As you know, workplace democracy and socializing the means of production are not on the practical agenda for the time being, as the proletariat is hardly revolutionary in the USA today. In this context, what should have disappeared -- the "plebeian and proletarian asceticism" that Engels saw in all medieval uprisings -- makes a comeback:
***** Frederick Engels' _The Peasant War in Germany_ Chapter 3 "Precursors: Peasant Uprisings, 1475-1517"
...Already among these precursors of the movement we notice an asceticism which is to be found in all mediaeval uprisings that were tinged with religion, and also in modern times at the beginning of every proletarian movement. This austerity of behaviour, this insistence on relinquishing all enjoyment of life, contrasts the ruling classes with the principle of Spartan equality. Nevertheless, it is a necessary transitional stage, without which the lowest strata of society could never start a movement. In order to develop revolutionary energy, in order to become conscious of their own hostile position towards all other elements of society, in order to concentrate as a class, the lower strata of society must begin with stripping themselves of everything that could reconcile them to the existing system of society. They must renounce all pleasures which would make their subdued position in the least tolerable and of which even the severest pressure could not deprive them.
This plebeian and proletarian asceticism differs widely, both by its wild fanatic form and by its contents, from the middle-class asceticism as preached by the middle-class Lutheran morality and by the English Puritans (to be distinguished from the independent and farther-reaching sects) whose whole secret is middle-class thrift. It is quite obvious that this plebeian-proletarian asceticism loses its revolutionary character when the development of modern productive forces increases the number of commodities, thus rendering Spartan equality superfluous, and on the other hand, the very position of the proletariat in society, and thereby the proletariat itself becomes more and more revolutionary. Gradually, this asceticism disappears from among the masses. Among the sects with which it survives, it degenerates either into bourgeois parsimony or into high-sounding virtuousness which, in the end, is nothing more than Philistine or guild-artisan niggardliness. Besides, renunciation of pleasures need not be preached to the proletariat for the simple reason that it has almost nothing to renounce....
<http://csf.colorado.edu/psn/marx/Archive/1850-PWG/pwg3.html> *****
The "plebeian and proletarian asceticism" makes a comeback -- with a difference. As today's capitalism in the USA is dependent upon mass consumption, consumer credit, widespread home-ownership, etc., it is not true to say that all American workers have "almost nothing to renounce." A number of American workers (though far from all of them) could renounce some mass produced goods and still live a pretty good life should they so desire, unlike workers in the 19th century that Engels had in his mind. What many American workers lack is not so much consumer goods as free time, job security, workplace democracy, public provision of care-giving, safe and beautiful environment, rich cultural life, and active political life. Capitalism has developed to such an extent that today a number of American workers (as well as many workers in other rich nations) can begin to go beyond simple concerns about quantities of consumer goods that they can buy and to demand what they are still deprived of (see above) -- a finer quality of life. An aspiration for a finer quality of life is a legitimate aspiration. The problem is that such an aspiration is today divorced from an aspiration for workplace democracy and the socialization of means of production, with a result that it gets perverted into a primitivist nostalgia or a green-consumerist philosophy. The question is whether and how we can build a new eco-socialist movement that incorporates the legitimate aspiration for a finer quality of life. -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>