Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> When the majority of those workers whom you call 'pale penis people' recognize
> that indeed 'Oppression under capitalism comes in all colors, and all sexes,'
> that they have common interests with workers of color, women
> workers, workers who aren't straight, undocumented workers, workers in other
> countries, etc. to fight against capitalists, that they must fight against
> racism, sexism, homophobia, nativism, imperialism, etc. to _achieve
> the unity of the working class_, we'll be in much better shape.
You bet. But I would say the unity of the working class is not mocked only by European-American males, as you seem to imply. What about insisting that the majority of workers of color and women workers also get with the program, as it were? I've worked with all such folk and by and large they're not any more interested in the type of unity we're discussing than white guys are, so why pick on them?
> Moreover, a large number of pale + male workers (and not just the gay rights
> activists + women's studies students you mention in your anecdote)suffer from an
> illusion that they are 'middle class' and not working-class.
> Rorty, Alterman, etc. don't recognize this problem either.
Here we agree, that lots of people in this society have a distorted idea of where they actually fit in the economicscheme. I have inadvertently shocked others by being willing to refer to myself as "low-income". I have a degree and do "white-collar" work, in fact I do "professional" work, in the entertainment industry. But because it IS the entertainment industry, at the level of a small Midwestern city, I don't get paid much. But you're not supposed to acknowledge that for some reason. Or maybe it's because people are so confused about these things that they think not to see yourself as "middle class" must be some kind of fate worse than death...
BTW, the people I mentioned in my previous post WERE much more authentically "middle-class" than myself. And we weren't students, but women ranging in age from mid-twenties to early 40s, most with degrees, some advanced.
> Finally, the politicians whom Rorty, Alterman, etc. have us support are the very
> ones who went out of their way to make every working-class person's life
> difficult--especially working-class women + people of color, but also
> white male workers.
I have not been a "Nation" reader because, aside from the fact that I can't afford another sub and it's tough to get to the library on a regular basis lately, I gleaned its' essentially "conservative" bent on the occasions I didlook at it. Just recently on ZNet I read a rather horrifying article by the publisher about how he hobnobbed with the business elite in a special Ivy League seminar in order to get a handle on running "The Nation".
And of course, anybody who actually urges my support of ANY of the politicos...well, they are immediately suspected of trying to blow me some smoke. The last place you're going to find people who care about anybody who's not rich and powerful is in public office. They're all bought and paid for, one way or another.
Maria