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By itself, this is a book about work, but it's also more than that. It is an outline of an analysis of capitalism: what it is, how it works, how we might dis-mantle it. And the book and the analysis are outgrowths of something more a movement of people determined to fight it. So this book isn't just an attempt to describe reality but also a tool with which to change it. If any of the words or illustrations resonate with you, don't leave them trapped on these pages write them on the wall, shout them over the intercom at your former workplace, change them as you see fit and release them into the world. This project is the combined effort of a group of people who have already spent many years in pitched struggle against capitalism. What qualifies us to write this? Some of us used to be students or pizza deliverers or dishwashers; others still are construction workers or graphic designers or civic-minded criminals. But all of us have lived under capitalism since we were born, and that makes us experts on it. The same goes for you. No one has to have a degree in economics to understand what's happening: it s enough to get a paycheck or a pink slip and pay attention. We re suspicious of the experts who get their credentials from on high, who have incentives to minimize things that are obvious to everyone else. Like every attempt to construct a scale model of the world, this one is bound to be partial in both senses of the word. To present the whole story, it would have to be as vast as history. There s no way to be unbiased, either: our positions and values inevitably influence what we include and what we leave out. What we offer here is simply one perspective from our side of the counter and our side of the barricades. If it lines up with yours, let's do something about it.… (more)
User reviews
The authors of Work have a pretty amazing ability to explain the complicated concepts upon which our economy rests in just a
The book was written from the perspective of someone who wants to understand capitalism and their place underneath it. It is not for the captains of industry or the state policymaker. It is written as a dishwasher, a serviceworker, a proletarian who occupies a low rung of the corporate ladder. It is an explanation why going to work every day is such a terror, and why the only thing worse than this work is not having access to it while still living in this system. But it also explores areas of the terrain that are out of reach to the proletariat (such as the stock market, dividends, finance) and exposes the spell that it casts on its participants, how murderers are literally grinding up our bodies to push this machine forward at all cost (to us, to the planet, to themselves).
The timing of the book is great. When the markets are crashing all around us and capitalism seems in peril, this book comes out at a very strategic time. People are being evicted from their houses, fired from their jobs, or worse, have long been fired or evicted, and are starting to doubt the firmness of ground beneath them. This book describes the problem of capitalism, the false solutions and why they are false, and outlines some of the first steps of a real resistance to it.
One of the final segments of the book ("Fight Where You Stand") was so right on that I almost cheered aloud while reading it.
Recommended to: people just starting to see the cracks in the wall, those who want to smash it down