Peter Maurin on Labor

Peter Maurin wrote extensively about labor issues. He opposed the rampant growth of indutrialism and the speeding up of the assembly line. He did not view the organized labor movement of his time as a solution because it was secular. In Maurin's ideal world, labor would not be bought or sold but would be offered up freely for the common good. Failing that, he supported Catholic workers' guilds after the philosophy of fellow Frenchman Paul Chausson.These excerpts were originally published in Maurin's Easy Essays.

The nature of labor

Labor is not a commodity
to be bought and sold —
Labor is a means of self-expression,
the worker's gift to the common good.

Mechanized labor

Gandhi says:
"Industrialism is evil."
Industrialism is evil
because it brings idleness
both to the capitalist class
and the working class.
Idleness does no good
either to the capitalist class
or to the working class.
Creative labor
is what keeps people
out of mischief.
Creative labor
is craft labor.
Mechanized labor
is not creative labor.

Collective bargaining

Business men
have made
such a mess of things
without workers' co-operation
that they could do no worse
with workers' co-operation.
Because the workers
want to co-operate
with the business men
in the running of business
is the reason why
they sit down.
The sit-down strike
is for the worker
the means of bringing about
collective bargaining.
Collective bargaining
should lead
to compulsory arbitration.
Collective bargaining
and compulsory arbitration
will assure the worker
the right to work.

Selling labor

When the workers
sell their labor
to the capitalists
or accumulators of labor
they allow the capitalists
or accumulators of labor
to accumulate their labor.
And when the capitalists
or accumulators of labor
have accumulated so much
of the workers' labor
that they do no longer
find it profitable
to buy the workers' labor
then the workers
can no longer sell their labor
to the capitalists
or accumulators of labor.
And when the workers
can no longer
sell their labor
to the capitalists
or accumulators of labor
they can no longer buy
the products of their labor.
And that is what the workers get
for selling their labor.

Catholic associations

Organized labor,
organized capital
organized politics
are essentially
secularist minded.
We need leaders
to lead us
in the making of a path
from the things as they are
to the things as they should be.
I propose the formation
of associations
of Catholic employers
as well as associations
of Catholic union men.
Employers and employees
must be indoctrinated
with the same doctrine.