Working Comrade #5
“Then it was chattel-slavery, now it is wage-slavery.”
It was Black Marxist Hubert Harrison who wrote in 1917 that the essence of wage slavery is the essence of chattel slavery. The chattel slave was forced to work by the threat of physical harm, while the wage slave is threatened with starvation. Just as the slave owner appropriated the labor of their slaves, so too does the modern employer of wage slaves appropriate the labor of his workers. I would put this short essay in the canon of anti-work literature. One way to think of anti-work is as a critique of work in general and the work ethic in particular. Anti-work scholars including David Frayne, Kathi Weeks, and Peter Fleming have questioned the centrality of work in our society.
David Frayne's The Refusal of Work is one of my all-time favorite works in the genre (2015). It’s compulsively readable and the PDF is fittingly free online. The Refusal of Work critiques the central role work holds in our society. Frayne believes that it is unjust that working 40 hours a week is the only way to gain access to basic requirements such as money, social approval, and a feeling of belonging when it leaves many of us feeling fatigued, irritated, and physically ill. Our jobs determine who we are, how successful we are, and for some are their only source of social connections. Because of the decades-long decline in government spending on social programs, even basic necessities like health insurance and retirement savings are now linked to having a job.
Your job may not involve strenuous physical exertion, but it probably leaves you psychologically exhausted at the end of the day, making the only thing you want to do when you get off is sit patiently in the dark while you wait for the next day to start… sleep. And there is a huge gap in people's opportunities to find fulfilling work. Most of us have tedious, pointless, bullshit jobs. Frayne challenges our assumption that work has always been this all consuming and bad.
Frayne claims that pre-industrial societies prioritized leisure time over wealth accumulation. He references Max Weber, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes. Marx believed technology would increase productivity and free up time from labor. Keynes estimated that by 1932 that the average person would work 15 hours each week by 2030.
But as we now know, they were mistaken, and things in the US are actually considerably worse than in western Europe. The US is one of the most overworked countries in the world. Americans work about 20 more hours each year than the global average. Nearly a third of Americans work 45+ hours each week, and 10 million work 60+. Workers today spend nearly 8 percent more hours than workers did 40 years ago. Jobs used to provide reliable income, respect, and community, but not anymore.
Today, it has come to be associated with slavery, a lack of human agency, and a lack of respect. The efforts to get people back to work during the pandemic have shattered many people's faith in the ability of markets to bring about individual freedom and independence.
Well here’s some slavery jobs
Community Organizing
Campaign Organizer at Right to Counsel NYC Coalition | $70,000 Yr. \ No degree mentioned |
Community Engagement Coordinator at Office of the District Attorney, Bronx County | Degree or 10 years of experience required | No salary mentioned |
Community Events Coordinator at The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center | $60,000 Yr. | No degree mentioned |
Community Organizer at Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation Inc | $60,000 yr | Degree required |
Digital Organizer at Namati | $73,000 Yr | No degree mentioned | Driver’s license required \
Families for Safe Streets Organizer at Transportation Alternatives | $60,000 Yr. | Master’s in Social Work Required |
Families for Safe Streets Social Worker (Spanish-speaking) at Transportation Alternatives | $60,000 Yr. | Social work experience required | Union job with good benefits! |
(I worked here and have opinions about the organization and its executive director. Families for Safe Streets does good work, and you'd be on a team with great organizers.)
Misc.
Community Associate at NYCHA | $63,794 Yr. | No Degree Required |
Office Associate at New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Division of Environmental Health | $69,462 Yr. | No degree required |
Social Media Manager at Out & Equal Workplace Advocates | $80,000 | Degree required |
Training and Data Lead at New York Civic Engagement Table | $70,000 Yr. | No degree required |
Jobs for My Friends #107: Labor Roles Across the Globe
Here's a link to the latest edition of David Duhalde's newsletter, Jobs for my friends. Send him a message to subscribe.