On 2011-08-30, at 9:14 AM, Julio Huato wrote:
> IMO, the issue of the "workers' aristocracy" is a bit
> more complex than it is usually thought. I wouldn't take Engels' and
> Lenin's remarks as directly applicable to every situation, or even as
> conceptually or analytically clear as we'd want them to be. But, as
> rough as they may be, for the reasons above, I wouldn't go as far as
> to deny them a certain degree of plausibility.
Given the acceleration in the current crisis of the now decades long assault on the pay, benefits, and job prospects of the majority of North American and European workers, the proper reference would be to a "decaying aristocracy". Which is not to say that there is no longer a gap between workers in the mature and developing capitalist countries, but it is steadily narrowing. The labour aristocracy theory refers to the gains passed on to (militant) Western trade unionists from imperialist expansion a century ago. The latest round of capitalist expansion made possible by advances in communications and transportation technology and the opening of vast new markets in China, the old Soviet bloc, and the former colonies, has arguably turned that equation on its head.