Carrol asked:
In this context, of organizing as a class, how does one define "working class"? I always have the feeling when I come across references to "the workers," etc. that probably the writer has an image in his/her head, that harks bvack a half century or so and has no particular grip on current actuality. ***************************
The working class is made up of those men and women who make their living from wages. Most of the people in industrialsed countries are in the working class and not in the employing class or the landlord class. There are also people who sell their skills directly to a customer, kind of one on one, as opposed to an employer.
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Most workers today are _not_ blue collar. So what are the "signs" of calss that one can organize around?
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The basic dependency structure inherent in Capital is a good guide. Workers are dependent on employers buying their skills in the labour market. If workers don't make a sale of their skills to an employer, they will have a hard time making ends meet. They often become homeless after extended periods of unemployment. Sometimes, they become eligible for government handouts of parts of the wealth they've already created and given over to the employing class in exchange for wages e.g. food stamps.
**************** Carrol said:
At a highly abstract level of _capitalism_ as such it is easy to define _working class_ and essential to do so. But at a practical level of organizing struggle it is probably not relevant. *************
I disagree. Like Marx and Engels wrote back in 1848: "The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority." I think that's a practical principle to operate with.
Hi-ho, Mike B)
*********************************************************************** "One needs to work to achieve enlightenment and then return to the common world." Basho http://wobblytimes.blogspot.com/
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