Fully Automated Luxury Communism

In 100 years’ time many of the ideas in this book will be mainstream, while kindergarten students laugh at our mainstream economic textbooks. Bastani’s genius is to see the future with crisp clarity, unafraid of the consequences of being right. – Paul Mason, author of PostcapitalismOne of the most important books to come out of the British left in recent years. Incredibly ambitious and wide-ranging, but also well-written and readable, it provides a fascinating glimpse into a future beyond scarcity and beyond capitalism. Not simply a set of predictions about an unknowable future, it is a call to action to those seeking to bring an entirely new world into being. – Grace Blakeley, New StatesmanThe debate is no longer about tinkering with our current broken social order, but replacing it: this fascinating book is an absolutely critical contribution, and a must-read for all those who aspire to build a new society. – Owen Johns, author of The EstablishmentAt a time when our horizons have shrunk, when instead of striving for a better world we look backward to old comforts, Aaron Bastani calls us to dream and struggle for the type of society finally fit for humanity to live as humans should.’ – Bhaskar Sunkara, author of The Socialist ManifestoA startlingly sunny and audacious manifesto that reads the extremity of current political, economic, and environmental crises as a sign of the scale of opportunity for radical change…[Bastani] gamely reclaims the stuff of dystopia for a more buoyant vision … Bastani’s arguments rest on the conviction that the major problems that face citizens are political in nature-and thus that their only possible solutions will be political, too – Lidija Haas * Harpers *Angry and lyrical, uncompromising and vivid, Imperial Intimacies is a daughter’s reckoning with the bitter legacies of slavery and colonialism as they come to shape the lives of families and individuals, their dreams and desires. A deeply searching and often moving book, it made me think again about the writing of family history and about what it means to be British. – Alison Light, author of Common PeopleBastani writes with pace, economy and infectious enthusiasm … There are more ideas crammed in here than in a whole shelf of standard politics books. And in today’s fraught world, the time to read whole shelves of politics books may have passed. – Andy Beckett * Guardian *Fully Automated Luxury Communism offers a hopeful vision of a possible future, one that, with its blend of utopian energy and careful argumentation, is worth taking seriously. * Vector *Attempts to take the word back to Marx’s post-work, post-scarcity future. – Sarah Jaffe * Bookforum *A startlingly sunny and audacious manifesto that reads the extremity of current political, economic, and environmental crises as a sign of the scale of opportunity for radical change…[Bastani] gamely reclaims the stuff of dystopia for a more buoyant vision. – Lidja Haas * Harpers *A rising young leftwing provocateur …There are more ideas crammed in here than in a whole shelf of standard politics books – Andy Beckett * Guardian *[Fully Automated Luxury Communism] is a provocative … reckoning with the end of market capitalism, and what might follow … in outlining the benefits of decarbonised economies, worker-owned businesses, people’s banks, planet taxes and universal basic services, Bastani is starting to put flesh on the spectre that might one day haunt Europe again. – Gavin Jacobson * New Statesman *In outlining the benefits of decarbonised economies, worker-owned businesses, people’s banks, planet taxes and universal basic services, Bastani is starting to put flesh on the spectre that might one day haunt Europe again – Gavin Williamson * New Statesman *Jeremy Corbyn’s new left … do not wish only to manage capitalism. They want something more. They are something more. And this book is an attempt to explain what that more is. * Times *[Bastani’s] limpid prose, fuelled by an infectious revolutionary elan, adroitly synthesises … big ideas for lay readers and deftly elucidates the continued relevance of Marx’s writings… [Fully Automated Luxury Communism] serves as a vital broadening of our political horizons * Morning Star *A feisty manifesto … proposes a blueprint for a new society; one in which advanced technology will free humanity from the necessity to work * New Internationalist *An entertaining … romp through some of the most profound innovations and developments that could, if managed under the aegis of socialism, transform the way in which we live our lives. * Quietus *A stimulating intervention … fascinating on the dazzling possibilities of the present * New Humanist *A knowingly provocative … utopian manifesto … a refreshing departure from the the usual forecasts of machine-led jobpocalypse. * Times Literary Supplement *It’s a manifesto that imagines life in a post-capitalist world where automation has replaced manual labour, and it applies the theories of Marx to show how this could save us from dystopia. Its a pretty audacious book.’ – Gruff Rhys * Observer *

Aaron Bastani is co-founder and senior editor at Novara Media. He holds a PhD from the New Political Communication Unit, University of London, examining social movements in the digital environment which fail to correspond to the traditional logic of collective action. His research interests include new media, social movements, asymmetric strategies and post-scarcity political economy. He has written for Vice, London Review of Books, Guardian and Open Democracy.