DOCSLIB.ORG

Chapter Six the Class-That-Lives-From-Labour: the Working Class Today

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Chapter Six the Class-That-Lives-From-Labour: the Working Class Today Chapter Six The Class-that-Lives-from-Labour: the Working Class Today Towards a broader notion of the working class The expression ‘class-that-lives-from-labour’ used in this study is concerned in the first instance with giving contemporary validity to the Marxist concept of the working class. With many theories asserting the analytical loss of validity of the notion of class, our designation aims to emphasise the current meaning of the working class, its form of being. Therefore, in contrast to the authors who defend the idea of the extinction of social classes, of the working class or even of work itself, the expression class-that-lives-from-labour seeks to update and broaden the concept of the social being that labours, of today’s working class, to comprehend its effective reality, its processes and its concrete form.1 The definition of this class includes a set of analytical elements that I outline below. The class-that-lives-from-labour, the working class, today embraces the totality of those who sell their labour-power, with productive workers (in the sense Marx attributed to this, especially in Chapter VI, 1. The thesis of labour as a value on the route to extinction is explored at length in Méda 1997. A more empirical text, where the growing reduction of employment leads a trend towards the end of work, is provided by Rifkin 1995. See also Pakulski and Waters 1996, which defends the notion of the dissolution of social classes and the loss of their conceptual validity in advanced societies. Harvie 1997, pp. 192–3, provides a critique of their thesis. Castells 1998, in a dense and wide-reaching study, offers new elements with which to think of the centrality of labour today starting from a contractualist defence of the wage-society. The Class-that-Lives-from-Labour • 81 unpublished) representing the central nucleus. It is not therefore restricted to direct manual labour, but incorporates the totality of social labour, the totality of collective wage-labour. As productive labour directly produces surplus-value and directly participates in the process of capital-valorisation, it plays a central role within the working class, with the industrial proletariat as its primary nucleus. Therefore, productive labour, where the proletariat is to be found, in our reading of Marx, is not restricted to direct manual labour (despite it being its central nucleus), but also incorporates forms of labour that are not productive, that produce surplus-value, but are not directly manual. Yet, the class-that-lives-from-labour also comprises unproductive workers, those whose forms of labour are used as a service, either for public use or for the capitalist, and who are not constituted as a directly productive ele- ment, as a live element in the process of capital-valorisation and creation of surplus-value. They are those, according to Marx, whose labour is consumed as a use-value and not as labour that creates exchange-value. They constitute a growing wage-earning segment of contemporary capitalism, despite some branches within it being in decline, as we will see below. They are constituted as ‘non-productive, anti-value generating constituents of the capitalist labour process [but who] share the same premises and are built on the self-same material foundations. They belong to those “false costs and useless expenses of production”, which are, nevertheless, absolutely vital to the survival of the system.’2 Given, therefore, that all productive workers are wage-earners and not all wage- earners are productive, an updated notion of the working class must, broadly, embrace the totality of wage-earning workers. This does not deny, as mentioned above, the central role of the productive worker, of collective social labour that creates exchange-value, of the modern industrial proletariat, within the class-that-lives- from-labour, which is evident as the reference draws on Marx’s formulation. But, since there is a growing overlap between productive and unproductive labour in contemporary capitalism and the working class incorporates these two basic dimensions of labour under capitalism, this broader notion seems funda- mental for an understanding of what the working class is today.3 We know that Marx (often in collaboration with Engels) used the notions of proletariat, working class and wage-earners as synonyms, as can been seen in, for example, the Communist Manifesto. But he also often emphasised, espe- cially in Capital, that the proletariat was essentially made up of producers of 2. Mészáros 1995, p. 533. 3. On productive and unproductive labour, and on the meaning of socially-combined labour, see Marx 1994. Mandel also provides some succinct and insightful consider- ations on how to think of the working class today. .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Racial D~Vision of Labour in Soutie Africa+
    CAP1TY.L F?ESTRUCTORING AKD THE MOD~CATIONOF THE RACIAL D~VISIONOF LABOUR IN SOUTIE AFRICA+ Robert Davies Recent months* have seen a number of signs that a process of restructuring involving certain modifications to the racial division of labour and job colour bar regulations is currently underway in South Africa. In December 1977, for example, a number of statutory job reservation deteminations were scrapped by the Ivlinister of Labour. In June of this year an agreement between the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation (SEIFSA) and the wkite trade union bureaucracies abolished previous closed shop agreements which had the effect of barring Africans from certain grades of work; and similar agreements have also been entered into in other industries, notably fmznfture making. (1) But the most significant moves in this direction are expected to follow the publication of the report of the Wiehahn Commission of Inquiry into industrial legislation later this year,** llInformedmesses1' suggest that the Commission will, in addition to recommending a strategy aiming at the incorporation of the African trade union movement into a bureaucratic and rigidly controlled "industrial relationsl1 system, also recommend the repeal of all statutory "job reservatione1legislation and the prohibition of closed shop agreements which have the effect of restricting certain places in the division of labour to members of particular racial groups. (2) Although these moves in no way foreshadow the final end of the job colour bar in South Africa (the alternative forms of llprotection of minority ri&tsn which the Commission will recommend will probably amount in practice to a more concealed and less comprehensive but none the less real job colour bar), lkey are impor.tant moves in the class struggle with potentially significant effects on the class structure asnd future trajectory of class S-1;xuggle.
    [Show full text]
  • Low-Paid Employment and Moving Up: a Closer Look at Full-Time, Full-Year Workers 1996-2001 by Teresa Janz
    Catalogue no. 75F0002MIE — No. 009 ISSN: 1707-2840 ISBN: 0-662-37994-2 Research Paper Income research paper series Low-paid employment and moving up: A closer look at full-time, full-year workers 1996-2001 by Teresa Janz Income Statistics Division Jean Talon Building, Ottawa, K1A 0T6 Telephone: 613 951-7355 This paper represents the views of the author and does not necessailyr reflect the opinions of Statistics Canada. How to obtain more information Specific inquiries about this product and related statistics or services should be directed to Client Services, Income Statistics Division, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0T6 ((613) 951-7355; (888) 297-7355; [email protected]). For information on the wide range of data available from Statistics Canada, you can contact us by calling one of our toll-free numbers. You can also contact us by e-mail or by visiting our Web site. National inquiries line 1 800 263-1136 National telecommunications device for the hearing impaired 1 800 363-7629 Depository Services Program inquiries 1 800 700-1033 Fax line for Depository Services Program 1 800 889-9734 E-mail inquiries [email protected] Web site www.statcan.ca Ordering and subscription information This product, Catalogue no. 75F0002MIE2004009, is available on Internet free. Users can obtain single issues at: http://www.statcan.ca/cgi-bin/downpub/research.cgi. Standards of service to the public Statistics Canada is committed to serving its clients in a prompt, reliable and courteous manner and in the official language of their choice. To this end, the Agency has developed standards of service which its employees observe in serving its clients.
    [Show full text]
  • Fictitious Capital and the Elusive Quest in Understanding Its Implications: Illusions and Paradoxes*
    CADMUS, Volume 2, No.3, October 2014, 55-65 Fictitious Capital and the Elusive Quest in Understanding its Implications: Illusions and Paradoxes* Joanílio Rodolpho Teixeira Fellow, World Academy of Art & Science; Emeritus Professor, University of Brasilia, Brazil Paula Felix Ferreira Post-graduate Student, Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain Abstract This paper deals with the interaction between fictitious capital and the neoliberal model of growth and distribution, inspired by the classical economic tradition. Our renewed interest in this literature has a close connection with the recent international crisis in the capitalist economy. However, this discussion takes as its point of departure the fact that standard eco- nomic theory teaches that financial capital, in this world of increasing globalization, leads to new investment opportunities which improve levels of growth, employment, income distribu- tion, and equilibrium. Accordingly, it is said that such financial resources expand the welfare of people and countries worldwide. Here we examine some illusions and paradoxes of such a paradigm. We show some theoretical and empirical consequences of this vision, which are quite different and have harmful constraints. 1. Introduction There is an extensive controversy concerning traditional models of economic equi- librium and new development paradigms based on an interdisciplinary, broader study of economics. When faced with the harmful effects of misguided directives in an economic and global sense, theorists have the obligation not only to explain their causes, but also to offer a practical solution or alternate thinking. After all, consistent levels of poverty, unemploy- ment and low growth are results which were not expected in orthodox economic models of equilibrium and should be dealt with instead of being thrown aside as a politically restricted issue.
    [Show full text]
  • Unfree Labor, Capitalism and Contemporary Forms of Slavery
    Unfree Labor, Capitalism and Contemporary Forms of Slavery Siobhán McGrath Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science, New School University Economic Development & Global Governance and Independent Study: William Milberg Spring 2005 1. Introduction It is widely accepted that capitalism is characterized by “free” wage labor. But what is “free wage labor”? According to Marx a “free” laborer is “free in the double sense, that as a free man he can dispose of his labour power as his own commodity, and that on the other hand he has no other commodity for sale” – thus obliging the laborer to sell this labor power to an employer, who possesses the means of production. Yet, instances of “unfree labor” – where the worker cannot even “dispose of his labor power as his own commodity1” – abound under capitalism. The question posed by this paper is why. What factors can account for the existence of unfree labor? What role does it play in an economy? Why does it exist in certain forms? In terms of the broadest answers to the question of why unfree labor exists under capitalism, there appear to be various potential hypotheses. ¾ Unfree labor may be theorized as a “pre-capitalist” form of labor that has lingered on, a “vestige” of a formerly dominant mode of production. Similarly, it may be viewed as a “non-capitalist” form of labor that can come into existence under capitalism, but can never become the central form of labor. ¾ An alternate explanation of the relationship between unfree labor and capitalism is that it is part of a process of primary accumulation.
    [Show full text]
  • Harvey's Limits of Capital: Twenty Years After
    On the Limits of Limits to Capital Bob Jessop Professor, Department of Sociology Lancaster University Copyright This online paper may be cited or briefly quoted in line with the usual academic conventions. You may also download it for your own personal use. This paper must not be published elsewhere (e.g. mailing lists, bulletin boards etc.) without the author's explicit permission. But please note that • if you copy this paper you must include this copyright note • this paper must not be used for commercial purposes or gain in any way, • you should observe the conventions of academic citation in a version of the following form: Bob Jessop, ‘On the Limits of Limits of Capital’, published by the Department of Sociology, Lancaster University at: http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/sociology/soc129rj.htm Harvey's magisterial text is a sustained attempt to develop the basic method, extend the substantive arguments, and overcome some of the theoretical limits of Marx's classic critique of political economy. Yet Limits to Capital has its own limits and these are often rooted in the limits of Capital itself. Let us recall that the latter is an unfinished text. In the 1857 outline of his future magnum opus, Marx stated his intention to write six 'books' (Marx 1973; cf. Harvey 1982: xiv). These would deal in turn with capital, landed property, wage-labour, the state, foreign trade, and the world market and crises. The chosen order of presentation corresponded to his method of analysis, which moved from abstract-simple objects to the reproduction of the totality as a concrete-in-thought.
    [Show full text]
  • Marxism, Sociology and Poulantzas's Theory of the State
    Marxism, Sociology and Poulantzas's Theory of the State Simon Clarke 1 Introduction Political developments in the last ten years have led to a very considerable re- newal of interest in Marxist economic and political analysis, and to a concerted attempt to reinvigorate Marxist theory as a revolutionary force. The focus of this movement is the attempt to develop a Marxist critique of Stalinist dogma- tism and of post-Stalinist revisionism. Its material conditions are the end of the long wave of post-war capitalist expansion and the reappearance of capitalist crisis, on the one hand, and the development of working class resistance to the domination of capital independently of the orthodox Communist Parties, on the other. This Marxist renaissance is taking place in conditions which make it ex- tremely vulnerable to absorption into the frame of reference of bourgeois ideol- ogy. Since 1930 Marxist theory has been positively or negatively dominated by the official Marxism of the orthodox Communist Parties (which I shall refer to as `dogmatism'). Those Marxists who were not prepared to subordinate themselves to dogmatism were not able to challenge it either. The period of cold war and the absence of independent working class resistance to capital meant that there was no basis on which such a challenge could be mounted. The independence of such Marxism was maintained by its diversion of attention from political and economic concerns. It was dominated by the attempt to explain the ap- parent solidity of bourgeois domination by reference to specific superstructural features which varied from one country to another, thus constituting various na- tional schools of `Western Marxism', which borrowed heavily from the dominant bourgeois cultural theories in the various countries.
    [Show full text]
  • Modern Slavery Typologies for Financial Services Providers
    Modern Slavery Typologies for Financial Services Providers Modern Slavery Typologies for Financial Services Providers INDEX 3 The ‘Modern Slavery Typologies’ Project 10 Forced Prostitution 16 Fishing 22 Domestic Servitude 28 Construction 34 Manufacturing: Textile and Apparel 40 Agriculture: Plantations 46 An Overview of the Mekong Club 47 References The ‘Modern Slavery Typologies’ Project The purpose of this project This project aims to equip financial service professionals with an understanding of the trends and typologies that are present in modern slavery. This will enhance their ability to assess and mitigate risk within their client portfolios, and identify red flags for better monitoring and reporting of suspicious activity. There is a range of methods that financial institutions can employ in order to contribute to the fight against modern slavery. These include training frontline staff to recognise the signs of a trafficked person in a face-to-face encounter, identifying suspicious activity when the individual visits their branch, or identifying the physical signs of abuse that could indicate a person has been trafficked and is under duress. Furthermore, financial institutions can consider the industries, business types, and locations that are particularly high risk with regards to modern slavery activity. By understanding the typical profile of businesses and institutions that are ‘high risk’, the financial service provider can adjust its risk appetite to avoid funding or supporting illicit activity. In addition, certain transactional activity carried out by individuals or businesses may indicate illegal activity. Financial institutions have a wealth of transactional data at their disposal, but it is important for those assessing this data to understand the patterns that could indicate modern slavery activity.
    [Show full text]
  • Marx on Absolute and Relative Wages
    Munich Personal RePEc Archive Marx on absolute and relative wages Levrero, Enrico Sergio Roma Tre University, Department of Economics September 2009 Online at https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/20976/ MPRA Paper No. 20976, posted 26 Feb 2010 06:51 UTC Marx on absolute and relative wages Enrico Sergio Levrero, Department of Economics, Roma Tre University∗ Introduction 1. The aim of this paper is to clarify some aspects of Marx’s analysis of the determinants of wages and of the peculiarity of labour as a commodity, concentrating upon three related issues. The first is that of Marx’s notion of the subsistence (or natural) wage rate: subsistence wage will be shown to stem, according to Marx, from socially determined conditions of reproduction of an efficient labouring class. The second issue refers to the distinction between the natural and the market wage rate that can be found in Marx, and his critique of Ricardo’s analysis of the determinants of the price of labour. Here the “law of population peculiar to capitalist mode of production” (that is, Marx’s industrial reserve army mechanism) will be considered, both with respect to cyclical fluctuations of wages and to their trend over time. Moreover, a classification of the social and institutional factors affecting the average wage rate will be advanced. Finally, Marx’s analysis of the effects of technical progress on both absolute and relative wages will be considered, also relating it back to the long-standing debate on the Marxian law of the falling rate of profit, and addressing some possible scenarios of the trend of wages and distribution.
    [Show full text]
  • What They Believe and Where They're Taking Us
    — IN CANADA — What They Believe and Where They’re Taking Us An Express Employment Professionals White Paper ExpressPros.com/CA “When we talk about the labour force only in terms of ‘blue collar’ and ‘white collar,’ we’re oversimplifying. Understanding the modern workforce requires taking a closer look at the vast middle, rethinking old labels and getting to know this vital group: grey collar workers.” —Bill Stoller, CEO, Express Employment Professionals A Nationwide Study A survey of 507 grey collar workers was conducted online within Canada by The Harris Poll on behalf of Express Employment Professionals between June 18 and July 8, 2019. Grey collar workers were defined as adults ages 18+ who are employed full-time, employed part-time or self-employed and work in one of the following professions: airline pilot or flight attendant, agribusiness professional (e.g., farmer, land manager), certified/licensed salesperson (e.g., real estate broker, stockbroker, insurance broker), clergy (e.g., minister, rabbi, imam), child care (e.g., nanny, au pair), engineer (e.g., mechanical, electrical, avionics, civil), firefighter, funeral director/technician, food preparation and catering (e.g., chef, sous chef), high-technology technician (e.g., lab technician, helpdesk technician, IT professional, medical equipment repair, solar panel installer), non-physician healthcare professional (e.g., nurse, emergency medical services personnel, physician’s assistant), paralegal, police officer, protective services, military, security or civil defense, professional musician/artist, school administrator, teacher, educator or other academic field worker, or typist/stenographer). The survey also included 500 Canadian white collar workers (defined as adults ages 18+ in Canada who are employed full-time, part-time, or self- employed and work in an office, cubicle, or other administrative setting).1 2 GREY COLLAR: WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Blue collar.
    [Show full text]
  • Transformations in Capital Accumulation
    Transformations in capital accumulation: From the national production of an universal labourer to the international fragmentation of the productive subjectivity of the working-class Juan Iñigo Carrera Buenos Aires, 2002 CICP CENTRO para la INVESTIGACION como CRITICA PRACTICA [email protected] Transformations in capital accumulation: From the national production of an universal labourer to the international fragmentation of the productive subjectivity of the working-class Juan Iñigo Carrera 1. The starting point The revolutionary action of the working-class needs to organise itself through the awareness of its concrete determinations. Since we are focusing on a process characterised by international integration and fragmentation, it could seem that the most concrete approach is that circumscribed to the economic policies that prevailed in the different national processes of capital accumulation involved.1 Still, this approach ends up by bringing down all historically-specific necessity to the immediate action of those that personify capital. Thus, apologetics of capitalism presents national capitalists and state-bureaucrats as the social subjects whose abstract will rules the historical movement. Opposite to this sterility it could seem that the starting point lies in capitalism’s global unity, once this unity is represented as the movement of accumulation regimes, their rise, ‘failure’ and fall. Still, then, the subject of historical change seems to have vanished, as if this were ‘a process without a subject’.2 Once again, abstraction has displaced the concrete. It could seem, then, that the answer lies on circumscribing the global unity of accumulation to its concrete manifestation: class struggle. Still, considered in itself, class struggle comes down to a series of confrontations in which, now the working-class prevails and advances, now it is defeated and retreats, at the rhythm imposed by the development of working-class consciousness.
    [Show full text]
  • Singapore 2021-2022 Clyde & Co Clasis Singapore Pte
    EMPLOYMENT LAW OVERVIEW SINGAPORE 2021-2022 Clyde & Co Clasis Singapore Pte. Ltd. / Proud Member of L&E GLOBAL EMPLOYMENT LAW OVERVIEW an alliance of employers’ counsel worldwide 2021-2022 / SINGAPORE | 1 www.leglobal.org TABLE OF CONTENTS. I. GENERAL OVERVIEW 03 II. HIRING PRACTICES 04 III. EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTs 06 IV. WORKING CONDITIONs 08 V. Anti-DiscriminAtion LAws 10 VI. PAY EQUITY LAWS 12 VII. SOCIAL MEDIA AND DATA PRIVACY 13 VIII. TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTs 14 IX. RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS 16 X. TRANSFER OF UNDERTAKINGS 17 XI. TRADE UNIONS AND EMPLOYERS ASSOCIATIONS 18 XII. EMPLOYEE BENEFITS 19 EMPLOYMENT LAW OVERVIEW an alliance of employers’ counselcounsel worldwideworldwide 2021-2022 / SINGAPORE | 2 I. GENERAL OVERVIEW 1. INTRODUCTION The Singapore employment legal system is comprised of employment legislation and common law principles. In addition, guidelines and advisories from the Ministry of Manpower (“MOM”) and the Tripartite Alliance for Fair & Progressive Employment Practices (“TAFEP”) (consisting of the Ministry of Manpower, National Trade Union Congress and Singapore National Employers Federation) are highly persuasive. Employment- related claims in Singapore can be heard in the Employment Claims Tribunal, State Courts of Singapore and the Supreme Court of Singapore. employers and applicable employees would need 2. KEY POINTS to meet the minimum standards prescribed under the Employment Act. Part IV of the Employment • The Employment Act is Singapore’s main piece Act, which provides for rest days, hours of work of employment law legislation and provides and other conditions of service, only applies to: a for the basic terms and working conditions for workman (doing manual labour) earning a basic employees.
    [Show full text]
  • Keywords—Marxism 101 Session 1 Bourgeoisie
    Keywords—Marxism 101 Session 1 Bourgeoisie: the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labour. Capital: an asset (including money) owned by an individual as wealth used to realize a fnancial proft, and to create additional wealth. Capital exists within the process of economic exchange and grows out of the process of circulation. Capital is the basis of the economic system of capitalism. Capitalism: a mode of production in which capital in its various forms is the principal means of production. Capital can take the form of money or credit for the purchase of labour power and materials of production; of physical machinery; or of stocks of fnished goods or work in progress. Whatever the form, it is the private ownership of capital in the hands of the class of capitalists to the exclusion of the mass of the population. Class: social stratifcation defned by a person's relationship to the means of production. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Pyramid_of_Capitalist_System.png Class struggle: an antagonism that exists within a society, catalyzed by competing socioeconomic interests and central to revolutionary change. Communism: 1) a political movement of the working class in capitalist society, committed to the abolition of capitalism 2) a form of society which the working class, through its struggle, would bring into existence through abolition of classes and of the capitalist division of labor. Dictatorship of the Proletariat: the idea that the proletariat (the working class) has control over political power in the process of changing the ownership of the means of production from private to collective ownership as part of a socialist transition to communism.
    [Show full text]