Work and Leisure

As a supplement to my essay in Funken No. 11 (November 1954), comrade Rabasseire referred in Funken of February 1955 to Paul Lafargue's little book “Le droit de la paresse”. When this work appeared in the youthful days of socialism, it inspired us because it illuminated the character of work in a different way than the usual socialist literature. When Comrade Rabasseire, following on from this, now emphasizes laziness as a human right, we should bear in mind that the necessity of work is not imposed by any “work ethic” on our part, but by nature itself. Work may have become an indispensable torture through exploitation, but originally it was a commandment of nature. Because we have to eat and clothe ourselves against the cold, we have to work. One should try to assert nature's right to laziness! Laziness may be a pleasure, but as a system of life it means making someone else work for you.

Man's attitude to his work depends primarily on the climate. As a West Indian, Lafargue knew from his own experience how difficult and exhausting any effort is in a hot climate. But because the needs there are few and nature usually gives its gifts in abundance, man could easily follow his instinct for blissful idleness - but only until the white rulers came and imposed forced labor on him. If, according to Rabasseire, socialists, who “all come from the Romance culture”, wrote less about work and more about laziness and rest, this is probably also due to the fact that the pleasant climate of southern Europe entices people to enjoy life to the full. Even the biblical curse: “by the sweat of your brow” comes from warmer climes.

In contrast, in the cool, temperate climate of Central Europe, a livelihood could only be wrested from nature through hard work. Here, as the fruit of intellectual effort, technology emerged as a liberating force. “The machine is the great liberator of man from slavery.” “The machine has a double mission: to increase production and thus earthly goods - and at the same time to reduce and alleviate labor. By increasing production, the machine will break poverty - by reducing labor, it will break slavery.” With these words, R. N. Coudenhove Kalergi, the well-known campaigner for European unity, expresses the importance of technological progress in his booklet Revolution through Technology, which is well worth reading. He is not a socialist and he does not know the class struggle; therefore we must add to his statement: the machine in the hands of capital has made the slavery of labor more difficult, the machine in the hands of the workers will abolish the slavery of labor at the same time as the need.

Comrade Rabasseire then passes from the general principle to the practical reform of the “right to laziness” to the reduction of working hours. What the increase in the productivity of labor brings us is not only a reduction in working hours, but also, and more importantly, the possibility of organizing life according to new principles. Let us not forget that activity is not merely a compulsion of hunger, but that the activity of the vital functions as the use of the bodily organs, as the exertion of muscles, nerves and brain, is a direct life instinct, for man as well as for the animal. The blessing of technology is not an extension of time spent in blissful idleness, but an enrichment of life in new forms of activity. For the individual, an increase in leisure offers the possibility of devoting oneself to quiet enjoyment, serious study, sport, art, etc., according to one's mood. For the working class as a whole, the situation is different. Capitalism has long recognized that the shortening of working hours offers it new opportunities and sets new tasks. To this end it has created a large educational apparatus and an entire amusement industry. The latter is intended to absorb the masses' need for recreation and channel it into harmless channels by offering thoughtless amusement. And the thirst for knowledge of awakened workers finds satisfaction in an education in “culture”, i.e. bourgeois culture, which binds them mentally to capitalism and renders thoughts of class struggle ineffective. Capital rules the workers not only during work, but also during leisure. Their whole life, their whole day is under the control of capital.

This will only change when the workers conquer power and directly dispose of the means of production. It is probably superfluous to point out here that this conquest will not be a single act, but will encompass an entire epoch of social upheaval. And also that it means the opposite of a nationalization of production. It seems to me that Comrade Rabasseire has not sufficiently realized the profound difference between capitalism tempered by reforms (e.g. reduction of working hours) and a socialist order. If the workers, as masters, have the machines at their disposal and regulate their own work, it will be easy for them to produce abundance for all. But their essential aim will be to organize technology in such a way that it really frees mankind from all pressure. Elsewhere I have tried to outline in more detail the development that will then set in.