YKTMX
11th September 2009, 16:44
The things that bring us to a revolutionary socialist perspective are varied. They result from a wide range of different experiences and ideas we've engaged with. Sometimes the ideas that motivate us, mostly gleaned from books written by men (and women) with very little personal involvement in the life-world of the working class, appear obtuse and distinct from our "day-to-day" lives. Sometimes, of course, they help to illuminate and explain our experiences.
I had a odd experience today. I was walking through town when I met my best friend's girlfriend. She is a lovely young woman, very mild mannered, sweet and generous. She is politically conscious, involved with animal rights issues and homeless charities.
As soon as I got speaking to her, I realised she was upset. She told me she had just finished her shift at work and then she started to cry. Concerned, I asked what was wrong with her and gave her a hug.
She works at a small call-centre, cold-calling customers to sell them double glazing. She told me her boss, an older man, had tried to get her to stand up while she completed her shift - because she wasn't, on this day, meeting her (I mean his, of course) sales targets. She, in a small but inspiring moment of resistance, had refused, reminding her boss that she regularly reaches and exceeds her (his) sales targets. She also has some health problems.
He proceeded to berate her and threatened to sack her, abusing her and so on. She completed her shift and attempted to leave, upon which he again tried to verbally assault her. She left unsure whether she has a job to go back to.
I asked her why she doesn't just leave. Of course, as soon as I asked, I knew. She said she couldn't, she is saving up money before she goes to a new job down in England in a few months. Obviously, in these little vessels of "post-capitalist" exploitation, nothing as quaint and 19th century as a trade union exists. No one to complain to, and no one wants to complain. Her workmates had just sat quietly, she told me, as her boss verbally assaulted her.
She, because of the type of young woman she is, wanted to move on and ask me about my day, what I was up to etc. I couldn't, and can't, think of anything else.
What is it we speak of when we talk about the exploitation of our class, of oppression and of injustice? Is it the surplus value extracted by capital and its hired thugs (or middle management, as we're supposed to call them) over and above the cost of reproducing our labour-power? Of course, but it's also something more, something that bit more intangible but all the more crucial.
It's the daily acts of ritualized humiliation, abuse, "discipline" and ill-treatment that really dehumanizes us, is it not? It's a system that gives pathetic old men the power to terrorize pleasant young woman without even the fear of retribution of any kind. After all, he's only doing his job isn't he.
What would the world look like if we left all this behind? How much happier would the average person be, to put it simply and chilidishly? If we could just leave behind a society that thinks more about double-glazing sales targets than the feelings and emotions of our sisters and brothers.
They are vampires, I think. I know what Marx said when he used that metaphor. Not just because of what they take from us materially, but the way they assault our sense of self, our feelings, our emotions every single day. The way drain the life-blood from us, without consequence to them but with consequence for us.
The society we build will be built on the intelligence and beauty of our young sisters, and it will rest on the ashes of a society that raises thousands of petty tyrants.
Anyway, I needed to get that off my chest.
Cheers :)
I had a odd experience today. I was walking through town when I met my best friend's girlfriend. She is a lovely young woman, very mild mannered, sweet and generous. She is politically conscious, involved with animal rights issues and homeless charities.
As soon as I got speaking to her, I realised she was upset. She told me she had just finished her shift at work and then she started to cry. Concerned, I asked what was wrong with her and gave her a hug.
She works at a small call-centre, cold-calling customers to sell them double glazing. She told me her boss, an older man, had tried to get her to stand up while she completed her shift - because she wasn't, on this day, meeting her (I mean his, of course) sales targets. She, in a small but inspiring moment of resistance, had refused, reminding her boss that she regularly reaches and exceeds her (his) sales targets. She also has some health problems.
He proceeded to berate her and threatened to sack her, abusing her and so on. She completed her shift and attempted to leave, upon which he again tried to verbally assault her. She left unsure whether she has a job to go back to.
I asked her why she doesn't just leave. Of course, as soon as I asked, I knew. She said she couldn't, she is saving up money before she goes to a new job down in England in a few months. Obviously, in these little vessels of "post-capitalist" exploitation, nothing as quaint and 19th century as a trade union exists. No one to complain to, and no one wants to complain. Her workmates had just sat quietly, she told me, as her boss verbally assaulted her.
She, because of the type of young woman she is, wanted to move on and ask me about my day, what I was up to etc. I couldn't, and can't, think of anything else.
What is it we speak of when we talk about the exploitation of our class, of oppression and of injustice? Is it the surplus value extracted by capital and its hired thugs (or middle management, as we're supposed to call them) over and above the cost of reproducing our labour-power? Of course, but it's also something more, something that bit more intangible but all the more crucial.
It's the daily acts of ritualized humiliation, abuse, "discipline" and ill-treatment that really dehumanizes us, is it not? It's a system that gives pathetic old men the power to terrorize pleasant young woman without even the fear of retribution of any kind. After all, he's only doing his job isn't he.
What would the world look like if we left all this behind? How much happier would the average person be, to put it simply and chilidishly? If we could just leave behind a society that thinks more about double-glazing sales targets than the feelings and emotions of our sisters and brothers.
They are vampires, I think. I know what Marx said when he used that metaphor. Not just because of what they take from us materially, but the way they assault our sense of self, our feelings, our emotions every single day. The way drain the life-blood from us, without consequence to them but with consequence for us.
The society we build will be built on the intelligence and beauty of our young sisters, and it will rest on the ashes of a society that raises thousands of petty tyrants.
Anyway, I needed to get that off my chest.
Cheers :)