MARCUSE ON WORKING CLASS 23 off from the other occupational groups because it embodied the refutation of the established society.6 The technological change seems to cancel the Marxian notion of the ^organic composition of capital9 and with it "the theory of the creation of surplus value5: ^Now automation seems to alter qualitatively the relation between dead and living labour; it tends toward the point where productivity is determined 'by the machines, and not by individual output'. Moreover, the very measurement of individual output becomes impossible."7 Thirdly, These changes in the character of work and the instruments of production change the attitude and the consciousness of the labourer, which becomes manifest in the widely discussed 'social and cultural integration' of the labouring class with capitalist society. Is this a change in consciousness only? The affirmative answer, frequently given by Marxists, seems strangely inconsistent. Is such a fundamental change in consciousness understandable without assuming a corresponding change in the '^societal existence5? Granted even a high degree of ideological independence, the links which tie this change to the transformation of the productive process militate against such an interpretation. Assimilation in needs and aspirations, in the standard of living, in leisure activities, in politics derives from an integration in the plant itself, in the material process of production...In the present situation, the negative features of automation are predominant... However, there are other trends. The same technological organization which makes for a mechanical community at work also generates a larger interdependence which integrates the worker with the plant.8 Fourthly, the new technological work world thus enforces a weakening of the negative position of the working class: the latter no longer appears to be the living contradiction to the established society. This trend is strengthened by the effect of the technological organization of production on the other side of the fence: on management and direction. Domination is transfigured into administration.9 SOCIAL CRITICISM Allowing for differences of emphasis, focus, approach and value-judgement, the similarities between the argument of Marcuse, as thus summarized and the reactionary thesis of embonrgeoisement are indeed striking.10 The''fact'of social and cultural integration of the industrial worker into advanced capitalist societies is accepted by both sides. Further, the absorption of the "blue-collar' work force into the "white-collar' employees is recognized by both of them. Both question the role of the working class, to formulate the proposition in Marcuse's terms, as