Reading backward through _Late Capitalism_, I'd now like to quote Mandel's penultimate two sentences: "All these searing problems [crisis of the nation state, destruction of the environment, mass unemployment, etc.] will remain insoluble so long as control over the forces of production is not wrested from the hands of the capital [presumably that should have read capitalists]. The appropriation of the means of production by the associated producers, their planned application to priorities determined democratically by the mass of the workers, the radical reduction of working time as a precondition of active self-administration in economy and society, and the demise of commodity production and money relations are the indispensible steps to their solution." Buried in Mandel's admirable list of seemingly Herculean tasks for the international working class is one clear, unequivocal and potentially transitional demand: the radical reduction of working time. Again, I want to reiterate Marx's earlier argument ". . . the limitation of the working day is a preliminary condition without which all further attempts at improvement and emancipation must prove abortive." Paradoxically, what "the left" has to learn is to stop being a "left" (along a parliamentary spectrum) and instead join in building a universalist movement for the radical reduction of working time. Regards, Tom Walker ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ #408 1035 Pacific St. Vancouver, B.C. V6E 4G7 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (604) 669-3286 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The TimeWork Web: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/
