Workers’ collective action can suspend the supposed iron laws of supply and demand

Evidence

Togliatti wrote that workers “put a limit to the absolute freedom of the boss”; they subverted “the ‘natural’ conditions of the market”; and thus, their labor power ceased “to be a commodity that is subject to the iron ‘laws’ of supply and demand.” In other words, “men have rebelled against economics: [now] their conscience and wills count more than the ‘scientifi c laws’ of economics” (Togliatti 1919a, 72). — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 506

Categorization

• XREF: The claim that workers can ‘rebel against economics’ prefigures the later Gramscian insight of location 505 and connects to the reader’s interest in how austerity presents its own rules as natural. — connects to: A labor market favorable to workers triggers organizing and higher wages. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 264

Broader Connections

• A labor market favorable to workers triggers organizing and higher wages. #corroborates (0.78) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 264