Class Consciousness - The Missing Factor - Existence Denied by the Right

[NAO]

Class consciousness is the missing thing the left needs to gain popular support and gain an electoral majority.

There is ample evidence that the forces of conservatism have worked very hard to try to deny the class elements of politics and society. They have convinced people that there are various other menaces (gays, Hollywood, welfare cheats, immigrants, abortionists, internationalists, etc.) and that 'we are all Americans'. They try to minimize the awareness of class differences and class conflict, all the while waging covert class warfare on behalf of the wealthy class.

I believe that if people's eyes could be opened to the reality and magnitude of class issues and the degree to which they shape and dominate the national and even international agenda, we would have no problem winning elections. But how can people be made aware of class issues in a society where those who own the media are actively denying the existence of class?

Do DUers agree that lack of class consciousness is the most significant factor in the popular success of the right? (I include the 'religious right' vote here, as personal morality and life in the hereafter have been trumpeted to drown out class concerns.)

And if so, what is to be done to raise popular awareness of class forces? (Obviously, masses of people dropping into poverty and the underclass is not sufficient to raise awareness of this issue, as we saw in Nov. 2004.) So what does it take?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. a forum that tells the truth

instead of a media that simply spouts rw talking points.

[patrice]

2. Oh, if the lower middle-class only knew

how much our aristocracy tries to avoid the rif-raff.

The ones who are being duped aren't around them enough to know, but if they could only overhear some of what I've heard and seen in our public high schools, from the kids and their parents!

That's the problem, you have to be around them being themselves, not who they are for show, at church, or running for office or whatever.

It's a good question. I hope to see more about this.

[kodi]

3. the decrease of unions has blunted the articulation of class differences

.

[NAO]

4. Denigration of Unions has been a major program of the right

They have worked to turn people against unions.

They have produced years of slanted news coverage that portrays unions as tools of greedy lazy people who cause companies to fail and people to lose their jobs.

They have taught that unions once had a place, but now they are obsolete and cause more problems than they solve.

They have succeeded in changing attitudes, on a mass scale, to a negative opinion of labor unions.

The denigration of labor unions and their loss of effectiveness is one part of the larger program to erase class consciousness and pave the way for the plutocracy to triumph with popular support.

[spooky3]

5. I think one class segment that is being overlooked is

(on edit--maybe the word is underemphasized or underconsidered rather than overlooked)

the suburban middle class and upper middle class (not the wealthy--I'm talking about single person professional households, dual career households where both parties earn a decent living, etc.). Many of these people vote Rethug and those who are Dems do not know where they fit with the rich vs. poor dichotomy. They aren't the "working class" and they aren't the "poor" and they definitely don't feel (and aren't) rich. Somehow the Rethugs have convinced them they represent them better, and I don't think they do at all. I think the Dems' positions probably much more closely match those of many in this group, but somehow that message is NOT getting across.

[NAO]

9. aka, "The Petty Bourgeois"

from Wikepedia,

"The term was used by Karl Marx and Marxist theorists to refer to a class of people that would include shop-keepers (read small business owners) and professionals (read upper-middle class exurbanites)."

"Though distinct from the ordinary working class and the lumpenproletariat, who rely entirely on the sale of their labor-power for survival, they remain members of the proletariat rather than the haute bourgeoisie, or capitalist class, who own the means of production and buy the labor-power of others to work it. Though the petty bourgeois do buy the labor power of others, in contrast to the bourgeoisie they typically work alongside their own employees; although they generally own their own businesses, they do not own a controlling share of the means of production."

So there you go, the class you are describing was described over 100 years ago by Karl Marx, whose writings have taken on a haunting new relevance in the past few years...

[spooky3]

13. they're in the group I'm thinking of but there are lots of others in there

with them.

For example, I'm thinking of couples such as a pair of teachers, for example; or a police officer and a librarian; or a government worker and a manager of the toy department at your local Target store. These people buy a house in the suburbs so their kids will have enough space and good schools. They don't own businesses and may not be professionals. They're comfortable because they have two incomes and steady (usually) employment. College professors are professionals but most don't make a lot of money and I put them in this group. Pharmaceutical sales reps. You can think of a lot of others, I'm sure.

Class warfare definitely involves them but do they understand that they aren't winning the war? When we talk only about the classes "above" and "below" them, we are missing a big group, too many of whom, I fear, right now mistakenly believe that * and company are better friends to them than the Dems. are.

[stevebreeze]

11. In other words the people who mistake larger helpings of table scraps

for a seat at the table.

[spooky3]

14. definitely

[EC]

6. Yes, for years now, every time someone tells me I'm talking about

class warfare (as if it's a bad thing for us to wage against the wealthy) I say, you're damn right and the basis of our consumerism society is money distribution and that it's about time it distributed back to the consumer or there would be none....

[HawkerHurricane]

7. Class warfare is what happens...

when the lower classes start shooting back.

[TreasonousBastard]

8. Our definfitions of "class" have changed...

dramatically over the years.

Some union members have great contracts that make them better off than typical white-collar workers. I know longshoremen who make around $200,000 a year with their overtime. Union auto workers, electricians, carpenters (who still have jobs) are doing well and many state and local government employees are doing well. How about cops making $65,000?

Few of these people consider themselves "working class" any more and really don't identify even with other union workers, such as hotel maids and supermarket clerks, who aren't doing that well.

"Working class" has become synonomous with "loser" in a society that insists the only way to success is a college degree in anything, even as we have a shortage of competant carpenters and auto mechanics.

And, too many people I know don't want to fight the bosses because they want to BE the bosses some day.

[NAO]

10. Lots of college degreed, low-wage, service sector workers would dispute

your analysis.

I remember finding a job market at the end of a 4 year degree (in 1990) that had starting salaries as low as $15K. The management at the companies I worked for loved to hire "kids right out of college" so they could pay them dirt.

A friend of my wife's who graduated with a B.S. degree looked very long for a good job, and eventually hired a job finding service, who charged her $4,000 to get her a job as manager of the Lady Foot Locker in the mall.

Union or no-union, a college education (unless it is in a professional field like engineering) is not a ticket to high wages or social prestige. It matters today just a bit more than your "permanent record" of elementary school fame.

Family status and connections are much more significant determinants of financial success and highly respected, well paying positions. College buddies of mine who had wealthy parents and partied all through school, getting poor grades and sometimes not even graduating, ended up getting excellent high paid positions through family connections.

[TreasonousBastard]

16. We agree more than you may think...

I believe in education, and that everyone should have as much of it as they can handle to be available to them.

But, I never did really see education as simply trade school. It has been oversold as a way to get more money, but that's never really been the point of education. Lost in the "averages" of college grads making more than non-grads is that old-boy network you mention, and that some of the grads end up as professionals-- doctors, lawyers, etc. Teachers, librarians, historians, liberal arts majors generally... are making less than cops or plumbers now, and that may always have been the case.

My point is more about just how we define these "classes" that are at "war."

We've got some lawyers who are making millions and others who are satisfied as low-paid ADAs or public defenders. We've got PhD scientists driving limos and union electricians retiring on $6,500 a month.

Where do we draw the "class" lines? Education? Income? Professional licenses? Economic power?

[carnie_sf]

12. Absol utely

and whenever you bring it up the right starts screaming class warfare. We need to turn the class warfare card back on them. Point out the fact that the right has been waging class warfare since Reagan, all the while accusing the left of the very thing they're guilty of.

[stevebreeze]

15. I am very aware of class in our socity...I work in the homes of the rich

5 days a week. I install custom stair cases.
Although I usually work in new construction, I sometimes do remodeling too. One day the homeowner was there all day and was playing Vivaldi and some Aaron Copland. After a couple of hours he put on country music because he thought I would like it better. Now I love Hank Williams and bluegrass, but this was the affected country of the Garth brooks variety. It sucked! I have a wide and eclectic taste in music, and this moron "knew" by my profession what type of music I would prefer.