Simon,
I would greatly enjoy a serious debate but I just wasn't clear if it
was your own particular conviction as it appears in your first reply
or a party position in the making as it appears in the second. And in
either case it was not clear to me what you thought was new in such a
position. Much of what you said (other than that 99% of the world
population makes up the economic working class) can be found in the
throughout Marx and Engles writings.
Your central point appears to be that the traditional model has
altered but as you point out that was just a caricature and so you
seem to be just restating the more scientific Marxist definition of
the working class as a economic class confronting capital with no
power except to fight politically (and physically) against it.
If I am correct then I agree whole-heartedly. If on the other hand
you argument is that we now live in a post-industrial, post-family
virtual world where the working class become a disparate collection
of individuals economically opposed to capital but unable to mobilize
socially then I remain very wary. This could certainly be taken as
the ultimate conclusion of your argument by the likes of the
cyber-communists!
> No. I am saying that the economic ruling class constitute about 1% or less
> of the world's population. I am not talking about the various remnants of
> previous economic stages, like petit-b and peasants, and the lumpen-proles
> are members of the economic working class who attack their fellow workers
> in the service of capital, right?
Well what are you saying - you said that the economic working class
was 99% which if you mean the proletariat as Marx defined it does no
add up. What it just rhetoric? You initial post was that the problem
we all need to confront is 'who are the working class and while
rejecting the caricature your definition is far from clear. These
other classes may be part of the previous economic stages but they
are still here and they still effect the balance of political forces.
On other minor point the lumpen-proletariat (that dangerous class
that social scum) I have always viewed as a broad spectrum of the
dispossessed who vasilate between classes and hence are easily won over
to the services of capital but usually in the form of something
approaching fascism - but this is often a thorny issue- especially if
one tries to define them).
Regards,
JOHN
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