Employment versus labor associations: despotism and politics in human labor activities

Abstract

This article - originaly a talk in a panel discussion celebrating Labor Day organized by Centro de Psicologia Aplicada ao Trabalho (CPAT) - is not about human labor activities, but about its partial conditioner: labor contracts. It discusses two possible types of contracts: employment, on one hand, and association, on the other. We question the very nature of employment, ideologically dominant, and its consequences for the worker. It also opens a discussion about workers' associations. The central question is political: if subordination was banned from the public sphere, why should it be maintained in the sphere of production? The conclusion is that the experience of associative work leads to another form of work relations (and of relations in the workplace) wich may cause a democratic resocialization of the workers while, at the same time, introducing new democratic forms and in the institutions that control production activities and free enterprise.