We Don't Want Full Employment, We Want Full Lives!

Knabb, Ken
http://www.theoryandpractice.org.uk/library/we-dont-want-full-employment-we-want-full-lives-ken-knabb-1998
Date Written:  1998-01-23
Publisher:  Theory and Practice
Year Published:  1998
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX20249

If a household gets a washing machine, you never hear the family members who used to do the laundry by hand complain that this "puts them out of work." But strangely enough, if a similar development occurs on a broader social scale it is seen as a serious problem - 'unemployment' - which can only be solved by inventing more jobs for people to do.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

Some recent actions in France (which as usual have been almost entirely unreported in the American media) present a refreshing contrast to the usual 'progressive' appeals for equal wage slavery.

In December and January tens of thousands of jobless people demonstrated in dozens of French cities, in many cases occupying unemployment offices, welfare offices, utility companies and repossession agencies, invading posh stores and restaurants, and making collective raids on supermarkets. This movement, though far bolder than jobless actions in the United States, unfortunately remained largely under the control of the official unemployment associations (dominated by the leftist parties and labor unions). Many of the occupations, however, were carried out on the initiative of individuals who began bypassing the official spokespeople and speaking and acting for themselves.
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