94 lines
5.2 KiB
Plaintext
94 lines
5.2 KiB
Plaintext
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from Libertarian Labor Review #16
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Winter 1994, pages 2-3
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Myth of the Vanishing Working Class
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It seems to be fashionable in the anarchist/anti-authoritarian
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milieu to downplay, if not ignore altogether, the importance of the
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working class as an agent of revolutionary change. The belief seems
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to be widespread that the working class in the de-industrializing
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first world is disappearing, and therefore that anarchists need to
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look for other "constituencies" with identities other than class to
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aim our propaganda at.
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Well, just to test out this thesis, I checked some statistics
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gathered by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Looking at
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the year 1991, the BLS reports some 116,877,000 employed people in
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the U.S. Of these, around 62.65 percent, or some 73,227,000 people,
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were employed as production or non-supervisory workers in private
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industry. Of these 73,227,000 workers, 22.56 percent (or 16,527,000
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people) were working in the goods-producing industries (i.e.,
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mining, construction and manufacturing); 77.43 percent (or
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56,700,000) were employed in the service-producing industries
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(i.e., transportation and public utilities, wholesale and retail
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trade, financial, insurance and real estate, and other services).
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Clearly the service-producing industries employ the majority
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of workers, but it is also clear that the goods-producing sector
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still employs millions of human beings. Besides, only a vulgar
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Marxist, or an anarchist who hasn't got the foggiest notion of what
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class means, would claim that the workers in the service industries
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are not part and parcel of the working class. Anarcho-syndicalists
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have always maintained that workers of both hand and brain need to
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organize, not only to overthrow capitalism but to re-organize the
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economy to feed, house, clothe, educate, entertain, care for the
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sick and do all those things than hold society together.
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Of course, the mere existence of the working class does not
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say anything about its revolutionary potential, but for anarchists
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to neglect the task of spreading our ideas within the working class
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is sheer suicide. It is no secret that the anarchist movement
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historically has only achieved any societal impact to the extent
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that its ideas penetrated the working class and influenced its
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organization. While it is clear that workers are capable of
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achieving a revolutionary consciousness without the aid of a
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"vanguard," it is also clear that this inchoate revolutionary
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consciousness is influenced by the propaganda of revolutionary or
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reactionary minorities. In Russia Leninism gained the upper hand;
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in Italy it was Fascism; in Spain, Anarchosyndicalism. In the U.S.
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at this time, the ideology of racial nationalism (both white and
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black), leading to race war, has a better chance of influencing the
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working class than does anarchism--primarily because the
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anarchist/anti-authoritarian milieu refuses to engage in any kind
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of working-class agitation or organizing, preferring, instead, to
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retreat into a cozy counter-cultural ghetto.
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If anarchists want to truly change this society we have to get
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back into the working class. There are no other alternatives.
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Mike Hargis
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Average Hours & Earnings of Production or Nonsupervisory Workers
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on Private, Nonfarm Payrolls--1991
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Industry Avg Hours Avg Earnings Avg. Earnings
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(Weekly) (Hourly) (Yearly)
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Total Private 34.3 $10.34 $18,442.42
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Mining 44.4 $14.21 $32,808.05
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Construction 38.1 $14.01 $27,756.61
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Manufacturing (All) 40.7 $11.18 $23,661.35
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Durable Goods 41.1 $11.75 $25,112.10
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Lumber & Wood 40 $9.28 $19,302.40
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Furniture 38.9 $7.77 $15,717.16
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Stone...Glass 41.7 $11.36 $24,633.02
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Primary Metals 42.2 $13.32 $29,229.41
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Steel 42.7 $15.33 $34,038.73
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Fabricated Metal 41.2 $11.21 $24,016.30
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Indust.Machinery 41.7 $12.17 $26,389.43
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Electronic 40.7 $10.73 $22,708.97
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Transport Equip. 41.9 $14.79 $32,224.45
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Motor Vehicles 42.3 $15.31 $33,675.72
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Instruments 41 $11.71 $24,965.72
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Miscellaneous 39.6 $8.85 $18,223.92
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Non-Durables 40.2 $10.44 $21,823.78
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Food 40.6 $9.88 $20,858.66
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Tobacco Products 39.2 $16.90 $34,448.96
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Textiles 40.6 $8.30 $17,522.96
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Apparel 37 $6.75 $12,987.00
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Paper 43.3 $12.70 $28,595.32
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Printing 37.8 $11.50 $22,604.40
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Chemicals 42.9 $14.08 $31,409.66
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Petroleum/Coal 44.1 $17.03 $39,053.20
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Rubber/Plastics 41.1 $10.10 $21,585.72
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Leather 37.3 $7.16 $13,887.54
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Transport & Utilities 38.7 $13.23 $26,624.05
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Wholesale Trade 38.1 $11.16 $22,110.19
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Retail Trade 28.6 $7.00 $10,410.40
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Finance, Insurance 35.8 $10.42 $19,397.87
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Services 32.5 $10.24 $17,305.60
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Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
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