Re: AUT: Neo-conservatism and workers

[Ilan Shalif <gshalif@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi People
Do not be surpassed if you will encounter in the list even
the various sects of Trotskyism.

The fast decline of the "state capitalists" and the upsurge
of the libertarian revolutionary left attract them to us.

Some of them are even admitting they are motivated by
recruiting urges...
However, they try to hide the deeper motivation which is to
recuperate the damage to their deflated credit after
the dismantling of most state capitalism systems.
Ilan
libertarian communist for ever

"steve.devos" wrote:

> Sean
>
> I read him as a traditional CP member - i thought they had gone the way
> of the dinosaurs.... still in the spirit of solidarity.
>
> sdv
>
> Sean Fenley wrote:
>
> > is this guy posting to the right list?
> > -Sean
> >
> > --- George Pennefather <poseidon@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > >
> > > The Canadian Alliance is a right wing party that is
> > > growing in popularity
> > > apparently because its programme includes tax
> > > cutting policies  by way of
> > > reducing the state budget deficit. Clearly cutting
> > > taxes by reducing the
> > > budget deficit can only mean cuts in state social
> > > spending which reduces the
> > > standard of living of the working class particularly
> > > its lower layers.
> > >
> > > Why is it that support for such anti-working class
> > > policies can lead to an
> > > increase in electoral popularity? The Republicans in
> > > the U.S., the Tories
> > > under Thatcher and the PDs in Ireland are parties
> > > that have made this policy
> > > their clarion call.
> > >
> > > Clearly it is an indication, among other things, of
> > > the changes in the
> > > social composition of the working class over the
> > > years. In the West there
> > > has emerged a layer of comparatively highly paid
> > > skilled intellectual
> > > workers who gain almost nothing from  state social
> > > welfare spending  and yet
> > > pay high taxes. This layer is an upper layer within
> > > the working class. It
> > > is, in some degree, a transitional layer in the
> > > sense that some elements
> > > within  it are in a fluid condition whereby there is
> > > a flux back and forth
> > > between the working and middle class. Consequently
> > > there obtains ambiguity
> > > within this layer as to its social identity --its
> > > definition in class terms.
> > > This condition provides rich fertile ground for the
> > > blossoming of petty
> > > bourgeois ideas. Much of this layer may not feel the
> > > need to unionise.
> > > Sections of it tend to the view that welfare
> > > spending is of no benefit to it
> > > while such spending is supported by their fiscal
> > > contributions. Their
> > > ideology tends to support the belief that many of
> > > the beneficiaries of
> > > state welfare  don't want to work or are fraudsters
> > > who scam by working in
> > > the black economy while availing of welfare payments
> > > and whatever else. Many
> > > elements from this upper layer are very often
> > > involved in private health
> > > care systems. Consequently they have little sympathy
> > > for even middle ranking
> > > workers who may be earning a comparatively
> > > reasonable wage yet must avail of
> > > some of the state welfare benefits.
> > >
> > > These neo-liberal policies also strike a chord with
> > > the middle class, many
> > > of whom have small enterprises, who don't, in large
> > > part, qualify for  state
> > > welfare.
> > >
> > > The upshot is that neo-liberal or neo-conservative
> > > parties draw support from
> > > sections of the middle class together with the upper
> > > stratum of the working
> > > class. In that sense these parties draw from a
> > > constituency that straddle
> > > two classes in addition to the bourgeoisie. In this
> > > way the middle class and
> > > a relatively privileged layer of the working class
> > > are particularly utilised
> > > by the bourgeoisie to undermine the class
> > > cohesiveness of the working class.
> > > Neo-conservatism  is a clever bourgeois strategy,
> > > anchored in specific
> > > objective developments, to undermine the working
> > > class economically,
> > > politically and even ideologically.
> > >
> > > Much of this layer of the working class would have
> > > had its origins in the
> > > middle to lower strata of the working class. Due to
> > > the growth of the
> > > welfare state, in particular from the sixties
> > > onward, much of the offspring
> > > of the working class would have been able to avail
> > > of  third level
> > > education --free education, college grants etc. This
> > > education would have
> > > qualified them for admission to the upper layer of
> > > the working class in a
> > > period when enormous technological changes have been
> > > in progress.
> > > Consequently this stratum has grown in size and has
> > > become largely more
> > > affluent.
> > >
> > > This element was not so prevalent in the fifties and
> > > sixties because the
> > > composition of the upper layer of the working class
> > > possessed a different
> > > character then. The upper layer, then, principally
> > > consisted of highly
> > > skilled tradesmen. Later it increasingly included
> > > highly skilled technicians
> > > and commercial workers with a residue of highly
> > > skilled craftsmen. Later
> > > again it increasingly included a technical
> > > intelligentsia engaged in the
> > > electronic and financial sectors. The growth of this
> > > new element of
> > > intellectual worker in this layer led to the
> > > emergence of a correspondingly
> > > different culture within the upper layer. They
> > > lacked the trade union
> > > culture of the proportionately diminishing
> > > traditional element within this
> > > layer. This element came from a different background
> > > in the sense that it
> > > was college based bearing the particular petty
> > > bourgeois culture  entailed
> > > by college life.
> > >
> > > Consequently it did not see themselves as forming a
> > > cohesive layer within
> > > the working class.  Consequently their allegiance to
> > > the trade union
> > > movement, and labour politics generally, was less
> > > certain. By virtue of its
> > > particular education and environment its conception
> > > of social being bore a
> > > more individualist or egoist character --their
> > > consciousness was less
> > > collectivist. Its education and college experience
> > > led them to question much
> > > of  traditional labour politics. However this
> > > questioning was grounded in a
> > > negative reactionary perspective rather than in the
> > > perspective of critique.
> > > We see then that the very welfare state, that much
> > > of this layer now seek to
> > > have undermined, was one of the very conditions of
> > > its crystallisation as a
> > > prominent and significant section of the  working
> > > class higher layer. It is
> > > this section that has been  the decisive condition
> > > in facilitating  the
> > > destruction of the cohesiveness of the working class
> > > by the bourgeoisie.
> > >
> > > Much of this layer likes to think of itself as good
> > > as the bourgeoisie. It
> > > likes to think of itself as cool, cultured and
> > > "where its at".  It likes to
> > > imagine --hence the significance of "the imaginary"
> > > in this ideology that
> > > envelops them-- that there is some assumed guarantee
> > > that things can never
> > > be as they were in the "bad" past. It never even
> > > considers that living
> > > standards, rights etc can be invaded by the
> > > bourgeoisie or that if they are
> > > it will not be adversely affected. It imagines that
> > > there is some natural
> > > scheme of things that guarantees that today will
> > > always be so --and even get
> > > better. For it fiction is reality and reality is
> > > fiction. This is tantamount
> > > to blissful superstition --a new religion, a new
> > > ignorance, the post-modern.
> > > It entertains a superstitious belief in capitalism.
> > > Even when it shows an
> > > interest in radical ideas it does so in a way that
> > > lacks any sense of
> > > urgency --any urgent sense of the need for real
> > > change. Radical ideas are a
> > > form of entertainment --literature and hence the
> > > growing significance of
> > > literary criticism as a cannibalistic ideology that
> > > has been increasingly
> > > dominating much of the universities.
> > >
> > > This layer emerges from an entirely new objective
> > > conditions entailing a
> > > "new" culture and mindset. It did not directly
> > > crystallise out of the
> > > working class and trade union movement. Instead it
> > > is a product of the
> > > schools and colleges --the ideological apparatus of
> > > the capitalist state.
> > >
> > > The emergence of neo-conservatism as a populist form
> > > is an acute reflection
> > > of the failure of the working class movement to win
> > > this section of the
> > > working class over to the side of labour. It is a
> > > reflection
> > === message truncated ===
> >
> > __________________________________________________
> > Do You Yahoo!?
> > Kick off your party with Yahoo! Invites.
> > http://invites.yahoo.com/
> >
> >      --- from list aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
>
>      --- from list aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---



     --- from list aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---