William Morris is a neglected theorist of the labour process debate which has often abandoned itself to the minutiae of work at the expense of the broader analysis initiated by Harry Braverman. Morris's writings on work are central to a socialist critique of the labour process. His analysis is necessarily located within nineteenth century debates and reflects the contradictions of his own life as an employer, communist activist and romantic medievalist. Nevertheless his influence was pervasive on the socialist critique of work that emerged in the twentieth century and his argument is firmly rooted in a Marxist class analysis that continues to have resonance today.
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