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Worker in a Worker's State
A vivid description of work in a Hungarian tractor factory exposes harsh working conditions and mindless bureaucratic rule
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1975
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 24, 2021
A first-hand account written by a factory worker in a Hungarian Tractor Factory, detailing the degree of worker exploitation in a 'socialist state'. And a book that had a profound impact on my political development.
I was never a Stalinist to begin with, but for sure could be guilty of being an unintentional apologist of Stalin and the soviet bureaucracy. This book written by a Marxist worker documenting his own living and working conditions, made me understand the real conditions experienced by the working class of the 'eastern bloc', and that acting as an apologist for the Stalinist bureaucracy amounted to little more than throwing the working class under the bus.
It didn't turn me into an anarchist, nor away from Marxism. It did however make me realise that communists don't advance the interest of states but the working class. Further that a true defence of socialism means being honest about what the USSR was and wasn't - rather than just the typical knee jerk response of calling every critique of the USSR (and other so-called 'socialist states') bourgeois propaganda.
I was never a Stalinist to begin with, but for sure could be guilty of being an unintentional apologist of Stalin and the soviet bureaucracy. This book written by a Marxist worker documenting his own living and working conditions, made me understand the real conditions experienced by the working class of the 'eastern bloc', and that acting as an apologist for the Stalinist bureaucracy amounted to little more than throwing the working class under the bus.
It didn't turn me into an anarchist, nor away from Marxism. It did however make me realise that communists don't advance the interest of states but the working class. Further that a true defence of socialism means being honest about what the USSR was and wasn't - rather than just the typical knee jerk response of calling every critique of the USSR (and other so-called 'socialist states') bourgeois propaganda.
April 15, 2023
'We see the foreman coming, looking for us. To him, each of his steps is a reproach. But we don't move until he reaches us. Our work won't go away. No one will do it in our place' (p137)
An evocative exploration of factory working conditions under 'socialist' Hungary, reinforced through the addition of Haraszti's persecution at the end. Certainly a thought-provoking read.
An evocative exploration of factory working conditions under 'socialist' Hungary, reinforced through the addition of Haraszti's persecution at the end. Certainly a thought-provoking read.
October 28, 2020
This was one of my favorite books in college and I am amazed how much of it I remembered. The author was a workman in a Hungarian tractor factory and describes the day-to-day exploitation, danger and drudgery he experienced, and how the socialist factory of the time (1970s) nearly squelched but definitely deformed and twisted the universal human drive to achieve and earn by forcing the workers to toil for piece rates with set expectations that constantly change to benefit the managers and pilfer labor from the workers. The most touching chapter I had forgotten, when he describes the workers' creation of "homers," little trinkets they manufactured on the sly when they could and can smuggle home, and to which they applied their love and effort at quality and beauty, something that piece rates prevented them from ever considering in their "real" work.
Two passages: "So we carry on looting [making pieces faster than the set rate to earn more], blindly, with this inevitable result: the pursuit of maximum gain forces the pay per piece downwards. This comes about through the progressive reduction of the time-rate per piece, and it prevents us from controlling our rate of production, which of course is incessantly stepped up. For the same wage we do more and more work ...."
Regarding 'homers": "In place of the order, 'You make that', comes a question, 'What can I make?' But if this work is an end in itself, it is not thereby without a purpose. It is the antithesis of our meaningless 'real' work ... This humble little homer, made secretly and only through great sacrifices [mainly, the time given up that could have been used making a piece for pay], with no ulterior motive, is the only form possible of free and creative work -- it is both the germ and the model: this is the secret of the passion."
What I took from this book in college still rings true. Socialism just replaces the people at the top with different people, but the life of those below remains the same.
Two passages: "So we carry on looting [making pieces faster than the set rate to earn more], blindly, with this inevitable result: the pursuit of maximum gain forces the pay per piece downwards. This comes about through the progressive reduction of the time-rate per piece, and it prevents us from controlling our rate of production, which of course is incessantly stepped up. For the same wage we do more and more work ...."
Regarding 'homers": "In place of the order, 'You make that', comes a question, 'What can I make?' But if this work is an end in itself, it is not thereby without a purpose. It is the antithesis of our meaningless 'real' work ... This humble little homer, made secretly and only through great sacrifices [mainly, the time given up that could have been used making a piece for pay], with no ulterior motive, is the only form possible of free and creative work -- it is both the germ and the model: this is the secret of the passion."
What I took from this book in college still rings true. Socialism just replaces the people at the top with different people, but the life of those below remains the same.
July 24, 2016
Where did I get this book? Gutmann's on the lake with RONBO? (Think so.)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
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