Margarita Cerrato wrote,
>I agree with D Henwood's comments that this [redistributing work time] is
>nothing new, however I would
>suggest that this is already happening. Corporations operating in growth
>industries in Australia for example services and hospitality are
>increasingly providing part-time, casual and short term contract type
>employment and other industries are set to follow suit with the further
>de-regulation of the labour market...
The 'this' that's already happening is not the same 'this' that's nothing
new. Part-time, casual and short term contract work are most definitely not
the 'same thing' as a generalized reduction and redistribution of work time.
Are you seriously suggesting that insecure, part-time work with few or no
benefits amounts to the 'same thing' as, say, a ban on compulsory overtime,
extensive paid leave provisions for education and parenting, or the
establishment of a standard 32 hour work week?
You're right about one thing, the struggle for the reduction of work time is
nothing new. It's the foundation upon which the labour movement was built.
The abandonment of that struggle [to perennial token convention resolutions]
signaled the decline of labour as a movement. The resumption of that
struggle heralds the rebirth of the labour movement. I respectfully suggest
that those who fancy themselves "debunkers" of shorter work time take the
time to read some of the history, analysis and strategy. There's a lot more
to it than deserves to be dismissed with an arrogant and shallow 'nothing
new here'.
But do allow me to indulge a slight digression on the 'nothing new here'
theme. In October of last year, the Atlantic Monthly carried a cover story
criticizing the use of the Gross Domestic Product as a surrogate measure of
national prosperity. Conventional economists arose with such a uniform
chorus of 'nothing new here' that it would have been easy to imagine they
were all activated by a single master switch. Of course there was 'nothing
new here', reasoned critiques of GDP have been advanced -- and dutifully
ignored -- for decades.
What, pray tell, is so 'new' [or even interesting] about this 'nothing new
here' argument?
Regards,
Tom Walker
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