Workersâ participation demands focused on pay and immediate job matters, not structural control.
Evidence
So far as worker participation was concerned, the study showed that the majority of those questioned had no clear picture either of the legal requirements or of how they were implemented. The answers expressed expectations and hopes connected with participation, and were associated with matters relating to each workerâs own job, or own factory or company, at most. Only a tenth of those questioned linked participation with the economy as a whole or with the executive level. When they were asked directly which areas employees should have a say in, 59 per cent mentioned pay, 36 per cent mentioned social questions, and 26 per cent mentioned questions connected with the work itself. Profit-sharing, business and investment were only mentioned by 9 per cent, 5 per cent and 4 per cent respectively. â Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2073
Categorization
- XREF: Empirical grounding for the Frankfurt Schoolâs critique of the âactually existingâ working class as a revolutionary subject â contrasts with Horkheimer/Adornoâs theoretical expectations. â connects to: Postwar strikes were political demands for workersâ self-government, not mere wage disputes; Worker disinterest in top-level participation reflects ignorance, not lack of desire â Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,âŠ, 2073; Workers mobilized against class enemies rather than for abstract justice (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Postwar strikes were political demands for workersâ self-government, not mere wage disputes
#contradicts(0.90) - Postwar workers rejected labor as a commodity and demanded democratic control of production
#contradicts(0.90) â Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 185 - Worker disinterest in top-level participation reflects ignorance, not lack of desire
#contradicts(0.85) â Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2073 - Workers mobilized against class enemies rather than for abstract justice
#qualifies(0.75)