Program | Digital Capitalism – All Power to the Corporations?

Digitalisation, automation and artificial intelligence are transforming the economy and our society in fundamental ways. Only with the help of political-economic interventions will it be possible to prevent less qualified workers from being left behind.

What are the most important social challenges presented by digital capitalism?
How will the winners and losers be spread across society?
What can we do to shape an economic policy of solidarity, one which steers digital capitalism in a civilised direction?

For five years, Ver.di has been embroiled in a conflict with the US corporation Amazon about a collective labour agreement. Labour unions are seen as “intruders” into the company's supposedly internal affairs. But not just the conflict culture differs from European patterns. The same applies to such companies' HR departments, which place enormous pressure on workers.

What can be done to prevent this form of corporate culture from taking root in Europe? How can we create an international solidarity that transcends borders? What means can we employ to keep technology-centred employee surveillance in check?

As economies are rapidly transforming, the international tax system, rooted in the early twentieth century, is not catching up.

What does a digital economy mean for tax bases, value creation and the future of international taxation?
What does all this mean for the Global South and the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development?

Rather than causing “disruption“, the digital transformation of the agro and pharma sectors simply intensifies existing processes of concentration. Lobbying and cartels are growing significantly. This damages democracy and exacerbates social inequality – not least in the Global South.

How do the processes of market concentration in the New Economy differ from those of traditional sectors within the context of digitalisation?
How can we limit coporate power?
What lessons can be derived from past struggles against monopolies?

AI requires huge amounts of data. Several large corporations like Google, Microsoft and Salesforce already enjoy a huge advantage in this supposedly promising future field.

Which new economic strategies are these corporations pursuing with their AI applications? Is an independent European initiative thinkable in this field? What role could a politically guaranteed neutrality of access to Big Data play?

The world of work stands before a fundamental transformation brought on by digitalisation. As was the case with earlier technologies, it is difficult to predict the consequences on both the quantity and quality of work in the future.

New freedoms or increasing consolidation of productivity – which way is the pendulum swinging?
What opportunities are arising for a new humanisation of work?
What must politics and labour unions do to ensure good work in the digital age?

The Internet has become a space of surveillance, control and censorship. Responsible are not only the corporations of Silicon Valley, but also state authorities and secret services. Here, the focus is usually on countries such as Russia, China or India. However, online surveillance and monitoring of citizens is also increasing massively in Western democracies.

How does digitalisation impact the Global South, with regards to both surveillance and to emancipation and development? How do these impacts differ from those in the North? How can the utopia of a democratic, open internet still be realised?

Digitalisation can unleash a new and necessary dynamic that can benefit the cause of environmental and climate protection. New digital technologies, smart data and artificial intelligence open up vast opportunities in the fields of environmental, resource and climate protection, which should aim to foster an environmental policy promoting ecological, social and economic renewal.

How can digitalisation become the driving force behind an environmentally sound modernisation of business, energy and mobility systems as well as agriculture and the circular economy?
How should environmental policy shape the regulatory framework ensuring that the risks of digitalisation are kept in check and that benefits for the environment, innovation and employment are optimised?
What are the building blocks of a progressive environmental and industrial agenda within the digital transformation which combine confidence and a spirit of optimism with security and orientation?

Amazon, Facebook & Co. – a growing portion of our digital infrastructure is controlled by a small number of corporations. In the spirit of open innovation and sharing culture, digital project communities and the pioneers of digital cooperatives are forming a counterpole to the “Big Five”.

How can these actors survive in the face of the big digital players?
How can fair, democratic working conditions be created?

Digitalisation is linked to increased stress and psychological strain at the workplace. The proponents of agile methods propose that limits must be imposed on working times – while employers and personnel managers often assert that agile means flexible and that working time laws are obsolete.

Can agility as a principle guiding the organisation of work contribute to the concept of good work?
What is the meaning of the principle of sustainable pace?

Today's social insurance and social welfare systems already contain the building blocks of universal insurance, basic income and lifetime working time accounts. Against the backdrop of the rising productivity of the digital revolution, shorter working times and a new model of labour relations, the transformation of these elements into universalist institutions ensuring basic social security in combination with an individual degree of freedom to pursue additional income will become possible in the 21st century.

Has classic social security outlived its purpose?
Should it be replaced by the UBI?
Or would a welfare state 4.0 based on innovative working time models be more optimal?

In our digitalised world ever greater importance is being placed on artificial intelligence (AI). The consequences are drastic: on the one hand, “mechanical thinking” requires as much data about users as possible, resulting in a further concentration of power in internet corporations. On the other hand, decisions being made by algorithms are no longer comprehensible to end users.

What is driving the development of AI and what is the current status of development?
What consequences do AI and Big Data have on our lives and on politics?
Who takes responsibility when machines make crucial (life) decisions?

The close proximity of the digital economy and the financial sector are often overlooked. This applies not only to investments and technology transfers, but also with respect to similarly structured business models and market developments.

Is the susceptibility to crisis of the financial market being reproduced in the commercial internet?
Where exactly do the economic risks of an online financial capitalism lie?

Not only has capitalism entered a new era under the banner of digitalisation. We must also explore the potential for developments that follow the logic of an economy centred around solidarity and systematic budgeting. 

To what extent can structural reforms serve such a logic in the course of digitalisation? To what extent must socialist perspectives be reconsidered with regards to the goals, paths and methods? To what extent should digital infrastructure be subjected to socialisation?