1. "CLASS" As an Analytical Category RCP, Chap 2

2. “Class” in 19th Century England  Self-evident  Especially “working class”  Bipolarity in wealth, income, power  Often used loosely, but commonly contradicted Classical Liberalism’s concept of atomistic society

3. “Class” in Marx-1  Concept of “class” goes with capitalism  capital = social relationship (not just money or machines)  social relationship = centered on work  “class” defined vis à vis work  work is imposed by some on others, so...

4. “Class” in Marx-2  those who impose work = capitalist class  those on whom work is imposed = working class  imposition  antagonistic relationship

5. Objections to Category of “Class”  Bipolarity of early capitalism changed by rise of “middle class”  Dickensian dichotomy between rich & poor, owners & workers  Mediated by middle layers, middle income  Conclusion: capitalist - worker distinction is inadequate  Should be replaced by “strata” etc.

6. Marxist Responses  empirical response: concentration of power  empirical response: bipolarity continues on global scale  theoretical response: “class” is not a sociological category

7. Marx’s Concept of “Class” Elaborated  two dimensions of concepts:  class-in-itself  class-for-itself

8. Class-in-itself  common characteristics  like a sociological “classification”  similar to philosophical concepts such as “being-in-itself” (Sartre)  “being-in-itself” = “being which is what it is and is not what it is not”

9. Working class in-itself  those who work  includes blue, white collar workers  includes managers who organize  includes engineers, scientists, etc., who invent, create  19th Century = factory workers +  Today = almost everyone

10. Capitalist Class in-itself  those who impose work  includes CEO’s, managers, overseers  includes everyone who internalizes imposition of work  19th Century = owners, managers  Today = almost everyone

11. Class-for-itself  Common struggle  Category of self-activity  Similar to philosophical concepts like “being-for-itself”(Sartre)  “being-for-itself” = “being which is what it is not and is not what it is”  “being-for-itself” = human being (for Marx, Sartre and many others)

12. Working class-for-itself-1  working class defined by resistance to, and struggle against, imposed work  everyone works, but not everyone struggles against it  some just “do their job”; some struggle  this self-activity can take many forms -forms have evolved over time, e.g., from “combinations” to “craft unions” to “industrial unions”to “rank & file insurgency”

13. Working class-for-itself-2  “working class” also defined by struggle FOR alternative ways of being  FOR “what we will”= multiplicity  FOR time & energy to be citizens  FOR time & energy for education  FOR post-capitalist worlds

14. Working class-for-itself-3  Struggles FOR alternatives ways-of-being which succeed  that “working class” is an inadequate category  Gauchos were only partly “workers”  Gauchos were hardly “capitalists”  Gauchos were “gauchos” --something “other”, outside the class relationship

15. Capitalist class-for-itself-1  Capitalists EXPAND THE IMPOSITION of the rules of the capitalist game  e.g., centrality of work  e.g., markets, money, profit  capitalists DEFEND against attacks  capitalists CO-OPT alternatives

16. Individuals & Class-1  “class” has been defined in terms of activity and behavior  only individuals “behave” in this way or that way  BUT clearly individuals are often in the situation of both having work imposed on them AND imposing work on others (including themselves)

17. Individuals & Class-2  Implication: “class” concerns the ROLES individuals play vis à vis the current social system  Class roles for individuals are often contradictory  No “pure” capitalists or workers (Madame Defarge was wrong)

18. Individuals & Class-3  Internal contradiction can mean: -schizophrenic lives -volatile, contradictory behaviors -fanaticism as solution  e.g., professional revolutionary  e.g., workaholic  endless balancing act

19. “Class” Composition  Both classes are heterogeneous  So, composition of classes must be analysed  Composition is dynamic, changes with the class struggle 1) Political Recomposition, e.g., formation of combinations 2) Decomposition, e.g., Combination Acts

20. “Class” and Revolution-1  “working class” is agent of revolution  “gravediggers” of capitalism  Revolution “explodes” capitalism  Revolution replaces capitalism  BUT does NOT replace one system by another  Rather a system is replaced by diversity

21. “Class” and Revolution-2  what might characteristics be?  working class struggle AGAINST work means in post-capitalist society people will only work to live, working class will be abolished  working class struggle FOR multiple alternatives means post-capitalist society will be multiple: societies

22. 20th Century Socialism  claimed to build one-class society of workers, workers’ state  reproduced capitalist glorification of work  reproduced class antagonisms of capitalism  amounted to “state capitalism”  rife with class struggle  which brought it down

23. 21st Century Revolution?  Are Zapatistas the embodiment of Marx’s vision of an explosive revolution that destroys domination and liberates diversity?

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