In 1979 the London Edinburgh Weekend Return Group, a working group of the Conference of Socialist Economists, published this work as a pamphlet; then reissued with minor updates to the original text, and then a substantial postscript was released the following year. The book discusses the experience of working class people - mostly socialists - working in the public sector in the late 1970s: having to relying upon the State as service provider while simultaneously trying to subvert systems of unjust power and domination; exploring the associated contradictions and tensions.