[PEN-L:1996] Re: lass position of professors

[glevy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Terrence Mc Donough wrote:

> Academia retains a
> guild structure and along with the mafia and the Catholic Church is
> one of the few relatively uncontaminated feudal institutions still
> viable within the twentieth century capitalist social formation.

> Politically and culturally they
> probably have most in common with other professionals like doctors
> and lawyers, small business people providing services with certain
> legally enforced guild-like monopoly privileges.  Since class
> formation is itself a process of class struggle which takes place at
> the political and cultural levels as well as at the economic level,
> professors on balance probably do occupy a petit-bourgeois class
> position.
--------
(1)  The analogy to the Catholic Church and the mafia is ... humorous.
Terrence seems to forget the *capitalist* character of many colleges and
the fact that faculty are not the ones who make the most important
*decisions*. Those remain "management prerogotives" whether the college
is private or public.

(2) Colleges pre-date capitalism, it is true. Perhaps under *feudalism*,
one could speak of the guild structure of academics. That time has long
passed. Just as other occupations had guilds under feudalism (e.g.
carpenters), the character of labor is altered under capitalism despite
its feudal origins.

(3) The class that individuals belong to is not determined by the
*perceptions* (cultural and political) of the individuals themselves.
Class membership is *different* from class consciousness. Many, many
workers (in all segments of the working class) do not have class
consciousness. This, however, does not mean that they are not part of the
working class despite their false consciousness.

(4) Doctors, lawyers, and computer programmers *can* be part of the
working class when they are employed by capitalist institutions.  They
may view themselves, though, as "professionals." As Lenin once said to
Clara Zetkin (paraphrase): "one can no more judge an individual by his
own statements than once can judge a book by its cover."

(5) None of Terrence's post accounts for the way in which academia has
changed in the last few decades and how it has affected the salary,
status, job security, etc. of faculty. Faculty are closer today, IMO, to
being proletarians than at any point in the past. At one school where I
teach, for instance, we are now required to sign-in and sign-out just
like when I had to punch-in and punch-out at a auto plant. This process,
of course, is uneven internationally. Academics still have standing,
rank, and commensurate salary in many countries. In the US, we are
frequently worse off in real terms than most organized workers. We *are*
workers. The problem, IMO, is that too many of us don't realize this fact
yet and act accordingly.

Jerry