RESERVE ARMY OF LABOUR

In Marxian analysis, reserve army of labour is that segment of the labour force which is held in reserve, to be called into the work force when need arises.

If there were no reserve labour it might be difficult for new businesses to open or for temporary or emergency projects to be undertaken in the economy.

In addition labour shortage would create upward pressure on wages and increase union power.

This reserve army of labour of course needs to be doing something during the period it is held in reserve, so it may be on welfare or working in the household.

The term 'reserve army of labour' has been useful for understanding women's relationship to the work force.

Women were pulled into the workforce during World War II and then pushed out when the men returned.

During the economic boom of the 1960-70's women entered the work force in large numbers and there is fear that they will be the first fired during recession. (Although this appears not to have happened in the 1990's recession.)

Women, young people and the elderly may all be thought of as reserve army of labour since they have traditionally stayed out of the labour force.

According to Marx, "Relative surplus-population is the pivot upon which the law of demand and supply of labour works."

Reserve army of labour is refers basically to the unemployed in capitalist society. Reserve army of labour is synonymous with "industrial reserve army" or "relative surplus population", except that the unemployed can be defined as those actually looking for work and that the relative surplus population also includes people unable to work.

The use of the word "army" in "Reserve army of labour" refers to the workers being conscripted and regimented in the workplace in a hierarchy, under the command or authority of the owners of capital.

The "Reserve Army of Labor" and the "Natural Rate of Unemployment": Can Marx, Kalecki,... Pollin Review of Radical Political Economics.1998; 30: 1-13
Power, Marilyn "From Home Production to Wage Labor: Women as a Reserve Army of Labor", Review of Radical Political Economics 15, 1 (1983)
Margaret Power "Women and Economic Crises: The Great Depression and the Present Crisis", in Elizabeth Windshuttle(ed.) Women, Class and History, (Fontana, Melbourne, 1980).
Irene Bruegal, "Women as a Reserve Army of Labour: A Note on Recent British Experience", Feminist Review, no. 3, 1979, pp. 12-33.

Disabled people, the reserve army of labour and welfare reform
Chris Grover a; Linda Piggott, Lancaster University, UK
DOI: 10.1080/09687590500335683 Published in: Disability & Society, Volume 20, Issue 7 December 2005 , pages 705 - 717
Abstract: This paper is concerned with explaining why in contemporary society there has been a number of changes to income maintenance and labour market policy for disabled people. Taking a regulation approach theoretical framework it engages with the debate about whether disabled people can be considered to be part of the reserve army of labour. Rejecting previous broad-brush approaches that seem to suggest that all disabled people are part of the reserve army, it argues that the policy changes have been aimed at reconstructing non-employed disabled people as an important part of the reserve army in a period when labour markets are becoming tighter. In this sense disabled people are crucial to New Labour's regulation of neo-liberal accumulation that is structured through a contradiction between economic stability and increasing participation in paid employment.

Disposable workers: today's reserve army of labor
Monthly Review , April, 2004 by Fred Magdoff, Harry Magdoff
But if a surplus labouring population is a necessary product of accumulation or of the development of wealth on a capitalist basis, this surplus-population becomes, conversely, the lever of capitalistic accumulation, nay, a condition of existence of the capitalist mode of production. It forms a disposable industrial reserve army, that belongs to capital quite as absolutely as if the latter had bred it at its own cost. ... Karl Marx, Capital, vol. 1

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