Resisting economic conscription

Abstract

The British left's response to the Tory government's labour market strategies has been piecemeal and ineffective. It has been severely compromised by the historical involvement of the Labour Party and the TUC in the MSC. The adherence of the labour movement to the work ethic, the idea that each should be paid according to labour contributed rather than to need, has become a stumbling block. Gray argues that a left labour market strategy must first protect the weak, the growing part-time, temporary and casual ‘under-class’, and enable them to refuse low-paid work. The present mood of defeatism, of demanding jobs at any price, must be challenged. With workfare on the state's agenda, the ‘right to work’ is the wrong emphasis; what matters is the right to an income.