[lbo-talk] Early Soviet fairytales

[Wojtek S]

Joanna: "It seems like one of the big differences between the working class
today and that of the thirties is that in the thirties they were actually
interested in learning, in reading....even in the absence of credentials.
The commies put out editions of classics that could fit in a worker's
pocket, and the Tillie Olsens and David Grabers of this world grew up with
a family engaged in reading/learning/conversation/agitation. And it was
about learning....consciousness... Where did all that go?"

[WS:] Definitely true.  I think it had something to do with union/party
membership, because not every proletarian was that way.  And it was not
just in the USSR.  Case in point - several years ago I was on an Amtrak
train en route to Harrisburg, PA - there were not that many passengers, so
the conductor engaged in a chat with me.  He was an old union guy - not
only expressing the qualities that you mention but also bemoaning the
generation of new workers, including his own son who was a truck driver,
for their individualism and anti-unionism.

You need working class institutions to maintain working class
consciousness.  Individuals simply won't do it on their own.

While we are at that, this summer I went though some family records and I
found papers left by my grandfather.  The old man was in St. Petersburg in
1917 playing some (minor I suppose) role in the Bolshevik party for which
he later received a medal.  He was a card carrying dues paying member of
the Communist Party almost to his death - the dues stop a few months before
his death.

-- 
Wojtek

"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."