work and rhetoric

[Doug Henwood]

"The sea change in teh conflict over a shorter workweek is captured 
by the current union refrain that '[t]he question is...[s]hould 
workers be forced to work or should they be given the choice to spend 
time with their families?' This individualistic 'family values' 
public relations approach stands i nsharp contrast to the ninettenth- 
and early twentieth-century collectivist context, when labor 
'predicated its demand for leisure as a means to the creation of a 
better social order. To produce intelligent citizens, essential to 
the existence of a democracy, everybody should have sufficient 
leisure to permit attendance at night schools, time for reading, 
discussion, and attendance at political meetings.' Around the time of 
the Civil War, the eight-hours movement was in part driven by the 
demand that a bright line be drawn between the time during which 
workers were wage-slaves to capital and the time during which they 
were free...."

   - Marc Linder, Moments are Elements of Profit (Iowa City, Fanpihua 
Press, 2000), pp. 6-7.