I emphasise the inequalities of power which are based on the wage system all the time. I tell workers that if they want to 'empower' themselves, they need to gain control of the collective product of their labour. That is in fact what the class struggle is over, democratic control and ownership of the social product of labour. Of course, the wage system stands in the way of achieving that strategic goal.
Since 1898, the gains from continued worker productivity have gone to the 10% of Americans who own almost 90 percent of all stocks excluding pensions. That fact relates to inequality. In the USA, the Combined Salaries of 350,000 Pre-School Teachers is Less Than That of Five Hedge Fund Managers. Again, inequality based on the wage system. The conquest of political power in this 'lopsided' system of wealth and its social relation to political power (Tom Walker tm) can only be achieved by a class conscious proletariat acting for themselves in word and deed to abolish the wage system and establish common ownership of the land and the collective product of their labour. I think this praxis is what Rosa was getting at in 1898. Mike B) former dialogue below: "Equality" and "inequality" are highly ambiguous terms. As Marx pointed out, inequality is an essential precondition for equality. If John is able to move around only in a wheelchair and in addition needs a special diet, it is the height of cruelty to create equality of income between John and the young and physically vibrant Paul. MOREOVER -- The current emphasis in left rhetoric on inequality represents (in practice) a focus on policy as opposed to politics. Discussion of Policy (in abstraction from an emphasis on politics) is the core of idealist and individualist ideology. It is peaceful and lulling to indulge in endless speculation on the policies that "we" (never a very clear term) should adopt in order to 'solve' 'our' 'problems.' What the (potentially existing) working class confronts is wholly political: it is the question of POWER. We (sic) need to return to October 1898 and the following proposition: "Then what is it in our day to-day struggles that makes us a socialist party? It can only be the relation between these three practical struggles and our final goals. It is the final goal alone which constitutes the spirit and the content of our socialist struggle, which turns it into a class struggle. And by final goal we must not mean, as Heine has said, this or that image of the future state, but the prerequisite for any future society, namely the conquest of political power." Carrol -- Wobbly times http://wobblytimes.blogspot.com.au/ _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
