Editing Refusal of work (section)

== Concerns over wage slavery ==
{{Main|Wage slavery}}
Wage slavery refers to a situation where a person's [[livelihood]] depends on [[wage]]s, especially when the dependence is total and immediate.<ref name="merriam-webster.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wage+slave|title=Definition of Wage Slave|website=www.merriam-webster.com|access-date=2019-01-02|archive-date=2017-08-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819041834/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wage%2Bslave|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/wage-slave|title=the definition of wage slave|website=www.dictionary.com|access-date=2019-01-02|archive-date=2015-09-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923162925/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wage%20slave|url-status=live}}</ref> It is a [[connotation|negatively connoted]] term used to draw an analogy between [[slavery]] and [[wage labor]], and to highlight similarities between owning and [[employment|employing]] a person. The term 'wage slavery' has been used to criticize [[economic exploitation]] and [[social stratification]], with the former seen primarily as unequal bargaining power between labor and capital (particularly when workers are paid comparatively low wages, e.g. in [[sweatshops]]),<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_KdrTfTxqvgC&pg=PA183|title=Democracy's Discontent: America in Search of a Public Philosophy|first=Michael J.|last=Sandel|year=1998|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0674197459|via=Google Books|access-date=2016-07-28|archive-date=2021-12-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211201112127/https://books.google.com/books?id=_KdrTfTxqvgC&pg=PA183|url-status=live}}</ref> and the latter as a lack of [[workers' self-management]].<ref name="globetrotter.berkeley.edu">{{Cite web |url = http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people2/Chomsky/chomsky-con2.html |title = Conversation with Noam Chomsky, p. 2 of 5 |publisher = Globetrotter.berkeley.edu |access-date = 28 June 2010 |archive-date = 31 May 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190531192200/http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people2/Chomsky/chomsky-con2.html |url-status = live }}</ref><ref name="socialissues.wiseto.com">{{Cite web |url = http://socialissues.wiseto.com/Articles/161500532/ |title = From wage slaves to wage workers: cultural opportunity structures and the evolution of the wage demands of the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor, 1880–1900. Crime |publisher = Socialissues.wiseto.com |date = 30 August 2007 |access-date = 28 June 2010 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090630014918/http://socialissues.wiseto.com/Articles/161500532/ |archive-date = 30 June 2009 }}</ref><ref name="spunk.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.spunk.org/texts/places/russia/sp001861/bolintro.html|title=The Bolsheviks and Workers Control|website=www.spunk.org|access-date=2010-01-10|archive-date=2006-12-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061220120533/http://www.spunk.org/texts/places/russia/sp001861/bolintro.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The criticism of social stratification covers a wider range of employment choices bound by the pressures of a [[social hierarchy|hierarchical]] social environment (i.e. working for a wage not only under threat of [[starvation]] or [[poverty]], but also of [[social stigma]] or [[Social status|status]] diminution).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/fitzhughcan/fitzcan.html |title=Full text of Cannibals All! Or, Slaves Without Masters, by George Fitzhugh (1857) |access-date=2015-06-10 |archive-date=2019-09-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190902191138/https://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/fitzhughcan/fitzcan.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="schalkenbach1">{{Cite web|url=http://schalkenbach.org/library/george.henry/sp15.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716205548/http://schalkenbach.org/library/george.henry/sp15.html|url-status=dead|title=Robert Schalkenbach Foundation|archivedate=16 July 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people2/Chomsky/chomsky-con2.html|title=Conversation with Noam Chomsky, p. 2 of 5|website=globetrotter.berkeley.edu|access-date=2010-01-10|archive-date=2019-05-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190531192200/http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people2/Chomsky/chomsky-con2.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Similarities between wage labor and slavery were noted at least as early as [[Cicero]].<ref name="cicero"/> Before the [[American Civil War]], Southern defenders of [[African American]] slavery invoked the concept to favorably compare the condition of their slaves to workers in the North.<ref>{{Cite book |last = Foner |first = Eric |title = Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men |page = xix }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last = Jensen |first = Derrick |title = The Culture of Make Believe |year = 2002 |isbn = 978-1893956285 |url = https://archive.org/details/cultureofmakebel00derr |url-access = registration }}</ref> With the advent of the [[Industrial Revolution]], thinkers such as [[Proudhon]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Proudhon |first1=Pierre-Joseph |author1link=Pierre-Joseph Proudhon |editor-last1=Kelly |editor-first1=Donald R. |editor-last2=Smith |editor-first2=Bonnie G. |editor-link2=Bonnie G. Smith |title=Proudhon: What is Property? |year=1994 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0521405560 |pages=159–160 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ELTq6WIulyEC |access-date=1 December 2021 |language=en |quote=Concerning this, political economy, speaking for eternal justice, says: 'producing by one's capital is producing by one's tools.' This is what ought to be called 'producing by a slave, by a thief and by a tyrant.' He, the proprietor, produce?... A robber might as well say: 'I produce.' |archive-date=1 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211201092204/https://books.google.com/books?id=ELTq6WIulyEC |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/ProProp.html|title=Proudhon, Pierre Joseph. What is Property? An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government.|access-date=2010-01-10|archive-date=2013-07-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130704144431/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/ProProp.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and [[Marx]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1863/theories-surplus-value/ch07.htm|title=Economic Manuscripts: Theories of Surplus-Value, Chapter 7|website=www.marxists.org|access-date=2019-01-02|archive-date=2020-03-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200301224650/https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1863/theories-surplus-value/ch07.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> elaborated the comparison between wage labor and slavery in the context of a critique of property not intended for active personal use.

The introduction of wage labor in 18th century Britain was met with resistance—giving rise to the principles of [[syndicalism]].<ref name="English Working Class p. 599">The Making of the English Working Class, p. 599 {{ISBN?}}</ref><ref name="English Working Class p. 912">The Making of the English Working Class, p. 912</ref><ref name="Geoffrey Ostergaard p. 133">Geoffrey Ostergaard, ''The Tradition of Workers' Control'', p. 133 {{ISBN?}}</ref><ref name="Shop Floor p. 37">Competitive Advantage on the Shop Floor, p. 37</ref> Historically, some labor organizations and individual social activists, have espoused [[workers' self-management]] or [[worker cooperative]]s as possible alternatives to wage labor.<ref name="socialissues.wiseto.com"/><ref name="Geoffrey Ostergaard p. 133"/>