{"id":1560,"date":"2020-12-12T20:08:34","date_gmt":"2020-12-13T01:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/?p=1560"},"modified":"2021-04-27T15:41:53","modified_gmt":"2021-04-27T19:41:53","slug":"bernard-e-harcourt-the-abolition-of-capital-an-introduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/bernard-e-harcourt-the-abolition-of-capital-an-introduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Bernard E. Harcourt | The Abolition of Capital: An Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bernard E. Harcourt<\/a><\/h2>\n

In Abolition Democracy 6\/13<\/a>, our seminar turns to the question of the abolition of capital and capitalism. Our challenge is to reimagine and resituate contemporary social movements for the abolition of capital within the framework of abolition democracy. We will do so through a close reading of the mid-century debate within the Frankfurt School over the history and transformations of Western capitalism.<\/p>\n

During World War II, several members of the Frankfurt School initiated a conversation over the changing nature of capitalism especially in Germany during Hitler\u2019s Third Reich and the rise of National Socialism. At the time, the new form of state-controlled totalitarian capitalism raised significant challenges to economic theories and histories\u2014whether they were neo-classical liberal theories of a laissez-faire <\/em>government or Marxist theories of the inevitable crises of accumulation and demise of capitalist modes of production. A well-functioning centralized type of capitalism, involving state planning, defied most prevailing ideas about both capitalism and late capitalism.<\/p>\n

The sociologist and economist Friedrich Pollock (who founded with Felix Weil and served as director of the Institute for Social Research at various times), and the political and legal theorist, Franz Leopold Neumann, instigated a debate over competing analyses of National Socialism in Germany. Pollock offered an interpretation of National Socialism as a new form of \u201cstate capitalism\u201d and suggested the potential promise of democratically-controlled central planning, in an article titled \u201cState Capitalism: Its Possibilities and Limitations,\u201d published in 1941. By contrast, Neumann developed a theory of National Socialism as an irremediable, irrational, and power-driven form of totalitarian monopoly capitalism on the model of Hobbes\u2019s lawless Behemoth <\/em>(as opposed to Hobbes\u2019s orderly Leviathan<\/em>), in his book Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism<\/em>, published in 1942. Theodor Adorno would later weigh in on this debate, developing his own particular conception of \u201clate capitalism,\u201d in an essay titled \u201cLate Capitalism or Industrial Society?\u201d delivered to German sociologists in 1968 and in other writings. Herbert Marcuse as well, in his book One-Dimensional Man<\/em> published in 1964, offered a related critique of administered living in the welfare state.<\/p>\n

By returning to this debate, and to this history, we hope to shed light on today\u2019s many movements for the abolition of capital\u2014ranging from recent writings on the creation of a \u201ccommon<\/a>\u201d (including the work of Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval, Common: On Revolution in the 21st<\/sup> Century<\/em><\/a>, and Michael Hardt and Toni Negri, Commonwealth<\/em><\/a> and Assembly<\/em><\/a>), recent work on the idea of communism<\/a> (including the work of \u00c9tienne Balibar<\/a> and Slavoj \u017di\u017eek<\/a>), as well as recent proposals for a new form of co\u00f6perationism (including my work-in-progress titled For Co\u00f6peration and the Abolition of Capital<\/em><\/a>).<\/p>\n

These questions are also relevant today because of new mixed models of capitalism that combine markets and state control, including possibly new forms of state capitalism, in countries such as China and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

But first, a word about the framing of this seminar.<\/p>\n

Heartbeat Opera\u2019s Breathing Free<\/em><\/h1>\n

\u201cO welche Lust, in freier Luft den Atem leicht zu heben!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cO what joy, in the open air, freely to breathe again!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 <\/em>Beethoven, Fidelio<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In a powerful adaptation of Beethoven\u2019s opera Fidelio<\/a><\/em>, the stunning and innovative new opera company, Heartbeat Opera<\/a>, places Beethoven\u2019s libretto squarely in our times and crises of racialized mass incarceration and police violence. Heartbeat Opera sets its production in a modern-day prison that has all the trappings of the Rikers Island jail in New York City. The protagonist, Stan, is incarcerated as punishment for participating in #BlackLivesMatter protests following the police killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. His wife Leah becomes a prison guard in order to seduce a correctional officer\u2019s daughter, Marcy, and free her husband.<\/p>\n

Heartbeat Opera\u2019s performance is a riveting adaptation that brings the ecstasy of Beethoven\u2019s music to bear on the racial injustices of our times. The New York Times<\/a> <\/em>described the production as \u201curgent, powerful, poignant.\u201d[1]<\/a> I found the production, personally, moving to tears and chilling.<\/p>\n

The moment that sent chills down my spine and tears down my cheeks was during Beethoven\u2019s famous Prisoners\u2019 Chorus<\/em>, \u201cO welche Lust!\u201d (“O what a joy!\u201d), when the live stage production cut to a jumbotron video that then brought us into prisons across the country to watch and hear the prison choirs of men and women artists, incarcerated, singing Beethoven\u2019s chorus in German. In Beethoven\u2019s original as in Heartbeat Opera\u2019s adaptation, the chorus is meant to capture the momentary freedom prisoners feel when temporarily released from their cells. The experience was one of the most moving I had ever experienced, surely the most moving at an opera. A short documentary describes the collaborations with the choirs that led to Heartbeat Opera\u2019s production\u2014including the Oakdale Community Choir, KUJI Men\u2019s Chorus, Hope Thru Harmony Women\u2019s Choir, UBUNTU Men\u2019s Chorus, and East Hill Singers:<\/p>\n