Workers and Freedom

The discussion of whether or not workers are free has come up a number of times in our class discussions. It was initially introduced through the Braverman reading, and then again in the “Modern Times”, “Life and Debt”, and Honduras movie clips. Within our class discussion we created a list of factors which affect a worker’s freedom. For instance, it was discussed that workers do have the right to choose where they want to work and therefore can choose which specific freedoms they will give up. But society forces them to make a decision—a forced choice, and once they make that choice the worker may be giving up their freedom as growth, an idea discussed earlier in the course in the Boisvert and Dewey readings. One factor that I think would significantly affect the discussion of whether or not a worker is free that was not brought up in the class discussion was a society or individual’s economic status. Perhaps it is so obvious that it was just assumed, but workers become increasingly less free as their economic status depreciates. In other words, workers give up (as opposed to directly lose) their freedom to choose where to work when it is a choice between freedom and starvation. Or a choice between freedom and providing for one’s self and family. We saw this in the “Life and Debt” and Honduras clips. We even saw this in the “Modern Times” film clip, although it was not as obvious. The film was made in 1936, which was during the 1930’s depression, and thus would naturally represent how workers were treated and how workers felt as a response to the economic status of the country.