Labour and Monopoly Capital

The sad, horrible, heart-breaking way the vast majority of my fellow countrymen and women, as well as their counterparts in most of the rest of the world, are obliged to spend their working lives is seared into my consciousness in an excruciating and unforgettable way. And when I think of all the talent and energy which daily go into devising ways and means of making their torment worse, all in the name of efficiency and productivity but really for the greater glory of the god ‘Capital’, my wonder at humanity’s ability to create such a monstrous system is surpassed only by amazement at its willingness to tolerate the continuance of an arrangement so obviously destructive of the well-being and happiness of human beings.

If the same effort, or only half of it, were directed to making work the joyous and creative activity it can be, what a wonderful world it would be.

From Paul Sweezy’s foreword to Labour and Monopoly Capital by Harry Braverman (Monthly Review Press)