With or without Marx? With or without capitalism? A rejoinder to Adam Arvidsson and Eleanor Colleoni

Abstract

This paper is a rejoinder to an article by Adam Arvidsson and Eleanor Colleoni: Arvidsson, Adam and Eleanor Colleoni. 2012. Value in informational capitalism and on the Internet. The Information Society 28 (3): 135-150. Arvidsson and Colleoni's paper is a criticism of and reaction to one of my own articles: Fuchs, Christian. 2010. Labor in informational capitalism and on the Internet. The Information Society 26 (3): 179-196. My comments focus on 6 aspects of discussion: 1) Misunderstandings of Marx 2) Autonomous Marxism 3) Corporate social media and the law of value 4) Capital accumulation on social media 5) Finance capital and social media 6) Politics, alternatives, and social transformation The discourse constituted by the two articles and this rejoinder are situated in the context of the digital labour debate that can be considered to constitute an important part of the contemporary discourse of the political economy of the media and the Internet. It is recommended that you first read both previous articles before reading this rejoinder.