Soviet Workers and the Collapse of Perestroika

• Introduction: the roots and limits of perestroika; 1. Attempts to create a labour market: employment, unemployment, and the labour shortage; 2. Economic incentives: the disintegration of the 1986 wage reform; 3. Political incentives: enterprise 'democratization' and the emergence of worker protests; 4. 'Market mechanisms' and the breakdown of economic regulation; 5. The labour process under perestroika I: the politcal economy of working conditions; 6. The labour process under perestroika II: the failure of restructuring; Conclusion: the demise of perestroika and the emergence of class conflict.

"One may or may not share Filtzer's vision of a proletariat uniting society and forming collective bodies featuring worker self-management and political representation, but it is hard to see any other social force coming to the rescue. While the Marxist categories he employs have gone out of fashion among both Western and ex-Soviet social scientists, in his hands they retain a subtlety and depth that will be hard to match." Contemporary Sociology