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THE BRITISH WORKING CLASS AND THE PRODUCTIVE FORCES
In Britain, the working class has certainly not behaved in a quietist manner towards the technical and social conditions under which it produces. In 200 years of working in conditions of industrial production with machines and factories, the working class has not only developed its consciousness of the conditions under which it produces, it has also become capable as a class of conscious determination and development of those conditions. It has developed the ability to order production and to a considerable extent has the ability to develop the means of production technically without the hierarchical authority of line management or chargehands.
That this is indeed the case can be seen by reading the case histories of the Industrial Society or any management consultants on the amount of jiggery-pokery necessary to give the chargehand or foreman the idea that he does have some authority or power. The situations which the Industrial Society is called on to remedy are those where the foreman is completely bypassed by both workers and management who recognise that the shop stewards are the agent by which production is organised and kept ticking over. The editor of the magazine of the Institute of Directors interviewed top directors in firms from ICI to Bulmers Cider and the National Coal Board about how decisions concerning industrial relations were taken by the Directors. In every case he found that decisions were taken on the basis of what "line management" (those closest to the working class who "supervise" and "oversee" production) told top management was possible: i.e. what the working class would allow.
The job of management is now (1) introducing what technological and organisational changes are necessary in order to continue to produce competitively; (2) to decide how much and what to produce on the basis of what they believe the market can bear (what can in fact be exchanged); (3) to provide the necessary capital for continued capital accumulation (new means of production). The conditions under which the working class orders production appear then to the working class as decisions taken by managerial prerogative. It is now normal practice for management to give workers reasons for why decisions about the conditions of production (introduction of new techniques etc) have been taken.
But the working class at present exercise only a negative and limited control over the determination of conditions of production. It is still management's job to set out and take decisions about these conditions: the working class has a recognised veto over these which it can wield according to its organised strength and also according to whether its objections can be met within the criterion of objective reality. It is the management's job to assess objective reality and take decisions concerning conditions of production accordingly. Increasingly, management are finding it necessary to give its workforce reasons for taking those decisions. Future articles will deal with this question in greater detail,
The conscious control over the organisation of production which the British working class exerts is possible because the class organised itself and enforced its interests in production. Trade Unions in Britain have developed out of the working class' consciousness that production depends on them and that if the working class withdraws its labour, production must cease. Trade Unions in Britain have always been interested in more than just wages, They have been interested in controlling the organisation of production in order to control the entry into employment. If the trade union decides whether a worker is qualified for the job, it is then possible for the working class in that sector to ensure that there is a restricted labour market and the employer is unable to use men who are willing to work for less money in the job or men who wi11 not act with the rest of their class in trade unions or to take on too many men in good times and lay off the surplus when the bad times come. Craft unions developed this consciousness and ability to order production: the AUEW, ASLEF and the Boilermakers are current examples.
The other method by which the working class in Britain has exerted conscious control over production is by the restriction of production. Piece-work was introduced in Britain in the engineering industry after a long and bitter fight with the unions who viewed it as a ruse to increase the intensity of labour (the absolute rate of surplus value): the amount of production necessary to earn a living wage would, they feared, be much more than had been previously produced under hourly pay thus meaning men could be sacked. Therefore, they opposed piecework until World War I when the unions and the working class accepted that increased production was necessary. But the working class refused to provide the increase unless they were paid: and piecework was negotiated so that a living wage was possible by producing an amount which the working class considered acceptable. In the interwar years, unions enforced piecework maxima on their members so that employment could be maintained.