Life in the Factory

The abolition of capitalism alone will not insure the future of civilization. The character of modern industrial labor—repetitive, monotonous, segmented, cut off from directed thought—considerably modifies the problem of socialism. Those who would speak seriously of a socialism which will respect the human person must henceforth go beyond the goal of liberating the workers from capitalism. They must consider ways to protect the worker from the effects which his work has upon him.

So concludes Georges Friedman, veteran socialist and author of several studies on humanism and work.’ Analogous ideas are current in American socialist thought of rec...