I’m reading ‘The Marxian Revolutionary Idea’ by Robert C. Tucker. There are two questions which prompt me: what is underlying economic and technical developments which are driving economic growth in the UK at the present? And also, what is the real meaning of the government’s drive for ‘e-government’? My thesis is that the government wants to see a radical change in white collar service work from being labour intensive to capital intensive. This would see large numbers of white collar workers losing their jobs. There are already references to this in parts of the government’s own literature.

It would also mean that there can be greater control over the labour that remains. It would also mean that services could more easily be privatised and outsourced (it’s easier to transfer a technical system that pays out benefits to a third party than large numbers of people).

So far, some stimulating thoughts from Tucker (who I know nothing about, although he has an interesting history );

“…the inner dynamism…or capitalist production…as the employers, under relentless pressure of the competitive struggle, strive for greater and greater technical efficiency through mechanisation of work process”.

And this explosive idea: “The human history of production is thus also a history of revolution”.