Introduction: Hello. My name is Valerian Texeira. From my childhood as far as I
remember and particularly over the past 45 years, I have been looking for
answers to as many of my general, philosophical as well science questions and ponder
over them. I was always an avid reader deeply curious about knowing and
understanding the world around me, constantly thirsting for knowledge. In
my mid-late 20’s, I began searching for answers to numerous social problems,
including human behaviour, through the lens of my working-class background.
This pilgrims journey eventually led me to Marxism and the idea of Socialist
Revolution, which at that time appeared to answer most of my long-standing
questions concerning social injustice, inequality, and corruption in
society."
Early Life: Born on 9th
December 1951, in Mangalore in the same house in which I still
live today. my early life was shaped by economic hardship. My father worked in
a nearby factory called St. Joseph’s Asylum Industrial Workshop commonly known as
the Jeppu Workshop, low wages were the norms around at that time. This
“Asylum” institution was owned and managed by the Mangalore Diocese Bishop.
Like many others, We were his tenants like all in this place. This Bishops institution
owned the entire land and was the largest landlord in Mangalore, a position
that still continues today.
Family Members: My
father’s name was Tulio Texeira, and my mother, Lilly Texeira, was a
traditional housewife. We were a family of five, with a younger sister and a
younger brother. My father was a fitter by trade and a skilled worker at the
Jeppu Workshop. He was a disciplined man and a strong trade union member, often
in direct confrontation with the Bishop’s workshop management. He was
intelligent, deeply religious, yet inclined toward socialist ideals. I believe
I inherited not only some of his intelligence but, more importantly, his spirit
of unionism.
Strict Discipline in Childhood: I
was brought up under strict discipline compared to most children in my
neighbourhood. At home forgot things often, and got beaten when I was young, an
upbringing that both shaped me and stirred resistance within me. An average
student, I passed my 10th standard in 1968 and secured admission to a
three-year Turner apprenticeship course at the Jeppu Workshop, where my father
was working. I completed the course in 1971 and, around that time, began to
develop a rebellious streak, most likely as a reaction to my tightly controlled
childhood.
Growing into Adulthood: After completing my training, I worked sporadically
across Mangalore, then moved to Bangalore for seminary-related jobs, and later
travelled to Bombay. During this period around four to five years’ time, I
lived a rugged and precarious existence, without stable housing and at times
even experiencing homelessness. Yet I never regretted this phase of my life as
it taught me many valuable lessons in life, thankfully I never had difficulty
finding work as a Turner. I returned to my family home in Mangalore around 1976
and secured a Turner position in my place at the Jeppu Workshop. I was
generally warm, laughing, joking, joyful, and easy-going, though occasionally
quick-tempered, traits by which I believe my acquaintances of those years may
still remember me today. It was during the Indira Gandhi Emergency that my
direct and sustained confrontation with the Bishop’s administration truly
began.
Introduction to
Marxism then Parting Away from Communism: During
my time at the Jeppu workshop, I became associated with the Young Christian
Workers (YCW), a national movement with international links. Through this
organization, I was introduced to Marxism and soon became an ardent follower,
deeply impressed by its labour theory and the vision of socialist revolution.
However, within a few years, I parted ways with Communist ideology, a shift I
have explained in some detail in several earlier articles and papers published
on my Anti-Corruption Fight blog and in other publications. My
clearly marked break from Marxism came with the publication of my book full
title: “An Alternative to Marxian Scientific Socialism: The Theory of
Reduction in Working Hours. Demand 6 Hours Work Day”, the title in
English and the main body text in Kannada, it was year 1981. Supported by a
small group of my fellow worker friends at that time. However, almost all my
higher-ranking contacts in the field completely ignored, ridiculed, or laughed
at both me and my theory. The book was met with utter silence, and none of its
copies were really sold.
PART 2: ZWT
BASIC PREMISE Human Labor Exploitation
Reduction in Working Hours Theory Book Publication: An Alternative
to Marxian Scientific Socialism: The Theory of Reduction in Working Hours, my original work represents the
conceptual framework that has since evolved into what I now formally designate
as the “Zero Work Theory” (ZWT). This theory stands as the definitive
cornerstone of my intellectual contribution, challenging traditional socialist
paradigms by advancing an alternative path: the systematic reduction of
labour time as the primary vehicle for human liberation, emancipation of
mankind from the historical shackles of labor exploitation thereby ushering a
new equitable society. By reclassifying my earlier
findings under the ZWT framework, I aim to focus the argument on its most
essential and radical objective, the ultimate liberation of the individual from
the necessity of compelled human labour, condensed in the Basic Premise
of ZWT, in the following.
ZWT Basic
Premise
Human
labour relations, imposed by nature on humans as a necessity or compulsion in
order to obtain their ‘means of subsistence’ (basic needs, security requiered for
survival), constitute the root cause of labour exploitation in society. This
compulsion results in all forms of social evils, most importantly, corruption,
that dominate the world today.”
Therefore,
along with the progress of science and technology, the total working hours must
be reduced step by step, until they ultimately come to an end to Zero, thereby
completely eliminating the human labour in the production of goods and services.
Through this historical process, a collective and genuinely egalitarian human
society can be established.
Necessity Compelled
Human Labour Root Cause of Exploitation: As
you see the ZWT basic premise contends from its beginning that Human Labour “Relations”
are imposed by nature at first, as a necessity or compulsion in-order to obtain
their ‘means of subsistence’, (the basic needs and security required for
survival) is the root cause of human labour exploitation in society. It further
argues that this basic necessity and compulsion to labor, give rise to most of social evils, inequality, injustice prevailing
in the world today. Therefore, along with the progress of science and
technology, the total working hours must be reduced step by step, gradually,
until it ultimately ends up in Zero. By doing so, the necessity of human labor
in social production of goods and services would be completely eliminated along
with the exploitation. Through this historical process, a collective and
genuinely egalitarian human society can be established.
This core idea of human labour exploitation in ZWT is
fundamentally different from the Marxian (1849) concept of “Relative” Labour
Exploitation presented in “Wage Labour and Capital.”
ZWT Socio- Economic Standpoint or Central Thesis on Capitalist Society: From its socio-economic standpoint ZWT argued that in any economic
system in which human labour remains essential for producing goods and services,
it inherently breeds labor exploitation. The necessity of labour to get or produce
things that has some particular use values for humans and the overall need to
exchange it to get the other products in return, leads them to the exchange it
in a trade. Such exchange of values generally begins as an equal or fair Barter
trade of labour products or things possessing use value thereby exchange values.
However, this Barter exchange, as it grows, gradually develops into more and
more unequal labour-value exchange, often mediated through concealed deception,
thereby enabling a smaller minority of people to accumulate increasing amounts
of others labour values. This accumulation further leads to enormous stockpiles
of money, property, and wealth including the socio-economic and political
power, concentrated in the hands of a small minority, while leaving the
majority with little or nothing. This process manifests most sharply in
capitalist systems, where Marxian analysis enters.
The Barter Trade of Labor Exchange: Primarily, the basic rule of exchange labour-products or
commodities in general laid down by simple ancient barter trade that remains
the fundamental ethical principle of all labor product exchange and the basis
of all commodity value exchange in human society, from its primitive origins to
modern capitalist as well socialist economic systems. Within which human labour
remains essential yet concealed, deceptively embedded in every transaction.
This simple barter exchange of labour products eventually emerges into vast
international stock markets, still governed by the same underlying dynamics of equal
to inequal labour-value exchange and exploitation, though increasingly obscured
by layers of complexity and abstraction. Examining this continuum reveals how
human labour, though appearing invisible in exchange relations, continues to be
the real source of value.
This historical testimony of Zero Work Theory is likely to
become more exposed today than at any previous point in human history today. As
the necessity-compelled human labour becomes increasingly exposed to the
technological productivity progress. As AI advances toward AGI it will progressively displace human labour en
masse, rendering much of it redundant or obsolete. The long-concealed
foundations of all commodities based on human labor value creation are likely
to be revealed more openly at this historical turning point than at any
previous moment in human history.
Illustration of Basic Barter Equal Labour-Product Trade Lead
into Unequal Exchange of Labour Values: Consider the following example of a simple barter exchange
between persons or groups A and B. The
person A exchanges a product that required an average of eight hours of labour
to produce with a product from person B that also required an average of eight
hours of labour. Both regard the exchange as equal, justified, and fair because
the average amount of human labour embodied in each product is approximately
the same.
I fully acknowledge that this is an idealised example of a
Barter trade, much like a perfect circle or an ideal apple, and that such
conditions rarely exist in reality. Nevertheless, it illustrates a crucial
principle: “the plausible or necessary average labour time crystalized in a
product becomes the basic unit for measuring its value.” While some
strongly argue that demand and supply should determine value, such mechanisms,
even though considered as reality, invite manipulation and deception leading into
widespread unequal exchange of labour value thereby massive concentration of
value in fewer and fewer hands, corruption, and social injustice. Therefore,
the most logical and ethical principle for measuring labour-product value
exchange must remain the amount of human labour expended in production, as this
alone provides the primary ground rule condition determining the value of a
product.
Unequal Labor Product Exchange between A and B in a Changed
Production Conditions: Let us now return to persons A and B, who meet again to barter
their products as before. This time, however, the conditions of production have
undergone a radical change. Both individuals still remain the same as before, honest
people with moral integrity. However, B proves to be slightly more
entrepreneurial, clever, and resourceful, perhaps aided by inheritance. Through
this advantage, B adopts an innovative technique that allows him to produce the
same product in just one hour instead of the earlier eight. A, lacking access
to this innovation, continues to require eight hours to produce his product as
before. Nevertheless, both A and B still consider the exchange fair, since the
products appear identical, even though the labour time embodied in them has
become radically unequal.
Hidden Inequality within Apparently Fair Exchange: This occurs because B’s labour productivity has increased
eightfold, and therefore neither A nor society at large perceives the exchange
as cheating or morally wrong. Nonetheless, it constitutes an unequal labour
exchange through which B effectively appropriates nearly eight times more value
in each transaction. Let us now trace where this leads by following a single
thread within the broader Barter socio-economic framework.
Continued Example of A and B Group in Unequal value
Exchange: Continuing the example, persons A and B now converge into
majority and minority groups within a given population or a Nation. The B
group, within the same time frame, produces eight times more than the A group.
Both groups as always remain equally buyers and sellers and continually
exchange their labor products with one another. Sooner or later, as the markets
develops, a sub-category of group A and group B producing similar or identical
products meet in competition. The B sub-category, due to its superior
productive power, is able to sell its product units more cheaply than those
produced by the A sub-category, thereby selling more, gaining more, and
eventually capturing most of the market pushing the A sub-category out of the
market. Consequently, the A group’s ability to compete directly declines, many
are unable to sell their products, lose their source of subsistence income, and
become jobless, in modern terms.
Capitalist Market Solution: In a continued long
process, while the majority in the A group, having abandoned their former direct
product-making profession due to market competition, now searches for new
sources of income for survival, the B group offers a solution by inviting
capable members of A to work for them within the productive setup they control,
offering higher remuneration than A previously earned. The A group who now have
become the labor class eagerly accepts this job offer with gratitude. However,
through this necessity-compelled labour-value exchange, the minority B group
becomes richer and richer, while the majority A group becomes relatively poorer
and poorer. This process constitutes the overall socio-economic structures of
the past and the present which we call Capitalism today. I have explained this in
the latter section of this paper.FOUR
FUNDAMENTAL KINDS OF HUMAN LABOR EXPLOITATIONS in the next section.
Unequal Alienated Labor Product Exchange Billions to
Trillions of times Daily:
This human labour-product or commodity exchange unfolds
billions to trillions of times daily across the world whenever people go to
work in fields, factories and offices or go to market buy and sell goods and
services, visit shops or supermarkets, consult doctors or lawyers, or engage
with jewellers, entertainment halls, air travel, get a saloon service or a
religious service, in all such exchange, a truly fair exchange of labor value
can seldom occur, especially between the haves and the have-nots. The
cumulative effect of these countless unequal exchanges is the systematic
expansion of wealth inequality within society. Marxian’s may connect this to their
Labor Alienation
Acknowledgement: I acknowledge that the actual labor product value exchange
process is far more complex and nuanced than presented here, and that I lack
the academic skills and the resources to elaborate it fully. I am neither an
economist nor a mathematician capable of formal modelling. Nevertheless, this
represents my sincere attempt from my humble working class background to convey
the essence of labour exploitation from my broader ZWT framework of human
labour exploitation theory, which is fundamentally different from the Marxian Wage
Labour and Capital approach.
Systemic, Not Moral, Critique: Clarification: To avoid any
misunderstanding, I must clearly state that I am not arguing that the
entrepreneurial person or group B—who is clever, innovative, and productive—is
immoral, unethical, or corrupt. Rather, my argument is principled and systemic:
as long as necessity-compelled human labour remains essential to social
production of value, labour compulsion, its exploitation become structurally
unavoidable for the survival of the system itself. Consequently, the only way
to escape this vicious cycle of labour compulsion and exploitation is to end
the dependency on human labour in the social production of goods and services,
or in the creation of exchange value. All this unseen labour, driven by
necessity to earn a living and survive, fuelled technological innovations that
ultimately led to the vast developments culminating in AGI. This, in turn,
could render the importance of necessity-driven
human labour in the production of social goods and services lesser and lesser important
so the human labour exploitation itself and in time making it completely redundant
hopefully in the near future.
FOUR FUNDAMENTAL KINDS OF HUMAN LABOR EXPLOITATIONS
The recognition of four distinct forms of human
labor exploitation—rooted in the labor relation compelled by nature for
obtaining the means of subsistence, is a defining feature that distinguishes
the Reduction in Working Hours Theory presently the Zero Work Theory (RWHT/ZWT)
from all other Capitalist or Socialist Political Economy theories most
importantly Marxian Scientific Socialism
or Communism.
Marxian labor theory that I tend to favor most nevertheless,
fails to recognize the plurality of Human Labor Exploitation, probably due to
the historical conditions in which it was formulated. Thereby, ZWT
fundamentally challenges the Marxian assumption that the working class
constitutes a homogeneous prototype with broadly identical class interests. In
reality, as human labor productivity increasingly polarizes into extreme lows
and highs. In this state of affair. ZWT identifies four kinds of fundamental
labor (relations) exploitations namely
1. SUBSISTENCE SUSTENANCE EXPLOITATION
2. RELATIVE LABOR EXPLOITATION,
3. PRODUCTIVE LABOR EXPLOITATION, and
4. ABSOLUTE LABOR EXPLOITATION.
Therefore, the kind of labor exploitations that the
individuals undergo in their “Labor Relations” remains very different from one
another. In this context, it becomes nearly impossible to unify labor into a
single coherent force, a condition clearly visible in contemporary society.
Subsistence Sustenance Exploitation: The Subsistence Sustenance exploitation refers to the
general social conditions where the human labor is necessary for the social
production of goods and services for the survival and progress of the individual
and the society as well. Yet a significant sections of society are unable to
secure adequate livelihoods despite rendering or willing to render their labor
services. This includes those who cannot find employment, and most importantly
those compelled into low-productivity and low-paying jobs or those who become
self-employed in marginal, low-income job activities due to lack of
alternatives. All such individuals experience economic hardship. Under ZWT,
this condition, where income fails to meet 100% of a socially determined
benchmark of a basic standard of living, is defined as Subsistence Sustenance
Exploitation, commonly known as poverty. ZWT sees it as basically interconnected
with human labor.
Relative Labor Exploitation: It occurs primarily in low-wage or underemployment
situations. The workers produce 100% of value during their full day’s labor,
yet receive only a portion, say 50% as wages, while the remainder is
appropriated as profit by the employer. Marx’s Wage Labour and Capital recognizes this as relative and surplus labor
exploitation and treats it as the sole form of exploitation. ZWT, however,
demonstrates that this conception is incomplete. For example, if a worker
creates value equivalent to Rs. 100 but receives Rs. 50 as wages, while
actually requiring Rs. 90 (value of labor power) to maintain a minimally
acceptable standard of living. Thereby this worker experiences not only 100%
relative labor exploitation but in addition undergoes 40% Subsistence
Sustenance Exploitation. Marx’s concept of the “value of labor power” overlooks
this duality and assumes uniform “Surplus Value” exploitation across workers,
an assumption ZWT explicitly rejects.
Productive Labor Exploitation: It emerges in high-productivity and highly
profitable sectors. Consider a worker whose labor produces Rs. 300 in value per
day and who is paid Rs. 150 as wages. Marxian theory would regard this as
identical to the previous case as100% relative exploitation. ZWT, however,
draws a critical distinction. Although the rate of relative exploitation
appears the same, this worker does not suffer Subsistence Sustenance
Exploitation because his income is sufficient to maintain his standard of
living. Hence, ZWT classifies this separately as Productive Labor Exploitation.
This distinction becomes even clearer in highly paid white-collar employment:
an employee may generate Rs. 1000 in value, receive Rs. 300 as salary, and
allow the employer to appropriate Rs. 700 as profit. Marxian logic would
describe this as extremely high relative labor exploitation, which appears
counterintuitive when compared to low-wage labor. The concept of Productive
Labor Exploitation resolves this contradiction by recognizing that high-income
workers, though exploited in value terms, are not subjected to poverty or
subsistence deprivation.
Absolute Labor Exploitation (ALE): ALE represents the most fundamental and pervasive
form of human labor exploitation. In its extreme form, it appears as bondage or
slavery; in its general form, it arises from the compulsion to devote time and
effort of a given hours of labor for wage in order to earn a livelihood. This ALE
is measured by the duration of working hours rather than by wage-value
relations. A worker labouring eight hours a day undergoes eight hours of ALE, not
counting the stolen hours spent commuting from home to workplace and back,
which extend ALE’s shadow into the very rhythm of life survival. The self-employed
person working twelve hours undergoes twelve hours of ALE; even the unemployed
experience ALE through the time and effort expended in seeking work to survive.
The character of ALE varies widely—from heavy manual labor to monotonous
drudgery to creative or intellectual work, from supervised labor to autonomous
self-employment. Even employers, insofar as they must supervise and manage
labor to sustain income, are not entirely exempt.
ALE thus encompasses all categories of labor
exploitation, affecting both the poor living in deprivation and the affluent
living in comfort, though in qualitatively different forms. Its purest and most
visible expression is found in the legally defined working day of wage
labourers. According to RWHT (ZWT), ALE is the fourth and most crucial form of
human labor exploitation. It is implicit in the foundational premise that, with
the progress of science and technology, working hours should be reduced step by
step until their eventual abolition. RWHT/ZWT therefore proclaims that a
systematic reduction in working hours has the potential to fundamentally
revolutionize the entire economic structure of society.
RWHT/ZWT History Delayed: Historically, such a progressive reduction in
working hours has not occurred in the manner envisioned by RWHT/ZWT. There was
this long delay due to may historical circumstances. Had it done so, human
labor productivity would likely have increased dramatically under competitive
capitalist conditions. This would have significantly enhance the share of labor
productivity and widely distributed in the overall economy while reducing the
share of lower labor productivity thus poverty with better social outcomes with
the accelerated labor productivity, human society would have reached the goal
of abolition of human labor in economy much earlier. The basics of these
arguments are developed in greater detail In my other paper in the section
titled “The Bold UBI Gambit” in my paper “AGI Mandate UBI.”
PART 3:
THE TECHNOLOGICAL HISTORY OF HUMAN LABOR REPLACEMENT From Primitive Tools to
Intelligent Robots
THE CORE ESSENCE
The Genesis
of Human Labor Tools: Enhancing the ability of Physical Self: The earliest stage of human
labor replacement occurred when primitive humans learned to make rudimentary
tools and use them as substitutes for their limbs, particularly their hands, to
assist them in labor aimed at acquiring food (subsistence) and security for
survival. However, these primitive human labor-replacement inanimate artifacts completely
depended on humans or animals, living muscle and brain power as an essential requirement
for performing work in nature.
Industrial
Revolution: Replacing the Living Muscle Labor Significantly: The second stage of
revolutionary transformation in the technological history of human labor
replacement emerged only hundreds and thousands of years later, during the 18th
and 19th centuries. The progress of science and technological invention enabled
humans to connect and integrate traditional labor tools and devices with steam
and electric power, effectively substituting or replacing the muscle power of
living humans and animals significantly in doing work. These power (machine)
tools gave birth to the entire Industrial Revolution, rendering the “Beast of
Burden” absolutely redundant. Nevertheless, human muscle combined with
cognitive brain power remained crucial in operating, controlling, and directing
these power machine tools to perform the intended work in the social production
of goods and services.
The Digital and Cognitive Era:
Replacing the Intelligent Mind: The third phase of human labor
replacement genuinely arrived in the 20th century and rapidly accelerated in
the 21st century, especially around the mid-part of its third decade that we
are witnessing today. Initially known as cybernetics and electronics, it later
evolved into computers and the internet, and now into Cognitive AI, with AGI
and ASI Robots likely to follow in the future. When combined with power machine
tools, this phase represents the manifestation for the first time in human
history, the complete replacement of not only human muscle but also the brain
the entire cognitive mind and intelligent labor.
The Culmination: From Survival
to Autonomy: Therefore, the foundational
stones of the AGI robots we see today were laid by primitive humans hundreds of
thousands of years ago when they created rudimentary artifacts as a substitute to
replace parts of the physical body labor for survival. Thereafter,
technological progress in human labor replacement has culminated in intelligent
robots, signifying the complete replacement of all human labor in public
production and services. Humankind today may interpret this development either
positively or negatively, according to its worldview, and will experience
outcomes accordingly.
MAIN TEXT
Human Evolution Propelled
by Adoption and Use of Tools: Human evolution, spanning approximately from 7
million to 300,000 years ago and marking the transition from great apes to Homo
sapiens, was likely propelled by the adoption and use of tools in human
labour upon nature, which in turn is believed to have shaped the human
hands, legs, posture and most importantly human brain to suit this skilful and
cognitive labouring task. This intelligent adaptation to labour by
necessity with compulsion in humans, unlike in animals, began with the use of
rudimentary implements such as sticks, stones, and vines found in their
surroundings, which served as the earliest extensions of replacement and
substitutes for human limbs, particularly the hands. Over hundreds of thousands
of years, extending from the Old Stone Age to the New Stone Age,
these implements were gradually refined. Yet throughout this entire
evolutionary trajectory, the fundamental purpose of labour-tool development has
remained the same: the persistent human effort to reduce, if not completely
eliminate, the physical burden of labor and its duration.
The Unseen Engines of
Civilization: Beasts of Burden Powered Human Progress: From the beginning of the Old Stone Age, human
labouring tools evolved steadily throughout the New Stone Age. Mesolithic
refinements such as microliths ushered in the Neolithic revolution, which
introduced agriculture along with the domestication of animals’ to carry burdens
(known as Beast of Burden) including herding and husbandry. This transition
enabled the integration of the animal, horses, donkeys, oxen, camels, etc., directly
into the system of human labour as substitutes or replacements for carrying
heavy loads. Their contribution to human society was comparable in magnitude
and impact to that of the Industrial Revolution itself. By adopting
domesticated animals and deploying them as a replacement or substitutes, for
their labour, humans dramatically reduced their direct physical toil in
necessity-compelled labour, expanded productive capacity, and laid the material
foundations for agricultural surplus, trade, urban growth, and large-scale
construction.
Beast of Burden Changed the Course of human History: From the rise of the Sumerian, Mesopotamian, and
Indus Valley civilizations around 3000 BCE, through the Egyptian and Roman
empires, the Dark Ages, and into the Renaissance, these domesticated animals, known
as beasts of burden, powered economies, infrastructure, and armies. They hauled
goods, ploughed fields, transported materials, and moved armies across vast
distances, shouldering the bulk of heavy-load labour. Yet this foundational
role of domesticated animals in human development remains largely unacknowledged.
While kings, battles, and empires dominate historical narratives, the silent
and tireless labour of animals, working in cooperation with human labourers as
the true engines of pre-industrial civilization, remains invisible. Their
deployment on historical battlefields often determined the victories and
defeats of kings, monarchs, and empires, changing the course of human history
as decisively as mechanised weapons such as tanks would later do in the
industrial age. The contribution of the beast of burden to human progress
incalculable. All this unseen labour, of the beasts and the human
driven by necessity compulsion to earn a living and survive, fuelled
technological innovations that led to the vast developments and progress in
human history that we witness today.
Industrial Revolution Productivity Paradox: The Seeds of the Resistance
Labour Movement: The Industrial Revolution, spanning the eighteenth
to twentieth centuries, dramatically displaced the beast of burden and
unleashed unprecedented labour productivity through mechanisation and
factory-based production. While this transformation generated immense profit
margins that vastly enriched the capitalist class, it simultaneously produced
widespread industrial unemployment and deepened exploitation. As machines
replaced manual toil, output per worker soared, yet the benefits of this
productivity were monopolised by owners rather than shared with labourers. The
contradiction became increasingly stark: rising productivity did not result in
shorter working hours or improved conditions but instead intensified job
insecurity and prolonged exploitation. This imbalance exposed a fundamental
truth—that technological progress under private or public ownership amplifies
inequality unless consciously redirected, revealing the systemic tension
between expanding productive capacity and the persistence of gruelling,
overlong workdays, thereby sowing the seeds of organised resistance.
From Reduction of Working Hours May-Day to Socialist Revolution: In response, the working class began to organise
collectively through unionisation, coordinated strikes, and sustained demands
for legally mandated reductions in working hours alongside wage increases.
Under mounting social pressure, governments were compelled to intervene, and
over time the working day was gradually reduced from the brutal twelve-hour
norm to the eight-hour standard, symbolised globally by the May Day movement.
By the late nineteenth century, influenced by Marxist analysis, a radical socialist
workers’ movement led by the elites emerged worldwide, recognising that
piecemeal reforms were ultimately insufficient. The reduction of working hours
was no longer seen as the final objective but as a transitional step toward a
broader goal: the overthrow of capitalism itself. The movement increasingly
understood that only a fundamental systemic transformation could permanently
end labour exploitation, free humanity from compulsory labour, and ensure that
productivity gains served society as a whole rather than a privileged few.
The Working-Class Communist Revolution Has Largely
Faded: The dream of a working-class communist revolution, the
once-powerful vision of overthrowing capitalism through mass socialist
mobilisation, has largely faded by the end of 20th century.
Traditional socialist and communist labour parties have lost momentum,
credibility, and their mass base. Todays in the mid-third decade of 21st
century, working class faces profound disillusionment, not only with political
alternatives but with the very continuity of their class existence. As AI and
automation accelerate, workers no longer perceive technology as progress but as
an ominous countdown toward their doomsday, watching jobs disappear and
wondering when their own turn will come, sentenced like prisoners resigned to
their fate, hope of escape has dimmed;
for many, the future appears bleak or even non-existent, not only for
themselves but for their children. This despair is not born of laziness or
apathy, but of systemic abandonment and the absence of a credible, inclusive
roadmap forward.
Failed Responsivity Lack of Vision Tower of Babel: At the same time, the elite
ruling class has largely failed in its responsibility. In order to
safeguard their own class interest and due to a lack of vision in
recognising a historic opportunity they have become unable to comprehend the
situation to guide society toward a prudent transition into the emerging AI–AGI
era. Instead of articulating a clear path to fulfil humanity’s oldest
aspiration, liberation from labour exploitation, drudgery, and
necessity-compelled wage slavery they speak like as in the “Tower of Babel”
that makes no sense with their differences they have allowed fear among the concerned
public meanwhile the inequality deepen.
Historical Opportunity: Yet, for the first time in
history, material conditions now exist to open the doors to genuine abundance
without human labour exploitation. This moment presents a historic opportunity
to move beyond compulsory work toward a social order in which labour becomes
voluntary, creativity can flourish, and human dignity is universally secured.
An egalitarian vision long postponed by material scarcity is now objectively
achievable, not as utopian fantasy, but as a practical outcome of technological
maturity combined with conscious social reorganisation.
21st Century
AI AGI Robotic Revolution Towards Abundance: As we move into 2026, beyond the first quarter of the twenty-first
century, the world is witnessing an unprecedented acceleration in AI science
and technology, with exponential advances converging toward Artificial General
Intelligence (AGI), marking a paradigm shift surpassing all previous industrial
revolutions. For the first time in human history, intelligent human
labour in the social production of goods and services is no longer
technically necessary, a historic threshold at which abundance, rather than
scarcity becomes the material foundation of society, rendering the age-old
compulsion to labour obsolete and opening the door to a fundamentally
reimagined human future.
PART 4: CONCLUSION
Returning Back to 1980’s the Times of Reduction in Working Hours Theory: Now let us take a brief
pause from the present Z W T Basic Premise time period of 1980’s Reduction in
Working Hours Theory, in order to refresh the context. As I was saying in the
Part 1, earlier, my clear departure from Marxism came with the publication of
my book An Alternative to Marxian Scientific Socialism: The Theory of
Reduction in Working Hours in 1981, supported only by a small group of
fellow worker friends at that time since all my higher-ranking contacts in the
field either ignored, ridiculed, or openly laughed at both me and my theory as
6 Hours Work Day. I sent this book (main text written in Kannada) to many print
publications. I remember thankfully, two published its review but virtually
none of its copies were really sold.
It
Is Difficult to Get a Man to Understand Something When His Salary Depends Upon
His Not Understanding It: As
days passed into years, the realization gradually dawned upon me that society
was neither prepared to listen to nor capable of understanding my theoretical
vision of a future human society. The sad thing is even today, as I try to
contact those concerned in the fields remain
out of my reach or they don’t understand.
As the saying goes, “It is difficult to get people to understand
something when their salary depends upon their not understanding it.” I
got married in 1983, lost my one-day-old son in a hospital, probably due to
medical negligence, though I blame no one but quit heavy smoking from the same
day in his memory. After losing my full-time job, I struggled to survive by
assisting my wife with her cut-work embroidery work, quickly learning the craft
myself and succeeding in establishing a small handicraft business by the late
1980s. In time, we were blessed with two more children, Vivek and Rachana.
Lost My Book “An
Alternative……Reduction In Working Hour…Demand for 6 Hours………” to History by a
Momentary Lapse": I
stored the unsold copies of the book in the attic, where over the years they
grew old and fragile, deteriorated due to paper quality, termite damage, and
the lack of resources and hope to preserve them properly. I do recall
safeguarding a few surviving copies as late as the 2010s. Tragically, due to a
momentary lapse, I mistakenly discarded them in the trash, confusing them with
copies of another book of mine published in 2000, Alcoholics Cure-well,
under the mistaken belief that those were the better-preserved volumes. By the
time I realised my error, it was too late, and the originals in my position were
lost to history. A small consolation remains: contemporary reviews appeared in
one or two state-level Kannada daily newspapers and weekly magazines, and
further evidence perhaps survives in the living testimonies of the institutional
acquaintances from that era, including those from YCW and CIEDS, who I believe
still remember me and my work.
From Exploitation to Corruption: Anti-Corruption Fight Continues: My
fight against corruption was never merely theoretical. As you may know, this
YouTube channel contains a couple of video podcasts documenting my past to
present battles against the powerful landlord Bishop of the Mangalore Diocese still
continues to this day. It is not a isolated fight out of some personal grudge;
it was and is a direct confrontation with a system of exploitation and
corruption and injustice that inevitably flows from it. I believe this deeply:
corruption is the offspring of labour exploitation originally compelled by
nature, when a system is built on the compulsion to work the weak in the system
exploited by the powerful is the nature. Whether in a factory, a field, education
health or a diocese, corruption becomes its natural language. While I clearly
understood that human labour exploitation historically played a role in
societal progress, I also understood with equal clarity that the reduction of
working hours was essential to breaking this cycle. My struggle against local
corruption was one front in a larger war against the global system of labour
exploitation I had already described in 1981. They are, in essence, the same
battle.
Voice in Wilderness: For decades, my
theory remained a voice in the wilderness. Then technological advancement in
the artificial intelligence began to evolve—rapidly. What I had predicted long
ago, that technology would one day render human labour in social production
obsolete, is no longer science fiction. It has become today’s headline reality.
We are now approaching the threshold of Artificial General Intelligence, or
AGI, and this changes everything. AGI is not merely another tool; it is a new,
non-human worker. This brings us to the most urgent crisis of our time: what
happens to human society when its traditional foundation, work for income,
disappears?
This is why I
have written the AGI Mandate UBI proposal. It is the practical blueprint
born from my 45-year-old theory. It argues that by 2026, we must implement a
Universal Basic Income funded by the productivity of AGI itself not as a
welfare handout, but as a fundamental economic right in a post-labour age. UBI
is the mechanism that finally severs the link between survival and toil, ending
the root exploitation that breeds the corruption I have fought throughout my
life.
So, I have renamed this channel—from a specific local fight to a
universal human struggle. This channel is now dedicated to a single, crucial
idea: AGI Mandate UBI: The Zero Work Theory. Here, I will explain this theory,
its urgent timeline, and the peaceful political transition we must demand. I am
74. I have seen this future coming for a lifetime. We must act now to ensure
that the age of AGI becomes an age of human liberation, not one of catastrophic
collapse.
Please join me in this discussion. Subscribe to this channel. Read my
papers, which are freely available. Let us build a future where machines work,
and people are truly free.
