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Wage slavery TV
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Occasionally, media figures cut through the horseshit on
a given topic. Darcus Howe's Channel 4 program: Slave Nation:
Work was a good example. Described in a Guardian
TV listing as examining "the greatest threat to personal
freedom in 21st-century Britain", it didn't disappoint.
Howe equated modern work with slavery – repeatedly and
without equivocation (a first for mainstream TV?) Part of
the show concentrated on a call centre where the employees
had to dress up in silly costumes in order to create a "fun"
working environment. Narrator Howe pointed out with dismay
that these employees aren't aware that they're being humiliated
as well as economically enslaved; that they're totally compliant
and without any sense of resistance.
Howe also attended a motivational employee induction course,
which he described as "infantile nonsense". By the
end of the show he called for shorter working hours and a
Citizen's Wage.
[Slave Nation: Work, Channel 4, 9pm 15/8/2001]
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