Mohammad Ferdosi

Abstract

The history of labour standards is at one and the same time the history of the formation and struggles of the modern working class. However, at every stage of their development there have been contradictory tendencies towards regulation and deregulation, reflecting the conflict of interest between capital and labour over the distribution of the share of total value created. Labour standards and the accumulation process are contradictory in principle, and so the development of labour standards can in one sense be seen as the legislative and ideological expression of this centuries-old conflict between capital and labour in which both sides have had different degrees of economic and political leverage to advance their respective interests.

Keywords

Accumulation, class struggle, labour standards, welfare state, crisis, retrenchment

From: Critique 2019 47 (4)

Editor: Wang Yi