We put the thought of all that
We Love into all that we Make²
Give Workers the Privilege not of
Working – but of Deciding How to³
Beautiful hands are those that do Work
That is Honest, Brave & True, Moment
By Moment – all the Long Day through⁴
When the Workers set about it Practically
On a Mass scale – they will Self-Organize
Hundred times better than any Theoretician⁵
Love Cannot Flourish in a society based upon
Money & Meaningless Work: it requires complete
Economic as well as Personal Freedom, Leisure
Time and the opportunity to engage in Intensely
Absorbing, Emotionally Satisfying Activities⁶
As more humans Awaken, the word Work is
Going to Disappear from our Vocabulary⁷
I haven’t been Employed – and therefore
Have become Accomplished in the Arts⁸
Labor is but a Means to Widen, Enrich,
Promote the Existence of the Laborer⁹
Yesterday we Worked for Others –
Today we Work for Ourselves¹⁰
¹ Thomas Dekker, O Sweet Content
² J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
³ Toni Morrison, Beloved
⁴ Ellen P. Allerton, Beautiful Things
⁵ V.I. Lenin tr. Bernard Isaacs, The April Theses
⁶ Valerie Solanas, SCUM Manifesto
⁷ Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now
⁸ Confucius tr. Edward Slingerland, Analects 9.7
⁹ Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto
¹⁰ Fidel Castro, May Day Celebration 1961