I keep coming across this as I try to navigate the whole anti work schism. I dont fit in among the "work reformists", because quite frankly, I don't want to reform work but abolish it. But at the same time, when I try to talk to actual anti work supporters, they think you can't be anti work without being leftist.
That said I just devised this handy dandy chart for showing people how the concept of anti work is divorced from the left-right divide.
So...this should be a nice, easy to understand chart. It's not intended to be inclusive to all ideologies, so if your super special ideology isn't there, don't worry about it. I was just trying to give a general overview of the divide.
To discuss each category
Pro work right
To the benefit of many of the anti work lefties, most mainstream capitalist ideologies are pro work. Conservatives are vociferously pro work. They're the guys who always brag about how miserable they are, and how many hours they work, but take pride in it and see it as a badge of honor. These guys live to work.
Liberals are a bit softer. They understand that capitalism has some flaws, but want to do little to change the core of worker relations. They're often criticized by leftists of wanting more humane corporate overlords, blah blah blah. They just understand that wage slaves should, you know, be given mild labor protections.
Social democrats support stronger labor protections. They do support MILD anti work goals in the "work reform" tradition, mainly aimed at slightly lower (like 30 hour) work weeks and higher pay. But...having seen the UBI debate play out in these countries, many of them are anti UBI and the like because they believe in reciprocity. Meaning they think the state should do everything they can for their people, but they also believe to earn that treatment, people should work. So socdems are often strongly for work. In America, in the more progressive and Bernie tradition, this often takes the form of support for FDR's bill of rights, which includes a job guarantee.
Much like conservatives, right libertarians are often extremely pro work. While they would say on the surface that their ideology doesnt force anyone to do anything, they ignore the soft power of institutions imposing wage slavery on people and tend to ignore that whole aspect of philosophy. So often times you end up being forced to work, with them just saying "well that's how life is." Most right libs are more obsessed with the state oppressing them and are more likely to scream about taxes and labor laws attempting to influence and improve labor relations, believing that there shouldn't be laws regulating such things, and that taxes and safety nets shouldn't exist.
Even some left libertarians fall into this camp, despite most anti workers being left libertarian to some extent. Georgists, for example, aren't really against work. They just think that there should be a land value tax and that that's the only just form of tax. While they would argue the citizen's dividend or UBI would free some people from labor, it isn't really an intended part of their ideology, and in practice they're not really against work. They tend to actually be quite pro work.
Pro work left
I've been saying it for a while, but most socialists are actually pro work. A lot of democratic socialists are also pro work. Again, the sanders tradition. They support socialism, but they also support job guarantees. They do generally believe in work at their core.
However, the larger batch of socialists generally are even more pro work. Tankies, marxist leninists, and other auth left are EXTREME on the pro work scale. Just look no further than Russia, or China, or North Korea, or Cuba. In these kinds of places, they have extreme "if you don't work you dont eat" attitudes, and many may also force anti workers who they seem as "lumpen" into work camps and gulags. The auth left is no friend to the anti work movement.
Anti work left
So...generally speaking, who IS anti work? Well, most actual anti work people are some form of "left libertarian". This is true both on the left and the right, which is why there might be such a weird feeling among the left that you can't be anti work without being left. But if we define "left" as "anti capitalist", we see a slightly different picture, as the anti work movement fractures into two different, distinct camps.
To be fair, the bulk of anti work supporters ARE "leftists". Mostly in the form of anarchism. The mods of r/antiwork and the most forward representatives of the movement are anarchists. David Graeber, and people like that also subscribe to anarchism. There are other traditions, I could see libertarian socialists and some demsocs being somewhat anti work, believing to give people resources regardless of effort via some "universal basic services"scheme, but I'm not sure how dedicated some of these guys are, and I could see some of these socialists ended up in the work work left. Most socialists actually are pro work at their core, after all. But libertarian ones are often significantly less so.
Anti work right
Ah, so this is where we get to it, the ideologies that are anti work, but somehow still capitalist. To really understand it, here's another handy dandy chart, this one from wikipedia. This is a chart of libertarianism. Separating left and right libertarianism. Notice how there are two orbs on the left wing side that don't fall within libertarian socialism. You have georgists, who I already discussed as pro work, and the steiner vallentyne school, which is where the magic happens.
A lot of anti work, pro UBI traditions on the right, fall within the steiner-vallentyne school. This tradition started with phillipe van parijs, who in an era where the left was reeling from the successes of neoliberalism in the 1980s and 1990s, sought to come up with a "new left" to differentiate himself from the old left. And in doing so, he asked, "what, if anything, could justify capitalism?" In the process, he came up with his ideology of "real libertarianism", arguing that a UBI of the highest sustainable amount would free people to do whatever they want to do in life. And that would, essentially, include being free to work and not work, implicitly speaking. I'm not sure van parijs was explicitly anti work, but "real libertartianism" seemed to be the roots of some anti work traditions on the "capitalist right."
Karl Widerquist expanded this in 2013 with his theory of indepentarianism, where he basically said that for a system like capitalism, one that holds that private property is sacred and denies the commons and the resources to the average person, to exist in an ethical fashion, that they would need to provide a universal basic income so that people could be free from being coerced to participate in the system, ie, work. He argues people should be free to say no, not just to any jobs, but all jobs. Widerquist does seem to have anarchist tendencies at times, but indepentarianism, at its core, is compatible with capitalism.
And he actually would cite some right libertarians like even Milton Friedman as influences at times. A handful of right libs ARE UBI advocates after all, and while they didn't seem to be explicitly for work refusal, they generally saw UBI as the most ethical and freedom preserving way to create a safety net, as it would minimize state overreach.
So...the anti work right, mostly exists within the more mild forms of left libertarians. It would be noted not all UBI advocates are inherently anti work. Andrew Yang, for example, often frames it from a pro work perspective, despite his idea clearly having some anti work appeal. But...he (tactfully) chooses not to tap into that framing, because let's face it, as evidenced from the r/antiwork debacle today, it isn't always a good idea to frame issues that way if you want public support. Hence why I am a yang supporter despite not necessarily agreeing with him on the work issue. We're close enough where it doesn't matter. As long as the sausage is made the sausage is made, and I would argue UBI is the best way to achieve anti work goals.
Conclusion
So....again, to use a scott santens term, much like UBI, the anti work movement isnt necessarily left or right, but forward. It LEANS left, with most supporters being some degree of anti capitalist, but there are pro capitalist traditions. It's not that pro capitalist anti work supporters are over the moon enthusiastic supporters of capitalism. Most are kind of like, yeah this system has flaws, but UBI and/or other similar measures can reform it. So we're still like....within social democratic or mild left libertarian traditions. But we ARE capitalists. Just left leaning ones. Only the most ardent right capitalists like the likes of milton friedman were remotely anti work, and even then I dont think right libs are explicitly anti work. It just so happens their ideas occasionally align with the movement when implemented a certain way.
But yeah. There are anti work leftists, there are pro work leftists. I would argue most leftists are pro work in some capacity. Actual anti work people on the left are a minority and mostly found among more anarchist type traditions.
But...there are also anti work capitalists, and pro work capitalists. Again, most capitalists ARE pro work. I'd say the vast overwhelming majority of capitalists are pro work. BUT...there are traditions that are anti work. They're often found among the UBI supporters. Not included above, but some might also support automation and reducing the work week via social democratic approaches. The point is, the left does NOT hold a monopoly on anti work as a concept, and heck, for all the praise and circlejerking that the left does about anticapitalism and how great it is, most of them are STILL FOR work. "Workers are entitled to all that they create" is a pro work sentiment common among leftists.
So yeah. The whole point of this article is to try to tone down the leftist gatekeeping. Some of us capitalists ARE ANTI WORK. And many leftists, ARENT anti work. That's not to say most anti work people aren't on the left. I'd argue the anarchist group of them is much larger than the more capitalist UBI tradition. But I'm just saying, they don't have a monopoly on the concept and nothing about leftism inherently means that they will have anti work conclusions. Heck I'd still argue MOST leftists are PRO work.
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