One tries to identify a "class" for a variety of different purposes -- and the class needs to be 'defined' for the given purposes. For most empirical discussions of the present what Doug & Gar offer seems best.
But for _political_ purposes (in my sense of political which ignores electoral politics) I think that the working class does not exit in "normal" times but emerges into existence in periods of struggle. _Then_ 'the class' consists in those 'secotors' of the class which are in motion. (Probably broader, but this would be the core.
Hence in (say) 1963-1971 the Working Class consisted of Blacks, students, women, and gays. Other potential sectors that never quite jelled during that period were social workers, convicts, teachers, and auto workers (the last only as they related to DRUM ETC.
Thus if we are speaking potential movements of the present or near future, we cannot do more than speculate on what the working class consists of. It is not presently in existence and we do not know and cannot predict which sectors of the class will have, at some future point, triggered a new struggle.
Incidentally, I have not made up my mind on this yet, but I am leaning towards Postone's discussion of "class struggle": it is an essential part of capitalism and necessary for the health of capitalism, but has not relevanced for anti-capitalist struggle.
Carrol
-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of Gar Lipow Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2010 1:32 PM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Query BLS replacement data series
On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 11:24 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> On Nov 17, 2010, at 2:09 PM, Gar Lipow wrote:
>
>> Non-sup
>> includes about 80% of the working class
>
> No, it includes just over 80% of the entire employed labor force.
>
> Doug
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
OK yeah employed labor force or working class employed for wage labor. Because your right much of the working class is outside the paid labor force, and it is important not to overlook that. -- Facebook: Gar Lipow Twitter: GarLipow Grist Blog: http://www.grist.org/member/1598 Static page: http://www.nohairshirts.com
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