David R. Roediger not Dan Roediger. On Sat, Sep 26, 2020, 2:12 PM John A Imani <[email protected]> wrote:
> Louis Proyect, in his review of “The Sinking Middle Class > <https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/the-sinking-middle-class/>", cited its > author Dan Roedigger: > > “...as important as it is to recognize that teachers, nurses, and > millions of less adequately paid office and sales workers are key elements > of the US working class, contradictions of everyday life won’t let us rest > there What are we to do with a teacher, or nurse, or sanitation worker, or > meatpacker from Green Bay who becomes a labor activist while professing to > still (or also) be middle class? Must she pick? Should labor scholars > decide for her? These questions are especially vexed because *the working > class is largely defined by a relation to capital and management*, while *the > middle class includes a variety of such relationships and often turns > significantly on personal choice*.” > > So the former is an economic category while the latter is a 'state of > mind'. Agree. 'Middle class' is a myth of mind perpetrated upon and > perpetuated in us to divide us, as the working class, from ourselves. > > The determinant(s) of one's class is(are) the element(s) of the value of > the commodity that that one brings to the market. The commodity that we as > workers sell on the market is our ability to labor, our labor-power, > designated in Marxian economics as v. So long as the element of the value > of the commodity that members of the asserted *'middle class' *sell on > the market is limited to their ability to labor v then they are 'working > class', matters not how 'well-paid' they are. So long as they can just as > well be fired as hired then they are working class, all other such > self-flatteries, all other feigned pretensions aside. > > Comrade Proyect then cited Marx: > > "The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. > the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same > time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of > material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the > means of mental production... > > Can I give a good non-Christian "Amen". > > Such confusion of sociological descriptors with economic categories also > infects the usage of the term 'petit-bourgeoisie'. All too oft used as a > castigation, it is an "I will know it when I see it" type of proposition, > hurled as an aspersion upon those in certain professions, e.g. teachers. > Or those perceived as affecting a certain lifestyle. As above, 'states of > mind'. > > But most peculiar is its usage amongst self-proclaimed-Marxists when Marx > and Engels are quite clear that petit-bourgeois is an economic category, > specifically, a class. A class whose elements of value of their commodity > offered on the market differs from the elements of value of the products of > other classes. An accounting of those elements of the petit-bourgeois' > commodity value would here take longer when this has gone on long enough. > But suffice it to say (by Marx and Engels): > > “Of course he (the capitalist) can, like his labourer, take to work > himself, participate directly in the process of production, but he is then > only* a hybrid between capitalist and labourer*, a ‘small master’.” Marx. > " Capital Vol 1. " > *https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch11.htm > <https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch11.htm>* > > “It now turns out that not *every* sum of money can be transformed into > capital — that a minimum exists: the cost price of a single labour-power > and of the necessary instruments of labour. In order to be able to live > like a worker, the capitalist would have to have two workers, with a rate > of surplus-value of 50 per cent, and yet save nothing. Even with eight, he > is still a small master.” Engels. “Synopsis of Capital” (Vol 1) Chap 3. > Section 5. > *https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/1868-syn/ch03.htm > <https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/1868-syn/ch03.htm>* > > JAI > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#1962): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/1962 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/77125683/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
