Re: RES: Class

[MARIPOWER716@xxxxxxx]

>Few of my friends are industrial workers, or even involved in the
production of what one might call "conventional commodities".  They
all work in the service industries, or in the software/computer
industries.  Teachers, data entry, tech support, administrative
assistants, salesman, managers, mechanics, cooks, bus persons, cops.
Well, I play basketball with some printers, who make t-shirts and
such, the exceptions that make the rule for me.

I sometimes wonder if this is because I'm white and live on the north
side of Chicago, and my surroundings have pre-selected my social
circle.  What data are you looking at in order to identify and
quantify the new class you speak of?  It would help me better
conceptualize it, and figure out where to go to interact with its
constituents. <



I would again suggest the League of Revolutionaries for a New America website
and their political or convention reports. Many of the reports have excellent
bibliography, although Mr. Peery's book, "The Future is Up to Us," contains
not as much as an index. I suspect that the reasoning is that this book was
written to be understood by working people and based on lectures and
discussions.

"I sometimes wonder if this is because I'm white and live on the north
side of Chicago, and my surroundings have pre-selected my social
circle" is honest pondering, an urge to define and understand why we are who
we are as individuals, give purpose to our life and consequently a question
of history.

Our working class has been an industrial working class. This does not mean
that everyone working labors in industry. Teachers are and have been part of
the industrial working class - proletarians charged with the task of
educating the children of workers to fit into society.

The historical question has to do with how our working class was formed. In
the period leading up to the Civil War, the core Northern states entered into
a social revolution from manufacture to industry. In Europe the shift to
industry cause great dislocation and tremendous struggle between the towns
(the bourgeoisie or centers of the new commerce based on the sell and
purchase of labor power) and the countryside (the all embracing feudal
political system based on landed property relations as the primary form of
wealth).

As the industrial system evolved and men of money purchases huge tracts of
land made possible by changes in the form of wealth and the emerging role of
gold and money, the dislocation caused by changes in the material power of
the productive forces - and the change in the form of wealth, cause an
outpouring of people driven off the land and forced to flee to the emerging
new city structures.

In America no such thing happened. The same social revolution involved a
different and utterly unique circumstance. American avoided the social
upheaval by importing the workers from Europe, who arrived with a certain
skill level that matched the state of development of the productive forces.
The economic revolution proceeded relatively smoothly as compared with
Europe. On the other hand the Native born American - other than the slave of
course and his descendant, were family farmers and remained as such. The
point is that you probably could trace your family history on the basis of
this brief outline explaining how the concrete class and social relationships
in America evolved.

Life has been pretty good to me and an aspect of life is dumb luck.
Historical processes govern dumb luck, meaning being in the right place at
the right time. Being in the right place at the right time or "being there"
is governed by history and of course luck. One can get luckier if they
understand that they have entered onto the highway of luck. If lady luck
walks down the boulevard with a blue hat on, and you are traveling down the
alley and back roads, it is hard to get lucky. If you are denied access to
the boulevard, your chances of getting lucky are reduced dramatically.

I got lucky and labored as one of the higher paid industry workers for 30
years and was a union rep - member of what is called the labor aristocracy,
and did not refuse the privileges that goes along with this position. Sure I
fought all the good fights but I was always clear that my wage level was
higher than that of the majority of the Anglo-American people in the United
States.

The color factor in history is very real and I would never pretend that it is
not. However, the America of today is not the America of 50 years ago. No
force on earth can exempt one from the ruthlessness of the law of value.
Everyone that works - sells their labor power, is going to become poorer in
our society as a class. If we compare ourselves with the bottom rung of the
ladder this is hard to see.

Besides, Mr. Perry's book and the group he is part of is located in Chicago -
a city I hate in the wintertime but love in the summer.

I would strongly suggest a study in the historical documents of Marx and
Engels. I strongly suggest Frederick Engels, "Socialism: Utopian and
Scientific" - which is available on the Internet. Punch in Marxism and go the
various Marxism libraries. Forget the Introduction and read it last. I will
write more of the class analysis and indicate how the conclusions was arrived
at.

Who you interact with is not as important as winning the hearts and minds of
people you come into contact with as a way of life, to the cause of social
revolution. Social revolution means recognizing that changes have taken place
in the material power of production and we have to do something - anything,
to ensure that all of us eat, have shelter, pay the utility bills and medical
stuff.

All the crap about this kind of socialism and that kind of socialism is not
how the people of America think things out. Why should we argue in a way that
runs against the grain of how people think things out?

Yes, I believe that I have as an individual expanded the boundary of Marxism
and been true to myself. What is needed is a new generation of
revolutionaries who will totally recast the materialist approach to social
change and society. My greatest fear in life is hitting the same wall the
bourgeoisie is hitting and being rendered obsolete. To hell with an old
doctrine and ideology.



Melvin P

Peace.