Doug Henwood wrote:
> > What an idiotic assertion. Do you have to spend time thinking these
> > sorts of things up, or do they just arise spontaneously, like methane
> > from rotting vegetation?
Carrol Cox:
> What is the Multitude? (You have The Multitude or you can have the
> Working Class. Not both.)
One might want to refer to the set of persons who are outside the ruling class (however bounded, your choice). Many of these people do not _work_ in the sense of expending energy to change the state of the world, even when they are employed. In my view, their most basic function is to _labor_, which in Latin meant to suffer, more than to accomplish; often some kind of material deprivation, always the abrogration of will and freedom (which is the point of having a ruling class). The term _working_class_ suggests a degree of agency which may be true for only a minority of those who labor, which include also those who are not even allowed to work.
-- Gordon