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