of be argued that the kind of discipline performed
education, could you first expand your thoughts in the gaokao exam belongs to a larger scheme
on the changing environment of labor? of authoritarian rule that is part of a culture of
preparedness with regard to health crises of the scale
In a sense, COVID-19 has forced industrial labor, of SARS epidemics, such as the first one in 2003 and
as well as the labor in “post-industrial” spaces, the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic of 2019-20.
to unlearn the lessons of the flexible workspace,
of the “action office,” the “Bürolandschaft,” Unsurprisingly, scenes of ‘social distancing’ are
or the fake lounge liberalism of Facebook and becoming common in the world of education.
Google headquarters. These models of creativity-/ In fact, in the COVID-19 pandemic the image
innovation-inducing environments all originated of ‘a group of isolated individuals in one room’
in the 1950s and 1960s when corporate culture, was first shaped in classrooms in Taiwan, where
cybernetics, behavioral psychology, and ergonomics responses to the spread of the coronavirus
were combined to redefine the workspace, only to were organized as early as late December 2019.
be supported in this effort soon thereafter by the Images of classrooms show pupils at individual
ostensibly anti-authoritarian pop and countercultures desks that are enclosed by yellow plastic walls.
of the period (much of this development has been Tellingly, Taiwan is not allowed to be a WHO
chronicled in the television series Mad Men). member but yet is hailed as the only country that
was able to respond to the virus with an array
Authoritarianism never ceased, however, it just of de facto preventive measures rather than just
changed its terms. It cloaked itself in new forms organizing ad hoc adaptations. Consequently,
and shapes, protocols and “philosophies” that little criticism is voiced as regards the measures
were intended to signal freedom and laissez-faire. deployed themselves. First, where do you see
Capitalism has always been quite effective in parallels between the isolated pupils and the
dissimulating its violent and throbbing disciplinary isolated workers?
force. What is happening now, under the manifold
influences of virologists, epidemiologists, politicians, The factory/school analogy is an ideal candidate to
and industry, is a peeling away of such surfaces of openness become the object of an in-depth study of its history,
and liberty, and a rediscovery of the barren structures upon semantics, and use value. As intimated before, I am
which they have been grafted. However, the imposition not entirely convinced whether this analogy actually
of rules of distancing, of isolation and securitization helps better understand and conceptualize the
due to COVID-19 comes face to face with different specifics of the current situation. Health and hygienic
cultures of labor and education. Depending on issues have informed and driven the whole process
the respective national and geographic context, the of modernization, and they continue to inform
features of lockdown and prevention can appear every aspect of spatial politics—in urban planning,
more or less alien to those affected by it, and may in the spatial regulations of factory and office labor
thus be experienced as more or less exceptional. (where health administrations, building departments
and unions work hand in hand), and with regard to
Could you give an example? educational facilities.

The draconic regime of testing in China epitomized Health, since it affects everyone, if to different
in the hellish, nationwide gaokao exam that degrees, is a universalizing and generalizing planning
determines college placement for high school seniors, parameter, and right now it is being prioritized
has generated images (and – orientalizing – fantasies) more than is usually the case. Thus, the question

30
whether practices of isolation (and images thereof) One of the phenomena (and outright problems)
in workplaces and schools bespeak a continuum of of the current pandemic is that ‘we’ are ‘forced’
discipline and control across these spaces of work is to avoid any potential exposure to contagion by
to be weighed carefully to avoid collapsing a standard pursuing isolated lives in online-only mode. The
critique of power, alienation, and abstraction (of web is promoted as a contagion-free space. In
labor, cognitive and physical) into a critique of anti- the course of this, online learning is booming,
viral preventive measures. I am not saying, however, without any deeper inquiry into its tools,
that the latter could not be used to foster the former. methods, and consequences, and the isolation of
the individual is more or less taken for granted.
In what sense are the school and the factory To what extent is this about consolidating
complementary institutions as far as ‘treating’ tendencies that aim to reduce the ‘human risk
the threat of ‘unpredictable’ associations among factor’ (including student strikes), and to what
group members? extent is this about preparing people for a
braver new world of an even more frictionless
During the past days I watched (again) the fourth capitalism?
season of the excellent television series The Wire.
As fans of The Wire well know, that’s the season Again, I’d be cautious with extrapolating too much
that focuses on the school system of Baltimore, and too quickly from the phenomenology of a
Maryland, a city with a majority Black population, situation that is still and arguably primarily to be
in the mid-2000s. Narrating different stories of considered one of health and care (with all the social,
students, teachers, principals, and educationalists psychological, economic, ecological, etc. implications
in an urban middle school in a near-documentary and repercussions coming with it). The whole system
fashion, the failure of the system to serve the of video conferencing, remote teaching/learning,
needs of the pupils and the community as a whole live streams, etc. wasn’t waiting for the COVID-19
is rendered palpable. The urgency of the issue of pandemic to happen, but rather has been in the
space and separation/segregation in education is making for a long time. Earlier attempts at distance
persuasively articulated. The classroom is portrayed learning, tele-universities, etc. on a large scale date
as a force field of contestation and confrontation. back to the 1960s and 1970s. It has always been
the tech sector’s dream to do away with material
However, depending on the teacher in charge and the spatialities and infrastructures, with physical and
students in the room, curricular and spatial measures lived sociality. The teleology of cybernetics is the
can be taken to turn the classroom space into one virtualization of the material world, its translation
of actual learning and collaboration. For this to into data. That’s a fact. And no doubt, the digital
happen though, a spatial separation of those pupils industries are benefitting enormously from the
who don’t see any use in the curriculum offered by pandemic and the social distancing imperative, at
the system but have a vital interest in learning and least in the short run. For what has also become
honing the skills and the trade of the “corners,” of quite apparent in the course of only a few weeks –
dealing drugs and surviving amid gang wars, proves the promises of Zoom, Skype, Netflix, and the like
to be helpful. “Useful knowledge” can be generated can also turn stale and stultifying. They produce
and acquired when the socio-spatial predicaments of their own fatigues and boredoms, a dangerous
learning are considered. dissatisfaction that Silicon Valley is no doubt busy
developing a therapy for (in parallel to Big Pharma’s
That said, to prevent “‘unpredictable’ associations” race for a corona vaccine).
you sometimes have to come up with solutions that
go beyond default (punitive) isolation. What this can In the 1960s the writings of Norbert Wiener and
possibly mean with regard to COVID-19-induced J. C. R. Licklider contributed to spread the word
separations, I can’t tell. However, I’d be curious about Artificial Intelligence (AI) like wildfire at
what David Simon (creator of The Wire, as well as US universities, giving rise to the popular image
The Corner, Treme, and The Deuce) would make of the of the ‘machinic superbrain’—even becoming
current crisis in his writing on and of educational a movie star in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A
life-worlds. Space Odyssey” (1968). This AI hype catalyzed
a transition during which capitalism as a self-
reproducing, self-running, and ultimately ‘smart’

31
system was reinvented. In this period capital thus also always placed within a “community” or
made a leap into a new, immaterial era—trained “tribe.” The computer was seen as a means to yield
on the all-encompassing instrumentalization a “radical software,” and learning was conceived as
of labor, while designed to become entirely an essentially liberating and emancipatory activity,
unaccountable to labor as well as labor struggles, to be held against the learning factories of capitalist
e.g. in the form of worker (and student) revolts, education (and education for capitalism).
but also resistance movements in (former)
colonies. It was in this period that Buckminster However, it must be emphasized that the
Fuller, who is regarded as having conceived individualist/tribalist visions of (Western)
of AI and the Internet before they became countercultures were typically oblivious of their
mainstream, wrote in his book “Education own privileges and elitism. Inadvertently (or not),
Automation” (1962) about highly personalized they disconnected from the world of labor and
forms and spaces of learning, mapping early its struggles. Criticism of the “machines” of the
versions of distance learning and remote education industry – materializing in the huge
teaching. What are the prehistories that you education centers built for thousands of pupils or
consider relevant in this context? the university campus mega-structures mushrooming
everywhere – was often also dismissive of the new
You are right in pointing out the reciprocities educational “masses” generated (in the West) by
between cybernetics (and the [pre-]history of AI) and welfare state educational policies and (in the East) by
pedagogies that focus on the individual and thus aim socialist measures of expanding access to learning
at personalizing learning (as in the “child-centered” and knowledge.
approach that is inherent in any “differentiated”
curriculum and school type). Buckminster Fuller The real and substantial links between an expanding
was not alone in calling for a radical overhaul of the educational system geared towards producing
education system in the 1960s. An entire generation workers for the new knowledge industries and
of young architects, educationalists, countercultural class struggle became increasingly invisibilized.
types, etc., propagated a new spatial and design Technology, and cybernetics more specifically,
politics that was geared towards the learning self (see, certainly had its share in this development (though
e.g., my essay “Spaces of the Learning Self ”). Such the particular historical role of cybernetics in the
imaginaries of extramural learning environments for Communist countries needs to be considered here as
the singularized learner who inhabits “capsules” and well).
“study carrels” moved away from a new economy of
scale in the rapidly expanding education systems of Designs of learning environments like those
the post-war decades, that is: of what I propose to depicted on a photograph taken by Leon
call the Education Shock. Kunstenaar in 1971 look conspicuously like
computer-assisted workplaces. Here, the
It could be argued that the drive towards trope of ‘isolated individuals in a group
autonomous systems of (knowledge) production context’ oscillates between the factory and
implicit in the development of AI has considerably the school, evoking hybrids such as ‘factories
informed the debates around schooling beyond of education’ and ‘schools of work.’ It seems
the confines of the school building. As much as it the isolated individual – his or her body and
is a networked technology, AI in its early days was brain – successfully becomes the key site for
imagined to be based on a central supercomputer the production and accumulation of ‘constant
rather than on a web of distributed data centers. capital’ when the disciplinary discourses of
The individualized learners were to be brain-fed by a working and learning are not just intermingled
single HAL-like machine. but also placed in a circular relation.

Catering to the needs of the individual is an The photograph of the hexagonal “learning
important objective of any advanced pedagogy; laboratory” by Kunstenaar was made in an
it needs to be counterbalanced, however, with “experimental” school in the Boston area. The Wm.
the recognition of its social and environmental Monroe Trotter Elementary School in Roxbury,
conditions. In the progressivist and countercultural Mass. was opened around 1970 to be frequented
discourses around 1970, the individual learner was mostly by Black children. One basic idea of the

32
school’s design was to combine “open-plan” group
work with individualized learning stations such as the
one depicted here. The circularity of this particular
setting results from the hexagonal designs of large
parts of the school. It was the exception rather
than the rule in a time of predominantly container-
shaped big schools. I’d thus be careful, once again,
about drawing too neat an analogy between factory
and school. Although, here I agree, the labor that
is learning is the predicament around which even
the most “progressive” architectural designs of the
Education Shock age revolved.

Against this backdrop, the question arises

how we can reconsider the politics of isolated
learning as it is being reactivated and reinvented
during the current pandemic.

An image similar to the one from Taiwan you

mentioned shows, as the caption states, “high school
senior students study[ing] with plastic partitions
in a classroom.” Taken at a Wuhan school in April
2020, the image resembles encounters in public
that everyone has had in the past weeks – plastic
partitions between cashier and customer. It’s an
image of a world that has already been in a constant
process of securitization for a very long time.
Thousands of shops and offices around the world
are familiar with the plastic shielding (often bullet-
proof) that separates the customer (potential burglar)
from the employee (system-relevant).

Job security and protection at the workplace are

only two sides of an ever more rapidly swirling
coin. The protected (care) worker allegedly becomes
the precondition of the system’s survivability. But
what is a protected way of learning? A fenced
schoolyard with a security guard on patrol? Certainly
not. However, I tend to think of the classroom
with plastic partitions as a potentially “safer” space
than the domesticity of home schooling. Although
around 1970 “free schools” were hailed as a Utopian
alternative to the learning factories of the public
school system, the home and the privacy of the
family have always been potential harbingers of
violence and abuse. Formal, public education may be
flawed to the extreme, but it is also the only template
on which an accountable and protected education
is likely to happen. Home schooling and remote
learning are not an alternative.

Berlin, May 2020

33
Biographies “Learning Laboratories: Architecture, Instructional
Technology, and the Social Production of
Dario Azzellini is a political scientist, sociologist, Pedagogical Space Around 1970” at BAK in 2016-17.
and documentary film director. Specializes in Currently he is working on the research, publication
international labor studies and global social change and exhibition project “Education Shock. Learning,
with a particular focus on Europe and Latin America. Politics and Architecture in the 1960s and 1970s”
Extensive research and has published in the fields for HKW. Publications include “Knowledge Beside
of critical labor studies, politics of resistance, Latin Itself. Contemporary Art’s Epistemic Politics” (2020).
American Studies, and war sociology. In critical labor
studies, his research has focused on workers’ self- Angela Mitropoulos is a theorist and academic
organization and collective responses to precarious based in Sydney, Australia. Among other writings
work conditions and workplace closure. Out of which track shifting boundaries and movements in
his engagement in international debates on the the history of philosophy, science, aesthetics, politics
commons, Dario Azzellini developed the concept of and economics, she is the author of “Contract and
“Labour as a Commons” (Critical Sociology 2016). Contagion. From Biopolitics to Oikonomia” (2012)
and “Pandemonium. Proliferating Borders of Capital
Christine Braunersreuther is a researcher, curator, and the Pandemic Swerve” (2020). Her writing has
and activist based in Vienna. She works as a curator, appeared in numerous journals, including Social Text,
journalist, and lecturer for exhibition theory and is Mute, Cultural Studies Review, Borderlands, and
also active in local politics. She is currently working ephemera; it has been widely translated, disseminated
on her doctorate on ‘Possibilities of (re)presenting and taught in both academic and activist contexts.
transnational care work’ at the laboratory for critical
migration and border regime research at the Institute Katja Schwaller is a writer, translator, and doctoral
for Cultural Anthropology at the University of researcher at Stanford University, working on the
Göttingen, curating an exhibition on the labor of intersections of digital capitalism, labor, and the built
24-hour care workers for the Pavelhaus in Laafeld environment. She is the editor, translator, and co-
and coordinating “Grazer Soundscapes,” a project of author of “Technopolis. Urbane Kämpfe in der San
Radio Helsinki for Graz Culture Year 2020. Francisco Bay Area,” an edited volume on Big Tech
and urban struggles, published in Berlin/Zurich in
Niccolò Cuppini is a researcher at the University of 2019.
Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland.
Oriented towards a trans-disciplinary approach Magdalena Taube is professor of Digital Media
within the fields of urban studies and the history of and Journalism at the Macromedia University of
political doctrines, he researches logistics and social Applied Sciences in Berlin and editor-in-chief of
movements; sociology of labor and the platform berlinergazette.de. She is the author of “Disruption
economy. He is involved in research projects in des Journalismus” (2018) published by Institute of
Europe, Africa, Latin America, and the US. He is Network Cultures, Amsterdam, and co-editor of
part of the Into the Black Box research group and numerous anthologies, including “A Field Guide to
editor of Scienza & Politica. the Snowden Files” (2017). Her curatorial projects
include “Signals. The Snowden Files in Media,
Kerstin Guhlemann lives and works as a social Archives and Arts” (2017) and “BQV. Büro für
scientist in Dortmund. Since 2019 coordinator of Qualifikation und Vermögen” (2012).
the Research Unit Labor Policy and Health at the
Social Research Center of the Technical University Krystian Woznicki is a critic, organizer,
Dortmund. Her publications include “Humanization photographer, and the co-founder of Berliner
of Work 4.0: Prevention and Democracy in the Gazette. Blending writing and photography, he has
Digitalized Working Society” (2020). created books such as “After the Planes” (2017), co-
authored with Brian Massumi, “Fugitive Belonging”
Tom Holert works as an art historian, writer, (2018), and his most recent work “Undeclared
curator, and artist in Berlin. He co-founded the Movements,” which was published by b_books 2020.
Harun Farocki Institut in Berlin (HaFI) and is the His curatorial projects include “As Darkness Falls”
editor of “Mutual Aid,” an ongoing special issue of (2014), “Temporary Embassies” (2008), and “Young
HaFI’s online journal Rosa Mercedes. He curated Japanese Cinema” (1999).

34
Imprint

Editors: Magdalena Taube, Krystian Woznicki

Photos: Krystian Woznicki
Design: Colnate Group
Proofreading: Nancy Chapple

Mi2 publishing, Zagreb, 2020

https://mi2.hr
ISBN: 978-953-7372-60-6

INVISIBLE HAND(S), edited by Magdalena Taube

and Krystian Woznicki, is published as part of
Vectors of Collective Imagination – a project by
Berliner Gazette and the European NGOs Glänta,
Kulturtreger, Kontrapunkt, Kuda, and Multimedijalni
institut (Mi2). Initiated and organized by Mi2, this
series of 12 pamphlet publications runs in parallel
to a sequence of events that are organized by the
respective partner organizations.

The Vectors of Collective Imagination is funded

by the Creative Europe Program of the European
Union.

The interviews printed in INVISIBLE HAND(S)

were conducted in the context of Berliner Gazette’s
SILENT WORKS project – an exhibition and its
accompanying discursive program dedicated to
excavating forms of labor that are buried under
present regimes of AI-driven capitalism. Find all
details and up-to-date information on the SILENT
WORKS project here: https://silentworks.info

The Berliner Gazette’s SILENT WORKS is funded

by the Capital Cultural Fund, which is administered
by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe
responsible for culture of the city-state of Berlin.