> > How Class Works 2004 An Interview with Michael Zweig
> >
> > Professor Michael Zweig is the director of The Center
> > For Working Class Life at SUNY Stonybrook. The Center
> > will be holding their How Class Works 2004 Conference
> > between June 10-12. Below is my e-interview with
> > Professor Zweig about the conference and the new
> > academic field of working class studies.
> >
> > Brandy Baker: How did the idea for this conference
> > originate? What went into making this happen, and what
> > do you and others involved hope to accomplish by having
> > the How Class Works Conference this summer?
> >
> > Michael Zweig: Plans for the How Class Works conference
> > originated around the time I finished writing The
> > Working Class Majority: America's Best Kept Secret
> >
>
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0801487277/ref=ase_dissidentv
> oic-20/002-6416831-3535220>
> > (Cornell University Press, 2000).
>
> <snip>
>
> > We hope that the conference will be a valuable place
> > for discussion and learning about how class works to
> > shape our lives - to understand class as a real social
> > force, not just a theoretical or ideological point. We
> > want to develop working class studies by doing
> > intellectual work in the context of the social
> > movements of working people, much as Black Studies
> > arose in the context of the civil rights movement and
> > Women's Studies arose in the context of feminist
> > organizing in the 1960s and 70s. We ask the academics
> > to ground their theoretical work in the lived
> > experience of class, and we ask labor and other social
> > movement activists to go beyond telling war stories to
> > sum up lessons learned about class from their practical
> > experiences. The conference is unusual because it is
> > interdisciplinary and because it brings together
> > academics and social activists in this combination of
> > theory and practice.
> >
> > BB: You pointed out that Black Studies came out the
> > civil rights movement and Women's Studies out of the
> > feminist movement. Both of these fields emerged when
> > the movements that spawned them were strong. But union
> > membership has dropped to 8%, which means that over 90%
> > of the working class is non-unionized. Can Working
> > Class Studies flourish in such a climate?
> >
> > MZ: 8% of the private sector labor force but 13% of the
> > combined private and public sector labor force. That's
> > about 16 million people, which is still a lot of people
> > and a significant force even though losing power
> > because the corporate elites have been waging
> > relentless class struggle for decades under conditions
> > increasingly unfavorable for working people. Many
> > unions are actively organizing and confronting the
> > power of capitalist resistance. Some campaigns achieve
> > national standing, like the successful UPS strike in
> > 1995 and the recent unsuccessful southern California
> > grocery workers strike.
> >
> > But unions are not the only way workers organize. There
> > are almost 200 worker-rights organizations across the
> > United States in immigrant communities. These
> > organizations defend workers outside of collective
> > bargaining but very much as part of social movements of
> > working people.
> >
> > Because class is a question of power, class is a
> > relationship. One cannot have power alone or in a
> > social vacuum. This means that to understand working
> > class experience one must understand all other classes
> > in society and how they interact. Likewise, to
> > understand the life of the middle class (professional
> > people, small business owners, and
> > managerial/supervisory personnel) one must place their
> > experiences in the context of dynamics between the
> > capitalist and working classes. Working class studies
> > reports on other classes much as Women's studies has
> > something to say about men and Black studies about
> > White people.
> >
> > One important feature of working class studies is that
> > it addresses the lives of all working people, not just
> > the traditional labor studies focus on collective
> > bargaining. Working class studies addresses the full
> > range of economic, social, political, and cultural
> > experiences of working people. Class dynamics shape
> > much of our social life, not just at the workplace.
> > Changes in the distributions of income and wealth, the
> > absence of health insurance for 45 million people, the
> > war in Iraq, campaign finance and other
> > corporate/government connections, concentration of
> > media and the shaping of the news offered by the media,
> > outsourcing, privatization of education and social
> > security, the new Medicare law and prescription
> > coverage - these are issues that millions of people
> > care about and each of them is shaped by class
> > dynamics. Significant social movements address some of
> > these. Working class studies has something to
> > contribute to and much to learn from all of these
> > social movements in addition to traditional union
> > campaigns.
> >
> > BB: Almost half of the advisory board at the Center for
> > Working Class Life at SUNY Stonybrook are members of
> > the labor movement. And in your report on the
> > conference for How Class Works 2002, you document the
> > presence of academics, students, and both unionized and
> > non-unionized workers. This is a stunning success
> > considering that not only is the United States racially
> > segregated, it is segregated by class. And while people
> > from the middle class and capitalist classes see
> > positive reflections of themselves in their culture,
> > working class and poor people are rarely shown, and
> > when they are, most often, their images are brutally
> > caricatured. How do you think that the work from the
> > field of Working Class Studies and the How Class Works
> > Conference can challenge this?
> >
> > MZ: The experience we have had at the Center for Study
> > of Working Class Life has been that academics and labor
> > activists can have conversations that are interesting
> > to both when the discussions are grounded in and have
> > respect for the lived experience of class. We ask
> > academics to ground their theoretical [work in lived
> > experience and ask workers] to go beyond telling war
> > stories to sum up lessons from their experiences that
> > tell us something about how class works as a dynamic
> > force shaping lives and policy. In this way we try to
> > bridge the gaps that exist between the working class
> > and the professional/academic sections of the middle
> > class.
> >
> > We have also found that addressing issues of class
> > brings together people of all races, genders, and
> > ethnicities on campus. Events sponsored by the Center
> > often draw the widest mix of people seen at events of
> > any type on campus - White, Black, Hispanic, Asian,
> > men, women, senior and junior faculty, graduate
> > students, undergraduates, professional staff,
> > secretaries - all in the room together listening and
> > engaging with the subject and with each other. That has
> > been one of the most extraordinary and unexpected
> > results of the Center's work on campus. I think this
> > reflects the fact that class operates in all these
> > communities, and that re l pull together people from
> > all these different communities in an attempt to
> > understand their own experiences and those of others in
> > similar situations.
> >
> > One point we emphasize in our programming is that there
> > is no single, uniform experience of class independent
> > of racial, gender, and sexual experiences. A White
> > worker will experience working class life differently
> > from a Black or Hispanic or Asian worker, and each of
> > these differently from the others; men differently from
> > women; gay differently from straight. It is also true
> > that there is no uniform experience of race, ethnicity,
> > gender, or sexual orientation unaffected by class
> > divisions within those groups. So we try to explore
> > these intertwining experiences along various dimensions
> > of power in what we call "the mosaic of class, race,
> > and gender." The wide diversity of participants in our
> > events testifies to this mosaic as people from all
> > different parts of the community come together when the
> > question is class.
> >
> > You ask about how working class studies can challenge
> > the disappearance of the working class from the
> > culture, either by total absence or by demeaning
> > caricature. This is a hard problem. Even now, after
> > nearly fifty years of the civil rights movement and
> > perhaps 35 years of conscious attention to the
> > portrayal of Blacks in the media, racist practices are
> > deeply present on television, in film, and in other
> > parts of the popular culture. One part of the mission
> > of working class studies is to address the
> > representations of class in the popular culture,
> > analyze them, critique them, develop more truthful and
> > complex portrayals. If this intellectual work is done
> > in connection with a powerful workers movement, there
> > is some possibility that media representations may
> > change for the better. But a strong workers movement
> > may also generate a corporate media portraying workers
> > as less-than-fully-competent people manipulated by
> > nefarious radicals. In the end I think it will be up to
> > the workers themselves to create the culture and
> > truthful self-representation required to overcome
> > mainstream media portrayals, and it will be up to the
> > workers' movements to create the outlets for these
> > works.
> >
> > BB: Your report on the 2002 How Class Works conference
> > shows an international presence at the conference as
> > well. What can we here in the United States learn from
> > the working class cultures of other countries?
> >
> > MZ: Many people comment on how undeveloped class
> > awareness is in the United States compared with other
> > countries, like Britain or Germany, where class
> > distinctions are openly acknowledged. But the United
> > States has a long and violent history of open class
> > warfare, and class distinctions are increasingly being
> > denied by New Labor and social democracy in Europe. The
> > denial of class in Europe comes with the same assault
> > on worker living standards as we have experienced in
> > the U.S. So I think that when we look we see that the
> > U.S. experience of class is not so different from other
> > countries, although of course the particulars are
> > different.
> >
> > One thing we can learn from international comparisons
> > is that workers face similar challenges in all
> > capitalist countries. We see that globalization is not
> > some international system distinct from our domestic
> > economy but an extension of the same class dynamics
> > across the globe. We see, for example, that it is not
> > Chinese workers who are taking away our jobs, but
> > Chinese capitalists, working together with American
> > capitalists, both seeking to make maximum profits in an
> > economic system that does not simply disregard worker
> > interests but is actively hostile to them, in the U.S.
> > and China alike.
> >
> > The How Class Works - 2004 conference has accepted
> > presentations from people of eleven countries. The
> > Working Class Studies Association (which will have its
> > founding meeting at Stony Brook on Thursday afternoon,
> > June 10, just hours before the class conference begins)
> > will be international in its membership and scope of
> > activity. The opening plenary session of the How Class
> > Works - 2004 conference Thursday evening is titled "The
> > Working Class with State Power in a Neo-Liberal World"
> > and will feature trade union leaders from South Africa
> > and Brazil, from COSATU and the CUT, bringing lessons
> > of the most highly developed worker movements in the
> > world. Yet they face problems all-too-familiar to
> > American workers and workers everywhere.
> >
> > For more information on the How Class Works 2004
> > conference and on Working Class Studies, visit the
> > website of The Center For Study of Working Class Life:
> > www.workingclass.sunysb.edu