1. If white male workers in the more developed economies ever constituted a "labour aristocracy" it is best described today as a fallen aristocracy for all of the reasons mentioned above. The expression has always confused more than clarified, and Bland's refutation of the Maoist group's view dividing the Western working class into an "aristocratic" majority and a "proletarian" minority is entirely correct.
2. Unless seen in relation to non-white and female workers who are further oppressed for reasons beyond their class position, the view that better-paid workers are labour aristocrats who have no grounds for grievance is not only false, but coincides with the interests of employers and politicians who use it to mobilize public opinion against job action by teachers, interns and nurses, journalists and actors, government employees, and most other salaried technical and professional workers outside the manufacturing sector. 3. Most white workers are not racist, but a significant minority blames - and has always blamed - non-whites, non-Christians, and immigrants for the decline in their conditions. They have been the ones most drawn to MAGA. 4. The pay and benefits of labour leaders, who are a very tiny percentage of the working class, should be pegged to the average of their members but is instead typically far in excess of it. 5. Marxists have tried over generations to persuade workers to make common cause and, within the unions, to bring the pay scales of elected and appointed officials into line with the ranks, but false consciousness is not easily rooted out. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#40594): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/40594 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/117601828/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
