Insofar as their artificial needs are satisfied, people think they are happy the system that willou CACIC Individuals see their interest only in geting along with the Terror merely supplements the illusions of the governed.
Marcuse insisted in the same essay that the liberation of humanity and its true needs is not an abstract moral act that the of production be at the disposal of the the national reorientaproductive process towards the needs and wants of the and the active of indiv bo the In the 1960s Marcuse applied the Panther mass In this system the productive commodities but also the need for them. It produces the false needs for wastetul and status consumption, as various artificial, aggressive and competitive needs. And through the manipulation and consciousness, dominant powers thus prefent the opposition.
The freedom of this sogléty is a false one. The people have the illusion of a free choice, but actuálly they which commodities, political parties, presial c prevailing system. Thus emerges new kind of totalitarianism -not on terror but on manipulating the COCOAIRSS Great Refusal.' This reveals one of the thain theoretical flaws thought: the absent 'bridge between the present and its future', which is of course the social change, the revolutionary subject.
In 1964 Marcuse's view was that the working class had been integrated into capitalism's affluent society and was no longer revolutionary change. main mechanisms for this: (a) in the sphere of consumption, the raising of the standard of living; sphere of production, the increase in white-collar workers and the decline are in blue-collar jobs.
In relation to the first point, Ernest Vande stressed 'Whatever the increase in consumption of the working class may have been, neo-capitalism hasn't modified in any sense whatsoever nature of work in a capitalist society
Socialist Challenge on the question of time study the plant Workers Action Committee a member of Oldham Textile LAST FRIDAY, in the Lancashire town of Oldham, dispute started over the sort of issues the British trade union movement was meant to have settled in its favour in the I9th century.
But also involved is a cancer which remains all too present in the latter half or the with exploitation of immigrants exploitation involved is part and parcel.
This is why the name Maple Mill consciousness of every trade union militant and Britain as the struggle to be won in the coming peeks Maple Mill is owned multi-national Courtaulds, year made a profit of £64 million. One beneficiary of those profits was the Oldham Provincial Textile and Allied Workers Union, because. that union has financial Courtaulds. It is also the main union at Maple Mill.
That is one explanation for the gross exploitation Mill have suffered over Compulsory overtime, 12-hour shifts with no meal break, speed-up - that is what working at Maple Mill has meant for the largely Asian workforce.
department workers are doing the work done by 35 several years ago for the same wage Indeed, some of the workers earn f2 less than they did previously It is the Asian workers who have suffered most. In one department Asians are meant to do twice the work of one white worker — a worker who is backing the Asians' demands all the way.
The Oldham Provincial Textile and Allied Workers Union has largely ignored the conditions of its Asian members. When Asian workers raise complaints the union tells them to put them in writing knows that most of the Asians cannot write in English.
If a worker takes an interpreter to the union officials refuse to talk with the interpreter present because he/she is not in the union.
All this finally came to a head last Thursday when three Asian workers department were management to do the work normally done by tive The three asked management to be allowed to phone management refused white workers have free use of the phone. contacted it told its members to work tions.
meetings, refused Eventually they century: the racist the union demands recorded tion', by the who last investment workers come;
workers at Maple • the yèars. context Asian Such for selves.
textile even though it An made with workers were Those told by WOKEN AL although wnen the union was final Brompton Lancashire. according to management instrucThe next day, after a series the still to operate the speed-up. staged a sit-down protest in the mill. When the workers leit the factory the strike began On Saturday a white supervisor came to the factory gates and said white workers could enter the factory but Asians could not. Sadly, white workers did go in, although others are backing the Asians The Maple Mill strike committee has now formulated a series of which testify the simplicity of their case. They include 'an end to understaffing', 'proper cleaning of machines', 'meal-breaks in accordance with factory legisla *reasonable temperature anc air-conditioning in the mill', and 'no sackings or victimisation' Over 140 workers, mainly Asian are now outside the factory gates. The struggle they are waging has to be seen context peasant background from which many of the their lack of union experience; the disgraceful treatment they have received : at the hands of their own union.
But at the same time it has another the recent growth of anti-racist activity in and around Oldham, culminating in the defeat of the attempt to deport Abdul Azad.
activity has enabled the previously isolated Asian Community to link up with other anti-racists The anti-racists have been asked - and given - help in the fight against the conditions at the mills. And the Asians have gained enough self-confidence to organise them.
A recent meeting to discuss the exploitation of Asians in the local industry was attended by representatives from eight other mills. Already workers at another mill are discussing an overtime ban in support of tbe Maple Mill strike obvious comparison can be and already Grunwick strike leader Mrs Desai has promised her help in the strike al Maple Mill. In the end the Grunwick defeated, but their methods of struggle and the lessons of the struggle remain relevant.
lessons JINE be applied to start organising the largest possible show of solidarity with the Maple Mill. Already Tameside trades council has backed the strike. That example needs to be followed hundreds of times over. Messages of support to Mr Ishaq, 26 Street, Oldham,