>On Tue, November 27, 2007 7:45 am, Seth Ackerman wrote:
>
>
>
>>Here's a game: Name a country in the OECD. (Exclude the new
>>semi-periperal memebrs - Mexico, Korea, etc.) Then name an era in the last
>>150 years when class consciousness and mobilization in that country
>>were lower.
>>
>>
>
>By any definition of mobilization, the US in the 1920s, Europe from 1848
>to 1945, and Meiji Japan had far less working-class consciousness and
>mobilization than they do today,
>
I'm astonished. Really?
>the US in the 1920s
>
Here's what David Montgomery says about coal miners in the 1910's:
> Their bulwark - almost their secular church - was the union. No other
> AFL union of the 1910s evoked such loyalty from members, such fervent
> responses to strike calls from miners who were not members, such
> rank-and-file fury at leaders' misdeeds, such factionalism, or such a
> blend of locally directed struggle with conviction that outside the
> international union there was no salvation as did the UMWA....It was
> the great prestige of this giant union that made it the touchstone of
> Socialist hopes.
In 1922, the UMWA released a report calling for nationalization and workers' control of the mines. It led a progressive bloc of unions, including the railroad workers, whose journal, the Locomotive Engineers' Journal, published essays by world renowned scholars on problems of socialism. It's true that by the mid-1920's this radicalism was crushed but it only took another ten years before militant labor activism flourished again with the CIO drive of the mid-1930's. Which means that in the meantime, millions of people had fresh memories of their recent hopes and participation in mass struggles.
Today, I would guess that most of the dwindling number of working-class people in the US old enough to remember participating in militant class conflict are nearing retirement if not retired or dead. It's been decades.
After the latest mine disaster, Doug posted a story about how the local miners were denouncing proposals to strengthen safety regulations - it would jeopardize competitiveness.
>Europe from 1848
>to 1945
>
You're kidding. I mean, really.
>Meiji Japan
>
Hey, I'll give you that one.
So our conclusion is: Class-consciousness and mobilization are greater today than when Japan was just emerging from feudalism. The dawn in rising red!
Seth