Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
Capitalism has survived despite a roller-coaster of crises for over two centuries. It uses many means to survive, but one of its greatest weapons is controlling the narrative and dividing the working class, to divert attention from the cause of all the crises faced by and paid for by the […]
Sally Rooney’s hotly anticipated latest novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You, frames a taut interpersonal drama of interlinked friendships and romance against the wider context of history, class, and labour, exploring the inherent ridiculousness of millennial existence in an increasingly fraught, complicated world. Rooney’s self-avowed Marxist credentials are apparent in this most […]
Work, like inequality, appears to be a permanent feature of human existence into the foreseeable future. Psychologically, humans do not feel well if they are not working. Or so the story goes. And work, as we said earlier, is continually reinforced by the language of power. “An honest day’s work […]
“Why do we work?” seems like an odd question. Sure everyone works, do they not? Or the majority of people do, one way or another. And if you can’t, don’t or won’t work there is every chance you are seen as lazy, a sponger, or worse. But there has to […]
I have been a musician for more than twenty years, playing in various original bands, cover bands, and wedding bands. As the whole industry for working musicians becomes ever more uncertain because of covid-19, I have often found myself pondering the question of the value of being a musician. Many […]
With a new Tory prime minister committed to a Brexit deal that is unlikely to win support in the House of Commons, the odds are heavily in favour of a general election that by any normal calculation would be won by the Labour Party—not just any Labour Party but one led by a left-wing social democrat.
Mandate has called on Lloyd’s Pharmacy to respect its employees’ right to trade union representation before the management does even more damage to the business. The union responded to a press statement issued by the company to correct serious flaws in its presentation of what is happening and to expose […]
Fórsa, the biggest public-sector union, is in existence since January 2018, but already workers’ rights are under attack. The CEO of Roscommon County Council launched the attack on the issue of flex time. This is not a simple local issue but a challenge to trade unions and workers’ rights in […]
Women’s pay When people talk about the pay gap they often cite the generally accepted figures of 10–14 per cent difference in pay between men and women, this gap being more noticeable in the higher echelons of business. Critics admit that the pay gap is real but explain away pay […]
The January issue of Socialist Voice had an article by me entitled “The wage system and the capitalist illusion.” A worker being told they are getting their equivalent wage relating to their work is being held captive by an illusion that in reality leads to a non-equivalent exchange, which is […]
Readers of Socialist Voice may be familiar with the idea of worker self-directed enterprises, or WSDEs. The idea is promoted in the United States, particularly by the Marxian economist Richard Wolff. Those who are not acquainted with the logic behind WSDE might be well served by engaging with this topic, […]
Struggle and resistance in the work-place is more common than readers might think. If we think of resistance or conflict between capital and labour in work-places as only industrial disputes, well then, yes, it is a pretty dismal picture. Of course we see the headline disputes of workers collectively organised […]