Workers of the world...relax

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>On Tue, 1 Oct 2002, Carrol Cox wrote:
>
>>  I've always thought that Arendt's distinction between work and labor has
>>  a lot to recommend it. (Actually, Engels made the distinction when he
>>  noted that in English there is always a tendency to give the concrete
>>  thing a germanic name and the abstraction a latin name.) It's also
>>  implicit in both the labor theory of value and in Marx's comparison of
>>  bee and architect.
>>
>>  Carrol
>
>The problem with the distinction is that everyday discourse
>tends to valorize "work".  Yeah, it's a cliche, but every mom's
>a working mom.  To label wage labor "real work" is an effective
>strategy for trivializing a lot of the human activity that makes
>even a supposedly capitalist society function.
>
>--I think a general nonwage labor strike would be very interesting:
>our supposedly capitalist society would grind to a halt without the
>diligent, unpaid work--yes, work!--that we do in our homes and
>communities.
>
>Miles

If all moms and dads stop changing diapers for a day, the only ones 
who get sore are babies, whereas strikes, even slowdowns, at several 
strategically important industries (like cargo transportation) for a 
day will indeed wreak havoc on profits.  Wage labor and unpaid work 
for social reproduction have very different relations to capital.
-- 
Yoshie

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