Gáspár Miklós Tamás, in "Telling the truth about class," (which I've cited several times) ends his essay as follows:
The truth about class is, therefore, that the proletariat had, historically, two contradictory objectives: one, to preserve itself as an estate with its own institutions (trade unions, working-class parties, a socialist press, instruments of self-help, etc.), and another one, to defeat its antagonist and to abolish itself as a class. We can now see that the abolition of the working class as an 'estate', as a 'guild', has been effected by capitalism; capitalism has ?nally transformed the proletariat (and the bourgeoisie) into a veritable class, putting an end to their capacity for hegemony. Class hegemony of any kind (still quite vivacious and vigorous in Gramsci's time) was exactly what was annihilated. Class as an economic reality exists, and it is as fundamental as ever, although it is culturally and politically almost extinct. This is a triumph of capitalism.61
But this makes the historical work of destroying capitalism less parochial, it makes it indeed as universal, as abstract and as powerful as capitalism itself. What political form this may take, we don't know.62 Nevertheless, it is now truly the cause of humanity. There is no particular, local, vocational, 'guild' bias to this cause, nor is any possible. The truth of class is of its own transcendence. The proletariat of the Manifesto could stand outside because it could lose nothing but its chains. No one is outside now - although not in the sense of Antonio Negri: nation-states and classes continue to exist, and they do determine our lives.63
The question is, could there be a motivation for a class that exists in deprivation - and is now even deprived of a corporate cultural identity - to change a situation which is dehumanizing and dangerous, but not humiliating to the point of moral provocation?
We don't know.
What is certain is that the last ?owers have fallen off the chains. The working-class culture which inspired so much heroism and self-abnegation is dead. That culture was modernist in the sense of taking aim at hierarchy and trying to achieve a secular, egalitarian and rights-based society. This the working class mistook for socialism. It is not. It is capitalism. Capitalism could be itself only if and when aided by socialist delusion.64 We are now free of this delusion. We see the task more clearly. <end quote>
As I have frequently remarked, we don't know (we have no way of knowing) whether socialist revolution is possible; we just know that it is necessary for survival. Exploring the conditions that might make it a possibility is a question for another day.
Carrol
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