Refusal of work

For temporary refusal of work, see strike action. invoked the concept to favorably compare the condition
of their slaves to workers in the North.* [14]* [15] With
the advent of the industrial revolution, thinkers such as
Refusal of work is behavior which refuses to adapt to
*
regular employment. [1] Proudhon and Marx elaborated the comparison between
wage labor and slavery in the context of a critique of prop-
As actual behavior, with or without a political or philo- erty not intended for active personal use.* [16]* [17]
sophical program, it has been practiced by various sub-
cultures and individuals. Radical political positions have The introduction of wage labor in 18th century Britain
openly advocated refusal of work. From within Marxism was met with* resistance* *
– giving rise to the principles of
*
it has been advocated by Paul Lafargue and the Ital- syndicalism. [18] [19] [20] [21] Historically, some la-
ian workerist/autonomists (e.g. Antonio Negri, Mario bor organizations and individual social activists, have es-
*
Tronti), [1] the French ultra-left (e.g. Échanges et Mou- poused workers' self-management or worker cooperatives
*
vement); and within anarchism (especially Bob Black and as possible alternatives to wage labor. [8]* [20]
the post-left anarchy tendency).* [2]

3 Political views
1 Abolition of unfree labour
3.1 Marxism
International human rights law does not recognize the re-
fusal of work or right not to work by itself except the right 3.1.1 Paul Lafargue and The Right to be Lazy
to strike. However the Abolition of Forced Labour Con-
vention adopted by International Labour Organization in
The Right to be Lazy is an essay by Cuban-born French
1957 prohibits all forms of forced labour.* [3]
revolutionary Marxist Paul Lafargue, written from his
London exile in 1880. The essay polemicizes heavily
against then-contemporary liberal, conservative, Chris-
2 The concept of wage slavery tian and even socialist ideas of work. Lafargue criticizes
these ideas from a Marxist perspective as dogmatic and
Main article: Wage slavery ultimately false by portraying the degeneration and en-
slavement of human existence when being subsumed un-
Wage slavery refers to a situation where a person's der the primacy of the "right to work", and argues that
laziness, combined with human creativity, is an impor-
livelihood depends on wages, especially when the depen-
dence is total and immediate. [4] [5] It is a negatively tant source of human progress.
* *

connoted term used to draw an analogy between slavery He manifests that “When, in our civilized Europe, we
and wage labor, and to highlight similarities between would find a trace of the native beauty of man, we must
owning and employing a person. The term 'wage slav- go seek it in the nations where economic prejudices have
ery' has been used to criticize economic exploitation not yet uprooted the hatred of work...The Greeks in their
and social stratification, with the former seen primarily era of greatness had only contempt for work: their slaves
as unequal bargaining power between labor and capital alone were permitted to labor: the free man knew only
(particularly when workers are paid comparatively low exercises for the body and mind...The philosophers of an-
wages, e.g. in sweatshops),* [6] and the latter as a lack of
tiquity taught contempt for work, that degradation of the
workers' self-management.* [7]* [8]* [9] The criticism of free man, the poets sang of idleness, that gift from the
social stratification covers a wider range of employment Gods.”* [22] And so he says“Proletarians, brutalized by
choices bound by the pressures of a hierarchical social en-
the dogma of work, listen to the voice of these philoso-
vironment (i.e. working for a wage not only under threat phers, which has been concealed from you with jealous
of starvation or poverty, but also of social stigma or status
care: A citizen who gives his labor for money degrades
diminution).* [10]* [11]* [12] himself to the rank of slaves.”(The last sentence a quote
*
Similarities between wage labor and slavery were noted at from Cicero. [13])
least as early as Cicero.* [13] Before the American Civil However, Marx himself condemned these ideas (see main
War, Southern defenders of African American slavery article on Paul Lafargue )

1
2 3 POLITICAL VIEWS

had contributed to the 1969 founding of Potere Operaio

Marxist group, Mario Tronti, Paolo Virno, etc. It influ-
enced the German and Dutch Autonomen, the worldwide
Social Centre movement, and today is influential in Italy,
France, and to a significantly lesser extent the English-
speaking countries. Those who describe themselves as
autonomists now vary from Marxists to post-structuralists
and anarchists.
Autonomist philosopher Bifo defines refusal of work as
not “so much the obvious fact that workers do not like
to be exploited, but something more. It means that the
capitalist restructuring, the technological change, and the
general transformation of social institutions are produced
by the daily action of withdrawal from exploitation, of
rejection of the obligation to produce surplus value, and
to increase the value of capital, reducing the value of life.”
*
[1] More simply he states “Refusal of work means...I
donʼt want to go to work because I prefer to sleep. But
this laziness is the source of intelligence, of technology,
of progress. Autonomy is the self-regulation of the social
body in its independence and in its interaction with the
disciplinary norm.”* [1]
As a social development Bifo remembers “that one of
the strong ideas of the movement of autonomy proletari-
ans during the 70s was the idea“precariousness is good”
. Job precariousness is a form of autonomy from steady
regular work, lasting an entire life. In the 1970s many
people used to work for a few months, then to go away
for a journey, then back to work for a while. This was
possible in times of almost full employment and in times
of egalitarian culture. This situation allowed people to
Paul Lafargue author of antiwork book The Right to Be Lazy work in their own interest and not in the interest of capi-
talists, but quite obviously this could not last forever, and
the neoliberal offensive of the 1980s was aimed to re-
3.1.2 Situationist International
verse the rapport de force.”* [1] As a response to these
developments his view is that“the dissemination of self-
Raoul Vaneigem, important theorist of the post-surrealist organized knowledge can create a social framework con-
Situationist International which was influential in the May taining infinite autonomous and self-reliant worlds.”* [1]
68 events in France, wrote The Book of Pleasures. In
it he says that “You reverse the perspective of power From this possibility of self-determination even the no-
by returning to pleasure the energies stolen by work and tion of Workers' self-management is seen as problem-
constraint...As sure as work kills pleasure, pleasure kills atic since “Far from the emergence of proletarian
work. If you are not resigned to dying of disgust, then you power, ...this self-management as a moment of the self-
will be happy enough to rid your life of the odious need to harnessing of the workers to capitalist production in the
work, to give orders (and obey them), to lose and to win, period of real subsumption... Mistaking the individual
to keep up appearances, and to judge and be judged.” capitalist (who, in real subsumption disappears into the
*
[23] collective body of share ownership on one side, and hired
management on the other) rather than the enterprise as
the problem, ... the workers themselves became a collec-
3.1.3 Autonomism tive capitalist, taking on responsibility for the exploita-
tion of their own labor. Thus, far from breaking with
Autonomism (autonomia), as an identifiable theoreti- 'work',...the workers maintained the practice of clocking-
cal system, first emerged in Italy in the 1960s from in, continued to organize themselves and the community
workerist (operaismo) communism. Later, post-Marxist around the needs of the factory, paid themselves from
and anarchist tendencies became significant after influ- profits arising from the sale of watches, maintained deter-
ence from the Situationists, the failure of the Italian far- mined relations between individual work done and wage,
left movements in the 1970s and the emergence of a num- and continued *
to wear their work shirts throughout the
ber of important theorists including Antonio Negri, who process.” [24]
3.2 Anarchism
3.1.4 Manifesto Against Labour
In the Manifesto Against Labour,* [25] the Krisis-Gruppe
argued against the traditional Marxist notion of class
struggle as the motor of history. According to the mani-
festo, there is no class-subject. The struggle between the
proletariat and the bourgeoisie is not a struggle between a
revolutionary class and its oppressor, but rather a struggle
between two opposed interests that are integral to capi-
talism and form a single “labor camp”.
Contrary to traditional Marxism, then, the text asserts
that the struggle against capitalism is not the struggle for
the liberation of labor, but rather a struggle for liberation
from labor.
3.1.5 André Gorz
André Gorz was an Austrian and French social philoso-
pher. Also a journalist, he co-founded Le Nouvel Obser-
vateur weekly in 1964. A supporter of Jean-Paul Sartre's
existentialist version of Marxism after World War Two,
in the aftermath of the May '68 student riots, he be-
came more concerned with political ecology. His cen-
tral theme was wage labour issues such as liberation from
work, the just distribution of work, social alienation, and
a guaranteed basic income.* [26] Among his works criti-
cal of work and the work ethic include Critique de la di-
vision du travail (Seuil, 1973. Collective work), Farewell
to the Working Class (1980 - Galilée and Le Seuil, 1983,
Bob Black, contemporary American anarchist associated with the
Adieux au Prolétariat), Critique of Economic Reason post-left anarchy tendency
(Verso, 1989 first published 1988) and Reclaiming Work:
Beyond the Wage-Based Society (1999).
3.2 Anarchism
3.2.1 The Abolition of Work
The Abolition of Work, Bob Black's most widely read es-
say, draws upon the ideas of Charles Fourier, William
Morris, Herbert Marcuse, Paul Goodman, and Marshall
Sahlins. In it he argues for the abolition of the producer-
and consumer-based society, where, Black contends, all
of life is devoted to the production and consumption of
commodities. Attacking Marxist state socialism as much
as market capitalism, Black argues that the only way for
humans to be free is to reclaim their time from jobs and
employment, instead turning necessary subsistence tasks
into free play done voluntarily - an approach referred to
as “ludic”. The essay argues that “no-one should ever
work”, because work - defined as compulsory produc-
tive activity enforced by economic or political means -
is the source of most of the misery in the world. Black
denounces work for its compulsion, and for the forms it
takes - as subordination to a boss, as a“job”which turns
a potentially enjoyable task into a meaningless chore, for
the degradation imposed by systems of work-discipline,
3
and for the large number of work-related deaths and in-
juries - which Black typifies as "homicide". He views the
subordination enacted in workplaces as “a mockery of
freedom”, and denounces as hypocrites the various theo-
rists who support freedom while supporting work. Subor-
dination in work, Black alleges, makes people stupid and
creates fear of freedom. Because of work, people become
accustomed to rigidity and regularity, and do not have the
time for friendship or meaningful activity. Most work-
ers, he states, are dissatisfied with work (as evidenced by
petty deviance on the job), so that what he says should be
uncontroversial; however, it is controversial only because
people are too close to the work-system to see its flaws.
Play, in contrast, is not necessarily rule-governed, and
is performed voluntarily, in complete freedom, as a gift
economy. He points out that hunter-gatherer societies are
typified by play, a view he backs up with the work of
Marshall Sahlins; he recounts the rise of hierarchal so-
cieties, through which work is cumulatively imposed, so
that the compulsive work of today would seem incompre-
hensibly oppressive even to ancients and medieval peas-
ants. He responds to the view that “work,”if not sim-
ply effort or energy, is necessary to get important but un-
pleasant tasks done, by claiming that first of all, most im-
portant tasks can be rendered ludic, or “salvaged”by
being turned into game-like and craft-like activities, and
secondly that the vast majority of work does not need do-
ing at all. The latter tasks are unnecessary because they
only serve functions of commerce and social control that
exist only to maintain the work-system as a whole. As for
what is left, he advocates Charles Fourier's approach of
arranging activities so that people will want to do them.
He is also skeptical but open-minded about the possibility
of eliminating work through labor-saving technologies.
He feels the left cannot go far enough in its critiques be-
cause of its attachment to building its power on the cate-
gory of workers, which requires a valorization of work.
4 6 REFUSAL OF WORK IN PRACTICE

4 Anti-work society in which the members continually work

hard will have more security: and security is
now adored as the supreme goddess...”
̶Friedrich Nietzsche, The Dawn

The followers of this ethic typically argue that capitalist

and communist societies tend to encourage a “labor”
mentality towards life either directly or indirectly through
the cost of living, labor markets, the work week, applying
normative values to economics, and social conventions.
The critics then ask why with increasing mechanization
the number of hours in the average work week have not
fallen significantly; for example, Bob Black asks, “Why
hasn't the average work week gone down by more than a
few minutes in the past fifty years?" The devotees of the
anti-work movement therefore attempt to find answers
and practical solutions towards reducing the volume of
work for a typical person and encouraging the activities
they see as conducive to happiness.

4.1 The Idler

Bertrand Russell, writer of In Praise of Idleness and Other Es-
says
The Idler is a bi-yearly British magazine devoted to pro-
moting its ethos of 'idle living' and all that entails. It was
founded in 1993 by Tom Hodgkinson and Gavin Pretor-
Pinney with the intention of exploring alternative ways of
working and living.* [28]

The anti-work ethic states that labor tends to cause un-

happiness, therefore, the quantity of labor ought to be 5 Work–life balance
lessened. The ethic appeared in anarchist circles and to
have come to prominence with essays such as In Praise of Main article: Work–life balance
Idleness and Other Essays by Bertrand Russell, The Right
to Useful Unemployment by Ivan Illich, and The Abolition
of Work by Bob Black,* [27] published in 1985. Work–life balance is a broad concept including proper
prioritizing between “work”(career and ambition) on
Friedrich Nietzsche was a notable philosopher who pre- one hand and “life”(health, pleasure, leisure, family
sented a critique of work and an anti-work ethic. In 1881, and spiritual development) on the other. Related, though
he wrote: broader, terms include“lifestyle balance”and“life bal-
ance”. The expression was first used in the late 1970s
The eulogists of work. Behind the glori- to describe the balance between an individual's work and
fication of 'work' and the tireless talk of the personal life.* [29] In the United States, this phrase was
'blessings of work' I find the same thought first used in 1986.
as behind the praise of impersonal activity
for the public benefit: the fear of everything
individual. At bottom, one now feels when 6 Refusal of work in practice
confronted with work - and what is invariably
meant is relentless industry from early till late
- that such work is the best police, that it keeps 6.1 “Slackers”
everybody in harness and powerfully obstructs
the development of reason, of covetousness, The term slacker is commonly used to refer to a person
of the desire for independence. For it uses who avoids work (especially British English), or (primar-
up a tremendous amount of nervous energy ily in North American English) an educated person who
and takes it away from reflection, brooding, is viewed as an underachiever.* [30]* [31]
dreaming, worry, love, and hatred; it always While use of the term slacker dates back to about 1790
sets a small goal before one's eyes and permits or 1898 depending on the source, it gained some recog-
easy and regular satisfactions. In that way a nition during the British Gezira Scheme, when Sudanese
 6.4 Vagrancy 5

labourers protested their relative powerlessness by work- the expression “sponge”or “basement dweller”may
ing lethargically, a form of protest known as 'slack- sometimes be used.
ing'.* [32] The term achieved a boost in popularity after The expression is mainly used in reference to Japanese
its use in the films Back to the Future by Robert Zemeckis society, but similar phenomena can also be found in other
and Richard Linklater's Slacker.* [30]* [33] countries worldwide. In Italy, 30-something singles still
relying on their mothers are joked about, being called
6.2 NEET Bamboccioni (literally: grown-up babies) and in Germany
they are known as Nesthocker (German for an altricial
NEET is an acronym for the government classification bird), who are still living at Hotel Mama.
for people currently “Not in Employment, Education or Such behaviour is considered normal in Greece, both be-
Training". It was first used in the United Kingdom but its cause of the traditional strong family ties and because of
use has spread to other countries, including Japan, China, the low wages.* [36] The low income even for highly qual-
and South Korea. ified university graduates does not allow young Greeks to
In the United Kingdom, the classification comprises peo- start their own home and raise children.
ple aged between 16 and 24 (some 16-year-olds are still It is also highly encouraged in Singapore as living with
of compulsory school age). In Japan, the classifica- parents is considered a cultural expectation, while living
tion comprises people aged between 15 and 34 who are on one's own (sometimes even if one is married with chil-
unemployed, unmarried, not enrolled in school or en- dren) is perceived as an act of insolence.
gaged in housework, and not seeking work or the tech-
nical training needed for work. The “NEET group”is
not a uniform set of individuals but consists of those who 6.4 Vagrancy
will be NEET for a short time while essentially testing out
a variety of opportunities and those who have major and A vagrant is a person in a situation of poverty, who
often multiple issues and are at long term risk of remain- wanders from place to place without a home or regular
ing disengaged. employment or income. Many towns in the developed
world have shelters for vagrants. Common terminology
In Brazil,“nem-nem”(short of nem estudam nem trabal-
is a tramp or a 'gentleman of the road'.
ham (neither working nor studying) is a term with similar
* Vagrancy was a crime in some European countries, but
meaning. [34]
most of these laws have been abandoned. Laws against
In Mexico, “Ni-Ni”(short of Ni estudia Ni trabaja) is
vagrancy in the United States have partly been invali-
also applied.
dated as violative of the due process clauses of the U.S.
Constitution.* [37] However, the FBI report on crime in
6.3 “Freeters”and parasite singles the United States for 2005 lists 24,359 vagrancy viola-
tions.* [38] In legal terminology, a person with a source
Freeter (フリーター furītā) (other spellings below) is a of income is not a vagrant, even if he/she is homeless.
Japanese expression for people between the age of 15 and
34 who lack full-time employment or are unemployed,
6.4.1 Cynic philosophical school
excluding homemakers and students. They may also be
described as underemployed or freelance workers. These
people do not start a career after high school or university
but instead usually live as so-called parasite singles with
their parents and earn some money with low skilled and
low paid jobs.
The word freeter or freeta was first used around 1987 or
1988 and is thought to be an amalgamation of the English
word free (or perhaps freelance) and the German word
Arbeiter (“worker”).* [35] (The German word Arbeit
is commonly used as the Japanese loanword arubaito for
“part-time job”.) It is said that the use was coined by the
Japanese part-time job magazine From A (Japanese: フ
ロムエーFuromuē). Other possible spellings are furītā,
furiita, freeta, furiitaa, or furitaa in order of frequency.
Parasite single (パラサイトシングル, parasaito shin- Diogenes of Sinope – depicted by Jean-Léon Gérôme
guru) is a Japanese term for a single person who lives with
their parents until their late twenties or early thirties in or- Cynicism (Greek: κυνισμός), in its original form, refers
der to enjoy a carefree and comfortable life. In English, to the beliefs of an ancient school of Greek philosophers
6 6
known as the Cynics (Greek: Κυνικοί, Latin: Cynici).
Their philosophy was that the purpose of life was to live
a life of Virtue in agreement with Nature. This meant re-
jecting all conventional desires for wealth, power, health,
and fame, and by living a simple life free from all pos-
sessions. They believed that the world belonged equally
to everyone, and that suffering was caused by false judg-
ments of what was valuable and by the worthless customs
and conventions which surrounded society. The first
philosopher to outline these themes was Antisthenes, who
had been a pupil of Socrates in the late 5th century BCE.
He was followed by Diogenes of Sinope, who lived in a
tub on the streets of Athens. Diogenes took Cynicism to
its logical extremes, and came to be seen as the archety-
pal Cynic philosopher. He was followed by Crates of
Thebes who gave away a large fortune so he could live
a life of Cynic poverty in Athens. Cynicism spread with
the rise of Imperial Rome in the 1st century, and Cyn-
ics could be found begging and preaching throughout the
cities of the Empire. It finally disappeared in the late 5th
century, although many of its ascetic and rhetorical ideas
were adopted by early Christianity. The name Cynic de-
rives from the Greek word κυνικός, kynikos,“dog-like”
and that from κύων, kyôn, "dog" (genitive: kynos).* [39]
It seems certain that the word dog was also thrown at the
first Cynics as an insult for their shameless rejection of
conventional manners, and their decision to live on the
streets. Diogenes, in particular, was referred to as the
Dog.* [40]
6.4.2 Sadhus
A sadhu in Haridwar, India, during Kumbha Mela.
In Hinduism, sadhu is a common term for a mystic,
an ascetic, practitioner of yoga (yogi) and/or wandering
monks. The sadhu is solely dedicated to achieving the
fourth and final Hindu goal of life, moksha (liberation),
through meditation and contemplation of Brahman. Sad-
REFUSAL OF WORK IN PRACTICE
hus often wear ochre-colored clothing, symbolizing re-
nunciation.
6.4.3 “Hobos”, “tramps”, and “bums”
A hobo is a migratory worker or homeless vagabond, of-
ten penniless.* [41] The term originated in the western
̶probably northwestern̶United States during the last
decade of the 19th century.* [42] Unlike tramps, who
worked only when they were forced to, and bums,
who didn't work at all, hobos were workers who wan-
dered.* [42]* [43]
In British English and traditional American English us-
age, a tramp is a long term homeless person who travels
from place to place as an itinerant vagrant, traditionally
walking or hiking all year round.
Two hobos walking along railroad tracks, after being put off a
train. One is carrying a bindle.
While some tramps may do odd jobs from time to time,
unlike other temporarily homeless people they do not
seek out regular work and support themselves by other
means such as begging or scavenging. This is in contrast
to:
• bum, a stationary homeless person who does not
work, and who begs or steals for a living in one place.
• hobo, a homeless person who travels from place to
place looking for work, often by "freighthopping,”
illegally catching rides on freight trains

• Schnorrer, a Yiddish term for a person who travels
from city to city begging.
Both terms, “tramp”and “hobo”(and the distinction
between them), were in common use between the 1880s
and the 1940s. Their populations and the usage of the
terms increased during the Great Depression.
Like“hobo”and“bum,”the word“tramp”is considered
vulgar in American English usage, having been subsumed
in more polite contexts by words such as“homeless per-
son”or “vagrant.”In colloquial American English, the
word“tramp”can also mean a sexually promiscuous fe-
male or even prostitute.
Tramps used to be known euphemistically in England and
Wales as “gentlemen of the road.”
Tramp is derived from the Middle English as a verb
meaning to“walk with heavy footsteps”, and to go hik- [2] The entire text of Bob Blackʼs 1986 collection The Abo-
ing.* [44] Bart Kennedy, a self-described tramp of 1900
US, once said “I listen to the tramp, tramp of my feet,
[3] Abolition of Forced Labour Convention(No.105), Article
and wonder where I was going, and why I was going.”
*
[45]
6.4.4 “Gutter punks”
A gutter punk is a homeless or transient individual, often
through means of freighthopping or hitchhiking. Gutter
punks are often juveniles who are in some way associ-
ated with the anarcho-punk subculture.* [46] In certain
regions, gutter punks are notorious for panhandling and
often display cardboard signs that make statements about
their lifestyles.* [46]
Gutter punks are generally characterized as being volun-
tarily unemployed.* [46] As such,“gutter punk”is a term
that is generally only applied to able-bodied individuals
with no signs of physical or mental disabilities. The term
has also been used as in the field of social science to de-
scribe a specific demographic group. Gutter punks often
do seek work; however, they often search for or are lim-
ited to short-term employment. Other innovative meth-
ods of procuring income, such as panhandling, are gener-
ally considered “last resorts”but are often used due to
the average gutter punk's difficulties in finding stable em-
ployment. Those associated with the gutter punk way of
life generally do not ascribe to the crust punk ideology,
however, due to its name crust punk is often confused
with gutter punk. Gutter punks tend not to involve them-
selves with peace, autonomy, veganism or other activist
ideals promoted in the crust punk or peace punk scenes.
7 See also
• Work aversion
• Basic Income
7
• Decent work
• From each according to his ability, to each according
to his need
• He who does not work, neither shall he eat
• Unfree labour
8 References
[1]“Refusal of work means quite simply:I donʼt want to go
to work because I prefer to sleep. But this laziness is the
source of intelligence, of technology, of progress. Auton-
omy is the self-regulation of the social body in its indepen-
dence and in its interaction with the disciplinary norm.”
“What is the Meaning of Autonomy Today?" by Bifo
lition of Work and Other Essays at Inspiracy
1
[4] wage slave - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online
Dictionary
[5] wage slave - Definitions from Dictionary.com
[6] p.184 Democracy's Discontent By Michael J. Sandel
[7] “Conversation with Noam Chomsky, p. 2 of 5”. Glo-
betrotter.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
[8] “From wage slaves to wage workers: cultural opportunity
structures and the evolution of the wage demands of the
Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor,
1880-1900. - Crime”. Socialissues.wiseto.com. 2007-
08-30. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
[9]
[10] Full text of CANNIBALS ALL! OR, SLAVES WITH-
OUT MASTERS., by George Fitzhugh (1857)
[11] Robert Schalkenbach Foundation
[12] Conversation with Noam Chomsky, p. 2 of 5
[13] "...vulgar are the means of livelihood of all hired workmen
whom we pay for mere manual labor, not for artistic skill;
for in their case the very wage they receive is a pledge of
their slavery." - De Officiis
[14] Foner, Eric. Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men. pp. XIX.
[15] Jensen, Derrick. The Culture of Make Believe.
[16] Marx, Ch. 7 of Theories of Surplus Value, a critique of
Linguet, Théorie des lois civiles, etc., Londres, 1767.
[17] Proudhon, Pierre Joseph. What is Property? An Inquiry
into the Principle of Right and of Government.
[18] [The Making of the English Working Class, p. 599]
[19] [The Making of the English Working Class, p. 912]
8 9 EXTERNAL LINKS

[20] [Geoffrey Ostergaard, The Tradition of Workers' Control, 9 External links

p. 133]
[21] [Competitive Advantage on the Shop Floor, p. 37]
[22] Paul Lafargue. The Right To Be Lazy
[23] The book of pleasures by Raoul Vaneigem
[24] Deleuze, Marx and Politics by Nicholas Thoburn
[25] Manifesto Against Labour
[26] André Gorz, Pour un revenu inconditionnel suffisant, pub-
lished in TRANSVERSALES/SCIENCE-CULTURE (n°
3, 3e trimestre 2002) (French)
[27] http://www.zpub.com/notes/black-work.html
[28] Idler About
[29] Publication in: New Ways to Work and the Working
Mother's Association in the United Kingdom
[30] “slacker”. Random House, Inc. 2006.
[31] Compact Oxford English Dictionary. “slacker”.
• The entire text of Bob Blackʼs 1986 collection The
Abolition of Work and Other Essays at Inspiracy
•“Danger : Work Representation and mobilization of
the unemployed in radical anti-globalization move-
ments”by Brigitte Beauzamy
• Refuse to work: texts on the refusal of work, by
Tronti, Negri and others
• Echanges et Mouvement: The Refusal of Work
(pamphlet)
• Nicholas Thoburn: The Refusal of Work (on Italian
autonomism)
• George Caffentzis: The End of Work or the Renais-
sance of Slavery?
• Bifo: What is the meaning of autonomism today?

[32] Bernal, V. (1997). “Colonial Moral Economy and the • Jeffrey Shantz: Reflections on the End of Work
Discipline of Development: The Gezira Scheme and
“Modern”Sudan”. Cultural Anthropology. 12 (4): 447– • archive of anarchist anti-work texts at the anarchist
479. doi:10.1525/can.1997.12.4.447. library
[33] “Online Etymology Dictionary, slack (adj.)". Douglas • Michael Seidman: Workers against Work: Labor in
Harper. Paris and Barcelona during the Popular Fronts.
[34] http://g1.globo.com/fantastico/noticia/2014/07/
• Uri Zilbersheid: 'The Abolition of Labour in Marx's
dois-em-cada-dez-jovens-brasileiros-nao-estudam-e-nem-trabalham.
Teachings'.
html
[35] http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/ • Free Time! Ludicity and the Anti-work Ethic by
freeter Laura Martz
[36] TA NEA Online - “I can't live by myself with €600 per • Freedom, Capitalism, and Work (anti-work ethic es-
month” say)
[37] “Vagrancy | LII / Legal Information Institute”.
• Idle Theory by Chris Davis
[38] Table 43 - Crime in the United States 2005 http://www.
fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_43.html • Creating Liveable Alternatives to Wage-Slavery

[39] Kynikos,“A Greek-English Lexicon”, Liddell and Scott, • Kathi Weeks: The Problem With Work: Feminism,
at Perseus Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imagi-
[40] An obscure reference to“the Dog”in Aristotle's Rhetoric
naries
(3.10.1411a25) is generally agreed to be the first reference
to Diogenes.
[41] Definition of 'hobo' from the Merriam-Webster website
[42] “On Hobos, Hautboys, and Other Beaus”. OUPblog.
Oxford University Press. November 12, 2008. Retrieved
2009-08-05.
[43] Mencken, H.L. (1937).“On the road again”. The Amer-
ican Language (4th ed.). grammarphobia.com(July 25,
2009). Retrieved 2009-08-05.
[44] See Wiktionary.
[45] Bart Kennedy, A Man Adrift, pg.161, Chicago, H.S.
Stone, 1900.
[46] John M. Glionna, There's not a lot of love in the Haight,
Los Angeles Times, May 29, 2007.
 9

10 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

10.1 Text
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10.3 Content license

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