Being that time of the year, lots of exams on theories of political economy and UK politics. Beyond the very long hours and tight deadlines one of the good parts of the job to read students understandings, insights and critique following our learning.. It has me reflecting on the division of labour being mobilised to eradicate any 'sauntering' on the part of workers for not other reason than to meet the needs of the production process, rather than the needs of those engaged in production, students and lecturers alike. So in this sense it was a lot of fun reading their reflections on Smith and Marx, Foucault, Schumpeter and Hayek and the political problems of our time.
The most recent entrepreneurial saviour of capitalism is reported to be driving his workers with "impossible targets" designed, again, to produce environments of overwork and subjective feelings of underachievement, what Tom Randall calls the "Musk Doctrine" (Paywall). "Never set a target that you'll meet", Musk thinks; a similar sort of appeal to unreality being central to Tesla's car-to-the-moon PR strategy and their consistently wild production forecasts. Having held their "feet to the fire" Musk's response to "bottlenecks" is to sack 3,000 of his overworked.
Abolish Work republishes two classic pieces of agitprop, presented from the workers' perspective Abolish Restaurants gives a detailed critique of value in the restaurant and analysis of the production process by way of the shitty customers, shitty managers, overworked waitresses, dishwashers and bar staff. Work, Community, Politics, War charts out some of the oppressive and subversive tendencies in late capitalism.
The most recent entrepreneurial saviour of capitalism is reported to be driving his workers with "impossible targets" designed, again, to produce environments of overwork and subjective feelings of underachievement, what Tom Randall calls the "Musk Doctrine" (Paywall). "Never set a target that you'll meet", Musk thinks; a similar sort of appeal to unreality being central to Tesla's car-to-the-moon PR strategy and their consistently wild production forecasts. Having held their "feet to the fire" Musk's response to "bottlenecks" is to sack 3,000 of his overworked.
Abolish Work republishes two classic pieces of agitprop, presented from the workers' perspective Abolish Restaurants gives a detailed critique of value in the restaurant and analysis of the production process by way of the shitty customers, shitty managers, overworked waitresses, dishwashers and bar staff. Work, Community, Politics, War charts out some of the oppressive and subversive tendencies in late capitalism.