Anarchy 47/Towards freedom in work - Revision history

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imported>Ivanhoe: Created page with "{{header | title = ANARCHY 47 (Vol 5 No 1) January 1965
Towards freedom in work | author = James Gillespie | section =..."

2020-03-26T03:41:46Z

Created page with "{{header | title = [[../|ANARCHY 47 (Vol 5 No 1) January 1965]]<br>Towards freedom in work | author = James Gillespie | section =..."

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{{header
| title = [[../|ANARCHY 47 (Vol 5 No 1) January 1965]]<br>Towards freedom in work
| author = James Gillespie
| section =
| previous = [[../Editor's note|Editor{{s}} note]]
| next = '''[[Anarchy 48]]'''
| notes = <div style="text-align:center;">''This essay is dedicated to my wife Edna who for thirty-<wbr>five years has been the soil of my growing.''</div>
}}

<div style="max-width:500px; margin:auto;">{{p|5}}

<font size="5">'''Towards<br>freedom<br>in work'''</font>

<font size="4">'''[[Author:James Gillespie|JAMES GILLESPIE]]'''</font>

<div style="text-align:justify;">{{sc|The heart of this essay}} is the idea of free work in fellowship, and it can be illustrated simply from the practice:

{{tab}}In an electrical components factory we had trouble planning for smooth flow of components and balancing of operations. Output varied considerably from one operator to another. Monday{{s}} output was some 25% lower than output on Thursday which was the closing day of the bonus week, and work discipline was only fair. After some study a group bonus system was designed and the outline, meaning and purpose of this was put to the group which was then left to discuss it among its members, (free group discussion). The girls agreed to have a trial and they were then invited to check the base times set per operation, (group participation in method). The system was introduced with the quick result that the group members so organised themselves that the flow of work was greatly improved, discipline improved as a result of internal group controls, and output increased by about 12% over that previously attained under the individual piecework system. (Here the group took over the local management function of internal work progressing and, more important, that of local man-<wbr>management).

{{tab}}But interesting though the figures given are, the heart of the matter for me was in the group{{s}} attitude to a girl called Mary, whose output, I pointed out, was some 16% lower than the group average. I was met with the antagonistic group rejoinder that Mary was a nice girl. This profoundly true evaluation by the group of the worth of qualities like kindness and goodness cuts across the motivational fabric of our modern culture, and it is a statement of values I have found in nearly all small groups who work closely together. I knew that Mary was unwittingly the {{qq|group psychiatrist}}, but were I a poet it would take an epic pen to tell that here was a guiding candlelight in the dark wasteland of our {{p|6}}materialist culture. In terms of production efficiency, individual cost, and export-<wbr>import balance, Mary is a {{w|dead loss|Deadweight_loss}} whose virtues are not entered in the commercial statistician{{s}} reports; but the Mary{{s}} are the symbols of the riches of small community living in which goodness and kindness are highly rewarded, whereas our economic culture highly rewards individualist acquisitiveness and egocentric power and status seeking. In terms of individualistic costing, based on individualist incentive schemes, the Mary{{s}} are a costly burden, but in terms of overall group efficiency, Mary was a lubricant factor without which the group could not, would not, have reached and maintained its state of high productive effectiveness. This effectiveness was a result of a situation in which the group shared work and the reward of work with encouragement of co-<wbr>operation and mutual aid, and with group acclaim of individual material and spiritual contributions.

{{tab}}We use the social-<wbr>psychological term {{qq|group}}, but our little group was more than an economic group dominated by economic self-<wbr>interest. Because the group members consciously recognised the whole worth of each person in the group, there was a fellowship ({{l|''communis''|https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/communis}}), or, it may be said, a fellowship group. Later it will be shown that free work and fellowship are the twin components of individual growth towards personal maturity.

{{tab}}Tens of thousands of kind-<wbr>hearted Mary{{s}} are victims of our materialist culture which offers high rewards for some of the basest human characteristics and penalises some of the best through the stupefied attachment of both managers and managed to individualistic ratings and rewards:

<font size="2">
:::: ''Sweet Mary your production{{s}} poor,''
::::: ''Just dry your tears and go,''
:::: ''For speed and greed are rated high,''
::::: ''But love-for-others, no.''
:::: ''Christ''! ''Where{{s}} the electrician''?
::::: ''Our lamps are burning low''!
</font>

{{tab}}The illustration given describes in simple form the group contract system in which the group shares work and the rewards of work, and has a share in decision-<wbr>making within the local work environment, a function which hitherto was in the sole field of management. The illustration also touches on the free or informal group discussion system which has been in use during the past fifteen years in a number of companies, and in which decision-<wbr>making is shared on a wider level than in the group contract system.

{{p|s1}}'''Man Citizen and Man Worker'''

{{p|s2}}'''Management or Leadership in Work?'''

{{p|s3}}'''Management{{s}} Work Doctrine'''

{{p|s4}}'''Automated Work'''

{{p|s5}}'''Work in Fellowship'''

{{p|s6}}'''Workshop Floor Groups'''

{{p|s7}}'''Free Group Theory'''

{{p|s8}}'''Free Group Structure and Method'''

{{p|s9}}'''Fifteen Years of Group Discussion'''

{{p|s10}}'''The Free Group Contract System'''

{{p|s11}}'''The Standard Motor Gang System'''

{{p|s12}}'''The Durham Miner{{s|r}} Free Group Project'''

{{p|s13}}'''The Wider Issues'''

-----

{{p|s14}}'''Book References'''

{{p|s15}}'''Recommended Basic Reading'''
</div>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Towards freedom in work}}
[[Category:Labour and industry]]
[[Category:Workers' control]]
[[Category:Articles]]

@@ Line 188: / Line 188: @@
 ::::: ''let{{s}} light a candle in {{w|Saint Franci{{s|r}} chapel|Franciscans}}.''
-This odd aside I call {{qq|In&shy;scrip&shy;tion for {{popup|Whited Sep&shy;ulchres|pretty tombs: "whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of ... uncleanness (Matthew 23:27)}}.}}
+This odd aside I call {{qq|In&shy;scrip&shy;tion for {{popup|Whited Sep&shy;ulchres|Well Cared-for Tombs: allusion to 'whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of ... uncleanness' (Matthew 23:27)}}.}}
 </font><!-- this poem appeared as a footnote with an asterisk in the original -->
@@ Line 209: / Line 209: @@
-{{p|s6}}'''Work&shy;shop Floor Groups'''
+{{p|16}}{{p|s6}}'''Work&shy;shop Floor Groups'''
@@ Line 246: / Line 263: @@
 {{DEFAULTSORT:Towards freedom in work}}
 [[Category:Labour and industry]]
 [[Category:Workers' control]]
-[[Category:Poetry]]
+[[Category:Poems]]
 [[Category:Articles]]

@@ Line 139: / Line 139: @@
 {{tab}}What func&shy;tion, if any, has work in the well-<wbr>being of the per&shy;son&shy;al&shy;ity or, on the other hand, what re&shy;la&shy;tion&shy;ship has work to life as a whole? Why is it, for ex&shy;ample, that the cap&shy;acity reg&shy;u&shy;larly to work is a dom&shy;in&shy;ant factor in indi&shy;vidual norm&shy;al&shy;ity from the psy&shy;chi&shy;at&shy;ric and the depth psy&shy;cho&shy;lo&shy;gical points of view? Why too is work-<wbr>therapy an es&shy;sen&shy;tial treat&shy;ment in neur&shy;otic and psy&shy;chotic ill&shy;nesses where there is a with&shy;drawal from real&shy;ity? It is be&shy;cause in free, mean&shy;ing&shy;ful work which calls for skill and de&shy;ci&shy;sion-<wbr>making there is at once a focus&shy;sing of con&shy;scious&shy;ness on the world of real&shy;ity and a pro&shy;tec&shy;tion against the back&shy;ward group of un&shy;con&shy;scious fantasy and in&shy;fant&shy;il&shy;ism.
-{{tab}}Work in which there is free ex&shy;pres&shy;sion of the whole man is an ego-<wbr>build&shy;ing and sus&shy;tain&shy;ing func&shy;tion of the self. The age of prim&shy;it&shy;ive in&shy;no&shy;cence, of the ''par&shy;ti&shy;ci&shy;pa&shy;tion mys&shy;tique'' when men were yet in the mind&shy;less state of one&shy;ness with na&shy;ture, was the {{w|Golden Age|Golden_Age}} spoken of in the great reli&shy;gious tra&shy;di&shy;tions. In the Hindu epic, the {{l|Maha&shy;barata|https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/maha/index.htm}}, there is a {{w|Krita|Satya_Yuga}} or Golden Age: {{qq|In that age no buy&shy;ing or sell&shy;ing went on, no ef&shy;forts were made by man; the fruits of the earth were ob&shy;tained by their mere wish; right&shy;eous&shy;ness and aban&shy;don&shy;ment of the world pre&shy;vailed}}. The {{w|Greek|Ancient _Greece}} peas&shy;ant poet {{w|Hesiod}} be&shy;moans the pass&shy;ing of the Golden Age in which men cared no&shy;thing for toil and lived like gods and had no sor&shy;row of heart. But of his own, the {{w|Iron Age|Iron_Age}}, Hesiod cries: {{qq|Dark is their plight. Toil and sor&shy;row by day are theirs and by night the an&shy;guish of death}}.
+{{tab}}Work in which there is free ex&shy;pres&shy;sion of the whole man is an ego-<wbr>build&shy;ing and sus&shy;tain&shy;ing func&shy;tion of the self. The age of prim&shy;it&shy;ive in&shy;no&shy;cence, of the ''par&shy;ti&shy;ci&shy;pa&shy;tion mys&shy;tique'' when men were yet in the mind&shy;less state of one&shy;ness with na&shy;ture, was the {{w|Golden Age|Golden_Age}} spoken of in the great reli&shy;gious tra&shy;di&shy;tions. In the Hindu epic, the {{l|Maha&shy;barata|https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/maha/index.htm}}, there is a {{w|Krita|Satya_Yuga}} or Golden Age: {{qq|In that age no buy&shy;ing or sell&shy;ing went on, no ef&shy;forts were made by man; the fruits of the earth were ob&shy;tained by their mere wish; right&shy;eous&shy;ness and aban&shy;don&shy;ment of the world pre&shy;vailed}}. The {{w|Greek|Ancient_Greece}} peas&shy;ant poet {{w|Hesiod}} be&shy;moans the pass&shy;ing of the Golden Age in which men cared no&shy;thing for toil and lived like gods and had no sor&shy;row of heart. But of his own, the {{w|Iron Age|Iron_Age}}, Hesiod cries: {{qq|Dark is their plight. Toil and sor&shy;row by day are theirs and by night the an&shy;guish of death}}.
 {{tab}}Writing over 2,000 years past, the {{w|Chin&shy;ese|Han_dynasty}} philo&shy;sopher {{w|Chuang Tzu|Zhuang_Zhou}} {{w|de&shy;scribes|Zhuangzi_(book)}} the {{w|Golden Age of Chaos|Hundun}}, of placid tran&shy;quil&shy;ity in which no work was done and there was no need for know&shy;ledge. In {{l|Genesis|https://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/poly/gen.htm}}, man lived in a {{w|para&shy;disal|Garden_of_Eden}}<!-- 'paradisial' in original --> Golden Age until with the ex&shy;pres&shy;sion of self-<wbr>con&shy;scious&shy;ness, of know&shy;ledge of good and evil, the curse of work was placed upon hu&shy;man&shy;ity.
@@ Line 161: / Line 161: @@
 {{p|s4}}'''Auto&shy;mated Work'''
 {{p|s5}}'''Work in Fel&shy;low&shy;ship'''

@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 {{p|s1}}'''Man Citi&shy;zen and Man Worker'''
 {{p|s2}}'''Man&shy;age&shy;ment or Leader&shy;ship in Work?'''
@@ Line 82: / Line 118: @@
-{{p|s14}}'''Book Re&shy;fer&shy;ences'''
+{{p|s14}}'''Re&shy;com&shy;mended Basic Read&shy;ing'''<!-- Book References came first in original, but wiki formatting prevents text after references -->
-{{p|s15}}'''Re&shy;com&shy;mended Basic Read&shy;ing'''
+<references />
 </div>

Anarchy 47/Towards freedom in work - Revision history

imported>Ivanhoe at 07:27, 10 April 2020

imported>Ivanhoe at 00:27, 10 April 2020

imported>Ivanhoe at 05:10, 9 April 2020

imported>Ivanhoe at 01:30, 7 April 2020

205.250.196.93 at 05:28, 6 April 2020

imported>Ivanhoe at 02:51, 29 March 2020

imported>Ivanhoe at 02:47, 27 March 2020

imported>Ivanhoe at 22:16, 26 March 2020

imported>Ivanhoe: Created page with "{{header | title = ANARCHY 47 (Vol 5 No 1) January 1965Towards freedom in work | author = James Gillespie | section =..."

imported>Ivanhoe: Created page with "{{header | title = ANARCHY 47 (Vol 5 No 1) January 1965
Towards freedom in work | author = James Gillespie | section =..."