Workers Defense Project: Occult Expertism

The other day I was speaking with Joao Costa Vargas, a professor and ally of the Workers Defense Project and I realized something interesting about the structural dynamics of the social advocacy group. I told Joao about how I was researching the group this semester and he asked me if I knew Cristina very well. I had to pause for a second; I knew the name, I recalled she was on the board of directors, but I couldn't say that I knew her very well or that I could say much about her as a person.

I think this, albeit anecdotal, encounter says something about the nature of the way that the Workers Defense Project handles its business. First, there is a large separation between the on-the-ground operations of the group and the directers of the organization. There exists a significant gap, both perceptually and empirically, between those the organization's leadership and its body of workers. While it is practically impossible, and perhaps unwise, to completely abolish this fissure between the visionaries and the implementers of social change; this structural fact potentiates some more significant consequences for the group's future.

How will an organization whose stated aim is to work on behalf of workers be perceived if it models the corporate structure in all aspects except the profit motive? Do the inequalities of work relations end when incentive structures and monetary systems are equalized? Or do other power relations persist beyond the numbers on the spreadsheet? Although the Board of Directors is quite exceptionally qualified according to neoliberal standards; most of the executives have multiple higher education degrees, some even from Ivy League institutions such as Brown, could they still be guilty of perpetuating the unequal power relations they aim to subvert?

If the organizations maintains in the division of labor between skilled and unskilled labor, between experts and docile laborers, between those capable of adapting to an immaterialized, flexible and adaptive work environment and those that are more suited for basic manual labor how can our cultural ethos change from its current preoccupation with conflating skills with life value? How can our current systems of economic production break out of its rigid regimentation of people that has existed sinces The Republic or Aristotle's Politics, dividing the polis into Philosopher Kings and Workers, full humans and those naturally disposed to slavery?

The cult of expertism through which the organization perpetuates an ideology of paternalism damages its ability to cultivate a new sensibility of labour relations. If the oppressors view themselves solely as the bearer of Enlightenment knowledge that rides into the slums on a white horse of liberation they will be perceived in terms which are negligibly different from that of the original exploiters. Only when liberation becomes a mutual and reciprocal process, rather than a one-way street can a truly emancipatory politics arise anew.

Working for Workers

The Workers' Defense Project engaged in capacity building measures this week in order to reach out to a larger audience of activists. The social advocacy group utilized new media and web based methods of knowledge dissemination.

The website made a post in its "What's Happening" section; which can also be followed via subscribing through an rss feed, email or social networking sites (SNS). It's title reads, "Become an Intern at Workers' Defense Project," the title is rather lack luster, I guess if you're always studying about businesses firing and laying people off you lose sight of how to hire.

The post itself indicates that the group needs interns, itself written by an intern it lacks color, depth, and proper grammar:
i.e. "Come and work with us looking how the world change before your eyes"


One of the potential internships is to be a community garden intern, it seems like you're more likely to watch the grass grow than the earth change before your eyes. The application reads like a typical classified ad for job hirings, the only difference is the fluffy line at the beginning and the motto "And Remember: In Unity, There Is Strength!" in the penultimate moment. 


This ad could just as easily be for a corporation marketing itself as socially conscientious, although I think businesses might have a better handle on how to appeal to potential recruits. But how can an advocacy group change the consciousness of workers if they simply mimic their practices?