[lbo-talk] A question regarding list member identities...

[Jeffrey Fisher]

On 6/16/07, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
>
>
> > > I'm not shocked. I've lived in this world a pretty long time. But you
> > > seem to think there's some wisdom in the position. I don't. It's a
> > > right-wing impulse...
> > =================================
> > It is a right wing impulse.
> >
> > And it should be mentioned, as I've done previously, that these
> attitudes
> > aren't reflective of the working class as a whole.
>
> Yes. In fact, it is an actual instance of "identity politics" -- that is
> of workers (or a particular strata of workers) giving up struggle and
> instead indulging in their _identity_ as REAL workers (and thereby
> giving up the class struggle). It's so much easier to sneer at college
> students than to knuckle down and do something useful.
>
> Carrol

when i was doing union organizing as a grad student at yale, i would
occasionally encounter the argument that we weren't "real workers" -- you
know, like the people who type the forms we sign or mop the rooms we teach
in -- and so didn't "deserve" a union. some faculty would also take this
line in opposing our organizing. what was so offensive about it was that it
was more often than not (of course) class bigotry dressed up as politically
correct "respect" for the working classes. much easier to make a show of
respecting "real" workers than to organize for workers' rights. and, no, you
didn't see any of those people out on pickets with the other locals . . .

j

--
http://brainmortgage.blogspot.com/