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Title: Class Author: Alan MacSimoin Date: 1991 Language: en Topics: class, Workers Solidarity Source: Retrieved on 9th October 2021 from http://struggle.ws/ws91/class31.html Notes: Published in Workers Solidarity No 31 â Summer 1991.
WHY IS THE concept of class so important to anarchists? Why are we
constantly talking about classes and class struggle? Some of our
opponents accuse us of living in the past, they claim the working class
is dying out. After all you donât see too many workers wandering around
in donkey jackets, cloth caps and heavy boots. So that settles the
question, doesnât it? No, it doesnât, so let us get away from silly
caricatures and get down to basics.
The modern world, like the societies that preceded it, does not consist
of a single group of people who have more in common than they have
dividing them. Sadly there is no single âhumanityâ, not yet. In every
country there is still a division of people into classes which have
conflicting interests.
Classes are defined by their relationship to the means of production;
their relationship to the factories, machinery, natural resources, etc.
with which the wealth of society is created. Although there are groups
such as the self-employed and the small farmers, the main classes are
the workers and the bosses. It is the labour of the working class that
creates the wealth. The bosses, through their ownership and control of
the means of production, have legal ownership of this wealth and decide
how it is to be distributed.
Only a part of this wealth is returned. Some is paid as wages, some as
the âsocial wageâ (hospitals, schools, public services, and so on). The
rest is creamed off as profit. But labour creates all wealth. An apple
on a tree is worth nothing until someone picks it, coal in the ground
has no use until someone mines it. What is known as surplus value or
profit is stolen wages.
The working class is the majority in Ireland today. All who work for a
wage, salary or commission are in its ranks. It consists of all who have
to sell their ability to work to those in control. It makes no
difference if you work in a factory, office, school, hospital or shop.
It makes no difference if you work with your hands or your brain,
whether you wear overalls or a suit, whether you earn âgoodâ or bad
wages.
The unemployed also form part of the working class. Social welfare
payments are made to those who have worked and those who may potentially
provide some employer with their labour power. It is a condition of
payment that a claimant is âavailable for and actively seeking workâ.
Needless to say, the partners and children of workers are also part of
the same class, as are the retired.
The interests of the working class (wages, working conditions, jobs,
useful public spending, etc.) are in constant and inevitable conflict
with those of the boss class. They seek to maximise their profits and
gain an advantage over their competitors at the expense of the workers.
Anyone who talks about âsocial partnershipâ, about labour and capital
working together for the benefit of all is talking nonsense. What rights
we have and gains we have made have been the result of long and often
bitter struggles. The bosses only give such rights and concessions as
they are forced to. In times of recession, such as now, they try to make
workers pay through job losses, cuts in real wages, cuts in public
spending, productivity deals, etc. for the crisis that is a periodic and
inevitable product of capitalism.
Although capitalism oppresses people on many different levels, race and
sex to name but two; it is the exploitation of our labour that is
fundamental to the system. It is on this front that the fight for a new
society will be won or lost. If we can reclaim that aspect of our lives,
the system can be overturned and replaced with something much better.
The working class are brought together in large towns and cities. At
work we co-operate with others. Each person has to do their bit so that
the person at the next stage of production can do theirs. In the
services it is the same; in hospitals, schools and offices. This means
that the working class can be a force capable, not only of rebelling
against injustice but of taking over and recreating society in itsâ own
interests.
As a class we have to think and act collectively. In a strike you need
the support of your workmates and of the workers in supplier firms.
Individual action wonât get you very far. We have to co-operate. The
same applies to the mammoth task of creating a new society. We cannot
divide up an office or factory between all the workers there. We act as
a group or not at all. This collective nature that is part and parcel of
our class provides the basis for the solidarity and mutual aid we will
need to scrap the old order and build a truly free and egalitarian
society.
However just because someone is a worker it does not always follow that
he or she will think of themself as a worker, or realise the potential
for change that the working class collectively possesses. We all know of
workers who sometimes identify with their boss, or unemployed people who
become demoralised and totally isolated from any sense of belonging to
the working class. And there are plenty of ignorant academics running
around talking rubbish about a new âsub classâ and a ânatural conflictâ
between those with jobs and those without.
Class consciousness, an awareness of our common interests and the
potential we have for real change, needs to be encouraged and
strengthened. This is one of the tasks of an anarchist organisation.
The struggle between the classes will only come to an end when the boss
class and the state which protects their privileged position are
overthrown. Nationalisation or state control of the means of production
would not mean an end to class society. It would simply mean the
replacement of individual capitalists by a bureaucratic state
capitalism. Like their predecessors they would be in control and would
have the final say about what happens to the wealth we create. Whether
they like it or not this would be the logical outcome of the statist
politics of the Workers Party, Sinn Fein and the Labour Left.
Only the direct control and management of production by the working
class themselves can end the class division. A classless society is not
possible without this.
Everyone affected by a decision should have a say in making that
decision. Production in an anarchist society would be managed by an
elected workersâ council in each workplace. Planning on a higher level
would be subject to the agreement of delegates from the councils,
delegates who would be subject to a mandate from their members and
instantly recallable if they donât do the job they were elected to do.
In such a society the wealth would be created and managed for the
benefit of all. There would be no elite of bosses or rulers. This is the
vital precondition for real freedom.