Living for Change: Few Jobs but Plenty of Work
We also know that multinational corporations like Wal-Mart are turning usinto mindless consumers, unable to distinguish between Needs and Wants.We know that many of the "goods" our Jobs produce are not needed andare often (like munitions or gas guzzlers), "bads." But rather than assumethe responsibility for creating another more human and more Earth-friendlyway of making our livings and living, we keep begging the multinationals togive us back "our" Jobs so that they can lay us off again. - Grace LeeBoggs
By Grace Lee BoggsMichigan CitizenJune 10-16, 2007It is painful to watch Detroit workers, labor leaders, community leaders beggingcorporations not to take Jobs out of our communities, cities, country, trying to lurethem to stay with tax breaks, appealing to their compassion and patriotism.Deep in our hearts we know these efforts are in vain. We know that multinationalcorporations like Ford and GM move Jobs overseas to take advantage of cheaper labor and weaker environmental regulations. We know that their onlyinterest is more profits and that they couldn't care less about us, our country, our communities or our planet.We also know that multinational corporations like Wal-Mart are turning us intomindless consumers, unable to distinguish between Needs and Wants. We knowthat many of the "goods" our Jobs produce are not needed and are often (likemunitions or gas guzzlers), "bads." But rather than assume the responsibility for creating another more human and more Earth-friendly way of making our livingsand living, we keep begging the multinationals to give us back "our" Jobs so thatthey can lay us off again.It isn't easy to assume responsibility for creating a better way to live and to makeour livings. But the time is approaching when we can no longer evade thatchallenge.To prepare ourselves, it is helpful to recognize that for most of human history, theconcept of Jobs, of Labor, of working only to get paid, didn't even exist. Work, asdistinguished from Labor, was done for human reasons:To provide necessary and useful goods and services.To develop our mental and physical capacities, our skills, our creativity, our artistry.
Leave a Comment