[Marxism] Workerism

[Walter Lippmann <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Workerism" is the idea and practice that only members
of the working class, narrowly-construed to mean the
industrial sector of the working class, can perform a
progressive political function, or should be designated
to lead any specific struggle. 

In the Socialist Workers Party at a certain point when
it was pressurizing most of its members to change jobs
and obtain employment in arbitrarily-selected and what
they called "targetted" industries, it insisted that 
virtually political work be carried out through and by 
those members who were employed in those industries.

All such work which had previously been appreciated and
approved was thereafter to be degraded in importance,
and every activity which took place in and around the
designated workplace was to highlighted or given an
exaggerated importance. Plant gate sales of the party
newspaper, however few, were considered more important
than campus or community sales, however many. 

In the SWP we were told that our industrial worker 
members, who had little or no connection to their jobs,
having not been there very long, and not knowing many
people, would be leading the party's political campaigns,
and those who could carry out such work were generally
discouraged from doing so. As a social worker in an
industry which was not "targeted", the same work which
had been saluted as terrific in the past was now seen
as unimportant, or far less-important.

I could go on and on, but workerism means an exaggerated
estimate of the value and significance of activity which
was conducted by party members with such employment, or
by non-party members who happened to have jobs in those
arbitrarily-selected industries.

In general, the term "workerism" can and should be seen
to mean the exaggerated appreciation of the value or the
significance of issues and struggles at industrial work
sites, and is generally understood as counter-posed to the
struggles against discrimination and injustice which are
rooted in gender, race, sex, national and other forms 
which are seen as "less central", "peripheral" and other
denigrative designations. We had many laughably silly
discussions of this in the SWP, but probably other groups
who did the same kinds of industrial terms had the same
kinds of discussions. In the SWP we laughed at the very
exaggerated workerist attitudes of other groups, until 
our group decided to do the same thing.

Camejo's discussion of how this worked out in the case of
the Socialist Workers Party is one which I find helpful,
though Peter, also, as we all did in those days, framed
his discussion in terms of the validity of this idea of
"colonizing" "targeted industries", an idea which was
largely invented in offices by people who didn't work
in such places.

The most important political position for an individual
to have is their analysis of the society politically.
Where they are employed is a less important factor than
what they think about this society and what should be
done to bring socialism, or any social progress, about.

Peter's essay:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/camejo-against-sectarianism.html


Walter Lippmann


================================
WALTER LIPPMANN
Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
writer - photographer - activist
http://www.walterlippmann.com
================================

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