Labour forgetting their roots. Again.

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In the late nineteenth century, around the time that Marx was busily writing his most famous work, the average length of a working week was around 62 hours, with the working day often as long as 12 hours and child labour commonplace, although from 1870 children aged 8-13 were allowed to work only half time in order to fit in the required 10 hours a week of education. The steady reduction in the number of hours which people have been required to work each day/week has been a long battle reflecting the power struggle between capital and labour.

The roots of the British Labour Party lie deep in the conflict between capital and labour over working hours, wages, and working conditions, but it’s a background whose shadow is almost imperceptible in today’s Labour Party. Take today’s broadside by ‘Labour’ minister Steve Reed against local authorities which are moving towards a four day working week. Councils which do not shackle their staff to their desks for seven and a half hours per day five days per week could be classified by him as ‘failing authorities’ if he perceives that the staff are doing “part-time work for full-time pay”. It’s an attitude which assumes that there is a ‘right’ number of hours to justify a full time salary. It ignores the fact that reducing hours without reducing pay has been a core element of the aspirations of workers for generations. And, even though he’s talking about the public sector here, it’s an attitude which puts him firmly in the camp of the capitalist class, which has always resisted any reduction in working hours. His party’s founders must truly be rotating at speed wherever they lie.