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Thread: The Anti-Work Movement

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    The Anti-Work Movement

    In addition to femcels, another movement that's gained traction this last year that I find fascinating has been the anti-work movement. The linked BBC article from late January on the subject summarizes:

    Two years into the pandemic, employees across the globe are tired. Poor mental health and burnout are common, particularly among low-wage and essential workers. This prolonged period of uncertainty has made many re-examine the role their employers play in making matters worse; record numbers of workers are leaving jobs in search of better options.

    But some people are going further, wondering aloud if there’s purpose to their work – or the economic system itself. These people are part of the ‘anti-work’ movement, which seeks to do away with the economic order that underpins the modern workplace. Anti-work, which has roots in anarchist and socialist economic critique, argues that the bulk of today’s jobs aren’t necessary; instead, they enforce wage slavery and deprive workers of the full value of their output.

    That doesn’t mean there would be no work, however. Supporters of the anti-work movement believe people should self-organise and labour only as much as needed, rather than working longer hours to create excess capital or goods.

    A few years ago, anti-work was a radical, fringe idea, but the pandemic incarnation of this movement has grown faster and become more well known outside these political circles. It’s centred on the r/antiwork subreddit, a community still rooted in direct action, but whose focus has both softened and broadened into a wider dialogue on working conditions as its popularity has grown. Today, it contains a mix of personal narratives about quitting, creating change in hostile workplaces, advocacy for ongoing labour strikes, labour organising and ways people can try to advocate for themselves.

    ...

    ...Users share stories of employer abuse, ask for advice on how to negotiate better pay, contribute memes or post news updates about ongoing labour strikes. Participants also offer tips on how users can support strike efforts. In December 2021, members of the subreddit helped efforts to flood Kellogg’s job application portal when the company broke off negotiations with striking unionised workers and said it would hire new, non-union workers. Although it's unclear how much r/antiwork's members directly influenced the company's actions, later that month, Kellogg’s and the union reached a deal.
    Visiting the Anti-Work subreddit renders clear the appeal of this rapidly-growing community, which now has over 2 million total members, more than 10,000 of whom are active on the sub at any given time. The group's provocative slogan is "Unemployment for all, not just the rich!"

    Some participants share stories. A waitress at a country club tells of her hours being cutting in half for loosening her corset so she could breathe, as she began to feel lightheaded, to which the community enthusiastically advises her to quit and find better employment. Another posts a threatening letter their boss put in their file telling workers not to discuss their salaries, as that knowledge "is between you and your employer". Others share "help wanted" ads with statements like "overtime required" followed directly by "Apply within!" like it's supposed to be a benefit. Still others share the ramifications of laughably treating employers the same way they treat their prospective workers (in a satisfying example of which, the prospective worker complains to a recruiter and a hiring manager that they "wasted [my] time because they were late", for example, to which their application was rejected ).

    Other users share perspectives. One woman negatively compares her level of pay to that of a parking meter, which makes $27 an hour in her home city of Toronto. Another shares a meme that says "When people claim the fulfilment of basic needs for all would destroy the incentive to work, they're admitting the entire capitalist system is based in coercion; that it is a form of slavery ("work for us or starve"). Labor can never be voluntary under such a system." Another posts a photo of a sign she posted by some public "help wanted" ads reading "Record Profits Are Unpaid Wages".

    Much of the other activity on the site consists of promoting and supporting union organizing and actions and theorizing about what a better world would look like.

    It's not difficult to see the appeal to the working class here. But what's radical about it all is the simple fact that these workers don't share in the American tradition of valuing hard work intrinsically at all. Rather, they are open and honest about their desire to maximize human leisure time and their efforts to do so, and to promote doing so, to the extent that is financially practical for each person. It's a marked contrast to the value system this class of people has been known to embrace in the past and a sign, I think, of just how degraded working conditions have become after many decades of union-busting, privatization, and neoliberal market de-regulation that a steadily growing volume of people today no longer see their work as having any value at all.

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    There was also the Great Resignation Movement during COVID lockdowns, but that was white collar workers. And small business owners destroyed by lockdowns (one of the goals of the lockdowns).

    These people sound more like non-skilled and under-skilled people who for whatever reason aren't qualified for well-paying work.
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    Quote Originally Posted by IMPress Polly View Post
    In addition to femcels, another movement that's gained traction this last year that I find fascinating has been the anti-work movement. The linked BBC article from late January on the subject summarizes:



    Visiting the Anti-Work subreddit renders clear the appeal of this rapidly-growing community, which now has over 2 million total members, more than 10,000 of whom are active on the sub at any given time. The group's provocative slogan is "Unemployment for all, not just the rich!"

    Some participants share stories. A waitress at a country club tells of her hours being cutting in half for loosening her corset so she could breathe, as she began to feel lightheaded, to which the community enthusiastically advises her to quit and find better employment. Another posts a threatening letter their boss put in their file telling workers not to discuss their salaries, as that knowledge "is between you and your employer". Others share "help wanted" ads with statements like "overtime required" followed directly by "Apply within!" like it's supposed to be a benefit. Still others share the ramifications of laughably treating employers the same way they treat their prospective workers (in a satisfying example of which, the prospective worker complains to a recruiter and a hiring manager that they "wasted [my] time because they were late", for example, to which their application was rejected ).

    Other users share perspectives. One woman negatively compares her level of pay to that of a parking meter, which makes $27 an hour in her home city of Toronto. Another shares a meme that says "When people claim the fulfilment of basic needs for all would destroy the incentive to work, they're admitting the entire capitalist system is based in coercion; that it is a form of slavery ("work for us or starve"). Labor can never be voluntary under such a system." Another posts a photo of a sign she posted by some public "help wanted" ads reading "Record Profits Are Unpaid Wages".

    Much of the other activity on the site consists of promoting and supporting union organizing and actions and theorizing about what a better world would look like.

    It's not difficult to see the appeal to the working class here. But what's radical about it all is the simple fact that these workers don't share in the American tradition of valuing hard work intrinsically at all. Rather, they are open and honest about their desire to maximize human leisure time and their efforts to do so, and to promote doing so, to the extent that is financially practical for each person. It's a marked contrast to the value system this class of people has been known to embrace in the past and a sign, I think, of just how degraded working conditions have become after many decades of union-busting, privatization, and neoliberal market de-regulation that a steadily growing volume of people today no longer see their work as having any value at all.
    They should more accurately be called, The Entitled Lazy $#@! Movement. The trouble with work is, it's too much like work.
    Cutesy Time is OVER

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    Quote Originally Posted by countryboy View Post
    They should more accurately be called, The Entitled Lazy $#@! Movement.
    Such movements already exist though. They're called business associations.
    Last edited by IMPress Polly; 07-30-2022 at 09:07 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by IMPress Polly View Post
    Such movements already exist though. They're called business associations.
    Only a person who has never operated a business would say such a stupid thing. I have zero sympathy for lazy $#@!s.
    Cutesy Time is OVER

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    Quote Originally Posted by IMPress Polly View Post
    Such movements already exist though. They're called business associations.

    Seriously, man, I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad too (I was forced to) and one of the things I learned from it is that the maximization of leisure time is already the goal of the capitalist class.
    I don't get it. Business Associations?
    Let's go Brandon !!!

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    Quote Originally Posted by countryboy View Post
    Only a person who has never operated a business would say such a stupid thing. I have zero sympathy for lazy $#@!s.
    Seriously man, I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad too (I was forced to) and one of the things I learned from it is that the maximization of leisure time is already the goal of the capitalist class. Why is it wrong for the working class to share this ambition?
    Last edited by IMPress Polly; 07-30-2022 at 09:12 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by carolina73 View Post
    I don't get it. Business Associations?
    The lobbying arms of corporate America where they demand of politicians more rights, more welfare, and fewer responsibilities, typically at the expense of the workers they employ and/or the consumers they serve.

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    Quote Originally Posted by IMPress Polly View Post
    Seriously man, I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad too (I was forced to) and one of the things I learned from it is that the maximization of leisure time is already the goal of the capitalist class. Why is it wrong for the working class to share this ambition?
    Share what ambition? Being a lazy $#@! is the opposite of ambition. People who have never operated a business think it's easy. It's not, and requires long hours, and hard work.

    If you want to be a lazy lay about, fine, just don't ask hard working people to pay for it.
    Cutesy Time is OVER

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    Quote Originally Posted by IMPress Polly View Post
    The lobbying arms of corporate America where they demand of politicians more rights, more welfare, and fewer responsibilities, typically at the expense of the workers they employ and/or the consumers they serve.
    Lol, why are libs so utterly clueless?
    Cutesy Time is OVER

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