Has working class consciousness collapsed?

[inthebrain]

I figured this would be interesting to post here given that it's a perspective not often hear about or discussed. Reading it gave me pause to reflect and think about a few things I've never considered. I'll offer mine after a few posts on this thread.

Lately, with the job losses and the mishandeling of the economic crisis by our elected leaders, I have been reading a lot about the antagonists from the great Depression and long before. I find a lot of that stuff relevant and feel a lot of what they felt.

Anyways.....

Has working class consciousness collapsed?
The ’crisis of the working class subject’
Phil Hearse




Class consciousness: ”The awareness of individuals in a particular social class that they share common interests and a common social situation. Class consciousness is associated with the development of a ‘class-for-itself’ where individuals within the class unite to pursue their shared interests.”. Online Dictionary of Social Sciences

The crisis of working class representation is a familiar theme in the left internationally, the idea that because of the shift to the right of mass social democratic and Stalinist parties, or because of their collapse, the working class lacks a political force that can defend its interests in the national political domain.



In many countries efforts have been made to create, or begin to create, broad left parties that can begin to resolve this crisis. However the idea of the ‘crisis of the working class subject’ takes the analysis one step further, saying in effect that class consciousness has declined to such a degree that the overwhelming majority of working class people have no consciousness of themselves as part of a class that has its own interests other than those of the ruling class; using Lukacs’ distinction the working class is a “class in itself” but no longer a “class for itself”. If this is correct of course then it has big implications for socialist analysis and strategy.

We argue here that the idea that the working class is no longer a “class for itself” is an exaggeration, but like most caricatures is based on aspects of reality that socialists have to identify and integrate into their strategy and tactics. Consciousness, especially mass consciousness, is a dynamic factor that is subject to change and sometimes, in periods of crisis, is subject to abrupt shifts. So any attempt to capture and interpret mass working class consciousness is likely to be partial and one-sided. Before we get into the detail of that we have to say something about the changing structure of the working class, in Britain and internationally.

John Major in 1996 argued that “we are all middle class now” – in other words working class living standards have risen to such a degree that the difference with middle class people have become blurred. However Cumbria University academic Phillip Bond has recently argued the precise opposite – the ‘middle classes’ are being forced into the working class (1).

He argues, “The middle classes are no longer earning a living wage while a new global super class has over $11trillion in off shore tax havens…Forty years ago a single skilled manual wage was enough to provide a living for a working-class man, his wife and family. Now even a middle-class couple with both partners working can’t bring in enough to make ends meet.

“The golden age for the salaried worker across all the OECD countries was between 1945 and 1973, when ordinary working people gained their highest percentage share of GDP. Since then the real wages of the middle and working class have stagnated or fallen, while income for the rich has rocketed and that of the super-rich has hit the stratosphere.

(Continued)

http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article1516

[begin_within]

1. "Everyone's just so beaten down" is how someone put it to me recently.

[MadMaddie]

2. I would have to agree with that statement.

And the beat down has been implemented by divide and conquer. Divide the races, divide the political sides to a place where they cannot meet, divide the country over whose religion is right and wrong, divide the country over unions etc.....

Export jobs via Nafta and Cafta and decimate the manufacturing industry that paid well to the middle class....

voila......beaten down....

[boppers]

3. Words are tricky things.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_class

"Working class is a term used in academic sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs, as measured by skill, education and compensation. Working classes are mainly found in industrialized economies and in urban areas of non-industrialized economies.
As with many terms describing social class, working class is defined and used in many different ways. When used non-academically, it typically refers to a section of society dependent on physical labor, especially when compensated with an hourly wage. Its use in academic discourse is contentious, especially following the decline of manual labor in postindustrial societies. Some academics question the usefulness of the concept of a working class. The term is usually contrasted with the upper class and middle class, in terms of access to economic resources, education and cultural interests. Its usage can be derogatory, but many people self-identify as working class and experience a sense of pride similar to a national identity." (Emphasis mine)

With a post-industrial society (as in the US and UK), a very large number of jobs that were once "working class" have been replaced by machinery and robotics, or sent to other nations, with people who have education and skill levels (and compensation levels) that are much lower.

That being said, there are still working class jobs (in the sense of low education, skill, and pay) in the US, only now they're often referred to as "day labor" jobs, or are under the table, or considered stepping-stone jobs to other careers. There are also a number of now well-paying jobs, requiring higher level of education and skills, where the workers identify as "working class". For example, an AFSCME pay schedule I looked at included a $199,700 union-negotiated wage. While the person making that wage may self-identify as "working class", it's certainly not lower tier, when contrasted against average wages. In between the extremes of day-labor and the "executive union member", there's an extremely large range of people and positions.

Getting at the larger topic of whether or not the socialist ideas (since that's the perspective of the piece, and the website hosting it) of working class held in the early 20th century reasonably apply to the early 21st century, I would hazard to say that there is still some utility in the concept of "working class", on a global perspective, but the concept breaks down in different societies depending on how it is measured, and applied. For example, the "working class" in Sweden is basically the "idle rich" when compared to Somalia. In the US, where nearly everybody has a car, a television, and a high-school education, "working class" means something very different than it did 100 years ago, when child labor and lifelong poverty were the norm for vast amounts of the populace.

It's certainly an interesting thing to think about, and I'm looking forward to other perspectives. :)

[LooseWilly]

6. I can't help but feel that your perception of working class seems skewed.

The way you express it: "That being said, there are still working class jobs (in the sense of low education, skill, and pay) in the US, only now they're often referred to as "day labor" jobs, or are under the table, or considered stepping-stone jobs to other careers." seems to portray only the day laborers hanging out outside of Home Depots (and in Day Labor zones in some cities), and some hustlers that work as "mobile mechanics" out of their cars... as working class... or- what does "stepping-stone jobs to other careers" mean?? That last sounds like internships to me.

What about taxi drivers, chauffeurs, busboys, waiters/waitresses, retail workers, fast food employees, hotel maids, contracted janitorial service workers, hotel clerks, car wash shop workers, etc.? How can these jobs which generally pay poorly to awfully, offer negligible benefits, no retirement, often no sick leave... how can they be considered anything except "working class"? To insist that "working class" is an antiquated term in the changing economy, or to try to "shoehorn" the term into the context of the (still for the moment) unionized shops of the "working class" of the last century is to beg the question of the meaning of the term... and incidentally set it up for ideational implosion. It is the academic equivalent of setting up a strawman so that the wages that unions have negotiated, especially for the top-most positions in the unions, can be used to try to implode/de-legitimize the very term of "working class"... which is, incidentally, what you seemed to then get around to doing.

(As an aside... compare that top AFSCME wage with some top level corporate exec wages... and there you have, in my opinion, a contrast between the upper middle class and the upper upper class... then go and look at the wages of a senior hotel maid... and you'll see the truth about the "working class" in contrast.)

I think you need to, if you have any interest in genuinely thinking about this topic, look at the new "working class" in this country... and that is the service workers in the industries that have developed since the 80s, after which unionization became a bad word. Look at Wal-Mart and Home Depot employees... and not just the day laborers scratching for crumbs of employment in the parking lots.

And, as one final aside... I think, given the way this economy is turning, the country may see an increase in even the educated gravitating to the "working class" jobs. I know my significant other sorted through the resumes of numerous DotCom VPs applying for what amounted to a janitorial position (facilities management) at a non-profit... and I have a BA and I can't find anything more than part time chauffeur work, with no benefits, and no guaranteed hours, working with other drivers who often barely speak English. Your aspersions about the skills & education of those who work in "working class" jobs is all well and nice... but when jobs become more scarce, then employers generally see an opportunity to squeeze even more concessions from their desperate employees, and even the educated & skilled become desperate given sufficient scarcity of opportunities.

[inthebrain]

9. I was thinking the same thing

Although I can't get the point you are trying to get at either.

[boppers]

12. That's why I pointed out the range. Day labor to AFSCME executive, and a vast array in between.

Also, good food for thought about the "service class" replacing traditional definitions of working class in a post-industrial economy. They're no longer toiling away on industrial goods production lines, they're toiling away in service jobs.

[Juche]

4. Latin america is undergoing left wing democratic revolutions due to this

I don't think it is sustainable forever. The fact that neoliberal globalization has left most working people behind fueled the rise of a variety of left leaning politicians in south and central America over the last 10 years.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1146794,00.html

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/61702/jorge-g-castaneda/latin-americas-left-turn

Starting with Hugo Chávez's victory in Venezuela eight years ago and poised to culminate in the possible election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico's July 2 presidential contest, a wave of leaders, parties, and movements generically labeled "leftist" have swept into power in one Latin American country after another. After Chávez, it was Lula and the Workers' Party in Brazil, then Néstor Kirchner in Argentina and Tabaré Vázquez in Uruguay, and then, earlier this year, Evo Morales in Bolivia. If the long shot Ollanta Humala wins the April presidential election in Peru and López Obrador wins in Mexico, it will seem as if a veritable left-wing tsunami has hit the region. Colombia and Central America are the only exceptions, but even in Nicaragua, the possibility of a win by Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega cannot be dismissed.




I hope this trend continues all over the world. You can argue it happened in the US in 2006 and 2008 when we made a leftward turn (not far enough to the left, but still leftward compared to 2004).

Does anyone know if Asia, Europe or Africa are seeing this? I thought Europe was experiencing a move to the right (which would be comparable to our left wing). What about Asia and Africa? Any left wing movements there like in Latin America?

[Ozymanithrax]

5. Consumerism put a bullet in the head of working class consciousness...

We are too busy trying to get the next better cell phone, blouse, bear, or car to care about the group. We live in a world where every image you see on television is designed to sell products that we don't need, and devalues the very idea of working class. Buy your manufactured needs. Get yours and screw everyone else. That is the American way.

[dionysus]

7. DING. although you don't need to screw anyone else, people are too busy screwing *themselves*

into debt with credit cards and things they can't afford. i've even been guilty of it from time to time.

the easist cure for that problem is; if you can't pay for it in cash, don't buy it. this obviously doesnt apply to houses and cars, but for most everything else it works like a charm.

[KakistocracyHater]

10. to say it that way shuts it down, the 30s sentiment is correct & we can win

again, but we must unite; the Right united & look at the mess they've made, "in this typical post-Republican economy" things are more obvious now. We just need to agree on the tent-poles, & health care that equals the rest of the industrialized nations is one of them, equal Human rights of women, gays, gayelles, is another tent-pole.

[boppers]

13. Bear?

People are buying... bears?

If that's a typo, it's a funny one. :)

[Mimosa]

8. YES. n/t

[mudplanet]

11. You can't have class consciousness without real education, which has been

done away with for most U.S. citizens as a matter of deliberate policy for nearly seven decades.

When college graduates can't define capitalism, socialism, and how these socio-economic/political systems have developed over time, what possibility is there of a class consciousness, much less a "working-class class consciousness"?

Critical study of how man organizes (and has organized) his world might lead to critical thought and questioning of the current order, and for this reason education in the U.S. deliberately avoids this field. Americans have been taught for over a half century that their version of capitalism is some kind of natural order (fundamentalists say it's "ordained by god"), and that anything that doesn't resemble it closely is somehow unnatural and deviant. This social policy is considered part of a natural order, and anything that promotes critical perspectives of U.S. capitalism gets labeled "social engineering."

You can't have a discussion with someone about the interests of their class if they hate communism/socialism while at the same time they can't name at least one internal contradiction of capitalism and they actually believe, adamantly, that America has the highest standard of living and the best health care system in the whole world. They aren't going to let the facts change what they know.

I'm afraid that things will have to get a lot worse, for a lot of people, before they can get better.

[TheKentuckian]

14. We let them set ourselves against each other and it started with shitting on the poor

and now it has come to the point that we have people campaigning to reduce other worker's benefits that have a better deal, regardless of what they gave up to get them.

The working stiff in buttondown hates the working stiff in a polo that hates the working still in a uniform that hates the working stiff that sweeps the floor that hates the sad soul that can't even get work all because 50-60% or more of us are fighting over 25% or less of the resources and we constantly get fed crap like somebody is REALLY getting over up and down the chain.

Hell, I can't even wrap my head around people being bent that LeBron is getting all that money for playing a game but could care less or even kinda celebrate the fuck that has someone to write his check that does jack apple shit, at least James practices and plays his ass off. His boss is getting his balls washed by a 101 playmates and drinking a $1,000 bottle of scotch before noon while someone else works full time to count his money but the resentment goes to the guy that actually DOES SOMETHING. It boggles my mind that we're so fucking stupid to even begin to fall for bis money's division schemes.

[boppers]

15. Gladiator games are a scam.

Don't watch them. Don't pay for them.

[TheKentuckian]

16. That would be substantially besides my point. I stand by the example of the division

between folks that work for someone else's wealth rather than between the workers and the wealthy.

If what a LeBron pulls down makes you sick and agitated then the guy that has the check written should have you boiling over but instead the anger and jealousy goes towards those that actually perform or DO something that creates the value.

The conversation is always "how can _____ make that kind of money for just _____ and teacher have to struggle to make their bills?" and seldom to never "that do nothing fuck that pays _____ makes too much money and we have teachers that can't pay their bills".

We are always pitted against fellow employees and never against the bastards that are really hoarding the resources, never.