THE (IN) SPECTRE RETURNS! GLOBAL CAPITALISM AND THE FUTURE OF WORK

Abstract

The restructuring of the global economy in the last quarter century has been accompanied by a major assault on living standards of millions of manual and intellectual workers. Due to mergers and acquisitions, computer-driven technological transformation amid economic stagnation, leading transnational corporations have `downsized' millions of employees. Today, global unemployment and underemployment is about one billion workers, or 30%, the most serious since the Great Depression. At the same time, governments are reducing their commitment to the social wage and `hollowing out' and reducing their functions to policing and assisting capital to further its interests. The profound consequence of these developments is the permanent disappearance of good jobs (that is, full-time work which provides employment security). Instead, these jobs are typically replaced with low-wage, temporary and contingent labor among qualified as well as unqualified workers. This paper argues that the historical moment has arrived for the renewal of shorter hours and guaranteed income rather than pretending that full employment is possible. It locates chances for the program in social movements—in the first place the labor movement—rather than political parties.