[lbo-talk] OWS Demands working group: jobs for all!

Joseph Catron jncatron at gmail.com
Thu Oct 20 11:35:40 PDT 2011


On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 8:16 PM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:


> yes, i'm sure capitalists will be terrified by your generous offer to work
> more for them.
>
> Therefore, jobs programs are bad.
>
> So here we have a random poster and a high-profile intellectual telling us
> why such demands are bad from an anarchist POV.

I wouldn't say it's "bad" (what is, really?), but it certainly doesn't seem as desirable as the basic income guarantee advocated by the French MAUSS and Italian Ya Basta! groups (and a bunch of others before them). Debating whether a current demand for income should reach its logical conclusion - severing it from labor - is, like any "how moderate/radical is too moderate/radical?" argument, only useful to a point. But it's not like those who want to push all the way have no points on their side. And there's certainly a case to be made for staking out a more radical position when you're formulating demands you don't realistically expect to get anyway. There'll always be plenty of time for pragmatism and compromise later.

-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list