Dr. Masood Raja teaches ” The sould at work” from post-workerist Italian marxist Franco “Bifo” Berardi.

Our souls don’t get any rest.

Berardi defines the soul from a materialist perspective, something I’m not particularly interested in, but I believe it serves a purpose here. Where the Italian autonomists from the 70’s differentiate themselves from more classical marxists is the way that workers see themselves as agents of change instead of purely passive subjects. Nowadays not only our bodies but also our souls are captured by capitalism ; our thoughts, our desires, our creativity, our leisure time… In our free time we are not free, we are worried about tomorrow… Dr. Masood Raja also elaborates on Bifo’s notion that anxiety and depressions are a product of contemporary capitalism. At least 24 million people worldwide are on anti-depressants, and even in the art world this money seeps through (look at the well-known example fo the Sackler-family, they are more known nowadays for causing the opiod crisis but decades ago they were pushing drugs like Valium ; the Sackler family is tied to The Louvre, The MET, Serpentine Gallery, Tate…) . What kind of resistance is possible nowadays? Berardi goes on to say that workers should organise themselves to get a fair wage (since productivity of the worker has been steadily going up, but their wages aren’t) but also and this one I find interesting is to redefine wealth as having access to leisure time. So that our souls can take a break from all the digital imperatives.