Three scholars: Isabelle Ferreras, Dominique Méda, and Julie Battilana on May 16, 2020 launched a petition in Le Monde for #democratizingwork. The text Work: Democratize, Decommodify, Remediate was published in 41 publications, in 36 countries around the world, in 27 languages. The text is open for signing at the website - so far 5000 signatures are claimed.

The Guardian presents the action under the heading Humans are not resources. Coronavirus shows why we must democratise work - Our health and lives cannot be ruled by market forces alone. Now thousands of scholars are calling for a way out of the crisis.

This action is an interesting sign of changing mindsets in public opinions. However, the word Capitalism is mentioned only once in the 2 pages text. Capitalism is attacked for rendering essential work invisible by terming it human resources. The first sentence of the document reads: “Working humans are so much more than ‘resources’”. Actually, in the same spirit the document calls for renaming worker to labor investor. Then it goes on to say: “To the question of how firms and how society as a whole might recognize the contributions of their employees in times of crisis, democracy is the answer.” This democratization can be put in place by redesigning firm governance by law, so that ‘labour investors’ are put on equal or even preferential terms to ‘capital investors’. Issues such as the choice of a CEO, setting major strategies, and profit distribution are too important to be left to shareholders alone. A personal investment of labor; that is, of one’s mind and body, one’s health – one’s very life – ought to come with the collective right to validate or veto these decisions.

The text goes on to call for decommodification (of labour). [The Corona] crisis shows that work must not be treated as a commodity, that market mechanisms alone cannot be left in charge of the choices that affect our communities most deeply. For years now, jobs and supplies in the health sector have been subject to the guiding principle of profitability; today, the pandemic is revealing the extent to which this principle has led us astray. This mean that ‘certain sectors’ should be preserved from the laws of the so-called “free market”.

Finally, the text calls for environmental remediation. This is thought to be fixed by socially-minded or cooperatively run businesses - pursuing hybrid goals that take financial, social, and environmental considerations into account, and developing democratic internal governments in firms.

The timing is obviously good - in the middle of the Corona Crisis - where millions of people have been exposed to the ugly sides of Capitalism. Focusing on the core issues of Governance of Firms might be an operational goal for a first fight. Certainly, we will not get rid of Capitalism by petitions to Capitalists themselves - the power structure within modern Capitalism has to be shaken up.

Commodification is the very core of Capitalism - so decommodification is really reigning in Capitalism itself. The petition actually is a call for killing - parts of - Capitalism, if that can de done?

Time will show whether this initiative gains force … or simply dies away?

LINKS:

democratizingwork.org pdf guardian