On 3/29/06, Bill Bartlett <billbartlett at dodo.com.au> wrote:
> At 9:58 AM -0800 29/3/06, Miles Jackson wrote:
>
> >The more I think about this, the more I agree with Mills that the
> >term "ruling class" is not very useful.
>
> Its not very useful if we insist on equating rule with political
> rule. The capitalist ruling class rule economically, not politically.
>
> Capitalists don't have a monopoly on political power, despite the
> foolish things people on the left seem to think. Its just that, in a
> capitalist economic system, there are serious economic constraints on
> political power. In practical terms, political government simply has
> no choice but to pander to the capitalist class. Unless it is willing
> to destroy the economy.
>
> But even aside from that, the nature of capitalist rule is quite a
> bit more direct than mere political rule. On a day to day basis,
> workers get their marching orders directly from their bosses, not
> from the government. They have some 'freedom' to choose which member
> of the ruling class from which to take orders, but not the freedom to
> refuse to take orders at all.
>
> The capitalist class is a ruling class because it has a monopoly on
> this economic power, not because it has a monopoly on political
> power. Unfortunately a lot of people on the left refuse to see this.
> Wedded as they are to Leninist doctrines of "the (political)
> dictatorship of the proletariat", they are blind to how the ruling
> class actually rule.
>
> Bill Bartlett
> Bracknell Tas
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
-- Jim Devine / "There can be no real individual freedom in the presence of economic insecurity." -- Chester Bowles