[lbo-talk] Re: Class Action: The Million Worker March, October 17

[Michael Dawson]

But Marx tapped the working class for two reasons: 1. because its interests
are in socialism, and 2. because the working class is the majority, and
always will be.

 

You are right, though, that it was spoiled, impatient, philosophically
Idealist 60s radicals who reacted to the survival of capitalism after 1968
by chucking the majority overboard.

 

All this was rooted in a one-sided view of class struggle, which Marx
himself probably contributed to with his excessive political optimism about
the nearness of socialism.  Class struggle, if you read the literature,
appears to be something that only comes from below.  But it also comes from
above, and the uppers have the upper hand in it!

 

60s rebels forgot their was class struggle from above, so ended up blaming
their ultimate defeat on the workers.  Talk about "middle-class!"

 

The classes = 1. those who must work to survive (working class); 2. those
who must work to sustain moderate to great personal comfort (middle class);
3. those for whom work is entirely optional and whose survival and extreme
personal privilege are unrelated to their own work because of the scale of
existing wealth (capitalists).

 

  _____  

From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
On Behalf Of snit snat
Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 8:43 AM
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org; lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Re: Class Action: The Million Worker March, October
17

 

At 12:30 PM 10/21/2004, Eubulides wrote:

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jon Johanning" <jjohanning at igc.org>

In this sort of context, "middle class" is simply a derogatory epithet. 
No denotative meaning whatsoever.

=================

Identity politics.

Well, I would say that Marx's claim about the working class as the locus of
revolutionary struggle was, indeed, the reason why id politics emerged. When
the working class did not revolt as predicted, theorists set about trying to
figure out why and/or looking for the real locus of revolutionary struggle:
marginalized intellectuals, the vanguard, the marginalized (marcuse), women,
black women, lesbian women, third world people, third world women, etc. etc.

Kelley

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