Redefining Work and Contradicting Capitalist Society
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Self Organise: Reflections on Labour and Productivity
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Redefining Work and Contradicting Capitalist Society
- 1. Self Organise Reflections on labour and productivity Dr. Deborah Jackson
- 3. Anarcho-syndicalism Concerned with control over work, over the work place and over production
- 4. “ …what people don’t understand… is that what happens in the market is pivotal to their lives… not on the periphery…but slap, bang, in the middle…” Dr. Mark Curran
- 5. Division of Labour Mierle Laderman Ukeles Touch Sanitation (1978-80) Our jobs inform assumptions about where we live, what we are able to buy, what we earn, what our tastes are and so on. Identity Politics provides alternative narratives beyond class
- 6. Artist as labourer Chad Mccail Food Shelter Clothing Fuel The vast majority of us have to sell ourselves to a paid job in order to survive and it’s precisely at that point of sale that we relinquish control over our lives.
- 7. Chad Mccail Food Shelter Clothing Fuel How people are redefining work and how it contradicts capitalist society
- 8. Conspicuous Consumption The Freee art collective A sense of self has been reinforced through a celebration of consumer culture, we are each encouraged to express our individuality by owning distinctive products. People/worker’s attention was turned away from what they did to what they owned, over time personal pride has become associated with the status value of your possessions rather than from your work or contribution to society.
- 9. Ellie Harrison Bring Back British Rail Globalisation describes the redesign of work, for instance, the computerization and the relocation of production within and without national boundaries, the rolling back of unions and the welfare state, privatization of public goods, rapid and extreme concentration of wealth and power and the reduced reliability of jobs and careers.
- 10. Tracy Emin I’ve got it all 2000 The economy has shifted towards a more service basis - banking and finance, advertising and media, tourism, software, restaurants, retail - all these occupations require real people to do mental and physical tasks, but the products of all this labour is essentially immaterial, it produces no physical product.
- 11. Chad Mccail Food Shelter Clothing Fuel
- 12. The rejection of professionalism goes hand-in-hand with the emergence of grassroots, DiY communities
- 14. The Society of the Spectacle Tanja Ostojic Looking for a Husband with EU Passport (2000 – 2005) Capital shapes society and individual lives through the omnipresent Spectacle. An incessant stream of images and information that creates an impression that there is only one way of life and everyone is contentedly living it or striving to achieve it. Social movements create alternative systems for creating meaning and purpose in our lives.
- 15. The real sharing economy Where wealth and power are shared, not just consumer goods and spare bedrooms
- 17. Society of Abundance The recognition that insecurity dominates our lives – the economy does not serve our needs, we are in service to it.
Editor's Notes
- Reflections on labour and productivity Exploration of work and labour and resistance to oppressive ideologies Looking at how work and labour structure our lives Explain how the relationship between capitalism and wage labour has mutated under globalisation
- Start by talking a little about Anarchism—the term is derived from the Greek meaning “contrary to authority” There have been many styles of thought and action that have been referred to as "anarchist.” So it would be hopeless to try to encompass all of these conflicting tendencies in some general theory or ideology. However, what we can identify is that, primarily anarchism is a tendency that is suspicious and skeptical of domination, authority, and hierarchy. Anarchism imagines revolutionary transformations in art, science, politics, history, and music. Anarchism disrupts, agitates and subverts while holding out the possibility of creating social utopias, ideal worlds where order allows for change. Anarchism is the boldest of revolutionary social movements to emerge from the struggle against capitalism — it aims for a world free from all forms of domination and exploitation. But at its heart is a simple and convincing proposition: people know how to live their own lives and organize themselves better than any expert could. However, others cynically claim that people do not know what is in their best interests, that they need a government to protect them. Anarchists counter that decision-making should not be centralized in the hands of any government, but instead power should be decentralized: that is to say, each person should be the center of society, and all should be free to build the networks and associations they need to meet their needs in common with others.
- The particular brand of anarchism that the philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky ascribes to is anarcho-syndicalism, which is a particular variety of anarchism that is concerned primarily, though not solely, with control over work, over the work place and over production. Anarcho syndicalism was the only way anarchism developed into a mass movement C19 and C20. Two features inspired anarchists about syndicalism, Firstly, they reject conventional politics as corrupting and pointless and instead believe in working class power as exerted through direct action such as general strikes. Secondly, the advocate the syndicates as a model for democratic, grassroots decentralised, society of the future. So what does that mean for those of us in the 21st c, who are trying to not only understand social change, but somehow to influence it too? Does it mean we should all quit our jobs and go out and start a riot? The situation is one whereby there is a struggle for A new politics of work (recognition of important tasks that are undervalued by market society) A self-emancipatory class beyond the traditional arena of wage-labour A result of people/workers recognising the degradation/inequalities inherent in capitalist business relations – evident in the proliferation of global social movements such as We are the 99% (in protestation of the 1% possessing the wealth and power) A visible consequence, the creation of networks of activists and new initiatives have emerged Can be described as a guerrilla war over the direction of society Not waiting for an institutional change from on-high, getting on with building a new society Rooted in mutual aid and self-reliance
- “ …what people don’t understand… is that what happens in the market is pivotal to their lives… not on the periphery…but slap, bang, in the middle…” Dr. Mark Curran Strategic, tactical thinking and practice that confronts the everyday objectification to which capitalism reduces us all People determined to escape the bounds of being ‘mere workers’ Putting into practice the anti-business of Do-it-Yourself culture Working to escape the endless treadmill of consumerism and overwork For many time is more important than money People are engaged in activities that go on outside their jobs in their so-called ‘free time’ Activities that embody the (partial) transcendence of wage-labour Efforts to break away, be it socialism, co-ops, collectives and other smaller scale alternatives have always flourished on the margins of capitalist society, but never to the extent that the radically different way of living has been able to supplant market society (the market is constructed and there is widespread complicity in creating and maintaining the construct) The pull of business, of buying and selling, of surviving economically, all exert enormous pressure on these initiatives
- Upon meeting, most people still usually ask each other “what do you do?” The answer is usually about what we get paid to do, our jobs. This is an indication that we evaluate each other in terms of our place in the division of labour, our jobs inform assumptions about where we live, what we are able to buy, what we earn, what our tastes are and so on. Identity Politics provides alternative narratives beyond class, for example, gender, race, sexuality have more weight in how you are understood socially that what you do at work. In other words, no single aspect of lives, least of all what we do for money, adequately describes our full complexity. Nevertheless, as a way of analysing power relations in society, class is a crucial component.
- The vast majority of us have to sell ourselves to a paid job in order to survive and it’s precisely at that point of sale that we relinquish control over our lives. Once sold (or hired) we must do as we are told and if we don’t we are likely to be fired and cut off from the income on which we depend. Whilst this situation can be partly alleviated through self-employment and co-operative arrangements, almost anything that we do can be a source of someone else’s profit. Consider the irony and contradictions in being repeatedly told that cultural work is valuable and important yet there is no funding to support it
- How people are redefining work and how it contradicts capitalist society. Efforts to bridge the gap between our specific life experience and our productive participation in common dynamics Each of us has a unique life based on our particular location in time, space, and social hierarchies; but each of too, is a producer of a common life, participating in common roles, in the global capitalist economy, contributing to shared social knowledge. In other words, simultaneously individual and specific, whilst inherently also about producing a shared life.
- Since the second half of the 20th century a sense of self has been reinforced through a celebration of consumer culture, we are each encouraged to express our individuality by owning distinctive products. A cultural imperative to consume. This focus on consumption has demoted an awareness of production. People/worker’s attention was turned away from what they did to what they owned, over time personal pride has become associated with the status value of your possessions rather than from your work or contribution to society.
- Globalisation describes the redesign of work, for instance, the computerization and the relocation of production within and without national boundaries, the rolling back of unions and the welfare state, privatization of public goods, rapid and extreme concentration of wealth and power and the reduced reliability of jobs and careers.
- The economy has shifted towards a more service basis - banking and finance, advertising and media, tourism, software, restaurants, retail - all these occupations require real people to do mental and physical tasks, but the products of all this labour is essentially immaterial, it produces no physical product.
- Social approval of professionalism – an endorsement of expertise – the expertise gained by educational or other professional sanctioning institutions. For many people this selective system renders their innate talents and knowledge gathered outside accredited institutions socially invisible. Nevertheless, dissident professionals and self-educated non-institutional experts have altered the landscape of science and technology, for example, over the past few decades (environmental justice and community gardens) Journalism is another example, it too has lost its former elevated status due to the internet – independent sites, highly literate blogs for instance, that are following the trail blazed in the 1960s and 90s by underground zines.
- The rejection of professionalism goes hand-in-hand with the emergence of grassroots, DiY communities that are often sustained by volunteer labour of former or or could-have-been professionals who have turned away in search of a more rewarding life, a life that doesn’t revolve around the next purchase.
- The tremendous increase in personal debt imposed on university students is a structural way that graduates are now coerced into taking any work they can in order to pay their debts – student debt forces potentially free and creative thinkers to work at jobs over which they have no control or say. It is also difficult or impossible to make a living from many things that people really want to do – art, dance, music, history, philosophy etc – and so there has been a steady increase in people living a life where they have a job for the necessity of making money and they engage in other fulfilling work, whether it’s paid or not. This often results in time-theft, the common practice of doing your own activities whilst at work – talking to a friend on the phone, internet browsing, or using facilities and resources for your own ends. Work throws up questions about personhood: Who owns your body? Who owns your labour power? (are these two related) Personhood and the way we work: Relates to.. Time and structure of daily living Hierarchy Individualism Social interactions and relationships Ideas about responsible citizenship Relationship to wider society (taxes, economy, productivity and so on)
- Capital shapes society and individual lives through the omnipresent Spectacle. An incessant stream of images and information that creates an impression that there is only one way of life and everyone is contentedly living it or striving to achieve it. Social movements create alternative systems for creating meaning and purpose in our lives. Outside the categories of jobs, shopping and consumption. New initiatives that strain to break the cycle.
- DiY - rooted in ecological principles and the communities in which people develop trust through sharing skills and endeavours. DiY – solving problems without relying on pre-packaged commodities, corporations or large sums of money – founded on a creative search for sustainable solutions that can replace our dependencies on mainstream, capitalist society. Commodities: they have two values: use and exchange Politically motivated DiY culture rejects the fantasies of the market. Sharing, real sharing, could allow humanity as a whole to produce, consume, and emit less while improving quality of life through greater social interactions, fairer wealth distribution, and stronger community relationships. But sharing needs to go far beyond profit-seeking smartphone apps for unregulated taxi services (Uber) and vacation rentals (Airbnb). The real sharing economy — where wealth and power are shared, not just consumer goods and spare bedrooms. These real sharing entities share resources, knowledge, and decision-making responsibilities as they co-create community goods and services. Then they share the abundance together.
- Of course many of us want to be able to know that we can act, and organise with others, and that this will make a difference, it will contribute to social change. When it comes to work many people's work is creative, fascinating or valuable and rewarding. And for many others it is, and always has been, a worthwhile means to the end of feeding themselves and their family and paying the bills. But perhaps such a reductionist view of work misses the point. In Alain de Botton’s book ‘The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work’, he talks about the idea of ‘meaningful work’, where someone can make an imaginative connection between what they have done and their impact on others. Of course, what counts as meaningful will depend upon the values of that person and the society they live in. De Botton’s idea of Meaningful work clashes with a social anarchist viewpoint, since anarchists reject capitalism Significantly, social anarchists claim that the existence of property results in wage slavery Capitalism is generally considered by scholars to be an economic system that includes private ownership of the means of production, creation of goods or services for profit or income, the accumulation of capital, competitive markets, voluntary exchange, and wage labor. Anarchism questions the desire to ‘objectively’ measure whether or not a process has been successful, and both debate the assumptions that underlie the supposedly objective definition of ‘success’. In mainstream or uncontested narratives, such in the popular press or in recorded history, there is a desire to neatly explain how social change happens. This make us impose causation where perhaps it didn’t exist (cause and effect, or this action will cause or has caused this to happen). The Right to be lazy (1883)… a critique of the organisation of work. Integral to this idea, is the recuperation of time. The downside of the pursuit of the consumerist fantasy is having a job (or maybe two!) which is another way of saying that we trade time for goods.
- The recognition that insecurity dominates our lives – the economy does not serve our needs, we are in service to it. We entered into a society of abundance many decades ago The idea here is to subvert consumerism by real sharing and in so doing create a better quality of life, beyond the notion that material scarcity rules, to develop in its place social practices that cultivate meaningful relationships, so to retrieve, or discover, our unique creative outlets. A line of thinking like this is easily dismissed as fanciful, as utopian, in the sense of unattainable. What we are talking about here is primarily defines a change in consciousness – an appreciation of quality over quantity.