#notes from below

[notsoterriblymisanthropic]

The strategies of the working class today must be defined by our current experiences of working, renting and getting by. And yet all we can see around us are political strategies that have failed to adapt to changing conditions. To make matters worse, the advocates pushing for these strategies seem unable to even recognise the reasons for their failure. The state of the contemporary leftist debate on strategy was demonstrated during a primetime panel debate at The World Transformed earlier this year, which saw a prominent panellist spend most of the evening simply calling the audience members cunts.

Notes From Below, Planning Our Escape

[notsoterriblymisanthropic]

Rather than assuming that emerging technologies open up new horizons for a kind of post-capitalist utopia, instead of being the kind of infrastructure that progressive people want to adopt as our own, that we need to understand technology as produced for capitalist goals, and so we actually have to think critically about technology and politicize it. And to go one step further, this questioning is already something that people are doing in their workplaces. People are already at work, in the home, and in everyday life, enacting all sorts of practical criticisms against technology. Whether it’s ridiculing the latest iPhone online, posting photos of destroyed smart scooters on Instagram, or hacking and sabotaging the equipment that’s causing them trouble at work, we can see critical and even antagonistic perspectives on technology coming from everyday people. My perspective on left politics is that you have to pay attention to what people are already doing, instead of just telling them that what they should be doing. Oftentimes, people have already settled some questions for themselves, and it’s the intellectuals who have a bit of catching up to do.

Breaking Things at Work, an interview with Gavin Mueller

[notsoterriblymisanthropic]

When we agree to work, there is always a negotiation that takes place about how hard we will work - whether explicit or not. For the employer, they want the most out of what they have just purchased: our time and labour power. As workers, we have different interests. Whether we want to try and avoid work as much as possible or not, or be paid a greater share of the profits we produce, we want to have some time and energy left for the rest of our life once the workday ends. This basic contradiction comes up again and again. Perhaps as clearly as a struggle over the length of our workday, perhaps over the intensity or speed of our work, or maybe about greater control over how our work is organised and carried out. It is expressed in the form of the bullying supervisor, the demand for unpaid overtime, oppressive managerial practices, the lack of health and safety equipment, the use of new technology, the exhaustion at the end of the day, the worries about stable employment - these are all smaller expressions of the overall structure of society. The specific experiences of each of these issues in each workplace matters for understanding the system as a whole.

Notes From Below, Why Worker Writing Matters

[notsoterriblymisanthropic]

When we push back against one part of the work process, whether striking for higher wages or just demanding a new kettle in the breakroom, the implications of this go way beyond the individual workplace. New tactics of resistance and collective power are constantly being tested in practice. Many of these are not shared - or they become lost as people move on to new workplaces, retirement, or unemployment. However, managers certainly learn from each other, sharing tactics and techniques to keep workers in line through employers’ conferences, company handbooks and training days, and even sector wide blacklists. While many employers talk of “human resources”, we know that we have a life beyond our work for which our resources must be saved. That need points towards other ways of organising society - in the bonds and solidarities we develop with each other. These support us through work, but also shape our ability to respond and collectively organise.

Notes From Below, Why Worker Writing Matters

[notsoterriblymisanthropic]

Report on the general strike in Palestine

by Laura, Charan, Riya Al’Sanah // An interview with Riya al Sanah

[notsoterriblymisanthropic]

I’m fascinated with how little books or magazines are understood as resulting from systems of material production. Tiny letters in ink or light somehow obscure all of that. I conducted this worker’s inquiry to show that, despite the glamor of the written word, copy is not abstract. It is a material subject to conditions of labor exploitation like other commodities. Workers produce copy. Copy is woven and tailored. It is cut into shape, flowed into a layout, kicked down or run up in paragraphs. Quotes are pulled and caps are dropped, with neat lines of copy hugging their contours. This vocabulary remains from lead or paste-up composition, which made these metaphors much more literal. But the symbols writers manipulate are still material, even if they are stored digitally.

Sam Dee, At the periphery of journalism

[notsoterriblymisanthropic]

For a few weeks in August, different events were planned such as boycotting certain restaurants, doing press interviews, putting up posters in busy areas, and holding a protest outside Deliveroo’s main office, all trying to force them to engage in dialogue. These actions culminated in a final evening of action: a coordinated mass “fall over.” Riders called Deliveroo support to say, unfortunately, they had been in an accident and could no longer deliver the food, which was then given to homeless people. Customers were informed of this action a week prior and only the larger restaurants were targeted.

Alice Barker, Cycling in the City

[manolo-ssa]

[share author='Passa Palavra' profile='https://twitter.com/passapalavra' avatar='https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1024319266307428353/DHTCOnsp.jpg' link='https://twitter.com/passapalavra/status/1350073702235463682' posted='2021-01-15 13:33:48']Publicamos mais um artigo do livro editado pelo @NotesFrom_Below "Entregadores costumavam ser classificados como “trabalhadores precários” e agora são empregados em uma espécie de “setor essencial” que precisa continuar funcionando durante a pandemia."