The Labour Process II

What the paper says

This chapter examines workers’ relation to their means of labour, and first and foremost to their tools, in the context of their concrete labour. It argues that what sets the pace of technological change are the modalities of this relation and not the nature of the objects of labour (materials, energy sources), which merely act as accelerators. The chapter then identifies six modalities, from carved stone to artificial intelligence, which represent increasingly indirect relations between the workers and their tools, each time with a leap in productivity (in Marx’s sense). It discusses the question of AI, showing that it does not and cannot make human labour disappear. The chapter then addresses the question of the division of labour, which has not stopped growing with the evolution of technology. This does not mean, however, that the division of labour has necessarily become more and more impenetrable, since labour, while it is specialised at the top, can be generalised at the bottom, that is, become more and more accessible to all with the progress of technological education. The fact remains that the division between branches of knowledge is unavoidable, rendering the multi-skilled worker of Marx’s dreams impossible.