At 6:33 PM -0500 31/12/03, Jon Johanning wrote:
>Sure, but the RCCs (reactionary conversion-minded Christians) who
>happen to be working-class already have a way of recognizing and
>interpreting class privilege. They are very well aware that they
>belong to a working class which is separated from the owning class,
>but they don't ordinarily use that language. (Keep in mind, also,
>that Americans in general tend to be much less focused on class
>differences than people in a lot of other countries, including, I
>would suppose, Australians.) They would say, I suppose, that they
>are only temporarily "working class" -- until they get that "big
>break" that will make them rich. Or if not them, at least their
>children or grandchildren. It's the old American myth that anyone
>can become a Rockefeller by clean living and hard work -- in this
>respect, they are no different from most other working-class
>Americans.
Australians, if I may generalise, make a point of obstinately refusing to acknowledge class. Everybody is working class here it seems and we take a dim view of anyone who shows any sign of thinking they are better than anyone else. That's at one level anyhow, on another level Australians seem (to me) rather obsequious to authority. They pretend not to be, but if suddenly given an order by someone (anyone) passing themselves off as an authority they instinctively do as they're told.
>
>>>Usually, it seems to me, "class consciousness" means "what *our*
>>>political party or grouplet thinks the working class *should*
>>>think."
>>
>>Rubbish. It just means being conscious of class interests.
>
>In theory, yes. I'm thinking about the history of most Marxist
>groups that have tried to foster "class consciousness" in the
>working masses. It seems to me that usually the way they do it is by
>trying to inoculate the masses with their own theories, rather than
>allowing the masses to develop their own theories.
The indoctrination strategy is based on the template of traditional religion. It is quite unconscious so far as I can see, these people have been brought up in a culture where ideas are passed on in a doctrinaire fashion by authorities and they just don't conceive of any other way of propagating ideas. Not being able to think for themselves, they are not only incapable of helping others to think for themselves, but instinctively intolerant of those who show the slightest spark of original thought. They are capable of assimilating a different doctrine however, so long as it is patterned on the existing template and doesn't require any thinking for themselves.
>When you let people try to develop their own theories, it generally
>happens that they are much too apt to come up with a "trade union
>consciousness" at best (which Lenin despised),
I am a little bit fond of the trade union consciousness myself. Never forget at the age of 17 I was working on a big construction site (lied about my age) as an electrical TA. Early in the piece I was given the task of cleaning out a concrete shed which had about a foot of concrete dust and other rubble accumulated on the entire floor. I went down to the store and was in the process of requisitioning a shovel and wheelbarrow to do the job, when the labourers' union shop steward happened by. He exploded at me that his union would shut the whole site down instantly if I so much as touched a shovel, which was apparently a "labourer's tool".
So I had to do the job with a broom, which was the only tool available to a lowly member of the electrical trades union such as myself. An exceedingly slow process (not that anybody seemed to mind how long it took) Trades assistants had to be members of the same union as the tradesmen they assisted, you see, there was a clear demarcation.
That world is gone now of course. Along with the "trade union consciousness". It brings back fond memories for the good old days of the entire work force on the site spending whole Good Friday (earning triple time) fishing on the river adjacent to the job site. (Salaried managers having taken the day off
Three days pay for one day's fishing, nice work if you can get it! So I get a tad emotional about "trade union consciousness", but it clearly doesn't have very much relevance to the struggle for socialism. It is about fighting over the crumbs, while socialism is about taking the whole cake.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas