[lbo-talk] Surowecki on unions

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Wed Jan 12 08:00:12 PST 2011


Sean Andrews wrote:


> I don't think that these people normally think of themselves as laborers.
> My brother-in-law works as a trader for a hedge fund and it took a lengthy
> explanation for me to convince him he was a laborer.

You _did_ convince him then?

Actually many leftists contribute greatly to thismisunderstanding. For example, some leftists somewhere right now is saying something like "The problem with the movements of the '60s is that they never reached the working class!" But of course those movements WERE the working class. Their sense of themselves and hence of their political tasks was badlthe working class!" But of course those movements WERE the working class. Their sense of themselves and hence of their political tasks was badly distorted by this failure to see themselves as constituting the very heart of the U.S. working class.

NOTE: The "heart" of the working class constantly changes: it is constituted precisely by that sector of the class which, at that point in time, is in motion.

Class is a relation and a PROCESS, not an identity.

Carrol



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