A proper leftwing take on taking back control

Mark Bergfeld suggests the quest for a better quality of life deserves as much political recognition as climbing a career ladder

Gaby Hinsliff’s portrait of Claire Ainsley and her latest book Control: How We Lost It and How to Take It Back (‘The world is out of control’: how political strategist Claire Ainsley is challenging the left to take it back, 3 November) leaves a crucial question unanswered: can working people exercise control collectively over those in power?

Reviewing her earlier book The New Working Class for the Global Labour Journal in 2020, I argued that she treated working-class people primarily as voters to be won over rather than people capable of organising to change society.

Instead of thinking through how one could expand the current government’s focus on collective workers’ rights, Ainsley focuses on giving tax breaks to those who sign up for courses and have the ambition to move up the career ladder.

For a cleaner, care worker or security guard, control should mean having a say over working hours, workloads and pay. The ambition to spend time with your children, work safely and earn a decent living deserves as much political recognition as the ambition to climb a career ladder. Strong trade unions, collective bargaining and democratic participation at work should be central to the left’s answer. Mark Bergfeld Brussels, Belgium