On 2013-10-07, at 6:33 PM, Julio Huato wrote: > Marv, > > Another factor is what Rudolf Bahro called "compensatory interests" (the > myriad ways of pacifying and diverting the workers' "free time" towards > activities that reinforce the status quo), which in tandem with the more > concentrated forms of ideological reproduction carried out in our > colleges/universities and by media, think tanks, and other apparata, have > turned into massive industries in our societies/times. I used to be > skeptical of the critique of "consumerism" (in the Third World more > consumption is a necessary condition for worker survival, let alone political > activity), but I am now more inclined to see how harmful and energy diverting > it is among US workers. It is a black hole that sucks a lot of subversive > potential.
Of course - a major factor since the postwar expansion. Thanks Julio. > This puts the onus on the left's theoretical/propagandistic work, especially > with the youth, almost as an activity with ample autonomy from pressing, > immediate political concerns. What more precisely do you mean? > On Monday, October 7, 2013, Marv Gandall wrote: > > On 2013-10-07, at 10:29 AM, Carrol Cox wrote: > > > Overwork and penury are both effective forces of repression. The danger of > > shorter hours for capitalism is that leisure time breeds left political > > activity. > > I don't know that you can say that. The oppressively long hours of highly > exploited workers in the mines, mills, factories, and fields were a major > contributing factor to the unrest which spawned the early trade union and > socialist movement. Though the pressures are mounting, today's office workers > have relatively more leisure time and better conditions, but it has not > translated into left political activity remotely resembling that of earlier > generations. Quite the opposite, as we know. I'd look first to the > combination of severe exploitation, the demand for labour in an expanding > economy, and the concentration of the industrial workforce in factories and > factory towns and neighbourhoods as key factors which produced militant and > often violent protest at the turn of the last century. These conditions are > no longer present. > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
