From the present, capitalism can look inevitable, albeit crisis-ridden, as if a chain reaction of vast impersonal forces simply submerged us all. It is in this smooth, ahistorical way that the story of work is often told. In one variant of the story – proposed by the economist Adam Smith – people have a natural ‘propensity to truck, barter, and

Or, in the absence of effective counterpower, will we witness more reactionary changes that legitimate the daily violence of capital, or at least remove the most offensive aspects from plain sight?

But then they gained power, and with power came new habits. The revolutionary left that justified the rise to power morphed partially into an institutional right that justified the use of power. By its nature, a revolutionary group adopts leftist tactics to gain power, but once it wins, finds it needs to use rightist tactics to maintain power