Written By:
Mike Smith - Date published:
9:35 pm, February 18th, 2015 - 5 comments
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Professor Guy Standing will discuss the ideas in his new book ‘A Precariat Charter; from Denizens to Citizens” in Wellington on Thursday 19 February at St John’s Church Hall, Willis Street at 5:30pm. From the back cover: “Throughout history, class-based revolt has led to the creation of charters of demands, from the Magna Carta to South Africa’s Freedom Charter. It is now time for a Precariat Charter.”
All welcome – please register here.
The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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I heard Professor Standing speak in Napier last Sunday. Extremely impressive – and a very powerful message for the left in the 21st century. Highly recommended.
Mike – change the date from March to February in the post title.
Ouch – fixed.
lprent –
I noted earlier that the heading date for Open Mike 11 February was 11/01/2015
but it has never been altered. To avoid future confusion could that be done?
No problem. There are too many comments these days and I have too much work to spend enough time to deal with them all (today is an exception, I’m making up a small windows network of bespoke windows boxes – boring as watching windows reboot).
These days the precariat seems central to the operations of capitalism. Hardly anyone’s job today is all that secure and a substantial layer of workers are in jobs with zero contract hours or especially precarious work.
‘Flexible’ labour, for instance, is one of the bullshit terms capitalist hacks/ideologues use.
Some examples in New Zealand:
NZ temp economy and the growing need for flexible labour: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2014/12/07/bending-over-backwards-new-zealands-temp-economy-and-the-growing-need-for-flexible-labour/
IT and the rise of NZ’s modern servant class: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2014/12/10/information-technology-and-the-rise-of-new-zealands-modern-servant-class/
A member of the precariat writes of his experience as a young working chef: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/the-real-working-life-of-a-chef-a-view-from-the-inside/
And while no-one doubts Guy Standing’s sincerity and the usefulness of his research, the same workers also writes rather critically of the contents of one of his meetings:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2014/02/28/7661/