Guerrilla Workfare

Daniel Eltringham

Before, no one asked whether or not you were a capitalist; so now get on with your work
–El Che

We’ve put together what we feel is the best glossary of flexible working terms and concepts you’ll find anywhere on the Internet. From ‘Activity-based work settings’ to ‘Zero-hours contracts’, it’s all there
–Glossary of Flexible Working

Total mobility
Guerrillas break through enclosures
Cross ad-hoc the most accidental landscape
You might need a sliver of time
In the quiet zone
Abrupt untransitable swamp
For many hours
Many days
Through the night
Cover your tracks
Dematerialise into the dark

Total variation
Don’t let them get to know your habits
Remain in readiness
As an agile organisation
The more nomadic
The more uncertain is life-on-the-line
Anything that lasts too long
Guaranteed flexicurity
Adequate boots

Total distraction
Flies
Pop-up flies
Multi-skilling

Total passivity
Live/work space advantages
All that is favourable to human life
Raises the probability of annihilation
Connections
Groupings
Communications
The land nicely levelled
None of this will do
The natural undulations
The ups & downs of terrain
Of hotdesking telepresence
A network of homeworkers
No HQ no target

Total cut-off
Connection
As a mumtrepreneur
Nomadic & nonterritorial
Between hubworkers
It’s ridiculous to blow up a soft drink factory
Much more recommendable
The power lines & power centres
Bombard the middle of their worldview

Total timing
Pluck the fruit just as it ripens
A zero hours contract
Is when you are On Call
Small cells self-divide
Split like a hive about to swarm

 


Dan Eltringham is a poet and academic based between Bristol and Sheffield (UK) currently working on a comparative project, Translating Resistance. A chapbook of his translation of Alonso Quesada’s Scattered Ways was published by Free Poetry (Boise, 2019) and his poetry collection Cairn Almanac was published by Hesterglock Press (Bristol, 2017). With Leire Barrera-Medrano, he co-edits Girasol Press, a small publisher that explores handmade poetics and experimental translation.

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