On 11/30/06, Nathan Gant <ngant17 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Thesis: certain labor unions and commercial companies
> (which are usually owned and controlled by the petty
> bourgeoisie), they have evolved into a symbiotic
> relationship with each other.
>
>
> Example. (surplus) labor power of the union worker
> (controlled by the local union hall which arranges the
> employment contract) is exploited to a certain extent
> by the wealthy owner, but on the other hand, the owner
> makes significant economic concessions to the union
> worker (through negotiations of the contract via the
> union hall). These are substantial concessions and
> typically will appear in the form of pensions, higher
> wages and safer working conditions. I would term this
> a symbiotic relationship. With such a symbiotic
> association taking place within capitalism, it is
> unlikely to imagine the development of class
> antagonism leading toward open warfare against the two
> economic classes (union worker and petty bourgeoisie).
>
>
> I would not call it class collaborationism. I suspect
> the owners are good-natured toward the unions and even
> enjoy the company of union workers, and vice versa.
> If anything, symbiosis seems to be a more accurate
> word to describe the social relationships. I don't
> believe that Karl Marx could have predicted or
> imagined a symbiotic relationship between the
> proletariat and the petty bourgeoisie. Symbiosis
> wasn't developed as a scientific concept in biology in
> his day, and unions were in their infancy during
> Marx's time. But in this modern day, this is exactly
> what I think I am seeing here in a local workers'
> union.
>
> To sum up, IMHO there appears to be a productive and
> symbiotic relationship between unions and the large
> commercial developments in industries where the union
> worker is employed.
>
> Please comment!
>
> Nathan Gant
>
>
>
>
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