But what about the standard critique of "formal freedom", namely that it is in a way even worse than direct servitude, since the former is a mask that deludes one into thinking that one is free? The reply to this critical point is provided by Herbert Marcuse's old motto that "freedom is the condition of liberation": in order to demand "actual freedom," I have to have already experienced myself as basically and essentially free- only as such can I experience my actual servitude as a corruption of my human condition. In order to experience this antagonism between my freedom and the actuality of my servitude, however, I have to be recognized as formally free: the demand for my actual freedom can only arise out of my "formal" freedom.
This articulate (maybe too articulate!) passage goes directly to refute the David Montgomery school of "labor fundamentalism" which tends to regard militancy as the be-all-end-all of political struggle, and therefore places either a secondary importance, or even a negative value, on formal changes or institutional growth.
Check out Montgomery:
Reminds me of Sun Tzu: this is certainly "the slowest route to victory."
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