Thaer Daem

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Minimum wage legislation?

I have been pondering on whether the issue of campaigning for a higher minimum wage should be a priority for progressives in Lebanon. I could not find a full account on the issue in historical references, only some passages:
Marx:
. . . some trivialities which Guesde found it necessary to throw to the French workers notwithstanding my protest, such as fixing the minimum wage by law, etc. (I told him: “If the French proletariat is still so childish as to require such bait, it is not worth while drawing up any program whatever”). . .

Lenin:
It is true that this law, like all bourgeois reforms, is a miserable half-measure and in part a mere deception of the workers, because while fixing the lowest rate of pay, the employers keep their wage-slaves down all the same. Nevertheless, those who are familiar with the British labour movement say that since the miners’ strike the British proletariat is no longer the same. The workers have learned to fight. They have come to see the path that will lead them to victory. They have become aware of their strength. They have ceased to be the meek lambs they seemed to be for so long a time to the joy of all the defenders and extollers of wage-slavery.

Luxemburg:
But it is obvious that the class character of any particular demand is not established by merely incorporating it mechanically into the program of a socialist party. What this or any other party considers a "class interest" of the proletariat can only be an imputed interest, concocted by subjective reasoning. It is very easy, for instance, to state that the workers' class interest demands the establishment of a minimum-wage law. Such a law would protect the workers against the pressures of competition, which might come from a less developed locality. It would assure them of a certain minimum standard of living, etc. Such demands have been presented repeatedly by socialist circles; however, the principle has not yet been accepted by the socialist parties in general, for the valid reason that the universal regulation of wages by means of legislation is but a utopian dream under today's anarchistic conditions of private economy. This is because workers' wages, like the prices of any kind of commodity, are set up in the capitalistic system under the operation of "free competition" and the spontaneous movement of capital. Therefore, the legal regulation of wages can be achieved only in exceptional, clearly defined areas, e.g., in small communities. And since the general establishment of a minimum-wage law clashes with the current conditions of capitalism, we must admit that it is not a true proletarian interest, but rather a fabricated or imputed one, in spite of the fact that it can be supported by a completely logical argument.

What to make of that? Campaigning for a higher minimum wage (or legislation, if non-existent) can contribute to workers' struggle when the labor movement is weak, as is currently the case in Lebanon. But there are issues to be aware of, such as reversibility, the question of declining real value of the set minimum wage with rising prices, its effective enforcement when capitalists control the state, capitalist competition leading to exploiting workers not covered by the legislation (whether at home or abroad, an important issue given the great mobility of capital at this stage), and changes in job availability in different sectors.

Ultimately however, minimum wages should be set through collective bargaining, not legislation. The process would resist the problems mentioned above, with an internationalist perspective ensuring that all workers benefit. So it seems that increasing the minimum wage should be set as a priority now to mobilize workers. The wage level to be demanded must be set only according to that criterion (which level would have the largest support from the working class). So its value is mostly instrumental. As the labor movement is strengthened, the goal must then be to bargain collectively on minimum wages.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link

<< Home