Work and Community

It is characteristic of work that it first and foremost unites people. In this consists its social power: the power to build a community. In the final analysis, both those who work and those who manage the means of production or who own them must in some way be united in this community. In the light of this fundamental structure of all work-in the light of the fact that, in the final analysis, labour and capital are indispensable components of the process of production in any social system-it is clear that, even if it is because of their work needs that people unite to secure their rights, their union remains a constructive factor of social order and solidarity, and it is impossible to ignore it.
       --John Paul II, Laborem Exercens ¶20

Read that first line again: labor unites people; its social power consists in building a community.

In the three utopias I've recently read, this description of work holds true. In Pacific Edge, the characters share work in reshaping the town of El Modena, taking apart old structures and recycling their bits to better the town. But even aside from that, the people decide together what kinds of work go into making the community--what allows the community to exist according to the values of the members of that community.

In Always Coming Home, the people arrange themselves in various Houses each with its own characteristic forms of labor. In a sense, these Houses resemble Medieval guilds, which JP II refers to in this section to defend unions. The people do not need unions to defend their "rights" to various social goods, however, because the community comes together to support each other. A person identifies the labor she wants to engage in, and she can change this labor at any point in her life.

In The Fifth Sacred Thing, people form various guilds as well, the Healer's Guild and the Water Council, etc. The struggle over identifying his work defines Bird's central arc in the novel, while Modena must struggle with what it means to be a midwife. Yet, again, no one is stuck in any work. Moreover, as in the previous two novels, people must commit some time to communal work.

These utopian visions are quite distinct from what most of us experience in our daily lives. I labor at a medium sized Catholic college. Our labor should be building a community. In some ways, I think it does: I have connections with many people across campus and along various lines of labor: teaching, building an ALC community, laboring for diversity, supporting a conference, etc. Yet, I think even we could come to appreciate more the way our labor makes us a community and, in that way, make us more of a community. I believe this point holds especially true for my department which suffers so much because so many ignore our common labor: teaching philosophy.

What would it be like, though, if we all began to see labor in this way? I'm afraid today we see work as a means to an end: wealth, security, etc. That is its only purpose, and so people long for the weekend when they no longer work. Or for winning the lottery so they can do what they really want to do.

And who can blame most people: those who work in the service industry. This work is not labor; it is not grounded in love. Oh for this or that person, it may be, but that person is a rare creature.

Perhaps our question today is rather simple and straightforward: does globalized capital have any room for labor for all or even for most, or will the vast majority of humanity swelter in work, never knowing community?