Author Elizaveta Fouksman Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Harvard University Academic rigor, journalistic flair The new labour struggle: less work, same pay, and basic income for all May 4, 2017 10.59am EDT • Updated May 5, 2017 2.55am EDT Since the 19th century May 1 has been International Worker’s Day, chosen by organised labour to celebrate the contribution of workers around the world. But it’s frequently forgotten that the day actually celebrates a particular achievement of the labour movement: being able to do less work. Not better paid or decent work, but shorter working hours. May 1 initially commemorated the 1886 Haymarket affair, where Chicago workers were striking for a radical and dangerous proposal: the eight-hour work day. This idea was so incendiary that the protests turned violent; both police and protesters died in the conflict. Today more and more people around the world are facing precarity, casualisation, inequality and unemployment. It’s time to pursue a new agenda for a new global labour movement – or rather, to update the old agenda of the 19th century: less working time and more money for all, in the form of shorter work days and a universal basic income. The Haymarket affair saw workers protesting for a 40-hour working week. Harper's Weekly [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons The new labour struggle: less work, same pay, and basic income for all https://theconversation.com/the-new-labour-struggle-less-work-sa... 1 of 4 1/24/18, 2:21 PM