Simon writes:
> > Even though certain people are seen as middle class and many workers
>hold shares and
> >have bank accounts, the economic facts of existence predominate.
> > leaving a working class with no particular differences (e.g.racism
> > etc.) and a revolutionary party. Hope that doesn't sound too starry
>eyed.
To which John replies:
>Yes I think at present this is starry eyed. It is on this point that I
>DO disagree quite strongly. Privileged workers - with shares and
>large savings with numerous cars in the drive of some large house
>taking lots of foreign holidays - do have some economic interest in
>capitalism. Revolution would inevitably threaten these privileges.
>They are not capitalists, they are not peti-Bourgeois, but they do
>have privileges over other blue collar or non-collar workers and the
>unemployed and as you say economic facts of existence predominate.
While on another thread Jerry comments:
>Indeed, one can *ARGUE* "Marxist economics and politics" in this >manner.
>If you want to *COMPREHEND* the dynamics of capitalism it requires >moreof
>an effort.
When it comes to the vexed question of class just such effort is required.
It simply ain't tenable to point to the appearance of wealth- a reasonable
home, the means to commute to work and some paltry savings (share ownership
has not become egalitarian despite the utopian proclamations of high Tories
and New Labour), and dub these people petty bourgeois. This is both classic
workerism, the same sort of workerism that blamed 'Mondeo Man' [Mondeo-a
popular company car in the UK] for Tory electoral victories in the '90s, AND
a neo version of the 1950s embourgoisiment thesis.
What needs to be comprehended is the real dynamic- how the relatively
privileged gain their 'rewards', how they are exploited, whether their gains
are at the expense of less well off workers within their nation state, or
whether both gain from the wider exploitation of the third world etc.
Class as Marx understands it is relational. The 'cars on the drive' thesis
only comprehends the surface appearance of contemporary capitalism- it does
not even begin to grapple with the underlying dynamic.
Russell
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