On Wed, May 27, 2026 at 03:24 AM, Fred Fuentes wrote: > > It has become fashionable to declare that class struggle has faded into > the past. >
There has always been and continues to be class struggle in capitalist societies. Strikes, demonstrations, and riots have accompanied the system's development from its inception to the present day. They have been as much a regular feature of capitalism as exploitation and profit-seeking. The tempo of class struggle varies based on the relationship of forces in any given period. When labour is in demand, workers are confident and assertive and employers and the state are forced to make concessions. Technological advances which produce surplus labour has an opposite effect. Workers who feel their jobs are precarious are generally loathe to challenge their employers and risk dismissal. Class struggle has almost always been expressed in demands for reform - typically for the defence or expansion of democratic rights and for improvements in living and working conditions. Revolutions have only occured in rare circumstances - when the state and system have collapsed, and are no longer able to provide the masses with their basic needs for survival, often in wartime or post-war conditions of scarcity. In such cases, workers and peasants have gravitated en masse to revolutionary parties promising peace, the restoration of production and living standards, and a new and more just social order. Outside of such desperate circumstances where people are required to take up arms and risk their lives, revolutionary parties will remain relegated to the political sidelines, however formally correct their program and dedicated their leadership. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#41852): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/41852 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/119000131/21656 -=-=- 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. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
