3. From the tyranny of necessary labour time to emancipation through disposable time (concluding part) How can labour—the structural antagonist of capital—counter the deteriorating trend inseparable from the narrowing margin of capital’s productive viability? This question takes us back to the third element of Rifondazione’s quest for securing the 35 hours working week quoted [...]

  2. The myth of flexibility: downward equalization of the differential rate of exploitation On May 19, 1998 the French Parliament passed a law reducing the working week to 35 hours. Similar legislation is expected also in Italy in the not too distant future. It would be very naïve, however, to think that this is [...]

  1. The globalization of unemployment Socialists in several European countries—as well as in North and South America—are fighting for the objective of reducing labour time to 35 hours per week without loss of pay. This important strategic demand is by no means free from its difficulties. For it highlights both the pressing problem of [...]

  Contents Foreword 1. The ‘Globalization’ of Unemployment 2. The myth of flexibility: downward equalization of the differential rate of exploitation 3. From the tyranny of necessary labour time to emancipation through disposable time Notes [By István Mészáros, speech given to seminar organised by Workers Left Unity-Iran, 18 March 2000.]  Part-1  Foreword I have chosen [...]

    “whom am I now to believe, political economy or ethics? … It stems from the very nature of estrangement that each sphere applies to me a different and opposite yardstick – ethics one and political economy another; for each is a specific estrangement of man and focuses attention on a particular field of [...]

  Perhaps it’s one of history’s surprises that the popular uprising surging through Spain today (and which is beginning to reverberate throughout the rest of Europe) was sparked on the 140th anniversary of the Paris Commune, a heroic moment in which the fundamental demand was also that of democracy. But a democracy conceived as a [...]

  Contributions to a New Communist Theory on Women’s Liberation ” Women being not only oppressed among all the oppressed groups, but also the last group to be liberated are the most reliable, stable, and basic force which needs to be tapped not only in winning the revolution but also in waging continuous revolution.” ” [...]

  “The enemies of the workers, the finance capitalists with all the power, have taken them to heart for a long time.  As Warren Buffett famously said, “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” Well, it is far past the time for us to [...]

   ”We are now talking about the structural crisis of the system. It extends everywhere and it even encroaches on our relationship to nature, undermining the fundamental conditions for human survival. We have reached the historical limits of capital’s ability to control society. The only feasible alternative is the working class which is the producer of [...]

From The ‘American Century’ To The Crossroads By István Mészáros New York: Monthly Review Press, 2001 Summary of the gist of this little book RELEVENT  IN TODAY”S CONTEXT The growing world movement against capitalist globalisation makes a firm grasp of the dynamics of the present epoch more important than ever. The relation between theory and [...]