Charles is mistaken when he thinks that Marx's use of the very common (in his day) term "wage slavery" was merely rhetorical. Marx never used a term for "merely rhetorical" effect in his life. He means that wage labor is slavery by the hour, that the same things are wrong with it that are wrong with slavery, that it is just like slavery in the relevant respects; for the period at which you are at work, your labor power belongs to the boss, and Marx rejects the idea that you are free to quit. You can quit a job, but you have to find another. "The wage laborer belongs not to this or that capitalist, but to the capitalsit class as a whole." (Wage Labor and Capital.) jks
--- Chip Berlet <cberlet at igc.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> What Charles Brown is arguing is that an
> intellectual debate over the
> term fascism is not relevant to the pragmatic
> propaganda value of an
> opportunistic term that has mass appeal.
>
> Yikes!
>
> This just totally creeps me out. What kind of
> society would we be
> building if this is our model?
>
> Chip Berlet
> Senior Analyst
> Political Research Associates
> http://www.publiceye.org
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Charles Brown
> [mailto:cbrown at michiganlegal.org]
> > Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2003 11:47 AM
> > To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> > Cc: natbellus at yahoo.com
> > Subject: [lbo-talk] War without End, was Neocons
> Inspired By
> > Italian Fascists?
> >
> >
> >
> > From: Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu>
> >
> > Shane Taylor wrote:
> > >
> > > Besides, this Administration, with it's war
> without end,
> > warrants it's
> > > own, new pejorative.
> > >
> > > -- Shane
> >
> > ^^^^^^
> > -clip-
> >
> > We do indeed need a new and descriptive term for
> what is
> > happening in the U.S. today.
> >
> > Remember the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death
> Penalty Act!
> >
> > Query: Has there ever been a substantive
> broadening of rights
> > in the U.S. in the absence of tremendous
> (non-electoral)
> > pressure from one or more sectors of the working
> class?
> >
> > It seems to me that there is an unending pressure
> within
> > capitalism for the narrowing of rights, while
> resistance to
> > that pressure comes only from self=conscious
> independent mass
> > movements.
> >
> > Compare Marx's argument in _Wages, Price and
> Profit_ that the
> > general tendency of capital is to reduce wages and
> that that
> > tendency can only be controlled by constant
> struggle by workers.
> >
> > And on finding different words for different
> things. "Wage
> > slavery" is a useful metaphor, but wage slavery is
> NOT
> > slavery, and it is no contribution to the struggle
> to pretend
> > that it is.
> >
> > ^^^^^^^
> > CB: With respect to terms and metaphors, the
> problem here is
> > a rhetorical one, not a logical one. Of course,
> Rosa
> > Luxembourg committed a logical fallacy when she
> coined the
> > slogan "Socialism or Barbarism" because the fact
> that
> > capitalism in crisis on its way to fascism shared
> certain
> > characteristics with barbarism didn't mean that is
> _was_
> > barbarism. ( All barbarism is white; all crisis
> capitalism
> > is white; therefore all crisis capitalism is
> babarism). But
> > Luxembourg was on point in addressing the mo'
> important
> > rhetorical problem, because any new term coined at
> that time
> > would not have been effective in rousing people to
> action..
> > That is, a new term then would not have had the
> history that
> > "barbarism" had associated with it in people's
> minds.
> > Similarly, Marx used "wage slavery" in writing
> _Wages, Price
> > and Profit_ , because he perceived, correctly,
> that his task
> > was primarily rhetorical - rousing the working
> class to
> > action - not formal logical and technical. The
> thing is to
> > change the world; interpretation is secondary. On
> the other
> > hand, a new term , such as "Mordorites" or" Matrix
> agents" ,
> > that is most likely to be effective today will
> also be
> > "technically" as inaccurate as "fascism".
> >
> >
> >
> > ___________________________________
> >
>
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
> >
>
> ___________________________________
>
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