[lbo-talk] Teamsters quit AFL-CIO

[amadeus amadeus]

It's a little more than amusing to watch Mr. Henwood
flit and float between objective and subjective, from
bourgeois labor stats to the imagined subjectivities
of "the human psyche" to defend his dear "middle
class". Though I suppose those of us who already
identify as workers should be satisfied enough to hear
a self-styled "left" economic analyist resort to
defining the middle class as "between things"-- one
would guess that's enough of a retraction from any
previous illusions. Non-exec managerial types in the
United States are a threatened breed-- thousands have
already been proletarianized (Enron, anyone?), and
more will follow them. Way to go down with the sinking
ship. The middle class is an hourglass, not a beach.

We wonder why we cannot organize a left movement (or,
hell, even a successful liberal movement around John
Kerry) around the "middle class".... Perhaps it's
because there exists no MEANINGFUL economic and social
basis for any such thing!

By far, the largest, most demographically significant
ACTUAL economic class is the WORKING CLASS. And anyone
left behind in the fallout of exhausted imperialism
with aspirations otherwise won't be too shocked when
the proverbial plunger handle is up their ass.

--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:


> Carrol Cox wrote:
> 
> >The original article in Radical America was absurd,
> and the
> >classification remains absurd now. _Real_ managers
> (CEOs, CFOs, etc.,
> >perhaps a bit lower on the corporate ladder, are
> simply  members of the
> >capitalist class. Their salaries are merely are a
> share in surplus
> >value, and much of their income is fairly overtly
> capitalist income. As
> >to the statistics you quote, there is no way to
> determine from them
> >where the division between managers as capitalists
> and managers as
> >skilled workers lies. Neither is there anyway to
> divide "professionals"
> >into skilled workers and independent professionals.
> The whole breakdown
> >is essentially useless for political analysis and
> planning.
> 
> The whole point of the "middle" class is that
> they're between things. 
> Most of the managers in the BLS classification
> aren't big capitalists 
> or senior execs - they're people who both boss and
> are bossed. That 
> puts them in the middle. Their identifications run
> both ways, though 
> it's a reality of the human psyche that people are
> more likely to 
> identify up than down. You're just wrong to say
> there's no 
> demographically significant middle class in the U.S.
> It's about a 
> third of the working population and probably half
> the electorate.
> 
> Doug
> ___________________________________
>
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
> 

"Mary Poppins is alive and well in Argentina, she sends her regards."
- Rod McKuen, The Mud Kids

		
____________________________________________________
Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page 
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs