> SMASH down the cities.
> Knock the walls to pieces.
> Break the factories and cathedrals, warehouses
> and homes
> Into loose piles of stone and lumber and black
> burnt wood:
> You are the soldiers and we command you.
>
> Build up the cities.
> Set up the walls again.
> Put together once more the factories and cathedrals,
> warehouses and homes
> Into buildings for life and labor:
> You are workmen and citizens all: We
> command you.
>
> One of the main arguments for changing from the system we live within to a
> system where workers/producers own and control their creation of wealth,
> is
> that instead of competing with one another to make wages for a living, we
> could
> be co:operating to reduce the amount of time and effort we put in to
> create the
> social product of our labour. Like Wobblies have been arguing for years,
> workers should take on the project of shorter work time--say the four hour
> day
> with no cut in pay. The reduction of work time would obviously affect the
> the
> quality of the lives we lead in oh so many ways, leaving room for more
> free-time with our friends, family and for play. Of course, reducing our
> work
> time would be hard on our employers, reducing their rate of profit. But
> really, who are we living for anyway? Being with our bosses or being with
> the
> people we love?
>
> Mike B)
Cass answered:
Mike B:
I wonder how this is supposed to be brought about...?
I like the idea of having more free time with the same pay, but I do not see employers do this. I do not see the government passing laws doing this. I do not see people actually accepting this on a broad way, since (even if) people would lay down their work to go on strike (not being part of a union) the employer would find enough willing people to do the job for them and they would eventually get fired, hence loose the income they depend on to support their families and I think that this won't happen. I have seen people go to work (and have done this myself) with the most horrible of colds, because they feared the repercussions of taking a of sick leave (which btw is no reason to get fired in Germany). The fear being that after when they'd return the colleagues and bosses would make work-life difficult for them (all in a legal manner). *****************
What you say is true, Cass. If workers continue to obey their bosses and fear common solidarity, they will act to reproduce the world the way Carl Sandburg described they would in his poem, AND THEY OBEY. We cannot change the way the world is unless we put our desires for that change into practise. And the world has been changed by us before. Once upon a time, we had no overtime rules or eight hour day legislation. The fact that a lot of workers are afraid to claim their overtime nowadays is a measure of how well obedient workers will get along practising their narrow individualism and refusing to organise. To get out of the mousetrap of narrow individualism, means that we have to take responsibility for helping to achieve the necessary knowledge about which class creates the wealth and which class appropriates it and from there taking the initiative to organise others in our class in One Big classwide Union. With organisation, with class solidarity, we have power. Without it, we have nothing but the psychic benefits of our narrow individualism and we continue plodding along, selling our skills and time for the best market price we can get from the employing class--who btw *are* organised in structures like the chamber of commerce, the business council, the major political parties and so on...
***************** Cass continued:
A nicer thing would be if people would be actually able to choose in an informed way what they would like to do in life, what their passion is. Then they would not mind working for eight or even twelve hours a day because they'd do what they like, what they are passionate about (never mind "the ones we love"). For this to come true I actually only see parents educating their children - raising them in its original meaning: letting them explore the world and experience their parents' life and passions. Granted, this is a rather slow change for society (since in the beginning there will be only a handful of people doing this or even being able to do this sort of thing - not least money being an issue) but I think a rather more permanent and stronger one (from the bottom).
What do you think? ****************
If you don't mind being a wage-slave, even a professional who sells her time and skill on the labour market to make a living for eight to twelve hours a day while the employing class appropriates most of the wealth and power that you and your class create in society, then I think you've outlined a good strategy to accomplish this goal.
Mike B)
http://www.iww.org.au/node/10 "Would you have freedom from wage-slavery.." Joe Hill http://www.iww.org/en/join
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