Academy Of Ideas

Recording of a debate at the Battle of Ideas Festival 2018. After the fall of the Soviet Union, a broad political consensus emerged that ‘there is no alternative’ to capitalism, which even the 2008 financial crash did little to disturb. But now things appear to be changing, with support for politicians like Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders who call for a new way of organising the economy. A slew of recent books, epitomised by Paul Mason’s Post-Capitalism, argue that technological innovations have opened up ways to transcend capitalism from within. Are we now seeing the arrival of capitalism’s ‘undertaker’ in the shape of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation? Could it be true - is capitalism’s time nearly up? AARON BASTANI co-founder, Novara Media; author, Fully Automated Luxury Communism: a manifesto ROBERT HARRIES membership coordinator, education trade association WENDY LIU software developer; editor, economics section, New Socialist NIKOS SOTIRAKOPOULOS lecturer in sociology, York St John Uni