Capitalism has countered the possibility of organised labour’s opposition to the deskilling and degradation of labour in terms of wages and labour power. This has occurred due to the implementation of global information technology and the imposition of international policies that ensure the free movement of capital and, to a lesser degree, the free movement of labour. This article attempts to explore, through the lens of Harry Braverman’s seminal work, the idea that skill degradation is not about the replacement of total aggregate labour by automation, but rather one of the means by which capital ensures that there is continued division and internal conflict of labour itself within and between national borders, and that labour competes with automated systems in terms of profitability.
