Marxist theory: labour alienation
Lately I think about one of the lesser known aspects of the Marxist analysis of capitalism a lot.
A hugely important concept in Marxism is the idea that class societies - but industrial ones such as capitalism most of all - cause alienation of the worker from their work.
A village's woodworker thousands of years ago is involved in every part of the production process: they process raw trees into workable wood, the wood into shapes and elements, the elements into an object, and the object into a finished product - say, a wardrobe. It's theirs; a tangible object they created and then own to do with what they please. Often, they then sell the fruit of their labour, essentially exchanging the entire labour value that went into the wardrobe for its equivalent in monetary value (capital).
They're involved in every step. Their product is uniquely theirs from material to finish. If they see the wardrobe they made, they might feel pride and an emotional connection. Also, they'll know not just about finishing or adorning a wardrobe, but also about the properties of trees, the types of saws, the pitfalls of joining wood pieces together. Everything that goes into the finished product is a part of their skillset.
And most importantly, they reaped the entire value of the labour they performed. It even belongs to them legally; it's their own property. They could choose not to sell it, but to keep it. Or experiment with something on a whim. Nobody to tell them what they can or cannot do with the labour skills they have.
Nowadays, that work is split into tons of roles, because industrialisation happens on such a scale and complexity that a single person or even a whole business couldn't possibly do it all.
So, there's someone whose entire job is felling trees. Or assisting in felling trees as a spotter. Then there's someone who works at a sawmill, overseeing one single machine on the production lines. Someone who designed a table at a computer but never laid a hand on their own wood. Someone to apply finishing to a table someone else assembled.
None of these people go into an Ikea and feel pride or connection to a dining table they worked on. Compared to the labour they contributed to the product, they are paid a fraction of what they produced. The rest, the vast majority, the surplus value, goes to their boss in the shape of the finished product that they can sell without ever moving a muscle.
An employed woodworker under capitalism never has any ownership over a piece of furniture they created with their own hands! Even though they made it, it belongs to the owner. Not only that, but a bulk of the value also goes to the company who contracted them, the company who contracted them, all the way to the top.
This is one of the main drivers of depression in the working class. Very few people feel like their life means anything. Their skills are only applicable at a workplace that they don't own or have any control over. They can't choose to build a wardrobe if the boss tells them to build a table. They can't decide on safety standards, material choice or anything else. They're alienated from their own labour. They're reduced to tools.
I'm not anti-work. I'm anti-capitalism. I feel a pride in my skillset and the potential of my labour. I can create things. But I don't want to be a tool in someone else's toolkit, under someone else's control, someone who tells me what to use my creativity and labour potential for, while paying peanuts compared to what I made and to add insult to injury take away the finished product too.
#Marxism #Socialism #WorkingClass #Work #Alienation #MentalHealth #AntiWork
