Re: [Marxism] looking for general guidance: class analysis of today's society; practice-theory

["Jack F. Vogel" <jfv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, May 15, 2004 at 08:12:44AM -0700, DJ Dialectic wrote:
> 1)  marxist (not weberian) class analysis of today's society
> I recently read zizek saying that the two common answers as to today's 
> proletariat composition--intellectual workers or real production in 3rd 
> world--is too simple, and regardless of what else i think of zizek, i think 
> he's right about that.  who is dealing with pressing problems such as these?  
> what can we be studying today to answer these questions?

I read Zizek some also, he can be interesting at times, but also
can drive me nuts :)  I'll throw out a few quick and dirty thoughts
I've had, they are unorganized but maybe this will help...

There seem to be two broad categories of approach to this topic: those
that want to throw out class, or those that want to refine it.

The thing I look at is what the broader motivation is for the
answer some theorist gives.

Its a bit simplistic, but usually those seeking to dismiss class
analysis are social democrat/reformist types. After all, its only
the 'principles' or ideas one has that matter they would say :)

On the other hand, I was personally involved with activists in the 80s
who felt that if you werent in a 'factory', doing that "hard" blue
collar union stuff, then you werent 'proletarian' and didnt matter :)

The latter position is somewhat caricatured but serves as something
to work off of. For whatever one might say against it, I found Negri
and Hardt's "Empire" to be very thought provoking on this topic btw.
They would simply divide things into exploiter/exploited, crass but
also seems fundamentally right to me.

The kernel of truth in the 'crass' approach is that real class
consciousness is manifested more in that union, factory-floor
environment than in, say, the service/knowledge worker sector
that I work in. But this too is breaking down, I saw that the
service workers at Amazon were struggling to organize :)

I am a software engineer, I work with the people that are so
unaware of their own exploitation it isnt even funny, but even
in my environment there are cracks. In my environment, I watch
as more and more work is pushed to India, or Mexico, while the
company posts a 'great financial year' but refuses to give out
raises to as many workers as last year. While it exploits us it
wants us to revere 'company values' and do charity under its
name... I read the Solidarity paper on 'Lean Production' and
it fits like a glove what i experience...

I'm wandering, oh well :)

There are tons of sources for this stuff, good and bad, I am
reading Lukacs, Gramsci, Laclau for example...

> 2)  how can i test the theory i am learning? (specifically considering that 
> i'm one person or will be working with a small group)  what should one do?

I liked Lou's answer but maybe shorter term the answer is that there
ISNT a simple test, instead you keep working with people, and refining
your position in terms of the larger whole, and the world as it changes.

> 3)  i'm also interested to hear people's favorite Marxist journals, 
> newspapers, website, etc.

This list is my prefered source, I also look at Counterpunch regularly.
Journals, hmm, I've bought ISO's or Z's at times, but not regularly.

I dont know if this has helped at all, best thing you can do study, and
struggle, listen and learn.

Solidarity,

Jack


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