Re: Where have all the workers gone?

Alan, OK, I'm guilty of generalising here - I have a limited amount of time to participate in these lists (as I am sure most have) and the detail and specifities suffer due to thinking and typing on the fly - though that isn't really an excuse I know. I also prefer to spend the majority of my time on practical projects rather than theorising - more an activist than an academic at the end of the day I suppose.

I agree with you that certainly, there are cases of industrialisation in the South that potentially give rise to new proletariats , but I'm still not convinced this automatically leads to a 'proletariat' in each and every case. I would also contest that many modern jobs are somewhat different to fifty years ago. I mentioned the UK car workers as I undertook some research at the Rover plant, Cowley in Oxford during 1995-6. Here, I was researching the impact of Japanese-style working practices in UK car industry and used the Rover Company as my case study. I spoke with workers that had worked at the car plant for over forty years in some cases. They told me how their jobs had become qualitatively improved and more diversified. On the other hand, they were still working on a production line and there was still some repetitiveness to some degree or other. When it came to poiticisation of the work force, the majority thought the workforce were less politically motivated than twenty or forty years ago. They also thought that they were 'better off' financially and materially and that this affected the de-politicisation of the workforce. They even considered themselves better skilled than their forebears, or in some cases, to what they were twenty years ago - Rover has it's own 'university' programme. This of course is only one plant in one country. It is this 'de-ploiticisation' or 'sanitising' that I am interested in and how it impinges on the 'the publics' attitude towards globalisation and public disobedience.

I'm trying to look past the traditional power models and look at what lies behind them. For example, why is it only a very small percentage of any countries population take part in public disobedience? As you correctly (in my opinion) point out, it is unlikely there will be a spontaneous uprising and that capitalism - even globalisation - will be demolished. To put it another way, why 'can't' there be a revolution in say, the UK, at this present time? I'm just trying to find out why this might be. If we look at the considerable inequalities in the world, and especially between North and South, then I'd like to know and understand why more of the public in the US and Europe (for example) don't join in with mobilisations against globalisation. We could even say similar for protests in the South - the number of people protesting against the effects of globalisation in Thailand for example, is tiny in comparison to the country's overall population - even though those protests have been very successful.

Just to be clear, I'm not sceptical of union movements or activist mobilisations - there is actually much to feel encouraged about. But I'm not a positivist in these matters and there remains along way to go before those striving for equality can begin to feel satisfied. Let us just hope that movements continue to grow and more of the 'public' get involved, for it is their involvement that is going to be needed.

Re: Where have all the workers gone?

by Paul Broome

11 December 2000 16:42 UTC