In his book, Michael Lebowitz makes the case that workers' needs evolve and
are socially determined, and that Marx didn't write more about it because
life is short. There's no simple mapping from income (or wealth) to class.
The class line is mainly drawn by the objective role of people in the
structure of social productive relations.
snip
It seems to me that people in the left has not explored yet the political
implications of Michael's ideas. Then, when we see people with relatively
high incomes, we assume they're on the other side of the class line, and
show surprise that they actually demonstrate a tremendous potential for
progressive political work. I'm not saying that the differences in income
within the working people, differences that are huge especially when we draw
international comparisons, don't pose problems in the effort to attain
unity. Of course, they do. And I'm not saying that the conditions of poor,
disadvantaged workers shouldn't be top priority in the struggle. But this
says that, just as we shouldn't glorify the culture of young urban, educated
workers, we shouldn't regard it offhand as alien to the working class.
'4. Building solidarity within capitalism
Insofar as workers across the globe relate only as wage-labourers, their immediate interests collide; in capitalist globalisation they are in competition--- competition over jobs, incomes and working conditions. In this competition among workers, capital is the beneficiary. Twist and turn as we may, we cannot wish this away because it is not illusion but reality. True, we can assert that all workers have a mutual interest in opposing capital; yet, we must acknowledge that this interest is not necessarily as immediate to them as their struggle to satisfy their needs and those of their families.
Nevertheless, we must recognise that workers--- regardless of their immediate interests as wage-labourers--- can be united in other ways. They have a common interest in struggling for democracy and against the assault on democracy that neo-liberalism leads. They have a common interest in battling against state restrictions on trade union organising and the rights of citizens. They have a common interest in preventing and dismantling those so-called trade agreements (like NAFTA) insofar as these are not about trade as such but, rather, involve the restriction of state sovereignty--- and, thus, restrict the ability of the people to determine the decisions which affect them. In all this, there is the universal affirmation that the people--- rather than unelected secret tribunals and the gnomes of finance--- must decide.
Insofar as attempts to build unity among workers are limited to their interests as wage-labourers, these efforts are pursued in a dimension in which capital is stronger. Yet, wage-labour is only one side of these workers; to view them only in this way is to think of them one-dimensionally and to weaken the struggle against capital. These workers are also citizens, who can grasp the injustice of neo-liberalism; they are members of families and communities, who can understand the importance of good health and education for the development of children; and, they are human beings who can empathise with the suffering imposed upon people of the South by the effects of massive international debt.
What is called for, in short, is the necessity to go beyond economism and to develop a new strategy rooted in the recognition that workers are not one-dimensional. By searching for those aspects that unite working people around the world, it is possible to prevent capital from playing workers off against each other. Insofar as we can see each other as members of a human community, we overcome the fetishism of commodities and no longer see only commodities and faceless competitors.
This point often has been grasped intuitively better by religious and charitable societies than by organisations of the Left; it reveals the importance of efforts to establish direct relations of solidarity between communities. For, insofar as workers of the North act in solidarity with workers of the South as human beings, they not only come to recognise the latter as allies in the struggle against their common enemy, capital, but also develop their own social nature. When a conscious process is undertaken to create new relations among producers, then despite capital�s efforts, the contradictions among the people are non-antagonistic.
Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6
Currently based in Venezuela. Can be reached at
Residencias Anauco Suites
Departamento 601
Parque Central, Zona Postal 1010, Oficina 1
Caracas, Venezuela
(58-212) 573-4111
fax: (58-212) 573-7724
