Petty Bourgeois, was Re: Forwarded from Anthony (on fascism)

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Workers World, Chicago Bureau" wrote:

>
> Now, the term "petty-bourgeois" is now commonly used (by extension) to refer
> to some OTHER strata which don't fit neatly into the categories of
> "bourgeoisie" and "proletariat".  Such as intellectuals, supervisors in
> enterprises, government bureaucrats, doctors, lawyers, and so on.  Erik Olin
> Wright, a Marxist academic, did some interesting theoretical work on this
> general topic.

Clearly rather more theoretical work needs to be done. Some points that can
help. Sometimes it helps to speak English rather than French: Use the term
"petty producer." One advantage is that (in English anyhow) "petty bourgeois"
has been used so often (and not just by marxists) in reference to
*consciousness* rather than class that its actual class reference (such as it
is) is all too apt to disappear from sight. Also the term "small capitalist"
(vague but specifiable in given contexts) can help, assuming that petty
producers and small capitalists tend to merge but are distinguishable in
principle. I think doctors & lawyers who are in independent practice (as well as
some other "professionals") can usefully be included in the tradtional
definition of "petty producer" -- if you think of it a physician (without the
large office staffs now common) in private practice and (say) a carpenter
selling his services directly are economically in very similar positions. They
both retain control of their own labor power (they appropriate their own
surplus) but do not control (purchase) the labor power of others.
Many physicians now in private practice are better considered small capitalists,
given the large office and technical staffs they employ (and exploit). On the
other hand there is also clearly a tendency towards proletarianization of at
least many membes of the profession, a tendency by the increasing power of
insurance companies and for-profit hospitals, etc.

The generative core of what came to be called petty bourgeois consciousness was
the conviction that there should be a market for one's product or service. "I
can make such wonderful chairs or produce such good food and no one will buy it
from me. There must be a conspiracy of some kind." This is crude, but there is a
good deal of work (beginning with Marx himself) which traces with great subtlety
and empirical detail the way in which this isolated position of the petty
producer leads to an emphasis on the state both as enemy and as potential
savior.

Chip Berlet has done very important empirical and analytical work in the history
of right-wing populism in the United States.

Carrol