Unravelling capitalist structuring conditions: limits of the Decent Work Agenda

Decent Work with its focus on employment, social protection, workers’ rights and social dialogue is one of the ILO’s flagship programmes. In a way, what had been achieved in the developed world in the first three decades after the Second World War is now supposed to be established world-wide. In this contribution, I will critically assess the key assumptions underpinning this programme. First, capitalist development has been characterised by uneven and combined development. Decent work for all would, however, require even development. Second, historically the post-war class compromise in industrialised countries was gendered and racialised. In fact, capitalist accumulation has always structurally depended on exploitation of wage labour in the workplace as well as expropriation through patriarchal and racist forms of oppression. Decent work for all would, however, require that racism and patriarchy are overcome. In sum, I will argue that Decent Work reflects a Western-centric, social democratic understanding of development, which overlooks the underlying capitalist structuring conditions.