Reducing the working day
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What are the politics of calling for a reduction of the working day? Is it a valid socialist or Marxian position? Is it unique to socialism?
jondwhite wrote:What are the politics of calling for a reduction of the working day? Is it a valid socialist or Marxian position? Is it unique to socialism?Yes, it's a valid working class position that Socialists and Marx support. No, it is not unique to socialism (as non-socialist trade unionists support it too, and rightly).See this article from the May 2006 Socialist Standard:http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2000s/2006/no-1221-may-2006/hours-wages-and-profits
The battle for a normal working day of 12 and then 8 hours was a long a bloody battle between capital and labour. As individuals and as members of the working class socialists take part in these struggles to increase the amount of the pie that goes to labour.But the purpose of the socialist party is to make these struggles obsolete, by organising politically to bring an end to the mode of production that gives rise to such struggles in the first place. Participating in reform movements is not the business of the socialist party.Here's a bit of history on the Chicago Martyrs and Mayday: http://libcom.org/history/1886-haymarket-martyrs-mayday
Sounds more like economic struggle than a reform movement. Assume this is different from calling for higher wages.
No, it's not really different from "higher wages" in the widest sense. Workers bargain, normally through their unions, over the conditions of sale of their ability to work. The amount they are paid is just one aspect of it; the other is the conditions under which it is exercised, including the length of time.There was another article on this in the June 1980 issued of the Socialist Standard entitled " A Shorter Working Week?" (unfortunately not yet included in the archives section but may soon be). It makes the additional point that a shorter working week cannot be a cure for unemployment, as some trade unionists and reformists have advocated.The Factory Acts, on the other hand, were reforms and had the wholehearted support of Marx who devoted a section of Volume 1 of Capital to the struggle for them. We've also always given them as an example of a reform that benefited the working class (we have never said that this is not possible).
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