Re: Khrushchev (was: Re: [Marxism] Petty Bourgeois--the consciousness yardstick

["Nestor Gorojovsky" <nestorgoro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think that I already sent this info to the list once.  But it is 
worth repeating.

Respuesta a: Khrushchev (was: Re: [Marxism] Petty Bourgeois--t
Remitido por: Lou Paulsen
Fecha: Viernes 13 de Agosto de 2004 
Hora: 10:06
*****

> We had a whole group of locomotive engineers, for
> example, with small businesses on the side.

In a sense, and maybe even through the US 1970s too, locomotive 
engineers were a peculiar aristocracy of labor.  When nobody could 
move faster than on a train, they were the "jet liner commanders" of 
the time.

In Argentina, up to 1945, this was compounded by the general fact 
that onboard personnel in the trains were a particular section of a 
particulary privileged section of the working class: the privileged 
ranks of the privileged workers of the main imperialist asset in 
Argentina, the railroad network.

During the early 1940s,  Oraldo Britos (a union organizer with a long 
history later on) was "ground personnel", that is porter at a 
provincial capital RR station in Inland Argentina. He came from a 
Creole family, as most people working in the stations.  He wanted to 
fight for the porter's, etc., rights, and was looking for advice.

Someone told him that there was a well known union organizer in the 
line he was working at, an engineer, and that the man used to stop at 
the station where Britos worked when driving a long distance 
passenger train.

So that he waited for this guy to come to the station, and tried to 
speak to him.  He had barely stepped up one step on the engine's 
ladder, and the boot of this great union organizer was already on 
Britos's face, while the organizer shouted "Aquí no suben negros" (No 
Creoles admitted up here).

Talk of petty-bougeois tendencies among engineers.

Néstor Miguel Gorojovsky
nestorgoro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 
"Sí, una sola debe ser la patria de los sudamericanos".
Simón Bolívar al gobierno secesionista y disgregador de 
Buenos Aires, 1822
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 



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