The Precariat: New Class Or Bogus Concept?

The Precariat: New Class or Bogus Concept?

Kieran Allen

Rather like the clothing industry, the own direct experience. Such understandings academy has its changing fashions. The en- are sometimes linked to actions and strategic terprising social science academic will invent choices. Certainly, Guy Standing’s concept of a concept and market it extensively in books the precariat has important implications. and peer-reviewed publications. The more ci- tations it receives from other academics, the more successful his or her career becomes. The key strategy lies in getting ahead of the curve - hence the premium placed on neolo- gisms, the invention of new words. ‘The precariat’ is one such fashionable concept. It is a play on the word ‘proletariat’ but it signifies a much more modern, up to the minute capturing of the latest trends brought about by globalisation. It was devel- oped by Guy Standing, a Professor of Eco- nomic Security at Bath University who has since moved to the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Prior to that he worked as an economist with the Interna- Guy Standings book The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class tional Labour Organisation for two decades and became known as an international expert on ‘flexibility’. A sceptic of the dominant neoliberal discourse, Standing’s outlook derives from another fashionable figure in academia, The precariat, according to Standing, are Karl Polanyi. This effectively argued that the people who lack seven main forms of labour extreme forces of the market had to be coun- security. They do not have adequate income terbalanced with regulation. In 2002, as an earning opportunities because of the return of ILO economist, Standing argued that there mass unemployment; when they do find work, had to be changes in the welfare state to re- they have no protection against arbitrary dis- flect the rise of the ‘flexi worker’ who were missals; they do not have defined job descrip- seen as the core group in modern society. tions; they have no work security in terms of Later the term ‘flexi worker’ morphed into proper health and safety regulations or lim- ‘the precariat’ and Standing’s fame in aca- its on working time or unsocial hours; they 1 demic circles shot up. have no career path or opportunities to up If it were simply a matter of the academic- skill; their wage are not protected by mini- publishing complex producing new words, it mum wage legislation or indexed against in- would barely merit discussion. But words flation; they have no collective voice. This is like ‘the precariat’ are concepts that feed a description of the conditions facing millions into theoretical understandings. And, despite of people today - particular those who are mi- the ornamentation and jargon that surround grants, young or the elderly who are forced much academic theorising, theories are ways to return to work because of inadequate pen- in which we understand the world beyond our sions.2 1J. Breman, ‘A Bogus Concept’ New Left Review 84, November-December 2013. 2 G. Standing, The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class, London Bloomsbury Academic , 2011, p 10

43 Different interests? of those who want change now rest with the ‘precariat’ - this new class in the making. Standing’s purpose, however, is not simply to describe - but to theorise. In other words, to But what might this change amount to? offer a way of understanding these develop- Here Standing’s critical but continuing sup- ments which serve as a guide to action and port for the ILO’s social liberalism shines policy. Mimicking the language of Marxism, though. At the root of this approach is a dis- he argues that the precariat is a new ‘class in like for the ‘labourist’ politics, which domi- the making’. In other words, it is not organ- nated the working class movement. But while ised or conscious of its distinct interests but his attack on ‘labourism’ is sometimes remi- the objective conditions for its existence as a niscent of the language of the anti-capitalist class have been produced by neoliberal glob- left, in reality it is an attack from the right. alisation. The central point - and indeed the The old workers movement is presented as a key implication of using the term ‘precariat’- conservative force who sought security under is that this class has distinct interests to those the protection of a bureaucratic state. The of the ‘proletariat’. Here is his argument, ‘salariat’- a jargon sociological term for white- collar workers - have apparently, along with The precariat was not part of ‘the the elite, ‘most of the financial capital and have gained vastly more income’ without evi- working class’ or the ‘proletariat’. 5 The latter term suggests a soci- dence of working harder. Standing virtually ety consisting mostly of workers writes off trade unions as ‘necessarily adver- in long term stable, fixed-hour sarial and economistic’ and suggests that the jobs with established routes of precariat needs new collective bodies, which advancement, subject to unioni- engage in ‘collaborative bargaining’ not just sation and collective agreements, with employers but with other groups of work- with job titles their fathers and ers, ‘because its interests are not the same as those of the salariat or core employees, who mothers would have understood, 6 facing local employers they were have labour unions to speak for them’. familiar with’3 Sheltering behind a technological deter- minist outlook and the siren call of inevitabil- We shall return to this peculiar definition ity, Standing argues that a focus on ‘big of the working class later but for the moment state’ reforms has become an historic anachro- note its mythical tone and its image of work- nism. The precariat are presented as ‘global- ing class as somewhat conservative. Standing isation’s child’. Globalisation, in turn, arose has, in fact, a broadly contemptuous attitude from an ‘emboldened group of social and eco- to this ‘old’ working class. He argues that it nomic thinkers’ who disliked the state and is simply ‘a term embedded in our culture’ ‘its planning and regulatory apparatus’. ‘The from centuries past and he agrees with André tragedy’, Standing argues, ‘was that, while Gorz’s proclamation made, ironically, before their diagnosis made partial sense, their prog- 7 the May 68 general strike in France that the nosis was callous’ ‘end of the working class’ occurred long ago.4 The less callous solution, Standing sug- By this he means that it ceased to have his- gests, is a further break from the ‘big state’. toric agency -able to unite around common He argues that ‘contrary to the labourist interests and forge a new society. The hopes declaration that “Labour is not a commod- 3ibid p.6 4ibid p.7 5ibid p.171 6ibid p.168 7ibid p.5 8ibid p.161

44 ity”, there should be full labour commodifi- Insightful critiques of Standing’s argu- cation’.8 Thus, while Marx critiqued capital- ments have been made by writers like Richard ism for turning living creative energy into a Seymour but, oddly, he argues that ‘the ap- mere commodity, Standing suggests that the pellation precariat works as a populist inter- process did not go far enough. Full mon- pellation’ and so it is a concept that can be etary values should be placed on all bene- embraced by the left to help ‘found a new, fits workers grudgingly receive from employ- radical majoritarian politics with an anti- ers. The ‘fancy’ heath insurance benefits that capitalist core’12 US workers received, for example should be There are a number of reasons why the scrapped and converted ‘into benefits that can concept of the precariat has permeated some be bought by market choice’.9 More bizarrely, left discourse in the recent past. One lies in Standing calls for the ending of maternity the internal construction of Standings’ book. leave because this non-market benefit is sub- Despite arguing for a more commodified ver- sidised by taxpayers, including the precariat, sion of capitalism, it draws on themes that who will never receive it.10 He extols the have appeared in the anti-capitalist movement virtues of volunteering with NGOs as against since the Seattle uprising in 1999. Thus, there bureaucratic welfare services. There is even are attacks on the corporate take-over of uni- a nod in the direction of David Cameron’s versities and a defence of ‘the commons’ and rhetorical suggestion to let public sector work- urban spaces that are being invaded by com- ers run their units as co-operatives, which ten- mercial interests. There are gestures to the der for contracts - presumably at somewhat argument about the ‘social factory’ that orig- lower wages. inally emerged in the Italian workerist movement of the 1970s as Stranding critiques the If this is the central thrust of Standing’s ‘blurring’ of the work/leisure division. There argument, then why has the term ‘precariat’ is a wider argument made against neoliberal gained such currency on the left? Noam globalisation and a recognition that it has led Chomsky, for example, has declared it a to a worsening of life conditions for the major- ‘very important book’ and uses the term ‘pre- ity. Yet despite the often impressionistic tour cariat’ regularly. The wider Occupy move- of these themes, the central point of the book ment adopted the term even as it forged remains an argument that the precariat have strong links with some of the unions in the different interests from the organised working US. A smaller element, however, such as ‘Ad- class and need a more commodified form of vance the Struggle’, went further and declared capitalism accompanied by global regulation that, and a Basic Income to allow them to partici- pate more actively in the market. It is hard to tell poor, unemployed, undoc- umented, immigrants, people of colour, that There are other external reasons why the we too, have a stake in the struggles of union book received a relatively positive response. workers, especially relatively privileged work- One is that many people - and the young in ers. This is an unpopular reality that many particular- experience a high degree of insecu- revolutionaries and leftists do not want to rity because of the re-structuring of Western confront11 capitalism. This re-structuring has acceler- 9ibid p.162 10ibid p.162 11‘Longview Occupy and Beyond: Rank and File and the 89% union’ Advance the Struggle February 2nd 2012 http://advancethestruggle.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/longview-occupy-and-beyond- rank-and-file-and-the-89-unite/ 12R. Seymour ‘We are all precarious - on the concept of the precariat and its misuses’ New Left Project, http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/we_are_ all_precarious_on_the_concept_of_the_precariat_and_its_misuses

45 ated further since the crash of 2008. As a re- Moreover, as Perry Anderson pointed out sult some of the conditions of existence that long ago, Western Marxism has increasingly were once experienced by some of the poorest been located in academia and has focussed sections of the working class are spreading to on culture and idealist forms of philosophy much wider layers. Take, for example, college that are often divorced from an involvement graduates. We will use data from Ireland to in class struggle. It may be ironic that Ander- illustrate the scale of the changes. son was the author of this piece but his point Currently Ireland has an extremely high that Western Marxism survived in a differ- number of people with third level qualifica- ent milieu to classic Marxists such as Lenin, tions in the 25-34 age bracket. It amounts Trotsky and Luxemburg still holds. This has to 48 percent of this age cohort, compared important implications because the broad ori- to 33 percent in the wider EU. Most young entation of academic leftism in the social sci- people enter college with a traditional aspi- ences has been to dispute the capacity to ration - that a degree offers a chance of a the ‘old’ workers movement to struggle for better life and a ‘career’ that affords some anything other than economistic sectional de- security. Many indeed assume that it is a mands. Not surprising then two types of new ticket into the middle class. Yet the reality theories have emerged in academia to explain is very different. Youth unemployment has working class passivity and, unfortunately, risen to 30 percent and that is after the re- these have gained some traction among left- turn of mass emigration, which particularly ists. affects youth. Before taking up work, many will spend months on unpaid internships. Af- One is the notion that neoliberalism has ter that they will most probably go through entered the very soul of workers so that they a series of temporary contracts before getting are now incapable of thinking in a real col- a permanent job. According to the ASTI, the lective sense. A good example of this ap- secondary teachers union, the newly qualified proach is Jennifer Silva’s Coming Up Short: teachers will spend an average of eight years Working class Adulthood in an Age of Un- on temporary contracts. Moreover as they en- certainty. This argues that younger workers ter the labour force, they will experience lower are no longer able to connect personal trau- pay and lower pension rights because trade mas to public issues and, therefore, adopt fun- union leaders have sold these young workers damentally individualistic stances. Another out. Given these circumstances is it surpris- approach, however, is to focus on structural ing that there is a certain appeal to an ar- changes in the nature of capitalism and in the gument about a difference of interest between working class. Epstein and Krippner’s work ‘the precariat’ and ‘the proletariat’? on ‘financialisation’ which argues that profit The second reason, however, has to do is no longer linked to production is a good ex- with the ideological confusion that has en- ample of writings which emphasise changes in gulfed sections of the anti-capitalist left. The the structure of capitalism.13 Standing’s The crash of 2008 was similar to that of 1929 in be- Precariat is an example of the latter. These ing a general ‘systemic crisis’. The response structural changes, it is suggested, require an of the workers’ movement was strong in par- orientation away from organised workers to- ticular countries such as Greece but, overall, wards wider social movements and the ‘pre- there has not been sustained or successful re- cariat’. Variations of these arguments have sistance. This discrepancy between the scale won a hearing in sections of the anti-capitalist of the crisis and the weakness of working class left who fear that the over-focus on organised response has led to a search for ‘new’ theories workers might cut them off from ‘the move- to explain this. ment’. 13 G.Epstein, Financialisation and the World Economy New York Edward Elgar, 2005 and Greta R. Krippner ‘The financialisation of the American economy’ Socio-Economic Review 2005 3(2):173-208.

46 This then is the wider context for the the accepted limits but reformist ideas arose reception that Standing’s ‘precariat’ has re- out of the experience of workers in a particu- ceived. At the core of the book is a method lar phase of capitalism and if Labour parties - derived primarily from the academy- that were not there to give them expression other is at variance with an active Marxist ap- -sometimes left nationalist - forces arose to proach to the world. Not only does it dis- perform the same function. count the fact that the fundamentals of cap- Today we have entered a new phase of capitalism are rooted in the commodification of italism and the reformist politics which dom- human labour, it seeks to ‘read off’ suppos- inated labour movements are in crisis. The edly ‘inevitable’ changes from ‘globalisation’. leadership layers have embraced social liber- In other words, it replaces an analysis of po- alism and only try to tack on a few pathetic litical struggle within the workers’ movement ‘left’ gestures to appease their base. The mass with a ‘faux nostalgia’ that writes off work- of workers who suffer exploitation and grow- ers either as victims of internalised neoliberal ing insecurity are left in a contradictory posi- values or redundant because of the structural tion. Many want to fight - as most ballots that economic change. The massive gap in all these are taken for industrial action in Ireland tes- writings is any examination of the strategies tify. But they often lack confidence and still and policies that arise in the workers’ move- expect others to represent or fight for them. ment from the domination of reformism. More broadly, a new revolutionary alternative has not yet emerged that can give voice to the common interest of workers. The systemic cri- The role of reformism sis of capitalism is, therefore, being reflected Reformist influences became deeply rooted in in a crisis within labour movements and there the Western labour movement first in the late is a massive fight underway to resolve it in 19th and early 20th century with the rise of favour of those who wish to see a challenge to German Social Democracy and the British capitalism itself. Part of that fight involves Labour Party and then, again, during ‘the relating, precisely, to some ‘labourist’ senti- Golden Age’ of capitalist expansion from 1948 ments in order to move them in a revolution- to the early seventies. The hegemony of these ary direction. Standing has no interest in such ideas affected - and still affects - every aspect an outcome and so his new concept of the ‘pre- of working class life: the separation of ‘in- cariat’ comes with an attempt to ideologically dustrial relations’ from political struggle; the legitimise divisions between workers. rise of a professional union bureaucracy whose But even if this is the effect of his ar- primary purpose is to bargain rather than guments, we still need to deal with them in lead struggle; the subtle patronage structures their own terms. This is a somewhat slippery that co-opted working class fighters into offi- task because of the impressionistic manner in cial structures; and, crucially, the implicit ac- which the book is written. Nevertheless, there ceptance of divisions between workers created are a number of key themes we will focus on by the market as the price to be paid for con- to critique his argument. forming to the system. The hegemony of these ideas did not arise from a thin layer of labour A mythical proletariat aristocrats, as Lenin originally suggested,14 or even, purely, from the apparatus of union Standing’s approach to social class is drawn and Labour party bureaucracies. These ap- from a variant of Weberian sociology, which paratuses certainly played a vital role in sus- sees it merely as a number of categories with taining reformist methods and practices when defined characteristics. The class structure is grassroots anger threatened to move beyond supposedly composed of an elite, a ‘salariat’ - 14 T. Cliff,‘The Economic roots of reformism’ in Neither Washington or Moscow, London: Bookmarks 1982.

47 white collar workers who have ‘pensions, paid Quite the contrary. The general picture now holidays and enterprise benefits, often sub- is one of declining security for all workers as sidised by the state’; a ‘proficians’ - profes- capital seeks to compensate for declining rates sionals or technicians whose skills are in high of profit by increasing the rate of exploitation. demands; and manual workers. Manual workers in most advanced economies Marxists take an entirely different ap- have been losing out on pension security; em- proach to social class and see it as a relation- ployment security with the rise of mass unem- ship that is formed with an opposing class in ployment; job description security with the the process of production. Production here constant pressure for flexibility. In Ireland, is not understood in the narrow sense of sim- for example, the number of defined benefit ply manufacturing but rather the way human pension schemes has declined from 2,500 in energy is used to transform our environment. 1990 to only 800 today. In the last four years Work that is conventionally categorised as be- alone, 400 of these schemes have closed, im- longing to ‘services’ -such in education and pacting 65,000 workers.16 One recent study health- are also sites in which class relations in Europe found that only 32 percent of all are formed. These ‘services’ help reproduce workers thought they had good employability new generations of workers and increase their prospects - i.e. could get another job at simi- productivity. They are therefore part of trans- lar pay and conditions if their own one closed forming the environment to meet expanding - while 23 percent of industrial workers feared and socially determined human needs. for their job security in the next six months17 The key point - which Standing misses en- Clearly, therefore, the manual working tirely - is that these relations under capital- class cannot be defined by stable, secure pat- ism are based on exploitation and are shaped terns of employment. Insecurity - or precar- by the underlying logic of capital: namely, a iousness - is a condition that does not just drive for self-expansion, based on an endless characterise one group but is a condition af- search for a high rate of profit. This means fecting the wider working class in varying de- that far from the working class being a static grees. category, it is continually being changed by capital and its own struggles against it. The myth of a privileged Thus it is absurd to start from a picture salariat of the manual working class from a distant era. If core sections of organised workers The ‘salariat’ - primarily office and white- were drawn from skilled workers, miners or collar workers - have probably undergone the car workers in the past, it does not follow that most change in recent decades due to the na- it remains the case today. Currently, for ex- ture of capitalist re-structuring. ample, white-collar employees in Ireland have A hundred years ago, office employees had higher rates of trade union membership than a ‘trust’ relationship with their employer be- skilled workers. 37 percent of clerical employ- cause they worked in close proximity and were ees are members of a union compared to 30 rewarded for loyalty to the firm. In the 1930s, percent from craft workers.15 And if man- Lewis Corey characterised this group as ‘hon- ual workers won some security from employers oured employees’ who had close and confiden- during the Golden Age of capitalism, it does tial relations with their employers. Even by not follow that they continue to have ‘stable’ the late fifties the sociologist, David Lock- jobs with prospects of advancement in 2014. wood, was arguing that ‘the clerk and the 15CSO, Quarterly National Household Survey Module on Union Membership 2009 Table 3a 16‘Pensioners may face cuts under reform package’ Irish Times, 20 November 2013 17Eurofound, Quality of employment conditions and employment relations in Europe, Eurofound, Dublin , 2013 18D. Lockwood, The Blackcoated Worker, London: Allen and Unwin, 1958 p.58

48 manual worker do not, in most cases, share of large corporations, the task of organising the same class situation at all’.18 He pointed the systematic exploitation of larger num- to differences in status and work situation as bers of workers requires a large managerial the primary reasons. cadre. This strata, - which have been dubbed However, in 1974 the American Marxist, the ‘new middle class’ by Alex Callinicos20- Harry Braverman, challenged this idea and are often rewarded with higher salaries and pointed out the growing ‘proletarisation’ of bonuses. They are mainly engaged in unpro- white-collar work. He showed how the wages ductive activities that serve the specific meth- of routine white-collar workers had fallen be- ods of capitalist exploitation. However, the low skilled manual workers initially and then vast majority of salaried workers have seen an below those of many unskilled factory work- increase in job intensity and declining rates of ers. His central argument was that ‘Taylorist’ pay and security. methods in term of loss of autonomy and Standing’s claim, therefore, that the a shift to managerial control were spreading ‘salariat’ have ‘most of the financial capital from the factory floor to the office.19 and have gained vastly more income’ without working harder is patently absurd. Its purpose however is rhetorical. By present- ing a fictitious image of a privileged ‘salariat’ and a conservative manual working class, he aims to establish a space for a supposed new class, which have different interests to them. The reality, however, is entirely the opposite. The majority of white-collar employees are increasingly being drawn into the conditions of existence of the wider working class. They

A Privileged Salariat? are being subjected to more intense forms of exploitation and, as part of that, a regime of insecurity is being enforced on many of them. Since then the process of ‘proletarianisa- Once again, far from the formation a ‘pre- tion’ has accelerated dramatically. Instead of cariat’ we are witnessing a growing proletar- a ‘trust’ relationship between most white col- ianisation and accompanying this is a regime lar employees and their managers there is an of insecurity - or if you would prefer ‘precari- ‘audit’ relationship. Their ‘outputs’ are mea- ousness’. sured through mechanism such as Key Per- formance Indicators. They are then ‘bench- Labour is needed marked’ against each other to increase insecurity and stress. There is a growing trend As Kevin Doogan has pointed out, Stand- to ‘performance related pay’ to link salaries ing grossly exaggerates the trends to part to productivity. With the rise of mass third time and temporary work in globalised cap- level education, the salaries of routine white italism.21 Worse, he misrepresents the reason collar workers have often fallen further com- why insecure or ‘precarious’ employment is in- pared to the wider labour force. However, a creasing. small minority of these employees have been Capitalism is a system characterised by pulled into the ranks of management. With both vertical and horizontal struggle. Each the demise of the family ﬁrm and the growth capitalist seeks to maximise the exploitation 19H.Braverman, Labour and Monopoly Capital, New York:Monthly Review Press 1974 20A. Callinicos, ‘The new middle class and Socialism’ International Socialism Journal, Vol. 2.No. 20, 1983. 21K.Doogan, The New capitalism and the Transformation of Work,London: Polity 2009

49 of their own workforce but they are also en- 2000 2011 2012 gaged in a horizontal struggle with their fellow In employ- 1735.4 1861.3 1841.3 capitalists for access to credit, resources and ment labour. Just as labour is dependent on capi- Full time 1455.2 1423.8 1396.0 tal, so capital also needs human labour. Even Part time 280.3 437.5 446.3 those sections of capitalism that are furthest Part time - removed from direct production in services or Not underem- Na 300.4 298.6 manufacturing, still need workers to monitor ployed their computer screens or their investment re- turns. Part time Capitalists, therefore, worry about hold- - Underem- Na 137.1 147.6 ing onto labour. They worry about high rates ployed of turnover. They worry about the loss of Table 2: Full Time and Part time Employment in Ireland skilled labour to competitors. They dislike 2000-2012 having to train and bear the costs of mould- By underemployment the CSO means ing new workers into the particular regime of involuntary part time work where the em- their firm. Broadly, therefore, in advanced ployee has no other options. The OECD, countries they seek to hold onto workers when using figures mainly derived from the Irish there is a booming economy or even when CSO, asserts that part time employment rates of capital investment are relatively high. Here are figures from the OECD: has jumped from 18.1 percent of those in employment in 2000 to 25.0 percent today. 2000 2011 2012 It also claims that temporary employment OECD Countries 11.3 11.9 11.8 has jumped from 4.7 percent to 10.2 percent.

Table 1: Temporary employment as a % of dependent em- These variations tell a very different ployment tale to that of Standing. His central argu- These figures reflect a pattern whereby ment is that the precariat arose as ‘global- workers are mainly hired as permanent em- isation’s child’. But ‘globalisation’ is one ployees - even if that permanency has be- of those class neutral terms invented by so- come increasingly insecure. Munck has ciologists, which enable academics to en- made the valid point that Standing’s argu- gage in impressionistic and rather unspe- ment is ‘eurocentric’ because he is point- cific discussion of what purport to be in- ing to precarious employment in advanced evitable trends. The doyen of this style countries while implying this is a global of academic theorising is Anthony Giddens phenomenon.22 Rates of ‘informal’ em- - now Baron Giddens - who claimed that ployment in poorer countries tend to tra- ‘third way’ social democracy, was an in- ditionally average around 40 percent. For evitable concomitant to globalisation.23 many in the global South, there is nothing Standing takes a very different ap- new about ‘precariousness’. proach to Giddens but his argument that Ireland presents another interesting the rise of the precariat is an inevitable re- variation on the general pattern. Here are sult of ‘globalisation’ suffers from a similar the most recent figures from the CSO. problem. It ignores the central dynamic - and the contradictions - inherent in the drive of capital to expand itself. Where 22R.Munck, ‘The Precariat: A View from the South’ Third World Quarterly Vol, 34 No. 5, 2013, pp 747-762 23A. Giddens, The Third Way and the Renewal of Social Democracy , London: Polity, 1998.

50 there is a concentration of capital, there Once we locate precariousness within is a bigger need for labour. The uneven the dynamic of capitalism, it becomes clear spread of capital - primarily as a result of that it is not a category that applies to a imperialism- explains why there is more particular social group but to the working competition between capitalists in some class as a whole. Standing captures one as- countries than in others. This also helps pect of the change towards greater insecu- to explain why there is a greater need for rity but refuses to locate it in the dynamic labour in some countries than in others. of capitalism itself. This is why he favours One of the central features of capital- a utopian market based solution that sug- ism is that there are different rhythms gests that commodification suits a myth- of investment in different periods. Ulti- ical new class. It is also why his theory mately, this is dependent on the expected is a deeply ideological analysis of the pro- rate of profit. When the rate of profit is cess because it legitimises the creation of low, there is a fall-off in investment and more division within the working class by as a result there are higher levels of unem- purporting to find a difference in interest ployment. This has been a key trend in between those who are currently precari- the last decade in particular. One indica- ous and those who are not. tion of this is that in 2000, cash holdings - uninvested profits - represented 9.5 per- Atomised and powerless? cent of global assets but by 2012 this had risen to 12.4 percent. In absolute terms, In the old days there were miners who the cash holdings of publicly listed enter- lived in tight knit communities and devel- prises jumped from $2.3 trillion dollars in oped a collective voice but the precariat 2000 to $6.5 trillion in 2011, the year of the are dispersed, fragmented and denied a latest figures. 24 space to organise collectively. They can Declining rates of profits produce con- only succeed through social movements of tradictory consequences within capitalism. the streets - but not the workplace. While On the one hand there are greater pools this is not spelled out by Standing, it is of unused labour and, on the other hand, certainly an implication that some demor- there is an intensification of exploitation of alised sections of the left have embraced. the existing labour force. Capitalists seek It is, however, a classic case of apoliticism. to use the threat of insecurity and unem- Between 1911 and 1913 the Irish labour ployment to increase the surplus value ex- movement was built amongst the most ca- tracted from each worker and to decrease sualised sections of the workforce. The the necessary costs of employing them. It core of Larkin’s ITGWU was drawn from is this dynamic which produces greater in- dockers and carters who were effectively security or precariousness in employment day labourers. and Ireland, is prime example of this. Dur- During the Celtic Tiger, most workers ing the Celtic Tiger there was an insatiable had permanent jobs and there was little demand for labour and so many were of- sign of a large casualised workforce. Work- fered ‘permanent’ contracts. But when ers were in a more economically advan- investment dries up - declining to about tageous position because of the shortage one third of what it was at the height of of labour but their militancy and social the Tiger economy - precariousness grows achievements were minimal. hugely. The difference had to do with the pol- 24ILO, World of Work Report 2012 p. 75

51 itics that dominated the respective labour could be worse’. movements. The revolutionary syndical- Nothing better illustrates the crisis of ism of Connolly and Larkin gave expres- reformism than the huge retreats that have sion to a form of class struggle union- been undertaken in the post-crash years. ism that placed a premium on working Those who promote spurious sociological class solidarity as distinct from any re- explanations, which suggest that there is a spect for the rules of industrial relations. necessary ‘atomisation’ because of ‘global- Mass pickets and blacking were the tactics isation’ and the ‘precariat’, miss the point. that welded together a casualised work- ‘Atomisation’ is primarily the result of a force into a fighting force that terrified the social partnership strategy that relies on employers. fomenting demoralisation and defeatism to Modern Irish trade unionism, however, ensure compliance with austerity. is dominated by Labour Party figures who favour social partnership. During the Conclusion boom years, they actively restrained workers from imposing any significant cost in- The precariat, therefore, is a fashionable creasing claims on employers. For exam- but quite bogus concept. It reflects- but ple, that leadership attacked a proposal does not help to solve - a major problem at a SIPTU conference for a campaign in the workers movement today. We need to force employers to make mandatory an entirely different approach. pension contributions. Even during the First, we need stronger socialist net- boom years, this type of business unionism works to promote the common interests of exacerbated divisions within the workers’ workers in resisting austerity and capital- movement. ism. That means opposing union agree- After the crash, the fostering of di- ments that sacrifice one group of workers visions between workers as a method of to ‘red circle’ conditions for others. The promoting compliance with austerity be- reality is that once conditions are reduced came a standard practice. It is now rou- for temporary workers, they become the tine for union leaders to promote changes norm for all later. When there is a small which ‘red circle’ some conditions for ex- cohort of intimidated and abused workers, isting workers while accepting disgraceful it will act as a break on any union ad- attacks on new entrants. But compliance vance. Opposing these divide and rule tac- via division is not confined to new versus tics will necessary involve socialists in op- older workers. The original vote to re- posing business unionism and social part- ject the Haddington Road agreement was nership. overturned by a two-fold strategy. First, Second, we should support mass union- the union leaders turned a blind eye as isation drives which organise workers in their friends in the Labour Party pushed sections of the economy which rely more on through emergency legislation in the Dail temporary and zero hour contracts such as to change the conditions of public sector the fast food industry and the retail trade. workers by legal decree - the infamous Fi- This will involve a break with the cur- nancial Emergency Measures in the Pub- rent ‘organising model’ that is promoted lic Interest Act. Second, with that stick by many unions. This model, which has firmly placed behind their back they told been imported from unions like the SEIU one group of workers that they were not (Service Employees International Union) being hit as hard as others and that ‘it in the US, is based on more tokenistic

52 forms of struggle in order to reach partner- formism is that social movements can ship agreements with employers when suf- emerge on the streets, which are far more ficient union density has been achieved.25 militant, more anti-capitalist than any- The reality is that the only union that will thing occurring in the work place. So- be able to organise the mass of young work- cialists should be unreservedly enthusias- ers who face the brunt of insecurity is a tic about such movements and willing to fighting union that is willing to break laws learn from new generations of fighters. We and engage in the most militant tactics to should reject any type of defensive syn- defeat ruthless employers. dicalism that plays fails to recognise that Third, the current model of trade such movements can play a major role in unionism is totally inadequate for the the re-composition of working class poli- struggles ahead. It is based on organisa- tics. But within those movements, we also tional structures that are divorced from need to point boldly to the importance of the workplace. It relies on a professional focusing on and involving organised work- ethos, which promises casework and ad- ers. vocacy within official industrial relations From Tahrir Square to Puerta del Sol structures. It decorates itself with a fake in Madrid, there have been magnificent tokenistic leftism that is a cover for its ab- street movements, which have helped to reject passivity. Such a model of trade union- awaken a new militancy in workers. But ism is entering a period of crisis whose out- the occupation of squares in itself cannot come is still unknown. What is required break the power of the profit-extracting is a different form of class struggle trade machine. Only the militancy of the streets unionism based on grassroots initiative. combined with the power of workers in Fourth, an aspect of the crisis of re- the workplaces can do that.

25 K. Allen, ‘Social Partnership and Union revitalizatiuon: The Irish Case’ in G. Gall (eds) The Future of Union Organisaing, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2009