>"A French worker wrote as follows on his return from San Francisco: 'I
>could never have believed that I was capable of working at all the
trades I
>practised in California. I was firmly convinced that I was fit for
nothing
>but the printing of books ... Once I was in the midst of this world of
>adventurers, who change their jobs as often as their shirts, then, upon
my
>faith, I did as the others. As mining did not pay well enough, I left
it
>for the city, and there I became in succession a typographer, a slater,
a
>plumber, etc. As a result of this discovery that I am fit for any sort
of
>work, I feel less of a mollusc and more of a man' (A. Corbon, _De
>l'enseignement professionel, 2nd edn, p. 50)"
>K. Marx, _Capital_, vol. 1, Penguin ed. p. 618
>
>"if, at present, variation of labour imposes itself after the manner of
an
>overpowering natural law, and with the blindly destructive action of a
>nautral law that meets with obstacles everywhere, large-scale industry,
>through its very catastrophes, makes the recognition of variation of
labour
>and hence of the fitness of the worker for the maximum number of
different
>kinds of labour into a question of life and death. This possibility of
>varying labour must become a general law of social production, and the
>existing relations must be adapted to permit its realization in
practice.
>That monstrosity, the disposable working population held in reserve,
must
>be replaced by the individual man who is absolutely available for the
>different kinds of labour required of him; the partially developed
>individual, who is merely the bearer of one specialized social
function,
>must be replaced by the totally developed individual, for whom the
>different social functions are different modes of activity he takes up
in
>turn."
>Ibid.
>
>Ted Winslow
>York University
>Toronto
Yeah, so I can type and seal envelopes and sort paper clips and! answer telephones. :-)
-Alec
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