http://worktime.blogdrive.com/ WORKtime Wed, 22 Jun 2005 10:15:04 PDT http://www.blogdrive.com Copyright 2005. http://worktime.blogdrive.com/archive/31.html Wed, 22 Jun 2005 18:11:25 GMT "Demotivational Training: Anecdote on the Drop in Economic Optimism", Guillaume Paoli. What, then, is productive work? Symbolically speaking, our concept of work is still colored by the biblical curse that impresses upon us the necessity to sow and to harvest if we want to eat. We have to "plough through" in order to "earn our daily bread." Even as late as the 18th century the physiocrats still considered agriculture to be the only productive work. The tradesman did not perform productive work but rather "hired" work, since he depended on surpluses supplied by the primary work carried... (more) http://worktime.blogdrive.com/comments?id=31 http://worktime.blogdrive.com/archive/30.html Tue, 07 Jun 2005 14:10:32 GMT WORKING SLOWLY IS A FILM FOR EVERYONE by Guido Chiesa [2004, excerpt] Those for whom one less day of holiday is one more day of toil. Those whose heart doesn't throb when the national anthem is played. Those who have lost their way yet keep on going. Those who think that the class you belong to matters even after school. Those who aren't ashamed to take themselves seriously *and* laugh at themselves. Those who are never made happy by an increase in the GDP. Those who would never send anyone - even Him [Berlusconi] - to a factory or to prison. Those who weren't better off when... (more) http://worktime.blogdrive.com/comments?id=30 http://worktime.blogdrive.com/archive/29.html Sat, 04 Jun 2005 20:41:08 GMT Hotlines - call centre inquiry (Kolinko) Excerpt: Workers develop forms of refusal of work wherever capital brings them together. Capital's insatiable hunger to multiply implies the tendency to use workers up and bleed them dry. In many call centres burning out is an everyday fact. Workers quit after six months or a year - in spite of nice workmates or conditions that seem to be good compared to other jobs - because they notice how their eyesight blurs, how their ears hurt, how blaring customer complaints burn into their brains. In order to still be sane at the end of the shift, workers... (more) http://worktime.blogdrive.com/comments?id=29 http://worktime.blogdrive.com/archive/28.html Fri, 03 Jun 2005 19:26:28 GMT "The Two temporalities of Counter-Power and Anti-Power", John Holloway. 1. Time is central to any consideration of power and counter power or anti-power. The traditional left is centred on waiting, on patience. The social democratic parties tell us “Wait until the next election, then we will come to power and things will be different” The Leninist parties say “wait for the revolution, then we’ll take power and life will begin”. But we cannot wait. Capitalism is destroying the world and we cannot be patient. We cannot wait for the next long wave or the next revolutionary opportunity. We... (more) http://worktime.blogdrive.com/comments?id=28 http://worktime.blogdrive.com/archive/27.html Sat, 14 May 2005 02:42:52 GMT Retail Worker, an IWW US-based online forum for those working in retail, subtitled 'Home of the big, phony smile' -- or, depending on the randomised script: 'If retail is theater, put me in the actors guild'; 'Talking back to the boss every day' and so on. Extensive discussions, news, company-specific info and more. http://worktime.blogdrive.com/comments?id=27 http://worktime.blogdrive.com/archive/26.html Tue, 26 Apr 2005 04:49:35 GMT Excerpt from "McManagers" [orig. posted to Sarai] Mangers in the making. [...] So, this is what the mangers are told to do , in some way or the other: 1. Bring a smile to work: It is said that if the manager consistently has an upbeat attitude, the staff, will too. Hence they are told to have the kind of fun that benefits the business. Play games to liven the training sessions, hold sales-building contests, keep a sense of humor when things get tough. Hold important meetings outside the restaurant. Set up a humor corner. Designate space on the bulletin board where employees can post... (more) http://worktime.blogdrive.com/comments?id=26 http://worktime.blogdrive.com/archive/25.html Fri, 22 Apr 2005 16:58:34 GMT Excerpts from Werner Bonefeld's "The Politics of Debt: Social Discipline and Control": [...] During the 1980s, debt, precarious work, and the daily struggle to make ends meet were largely confined to the working class. 'Tory voters have looked on happily as employers' rights to determine pay and work conditions have been steadily increased, never thinking casualisation would come to them. [...] However, 'debt' is a great 'equaliser', and also a force of social division. The discipline through debt, job uncertainty, economic insecurity and psychological distress has reached the middle... (more) http://worktime.blogdrive.com/comments?id=25 http://worktime.blogdrive.com/archive/24.html Wed, 13 Apr 2005 04:52:20 GMT 8 Days of Sitting In at WashingtonU, Take Action: Sit-In for Living Wage For 8 days (since April 4), students at Washington University (St Louis) have occupied the main administration building in support of a living wage demand for those who work at the university. Updates here and here. Sign the online petition. [Q: Is it really necessary to generate the fiction of a shared subjectivity (precariati) in order to take action?] http://worktime.blogdrive.com/comments?id=24 http://worktime.blogdrive.com/archive/23.html Fri, 08 Apr 2005 14:37:26 GMT Interview with a call centre worker [from www.precairforum.nl] What I heard was you were working in a callcenter and you've been fired. Well, it's more than a callcenter. It's a telecom company that provides cheap services, connections world-wide. It's a medium-sized company andI work in the order department, I put orders into the computer. It's quite debilitating work, really bad, like factory work. It's modern factory work, because these are actually factories, even if it's a glass-and-steel building. Yeah, I think we are factory workers, the work is very monotonous, it's all the same.... (more) http://worktime.blogdrive.com/comments?id=23 http://worktime.blogdrive.com/archive/22.html Fri, 25 Mar 2005 03:02:42 GMT Peter Waterman's article, "From ‘Decent Work’ to ‘The Liberation of Time from Work’: Reflections on Work, Emancipation, Utopia and the Global Justice and Solidarity Movement" summarises some of the debates around work, time, subalternity, identity and marxism -- principally as those debates have appeared within the World Social Fora. "‘Decent Work’ has been enthusiastically adopted by the inter/national union organisations that are in a posture of subordinate partnership (i.e. political or ideological dependence on) capital and/or state. It is the latest fig-leaf behind which the... (more) http://worktime.blogdrive.com/comments?id=22