There are plenty of examples of labor movements throughout history (spanning rights recognition, practical advocacy to improve wages and working conditions, and radical re-envisioning), from worker unions and cooperatives, fully automated luxury communism and neodecadence, social security and even insurance, to universal basic income, wages for housework, and expanding who is allowed to work for wages. In this unprecedented time, we might begin to consider how prefiguration and divestment from the myths of progress and efficiency might play a role in re-establishing forms of subsistence and work-life integration that heals the rift of alienation, meets our needs without exploitation, and values finding joy in the work that we all love and rely on. What diverse arrangements for getting the work done in a weird world can we imagine anew and return to?
Recommended resources for this EcoGathering:
A big long blog post on relating to and reuniting with out working lives. For this session, we recommend reading the last section, subtitled Reclamation of Labor.
How to Drop Out by Ran Prieur
Retreats: Marble Hill Short film documenting the life of Mark Boyle, The Moneyless Man
Jem Bendell: Keeping Your Job at the End of the World (As We Know It)