risk economy -
the transition -
there is still the working class?
a question that would seem outdated in a world like the western all projected to
a tertiary where the old social classes seem to fade between the emergence of
iperspecializzate professionalism and new insecurity not fully cataloged.
a west now for years engaged in asserting new technologies theoretically capable
of providing dynamic and that generational change which also seems
indispensable to capitalism.
but in reality the so-called working class, now almost invisible because our eyes
are away from ... so ("?") also from the "heart" of the majority of people, still
exists, here i am!
much of the industrial production less profitable (but not only!), because more
routine and intended to create lower profit, has long been absorbed and
transferred to countries of the so-called "new development".
to create this situation have been two opposing forces even if all internal to the
market:
the first supported by purely commercial reasons and profit, the second with the
democratic and sincere intention (and still politically questionable in terms of
radical theory) to create the conditions for a transition (capital accumulation) to a
world order characterized by a visible and concrete raising of the quality of life.
so a reformist position, also criticized by the left most 'radical but always with
in the limits of a democratic confrontation.
unfortunately, however, traditional cultural legacies everywhere are superimposed
on a system that still retains in its interior dynamics of eigtheenth and
nineteenth century typical of the industrial revolution.
in this context, the speculative component, mainly due to profits, in recent years
has been widely argued through its historic means: the exploitation of cheap
labor and of the environment.
it is also true that any kind of transition requires time to realize and not
everything can be obtained immediately. the important thing is that, over the
difficulties and transgressions that perhaps a society faces in a first step,is taken
into account the priorities and a horizon that gives meaning to what you're doing.
but togheter the undeniable progress that the 900 has produced, among other
proved by the presence of more than six billion people on the face of the earth,
still in serious and deep problems of quality of life and of the environment.
the fallout of this policy today is being felt everywhere because seriously affect
downward throughout the economy, including the western one.
many of the rights at work who thought acquired once and for all, which not only
have not exported with the technology in the countries of new development, but
are breached and "risk" of being called into question even where they had
established long ago.
in fact the current political and economic situation, for many reasons, could turn
them into more formal rights.
the utopia of rights that we thought now as a cultural and not (of) strenght
acquisition ...("?!") -
today in the west the workers or anybody carrying out any activities must come
to terms with competition with countries where labor standards and
environmental issues are uncertain to say the least.
this happens while what we considered indisputable rights looks not so easily
exportable from one period to another, from one country to another without a
proper context of reference.
but "achievements" that have made the fortune of the twentieth century counted
on a strong working class, large and cohesive, and well rooted in the territory,
now shattered and scattered, or still their numerous where the conditions are so
backward as to render impossible short-term adequate response of attempts to
exploitation without any prospect.
in many cases, therefore, everything seems to start again from scratch (zero) as if
nothing had happened historically. in other cases this occurs even before our
eyes.
said that, it is possible in that objective context of newly-industrialized
countries is even desirable that the concrete comparison with those reality
implies the emergence of particular dynamics which require time and detailed
ways.
but it is equally clear that, faced with certain situations, it is no longer possible
to speak of right time for the transition, good intentions or objective limits.
is no longer credible who, after almost a century of exploitation, saying he had
done everything possible.
for example, many are beginning to ask how long will still need the developing
countries to develop and why this development in some cases did not happen or
even seems become unlikely.
questions that arise, inter alia, in times such as those present, characterized
the high speed, thus doubly legitimate.
...
we are all contemporaries -
this happens while we are all contemporaries. that is, we live the same time, the
same historical period.
but fortunately is not yet possible to extinguish the intelligence as a switch.
in fact this "seems" get out in other unexpected forms.
for this reason, also considering the potential techniques and knowledges
acquaried in many fields, something is intended to escape the meshes of
this logic ... and hopefully lead to a change.
but in the meantime to purely speculative intentions related to profit and
exploitation, it adds another problem: the current transition to globalization
happens through cultural forms questionable if not obsolete.
a different cultural perspective -
to ask wheter is first the chicken or the egg is an old issue and always unresolved.
could equaly be true for those who question whether the idea, the thought, to
produce the reality or the reality to allow the emergence of a particular thought.
most likely the interaction of two things over time produce the conditions for a
change, althought it is clear that the reality can sometimes prove decisive
including any potential material as theoretical. by the thought has its relevance
and as through the plannig process may enable improuvement through injury
may frustrate many of the practical potential of a society.
the division of labor between intellectual work and material
(personal experience) -
during all 80 years working in a textile factory in one of the first italian industrial
settlements: the biella country, was not uncommon for people who attended that
environment have access to magazines or listen to speeches that already
addressed the issue of globalization (even if not yet used this term).
workers and technicians in general and in particular those who worked in many
mechanical industries producing textile machinery, has long raised the question
of what would be the impact on the local economy linked to exportation in the
countries of new development of this technology.
people also considered the fact that other markets linked to the "consume" (use?)
of those same products in the future would be open to new productions
rebalancing (perhaps?) the situation.
this actually happened while the equation between the high production allowed
by technology and consumption remained an unknown unresolved.
in any case, from what you might hear, read and see it seemed abandoned the
idea of a society that would have recognized and integrated the value and
practical experience of concrete working with that of a growth on a plan of better
that socialization together that one more technological, scientific and one
related to services sector in general.
it was not uncommon at that time widely heard to speak of textile as a
production from "third world". idea that, together convenience of projecting in
new technologies and types of investment, hid the legacy of some
“aristocratic-decadent’’ culture, traditionally used to treat the concrete
work of B series as well as to diminish the work of subordinates considering
it as a necessary evil.
today that the line between intellectual work and concrete appears to be much
less defined everything could be questioned. there are many examples of
productions that, though traditional, can be maked using new knowledges and
consciusnesses.
the netherlands for example would not ever think to give up its economy based
on the flowers simply because they are not hi-tech.
on the contrary this activity has given news impulse to research in the field of
genetics, chemistry, biology and ecology.
also the history teaches us that it is precisely where the most immediate pratical
experience (in addition to being considered a crucial moment of confrontation)
is married to culture and knowledge that always bore a production more viable.
for example, was the meeting between the experience of cattle breeders and
that of a doctor (ie a person in possession of scientific knowledge) to determine
the discovery of vaccines that could save the lives of a number of people not
quantifiable.
as it happened with mendel that opened new frontiers in the field of heredity it
and modern genetics using mathematical tools (which are then followed by
statistical calculations and probability) to his experiences methodically make on
"vulgar" peas.
discoveries, as those of mendel, ignored by the scientific community of his time
about half a century after to be recognized as such, and at that point shown as
cultural identity by all the west.
in any case, the intrinsic "promiscuity" of this cultural perspective is that which
more than any other has proved the most suited to improving the conditions of
society in spite of the west has always represented an exception to other iron
and corporate hierarchical rules that as such not admitted too many intrude into
other fields.
on the contrary the idea that there should be on a side societies devoted
essentially to administer intellectual work and other societies dedicated mainly
to execution and production of material work sooner or later is bound to decline
or to live with a bad conscience of an untenable connivance with such a
"sistema/ tizza / zione" (arrangement) of the world.
risk-economy -
another worrying problem, but not for this a new one (formerly rosa luxemburg
in its own way it had assumed in terms of a system that can exist only thinking to
download for ever the problems in other places more arrears but that she
luxemburg had predicted as finished ), is linked to economic realities that tend to
transfer capital and technology from one place to another as soon as the
emergence of wage demands and rights makes less competitive the investments
in those places. the risk is that the potential for growth and development would
be forced into a dead end "loop" that would produce at least a slowdown (or
decline) of global development itself.
resistance and new perspectives -
the various anti-globalisation movements in these years certainly also involve
such problems. It is equally true for many spontaneous committees that have
expressed their dissent towards forms of economy lacking of perspective and
that, as often happens in these cases, tend to develop into an economy of war so
subtracting resources from other projects felt how (and in fact) more socially
useful.
indeed, if globalization itself, as relations between countries worldwide, should
objectively make improvements, the way it is implemented is questionable and
worring.
a sustainable perspective implies initial sacrifices but also horizons and concrete
results in part immediately detectable but that in many cases and place are
(unjustly) subtracted to entire classes and generations of people.
without going so far it's enough to remember the many stranger workers of the
agriculture (and others) often emploied in black for years of which we all enjoyed
the cheap production and that today seem to annoy rather than to scandalize
for the exploitation to which they were submitted. or the various forms of
insecurity where many rights are completely non-existent.
"without people nothing is done "(!) (1) -
when the technologies are not moved from one place to another for several
reasons, but above all interests, are people in flesh and bones to be subject to a
particular form of consumerism "disposable".
yet without the people nothing is done.
the energies and potential of a person, and by extension of the entire society,
if used correctly are enormous and are designed to last over time as the product
of their work and their activities.
in a different perspective you could imagine a situation where nobody feels any
more marginalized and where the ways and rhythms of work stressful and
exhausting that still characterize the modern world could be corrected.
unfortunately we can not say that the news of these days still go in that
direction.
1) s.levis
2) recent rules on de-taxation of overtime or the review of the 35 hour working week in
france seem to go in the opposite direction. this happens in a world inhabited by some
six billion people where many of these do not ask other than work in decent conditions ...
(and then we talk about security!).
equally true for the conversion occurred in recent years in many areas in war economy.
areas that unlike others, without too many outcries, very likely to be swollen sails but
with heavy social and economic repercussions.
n.b.
"risk economy" is part of the project "relazioni e scarti medi/atici" proposed by cultural
association arte struktura for the castiadas's exhibition.
appears among the projects selected and presented in the s.a.f. 2008 - 4 / 10
september 2008
- former prisons of castiadas - ca
- www.sardegnaartefiera.it
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