Today's Topics:
1. France, Union Communiste Libertaire - Fire in Rouen: let's
get out of pyromaniac capitalism (fr, it, pt)[machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. France, Union Communiste Libertaire AL #297 - Essay:
Contemporary Symptoms of Spectacular Capitalism (fr, it,
pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. Poland, WORKERS' INITIATIVE: How the government fought the
teachers' strike [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Greece, Report On The NO PASARAN! Demonstration Of September
14th By A.P.O. [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. Federazione Anarchica Torinese - FAI: Hands down from
exarchia! -- Solidarity without borders (it) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. Britain, AFED, organise magazine: Productivity Is Not Your
Friend | Theory And Analysis (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
Following the fire of the Lubrizol factory in Rouen, many questions arise. The inaction
and lies of the public authorities are unbearable for local people, while the boss of the
plant has been fattening for many years on the backs of workers. An environmental and
social reaction of magnitude is essential for this kind of accident is never possible.
---- On September 26, 2019, a fire broke out in the Lubrizol factory. This plant is
classified Seveso, which means that it presents a risk of major accident. Soon, a cloud of
unknown chemicals formed over the area, and the rain did its job to deposit them on people
and buildings.
The exploited, the first victims
Workers are obviously the first to be affected in this type of disaster. Because they may
work near chemical substances in the plant, but also because high-risk factories are
usually established in popular neighborhoods ! This is the case of this site of the
company Lubrizol which is located in the town of Petit-Quevilly, in the agglomeration of
Rouen.
Those who are always asked for help, who are always asked to ration themselves, are in
fact the first to be exposed to ecological and health problems when they declare
themselves. What is the point of making an effort on fuel consumption, which is essential
when you live in rural areas, without adequate public transport, if you are at risk of
serious illnesses and infirmities following this type of accident ?
A profit race protected by the rulers
The owner of the plant is American billionaire Warren Buffet. The same person who said in
2005 to the CNN TV channel, cynical as well as sincerely convinced and proud of him, "This
is my class, the class of the rich, who leads this war, and who is winning it. ". And
that's exactly what's happening here. Ensuring the safety of a factory is expensive for
this poor billionaire. To increase profits, when we do not care about health and ecology,
we can always reduce this margin.
And this, without much risk in case of problems ! Indeed, in 2013, an incident had already
occurred in this same factory, resulting in a cloud of Mercaptan on the city. This very
serious situation had resulted in a fine for Lubrizol of ... 4000 euros.
In the current situation, we can still see that the powers in place protect the owner of
the plant. By not giving the name of the volatilized substances, by minimizing the gravity
of the phenomenon, by giving contradictory instructions to the inhabitants ...
Take control of our lives by changing society
It is clear that it is not leaving power to leaders who are all on the side of the bosses
that we can take care of our health and our environment ! This is why the ecological
question is intimately linked to the social question: already because the exploited are
the first victims of ecological disasters, then because capitalism and its frantic search
for profits is incompatible with a way of life that keeps our environments livable.
To get out of the infernal spiral of polluted land, our health in danger, global warming
and damage to biodiversity, workers must take power. For the capitalists confiscate the
popular classes the means of choosing how they consume, how they produce, how they move,
and so on. They force them to participate in the destruction of the environment. The
Lubrizol plant produces lubricants for cars. But would we even need so many cars if there
was adequate public transportation everywhere, a real public transport service, yet being
dismantled by the government ?
Conversely, we need a revolution in production methods and lifestyles, which will only
pass through a control of production by workers.
Libertarian Communist Union, September 27, 2019
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Incendie-a-Rouen-sortons-du-capitalisme-pyromane
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Message: 2
No offense to some people, having a Marxian analysis of society is not limited to boring
economic speech. Capitalism and merchandise have penetrated all spheres of social life,
monetizing all (or almost) to make goods. ---- Literature, cinema, television, social
networks have become hunting grounds for unscrupulous cultural capitalists. It is
therefore not surprising that many successful cultural products are ready-to-think and
reflect the alienation associated with the commodification of the whole of social life.
---- This is shown by Benoit-Bohy Bunel, critical theorist and militant communist
libertarian. Often, the philosophy is not very accessible. Here the author tries to break
the cliché of the philosopher in his ivory tower. It is from the analysis of successful
authors that his criticism of spectacular capitalism will begin. No domain is spared. In
the first place, it shows the intellectual void of authors such as Marc Lévy who portrays
bourgeois who only symbolize the face of capitalist domination.
He is then interested in cinema. For example, he explains in a subtle way that films such
as Inception , which may seem interesting at first sight, are only the staging of the
commodification of the depths of the unconscious. If he misses the film Fight Club , which
he does not analyze all aspects, it is catching up in the pages devoted to Michel
Houellebecq. This author, though acclaimed by critics, is only the apostle of the
emptiness of European capitalism: he delivers the moral pangs of a reactionary European
man, who feels threatened by women and foreigners ...
He then describes the mechanisms of television advertising and the profound alienation of
the logic of social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. In the line of Guy
Debord and Situationism, he tries to show that the entire cultural industry is a machine
to generate consent and alienation at all levels of existence. From these elements, and in
particular from a criticism of Leonardo Di Caprio, he also shows that this show is an
opportunity to stage a green capitalism: display good intentions, cut the water by
brushing teeth and sorting its waste then becomes the unsurpassable horizon of good
environmental consciousness as multinationals and states happily ravage the planet.
All in all, it is an interesting book, which can be read in small keys, each part being
relatively autonomous. The only small limit in our opinion, it is a pity that he speaks
little about the resistance to this capitalist cultural industry, which nevertheless exist ...
Matt (UCL Montpellier)
Benoit Bohy-Bunel, contemporary symptoms of spectacular capitalism , Harmattan, 2019, 208
pages, 21 euros
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Essai-Symptomes-contemporains-du-capitalisme-spectaculaire
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Message: 3
Solidarity poster OZZ Inicjatywa Pracownicza ---- The teachers' strike lasted from April 8
to 26, 2019. 14,000 branches and 600,000 people employed there took part in it. It was the
largest strike after 1989. ---- From the very beginning, the government tried to weaken
the strike by various methods - both legal and non-legal. Some of them can be described as
classic - intimidation, disinformation, humiliation, refusing to negotiate to bleed a
strike. The remaining methods are quite new in the case of conflicts in education, and
even collective disputes in Poland - rapid changes in educational law depriving strikers'
competences, giving special rights to persons outside school staff, and finally omitting
the act on resolving collective disputes and conducting negotiations outside trade unions.
Below is an overview of these methods.
Myths, lies, intimidation and insults or information policy of the government and the party
Number of striking outposts
From the first day of the strike, the government tried to misinform public opinion by
reducing the number of strikers and the number of people participating in the strike. The
Ministry of National Education reported that 48.5% of schools joined the strike. This was
supposed to indicate weak support for the strike. Public figures less than 50% allowed
public television to announce that "more than half of the schools did not go on strike."
ZNP reported other numbers. According to him, about 70% of the outlets went on strike. The
discrepancy of data, in addition to bad will, could have come from a different way of
counting the total number of schools and kindergartens by the ministry and the ZNP. The
Ministry of National Education (MEN) doubled or even repeatedly counted some schools,
including types of schools in statistics, e.g. technical schools, vocational schools and
high schools within one employer - the school complex.
Collecting data on strikers
On April 10, the Ministry of National Education, through a team supporting the education
database - the Educational Information System (SIO) - ordered school heads to register
persons participating in the strike, together with the dates of their "absence" from
school. This was read by the directors, teachers and teachers as an attempt to evoke fear
of possible consequences for participating in the strike. On April 12, the President of
the Office for Personal Data Protection recognized this as unlawful, because the law
regulating the functioning of this database contains a closed catalog of registered
reasons for "absence", and the strike is not one of them. For our part, we would like to
add that the strike is not an absence from work, but merely a refusal to carry it out.
During the strike, presence in the workplace is required[1], attendance lists are drawn
up, the employer is to ensure the safety of striking people, moreover, even an accident
during a strike is considered an accident at work. It is hard to consider the striking
person absent.
One law we create, we circumvent another - that is, new methods to combat the strike of
teachers
Labor Inspectorate in action
To intimidate the strikers, the government also tried to use an institution established to
protect the employed. Because the collective dispute must be submitted to the labor
inspectorate, just before the strike, the Ministry of National Education began to send
inspectors to schools to check if there is a collective dispute. Of course, the labor
inspectorate has no right to investigate the legality of strikes, it can only punish the
director of the facility for not reporting a collective dispute. However, the top-down
order to send inspections to schools was another way to disinform, panic and intimidate
facility directors, who mostly supported the protesters' demands. The inspectors
themselves complained to the press that they felt abused and opposed that labor
inspectorate should be treated as a political tool used to combat strikes.
Appointment of examination boards
Even before the strike, because already on April 2, the Minister of Education changed the
rules of appointing examination committees for examinations conducted in elementary and
junior high schools and high schools in case of "difficulties in forming a team consisting
of teachers of a given institution" - of course, it was about the difficulties caused by
the strike. The new ordinance allowed to appoint to the examination boards persons not
working in a given school, including persons who are not teachers but only possessing
pedagogical qualifications. At the same time, the same ordinance changed the maximum
number of students per assistant examiner - from 20 to 25, which allowed less staff to be
used to carry out the examinations. Thanks to the new regulations during the junior high
school exam on April 10-12, striking teachers replaced retired people,
Admission to the final exams by directors and even local government
In connection with the approaching final exams and the danger of their postponement, Prime
Minister Morawiecki announced that he would introduce regulations that "in schools where
pedagogical councils will not decide to admit the final exams, this right will be given to
the director. And if the council and director do not want to make such decisions, such
decisions will be taken by the local government. " Trying to take away some of the
important competences of teachers, the prime minister tried to reduce the bargaining power
of strikers as "superfluous" in the education process, which includes giving grades,
classifications and examinations.
Mockery of the collective tender - Round Educational Table
After 10 days of strike, on April 18, Prime Minister Morawiecki decided to set up a new,
legally unrestrained body to resolve the ongoing dispute over the salaries of teachers and
teachers and the shape of education - the Educational Round Table. To participate in the
deliberations of the round (physically rectangular) table were invited: three central
units involved in the collective dispute: Solidarnosc, FZZ and ZNP, as well as numerous
random organizations and persons, including 5 randomly selected teachers, 5
representatives of the party, the Chancellery of the President, parents' organizations,
local government associations, non-governmental organizations, as well as individual
experts such as Ewa Letowska, Michal Kleiber, Andrzej Wasko, and Henryk Domanski. It is
worth emphasizing that all invited trade unions, including Solidarity, refused to
participate in this undertaking. The first meeting of the "round" table took place the day
after the strike was suspended - April 26. Until the end of the school year, the table,
without trade unions, met three more times - on April 30, May 10 and June 17.
Summary
The largest mobilization of the Polish world of work since 1989 frightened the government
so much that it began to use new measures, which have not been used so far to combat the
strike. In addition to "classic" intimidation, playing on emotions, attempts to compromise
strikers and attempts to prolong the duration of the strike, in order to inflict the
greatest financial losses on employees, the government used the method of express law
change and bypassed the act on resolving collective disputes to break a strike.
The change in ad-hoc regulations regarding the method of classifying students and
conducting examinations has stripped strikers of their rights, and thus directly hit their
bargaining power - qualifications to conduct the education process.
The Educational Round Table is an unprecedented attempt to move away from the law on
resolving collective disputes. It is worth remembering that despite the boycott by the
trade unions and the end of the strike, the table continues to deliberate and makes
arrangements with the government without the participation of employees' representatives.
These tactics can be used by the government in the future and they are very dangerous for
all sectors, especially employees of the budget sphere. It is worth being prepared for them.
Katarzyna Rakowska / Warsaw Environmental Commission
footnotes:
[1]The question of whether attendance at work is required during a strike is not
clear-cut. As Piotr Krzyzaniak from the Working Group on Legal Affairs of OZZ IP points out:
The view that "attendance at work is required during the strike and attendance lists being
drawn up" is completely inconsistent with what is considered a majority view in labor law
doctrine and, until recently, a consensus. Until recently, K. Lisowski, who collaborated
with striking teachers, expressed a different view.
K. Lisowski in his opinion titled Remuneration of teachers and school staff for the period
of the strike "(published as a" practical commentary "in: LEX / el 2019) pointed out
that"[...]an indispensable condition for joining a strike is his presence in the workplace
(signing the list) - while refraining employee from performing work ". However, the author
has not provided any evidence to prove this thesis. Such a view would require additional
argumentation (which is lacking in this opinion), because it does not follow literally
from Art. 17 clause 1 ursz Pursuant to this provision, the strike consists in collective
refraining from performing work to resolve a dispute regarding the interests referred to
in art. 1 ursz The legislator does not prejudge what "refraining from work" is supposed to
consist in.
Until now, in literature, the problem of employee appearance at work was considered
primarily in the context of demonstrating readiness to work - and thus this behavior was
opposed to a strike. So e.g. dr hab. M. Kurzynoga in his book titled The conditions for
the legality of the strike (LEX 2011) indicated (after W. Kulesza) that "the presence of
strikers in the workplace is at least a comprehensive behavior, expressing readiness to
provide work when the strike's goals are achieved."
In the commentary on art. 17 of the Act on the settlement of collective disputes, Dr. J.
Zolynski (WKP 2012), explicitly indicates that "[u]the department in the strike abrogates
the need to record working time, confirm attendance at work and the obligation to appear
at the place indicated by the employer".
Whereas prof. H. Lewandowski, in his commentary to this provision (LexisNexis 2001),
indicates the possibility - and not the obligation - to remain in the workplace during the
strike. Anyway, this view is motivated by the fact that in the doctrine there were voices
completely negating the possibility of staying in the workplace of an employee during a
strike. For these reasons, many authors emphasized that coming to work during a strike is
not always synonymous with limiting the workplace manager in performing his duties
(Article 21 (1) ursz), and saying ask does not always mean an occupational strike, whose
legality raises a lot of controversy to this day.
When trying to define a strike based on art. 17 authorities emphasize that this is not
only about collective abstention from work but also about the lack of readiness to provide
it. This is how the strike was defined by prof. B. Cudowski in his book Collective
Disputes in Polish Labor Law (Bialystok 1998, p. 126), currently define it as dr hab. A.
Tomanek in a commentary edited by prof. KW Baran (WKP 2019). The point is that coming to
work is usually considered a sign of readiness to work. Therefore, when an employee comes
to work during a strike, there is a problem of recognizing his intentions. The Supreme
Court faced such a problem in its judgment of September 7, 2005, reference number II PK
390/04 (LEX No. 188096). Finally, the court found in those cases, that in the
circumstances found there, despite the duration of the collective dispute, occupying the
factory canteen by employees was not a strike, because their behavior implied that they
wanted to be allowed to work. Of course, each such state of affairs requires a separate
assessment.
The above indicates that arriving at the workplace contrary to K. Lisowski's claim is not
the responsibility of an employee participating in a strike. As such an employee does not
express readiness to perform work, he also does not have to perform any activities
resulting from such readiness, and therefore does not have to appear at work. The authors
who are right, such as prof. AM Swiatkowski (commentary edited by Wratny, Legalis 2009) or
prof. H. Lewandowski (LexisNexis 2001) point to appearing in the workplace during the
strike as an additional action, which serves to support the demands made in the collective
dispute.
Of course, I understand the intention of K. Lisowski, who, pointing to the obligation to
appear in the workplace of an employee during a strike, wanted to present an additional
argument to support the thesis that the calculation of the benefits due to teachers during
the strike does not apply the Regulation of the Minister of Labor and Social Policy of 29
May 1996 on the method of determining remuneration during the period of non-employment ...
(consolidated text Journal of Laws of 2017, item 927). In my opinion, this argument is
incorrect, and to prove that this regulation does not apply, it is enough to read the
content of par. 1 and 2 of this Regulation. Simply put, this regulation only applies to
the situations described there and there is no speech about participating in a strike!
http://ozzip.pl/teksty/publicystyka/walki-pracownicze/item/2520-jak-rzad-walczyl-ze-strajkiem-nauczycieli
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Message: 4
On Saturday, September 14th, the crowded demonstration against police occupation and
drug-mafias in Exarcheia, the pogrom against refugees and immigrants and their
displacement from the neighborhood, the repression of squats, self-organized spaces of
struggle and social and class resistance took place. This demo marks the completion of a
first round of mobilizations within the wider campaign which was called by the NO PASARAN!
assembly, in which we are participating along with the K* Vox squat, the squats from
immigrants and refugees Notara 26 and Spirou Trikoupi 17 - one the squats that was
evicted-, the anarchist antiauthoritarian social space Antipnoia, the Self-organized
social space of Galatsi Stegastro, Class Coutnerattack (group of anarchists and
communists), the anarchist collective of students Arodamos and individual comrades. Many
comrades and collectives from Greece and internationally responded to this campaign and
organized many solidarity actions and mobilizations.
Over seven thousand people of the struggle, anarchists and antiauthoritarians responded to
NO PASARAN! call which was supported by many other calls of political, social and class
collectives, amongst which the base unions' call to a common bloc, and filled the streets
of the center of Athens. During the demonstration, we distributed many flyers and shouted
slogans such as "No step behind, no submission, let's crush repression on the streets",
"Everybody in the streets and the squares, Police and drug-mafias out of Exarcheia", "We
are together with immigrants, refoulement of cops and mafias", "Solidarity is the weapon
of the people, war against the war of the bosses", "The right is on the revolted's side,
not on the side of the submitted and the snitches", "war against the cops and the
drug-mafias, we will not let the squares to be turned into butcher houses" and slogans
related to the commemoration of the six years from the murder of Pavlos Fyssas by Nazis of
Golden Dawn. The large number of demonstrators, the dynamics and the pulse of the
mobilization, is an astounding response to the repressive operation of the state but also
to the ideological propaganda of the media which attempt to isolate and criminalize those
who do not submit and are still resisting against the anti-social and repressive plans of
the state and the capital.
Just after the end of the demonstration in Exarcheia square, the state unleashed, as a
response, a brutal attack of the riot police in the near-by streets, beating violently and
suffocating by teargas many people who had either participated in the demonstration or
were just coming by. During this attack, four youngsters were detained randomly among
others and were later charged with unsubstantial fabricated accusations. The conspiracy
which was staged against them is a blatant persecution of political motivation in an
attempt to terrorize the people of the struggle and reverse the wave of class and social
solidarity which was expressed earlier. If they believe that they can intimidate and
repress resistance they are mistaken.
The grand mobilization of September 14th is a valuable outcome for the movement in the
future, a barricade for the collective defense of the structures and the people of the
struggle and the social and class resistance in general. But also it is a first step
towards the direction of organizing our social and class counter-attack, for the overturn
of the world of authority, for Social Revolution, for Anarchy and Libertarian Communism.
SOLIDARITY WILL WIN!
AGAINST THE STATE'S REPRESSIVE CAMPAIGN
NO SURRENDER - NO TRUCE!
NO PASARAN!
PS1: The four people arrested in Exarcheia on 9/14 were released.
PS2: Few days after the big demonstration, the state continues its repressive attack
invading and evicting two housing squats for refugees and immigrants in Athens, and
removing the political kiosk from Exarcheia square, a structure of the struggle against
state repression, drug-mafias and social cannibalism.
Lelas Karagianni 37 squat
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Message: 5
It's Saturday 14 September when thousands of people fill the streets of the city of Athens
in response to the violent social repression unleashed by the new government in Greece.
The budget of the last repressive episodes is the clearing of 4 squats, the arrest of 3
occupants and the detention of over 140 between rifugiat * and immigrat *. a communicative
and determined exit of the square could not be waiting for . ---- Meanwhile, in Turin, the
sun is shining since the early morning, it warms and so the anarchists and local
anarchists who have decided to organize for the occasion a solidarity presidium at the
balon market. An boundless solidarity shared with comrades and migrants in fight, with
those who do not intend to attend helpless to the assaults and provocations that these
days, in the central district of exarchia, are investing spaces free from state control
and the ferocious logic of the Market. A huge popular area, which through the mobilization
from the bottom and the direct action, has been able to cope with the social crisis that
in the last 10 years has tightened the country in a stuffy grip, successfully sopperendo
to the numerous shortcomings that inevitably came In to.
The Greek government, for a long time carries on strongly xenophobic, xenophobic and
racist policies (cuts of services and laws proposed against the right of strike, the right
of asylum to the university, etc. ). The escalation of capitalist speculation and the
consequent gentrification of the capital, is favored by the maneuvers of the current Greek
government, in continuity with previous governments. Anarchists, occupiers, poor, refugees
and immigrants, are now under attack by the police, who would like to sound of evictions,
arrests and internments in real concentration camps for migrants, put the word end to the
precious experiences of self-management and Concrete experimentation of solidarity and
social relations. Exarchia is a powerful symbol, born and raised in the sign of freedom
and social cult, as such would like to take it away.
Meanwhile in Turin the hours pass but the bright rays do not cease to heat the spirits of
the present, solidarity is moved from the colorful benches of the mercatari to the grey
walls of the CPR of cso brunelleschi, a prison structure away from prying eyes, where the
without documents come Locked up waiting to be deported elsewhere. From the first moment,
signs of ferment. The solidarity on the outside is committed to supporting the prisoners
of the slogans, when suddenly they see fire beyond the wall of cops and concrete: some
furnishings have been given to flames. You know that in 4 they tried to escape from the
center without unfortunately being able to. Some music and interventions, one last
solidarity greeting and even this presidium melts.
They can also try to strangle the strength of social movements but the fire of the
struggle never gets old.
From Greece to Italy, against the state!
Below the text of the flyer distributed during the appointments of the day:
" evictions and repression in Greece: hands down from exarchia!
Solidarity without borders
On August 26 in Athens the police officers invaded and occupied the neighborhood of
exarchia. We are in the center of the city, where anarchists and fighting movements are
very rooted. In this area, the many occupied buildings are vital knots of the communities.
Abandoned places, transformed into homes, canteens, managed health clinics, but also
political venues, libraries, open spaces to solidarity.
On August 26th the police cleared 4 occupied spaces and arrested 143 people of which 140
migrants. People who had found hospitality in two projects projects, excluded from state
social and health services for the devastating policies of the governments that have
succeeded. People who have now been incarcerated in detention camps for migrants out of
town. With this repressive operation, long prepared and accompanied by a general
restriction of freedom, the Greek government attacks the forms of society of society, the
movement of occupations and the anarchist movement, to have free hand in the
implementation of new policies of predation and looting Of the territory and those who
live there.
Since time exarchia is in the scope of speculation, which aims to implement of exclusive,
which will oblige the poor and immigrants to move towards the immense urban periphery,
where fascists perform the role of police complement forces.
After the evictions the streets of a neighborhood, where the police did not dare to enter,
they are always There are continuous searches for people, violent assaults and deliberate
police attacks in locals and spaces to provoke and intimidate companions and companions,
to scare the local population.
On August 31, thousands of people fell on the road to exarchia to manifest against the
militarisation of the area and to defend occupations.
On Saturday 14 September there will be an additional great event in Athens.
In every where there were events and solidarity actions of the square with those who today
in Greece continue to experiment alternative forms of sociability, based on equality and
solidarity, and, at the same time, must resist repression.
Even in Italy those who fight and act to build a world of free and equal must face the
same repressive strategies implemented by the Greek Government: restriction of freedom of
manifesting, evictions of occupations, criminalisation of those who build solidarity with
migrants and migrants, repression Towards fighting movements and antianarchiche operations.
Solidarity with those who fight, with the anarchist movement and the movement of
occupations in Greece!"
Turin Anarchist Federation - IFA
------------------------------
Message: 6
On social media, I have recently come across an ‘anti-capitalist love note', reassuring
its readers that they are much more than their productivity. This criticism of economic
output as a measure of human worth will strike a chord with many people. Material
production influences the kind of person you are, but it does not justify or invalidate
your existence. No capitalist accounting can do justice to being human. You need no reason
or apology for living life in freedom, and productivity is not your friend. ---- The cult
of productivity has led to extensive damage and misery, as those who enthusiastically
embrace wrong ends - placing profits before people - wreak havoc upon the world, and
subject fellow humans to oppression and abuse. Their hard work brings bitter fruit.
In his essay ‘Productivity is dangerous', Vincent Bevins suggests that the obsession with
productivity contributed to Germany's imperial aggression and state violence in the 20th
century. In his lecture ‘Judenplatz 1010', Timothy Snyder reminds us that the concept of
productivity was used by the Nazis to dehumanise Jews who ‘were sent from the Warsaw
Ghetto to be murdered when it was judged that the calories they consumed were worth more
than the work they produced'. Productivity is wielded as a bludgeon against humanity:
‘This is an artefact of the industrial world: humans who are denied humanity are judged as
objects who carry out physical work.'
Under capitalism, most of us are not our productivity because it is appropriated by the
capitalist class. Our actions, which are human at heart, serve the capitalist purpose of
fuelling economic growth that perpetuates subjugation and precipitates ecological ruin.
Productivity is hypocritically worshipped and weaponised by the rich because they reap the
benefits of mass exploitation. In this unfair and unsustainable system, people are
alienated from the results of their labour, and their own worth is lost in the process.
Productivity is monetised and domesticated in the capitalist economy. Creative endeavours
are harnessed by capitalism and serve its nefarious goals when the worker plays by its
rules, which promote fierce competition and protect those in power - the rich subjugate
and discipline the poor. Authoritarianism and other social distortions lead to a warped
view of humanity with regard to its productive potential and actual output.
Equating productivity with humanity and self-worth is a kind of vulgar behaviourism that
benefits the privileged. Actions do shape human nature, and behaviourism is not evil or
misguided per se. The problem arises when we define people only through those aspects of
their life that can be quantified and integrated into a broken economic mechanism that is
destroying not only the environment, but also social relationships. Human behaviour that
does not bring profit loses recognition and visibility, whereas toxic productivity comes
to the fore.
According to behaviourists, humanity predominantly depends on what people do or do not do.
In this view, productivity defines humanity. While it does matter what people do, it
should not detract from or augment their humanity. Behaviour might be what makes us human
in some complex and multifaceted sense, but it is crucial to acknowledge humanity without
relying only on productivity. Humanity should be an all-encompassing option that includes
all humans in a society.
All living beings have meaning and significance that cannot be reduced to their service to
economy. Once humans overcome this exploitative vision of society and environment, being
human will cease to be an exclusive privilege. People need to learn how to live in harmony
with each other and nature. Human rights should not entail the devastation of life on
Earth to indulge the superiority fantasies of the few affluent individuals who reserve
justice and freedom for themselves.
Planting trees and cutting them down can both be seen as productivity. The modern economy
introduces a perverse asymmetry to this equation as deforestation is deemed much more
profitable than reforestation. There is a way to judge the consequences of productivity as
positive in one value system (profit), and negative in another (the environment).
When it comes to the environmental crisis, both conservation and innovation require a
different kind of productivity. Growing forests and building green power plants are not
neutral options. In the current model, they are not valued for their environmental impact.
A proper judgement should be made of those who extract and burn fossil fuels, and run the
economy based on unsustainable growth. Economic productivity measures not only affluence,
but also responsibility for the extent of global destruction, from carbon footprint to
nuclear waste.
Productivity can be the reverse side of consumption. Being productive could foster
consumption. Some business models rely on generating demand for their products. Whether
production and consumption are enriching or destructive activities depends on the
relationship between human beings and the environment. In an exploitative and extractive
economy, productivity and consumption mean both exploitation of other humans and the
decimation of nature.
What is rewarded is not always what benefits us and the environment the most. From
cultural heritage to investment bankers, our culture and economy erase humanity and nature
in favour of wealth and tyranny.
In his book Bullshit Jobs (2018), David Graeber argues there are many jobs that make no
sense. Instead of decrying their existence, we could question the economic system that
created them by demonstrating that it disrupts the natural relationship between humanity
and productivity. If people notice the profound gulf between human and economic worth,
they will see that every job is bullshit.
The relentless focus on productivity inevitably motivates the wrong kind of action. When
people are free to do what they please, they will not inflict self-defeating damage.
Forced to produce the right amount of stuff in an exploitative economy, many people
actively undermine the good work of others because of their ineptitude or perverse
motivation. If everyone is compelled to work regardless of their preferences, those who
want to do something else or wish to sit idly by might cause chaos and devastation. Their
forced contribution will not only cancel out the efforts of others, but far exceed them
since disruption can be easier to achieve than constructive change. This involuntary
destruction is not an aberration, but the very essence of capitalist production.
The understanding that human worth does not equal productivity and that the latter can
have catastrophic ramifications should not lead us to believe that we are always better
off doing nothing. On the contrary, these insights should motivate people to organise in
order to topple the current system of ruthless exploitation and to establish a more
harmonious relationship among human beings, and between humanity and the environment.?
Pavlo Shopin is a research fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in the English
Department at the University of Freiburg. He comes from Luhansk, Ukraine.
http://organisemagazine.org.uk/2019/09/28/productivity-is-not-your-friend-theory-and-analysis/
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