View source for The Abolition of Work

{{short description|1985 essay by Bob Black}}
{{use mdy dates|date=March 2024}}
{{About|the essay by Bob Black|the concept|Abolition of work}}
{{Infobox book|italic title=no
| name              = The Abolition of Work and Other Essays
| image             = The Abolition of Work.jpg
| image_size        = 
| border            = 
| alt               = 
| caption           = 
| author            = Bob Black
| illustrator       = 
| cover_artist      = [[Donna Kossy]]
| country           = United States
| language          = English
| series            = 
| subject           = [[Critique of work]]
| genre             = [[Social criticism]]
| publisher         = [[Loompanics]]
| published         = 1986
| media_type        = 
| pages             = 
| isbn              = 0-915179-41-5
| oclc              = 15135277
| dewey             = 
| congress          = 
| preceded_by       = <!-- for books in a series -->
| followed_by       = <!-- for books in a series -->
}}

"'''The Abolition of Work'''" is an essay written by Bob Black in 1985. It was part of Black's first book, an anthology of essays entitled ''The Abolition of Work and Other Essays'' published by [[Loompanics Unlimited]].<ref name=pubdetails/> It is an exposition of Black's "type 3 [[anarchism]]" – a blend of post-[[Situationist]] theory and [[individualist anarchism]] – focusing on a [[critique of the work ethic]].<ref name=porton/>

==Synopsis==
In the essay, Black advocates against work, and for play. He opens the essay with the sentence "No one should ever work". Black defines work as "compulsory production" enforced by "economic or political means", which he critizes both in capitalist and communist economic systems. Black does not argue for idleness, but for "a new way of life based on play".<ref name=pubdetails/> According to him, work is the source of the misery in the world. He considers the modern American worker of his time as a "part-time slave", in a hierarchy comparable to a monastery or prison.

Black claims that work can largely be abolished, since most of it is useless except for those in power. According to him, the useful work that then remains after the abolition could be transformed into playing games, "indistinguishable from other pleasurable pastimes, except that they happen to yield useful end-products".

The essay is humoristic in tone and could be considered satirical, although Black writes that he is "both joking and serious". Reverend Ivan Stang writes in the foreword of the collection that Black wrote some of the "wittiest hate humor I'd ever seen". Black, for example, compares the modern American worker to the Cambodian genocide, writing: "People think the Cambodians were crazy for exterminating themselves, but are we any different?"

[[File:Bob Black, 2011 BAAB, cropped.jpg|thumb|Black, pictured reading in 2011]]

== Influence ==

"The Abolition of Work" was a significant influence on [[futurist]] and design critic [[Bruce Sterling]], who at the time was a leading [[cyberpunk]] science fiction author and called it "one of the seminal underground documents of the 1980s".<ref name=mccaffery/> The essay's critique of work formed the basis for the anti-labor faction in Sterling's 1988 novel ''[[Islands in the Net]]''.<ref name=mccaffery/>

The book has been cited and referred to during the anti-work movement of the 2020s, particularly active on [[Reddit]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kaori Gurley |first1=Lauren |date=2021-11-10|title=Reddit’s Million-Strong Antiwork Community Wants to Blackout Black Friday |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/reddits-million-strong-anti-work-community-wants-to-blackout-black-frida/ |website=[[Vice News|Vice]] |access-date=2025-06-08}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Anarchism|Literature}}
{{div col|colwidth=40em}}
* [[Anarcho-syndicalism]]
* [[Anti-work]]
* [[Automation]]
* [[Freedom of choice]]
* [[He who does not work, neither shall he eat]]
* [[Issues in anarchism]]
* [[Libertarian socialism]]
* [[Post-work society]]
* [[Refusal of work]]
* [[Universal basic income]]
* [[Wage slavery]]
* [[Work as play]]
* [[Workers of the world, unite!]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name=porton>
{{cite book | last = Porton | first = Richard | title = Film and the Anarchist Imagination | publisher = Verso | location = London | year = 1999 | isbn = 1-85984-261-5 |pages=166–172}}</ref>
<ref name=pubdetails>{{cite book | last = Black | first = Bob | title = The Abolition of Work and Other Essays | url = https://archive.org/details/abolitionofworko0000blac | url-access = registration | publisher = Loompanics Unlimited | location = Port Townsend | year = 1986 | isbn = 0-915179-41-5 }}</ref>
<ref name=mccaffery>{{cite book | last = McCaffery | first = Larry | title = Across the Wounded Galaxies | publisher = University of Illinois Press | location = Urbana | year = 1991 | isbn = 0-252-06140-3 |chapter=Bruce Sterling |page=217 |authorlink=Larry McCaffery }}</ref>
}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Seyferth |first1=Peter |chapter=Anti-Work: A Stab in the Heart of Capitalism |title=Routledge Handbook of Radical Politics |date=2019 |isbn=978-1-315-61988-0 |publisher=Routledge |chapter-url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315619880-31/anti-work-peter-seyferth |page=384 |doi=10.4324/9781315619880-31 |s2cid=242759065 }}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Sinha |first1=Maya |title=The end of work (Rev. of The Abolition of Work and Other Essays) |journal=Mother Jones |volume=20 |issue=5 |page=82 |date=September 1995 |issn=0362-8841 |df=mdy-all }}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{external media
| float  = right
| width  =
| audio1 = [http://www.audioanarchy.org/antiwork/05-The_Abolition_Of_Work.mp3 The Abolition of Work], a free mp3 recording from the Audio Anarchy project. Part of the ''[http://www.audioanarchy.org/antiwork.html Anti-Work Essays]'' series.
}}
*''[https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/bob-black-the-abolition-of-work-and-other-essays The Abolition of Work and Other Essays]'', the 1986 collection by Bob Black hosted in its entirety on theanarchistlibrary.org
*{{Youtube|Ie5zO-mF31M|The Abolition of Work}}

{{Critique of work}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Abolition Of Work}}
[[Category:1985 essays]]
[[Category:Anarchist works]]
[[Category:Anarcho-syndicalism]]
[[Category:Criticism of work]]
[[Category:Essays about anarchism]]
[[Category:Literature critical of work and the work ethic]]
[[Category:Post-left anarchism]]
[[Category:Refusal of work]]
[[Category:Universal basic income in the United States]]
[[Category:Works about automation]]
[[Category:Works by Bob Black]]

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