To Karl Marx, all history is a history of class struggle; under feudalism there was class conflict between the lords and the serfs, under capitalism class conflict is between the proletariat and the bourgeois, under the flags in our dining hall the workers and the college. What separates these two classes is one’s relation to the modes of production or the materials needed to produce or labor. It is the age-old tale of the haves and the have-nots. Those who own the means of production, according to Marx, have access to more wealth and freedom; whereas those who labor for others face exploitation in the form of alienation. Marx’s theory of alienation has four main components; it is that workers face alienation from a.) each other or other workers b.) themselves or their species being c.) the product they are producing and d.) the process in which they are making the product. Why does any of this matter? Isn’t this all some communist propaganda from the underground commies of Dickinson?

As someone who has participated in various employment at Dickinson from the cafeteria, to phonathon, to Residence Life, to the Clarke Forum, I have seen and experienced what Marx is talking about. Since we are under a capitalist system, and Dickinson is structured and behaves in the way of a corporation, labor exploitation is present in all forms of employment at Dickinson. Some jobs require slopping dishes while others a different type of labor in the form of consoling and advising (emotional labor). But what I want to focus in on is the Caf specifically, ever since I found a cafeteria tray with the engraving, “Workers of the World Unite!”

Anyone who is on work-study their first semester is funneled through Dining Services; meaning you either work in the Cafeteria, the Snar, Quarry, or one of the juicing locations. No experience required—a hallmark of the tasks you will be doing and ultimately the ways in which our dining locations need hands to do the work. By this I mean a lot of the tasks you do while working as a red shirt are formulaic, thought-out before you and conscripted to how you will do everything. As a red shirt my first year, I would spend four hours at a time (with breaks every twenty or so minutes) doing the same job: plates go into the dish room from the conveyor belt in the tubs that OF COURSE every Dickinsonian is courteous and correct in sorting their cutlery from their glassware and plates. Once those are in front of you, essentially you take a plate, with a swift motion of your hand (a gesture you have long-time perfected) remove the excess food left on the plate or bowl to drop into Hobart, the machine that washes dishes and composts food, which has a constant water stream that pushes the food to be grinded up to take to compost at the farm. That was my favorite and a job I enjoyed doing my three years with Dining Services. Other jobs included taking off dry dishes and sorting into the appropriate location; restocking knives, spoons, and forks; wiping tables; filling up the bagels or milk. You had one job and you did it for the whole shift, every shift. You become a part of the process, an extension of the big machinery that is necessary for the cafeteria to run smoothly (alienation from the process).

During my time at Dining Services, the work changed significantly. I will never forget when the new Hobart was installed. Now instead of one machine to wash all those dishes, you had two. Now, this new machine was very much needed and exciting. However, now, the process took more time and needed more hands. There were shorter breaks, the machine was so loud you couldn’t hear one another, and as a result, you felt more detached from the people you were working with (alienation from others).

I think you see where this is headed. I will now make a grand gesture at how I was exploited and lost my sense of self and become a part of this capitalist machine. How now I will call upon every cafeteria worker to revolt and seize the machines of production! Quite the opposite actually. I realized through working in the cafeteria and now being away from that work for a year how much I miss it and how much I appreciate labor. What I described as mindless work also served as manual and physical work. In a lot of ways I felt fulfilled after every shift for having completed serves and another successful meal time. My exhaustion was a result of hard work that I loved having running around to do. Yes of course, the true Marxist in me screams that these are all functions of continuing workers repression. I will never forget telling my father, who grew up in Communist Poland, about Student Employment Appreciation Week and the big Workers Reception at the end of each year and how he retorted, “yeah, that’s what they do to make you forget how much the work sucks.”

What I’m getting at is that we cannot be blind to how labor functions in a capitalist society, especially in our very own Dining Hall and other locations. Workers come in uniform and work as a part of a machine to secure meals for others. Yes of course they are being paid, but as students what are they losing? (Time spent on homework, sleep, socializing, etc.) How does work alter them and alienate them from the people eating in the cafeteria? From their peers? And from themselves? To this day, I miss working in the cafeteria. Every time I see something out of place I can’t help but try to fix it. So, am I a part of the machine or a crazy labor-analyzing fanatic? Your call; but analyzing these systems is integral to understanding the work we want to do and the pursuit to find work that will satisfy us. Such work I believe is hard to come by, especially with the nature of work, but by becoming sociologically aware, we can be critical of the systems at be and find ways to make our work meaningful.