Haddad Launches ‘Capitalismo Superindustrial’ in São Paulo, Calls for Mobilization Against the Far Right

Overview

• Finance minister Fernando Haddad unveiled his book Capitalismo superindustrial on February 7 at Sesc 14 Bis in São Paulo, in a conversation with Celso Rocha de Barros moderated by Lilia Schwarcz.
• Haddad said the new work is more optimistic than his 1990s texts and argued that humanity will not remain passive in the face of the far right’s rise.
• The book advances a thesis of a “superindustrial” phase of capitalism marked by the commodification of knowledge, information and science, and it describes a fragmenting of non‑owner classes into a cognitariat, a traditional proletariat and a precariat.
• He revisits his earlier academic research to examine primitive accumulation on capitalism’s periphery and to assess how China’s emergence as a global power reshapes contemporary dynamics.
• Lula recently suggested Haddad could run for São Paulo governor, but Haddad confined his remarks to the book, has repeatedly said he does not want to be a candidate this year, and reporting indicates he is expected to leave the Finance Ministry in the coming weeks.