Working Class Consciousness

working-class consciousness and connections to place in the work of rancid abstract Karl Marx once wrote that 'men [sic] make their own history but they do not make it in the circumstances of their own choosing'. This article studies the lyrics of the widely respected Californian punk band Rancid. With the Marx quote in mind, the expectation is that Rancid will address the social and political conditions of the (post-)modern, post-communist world whilst retaining some of the left-wing, quasi-Marxist radicalism that is now an established part of the punk rock ethos (neo-Nazi bands aside). It is argued that Rancid has an 'emotive proletariat spirit' that identifies with San Francisco's East Bay region as a place of working-class, opposi-tional 'otherness', and with a globalized proletariat exploited by global capital and authoritarian regimes (see Rancid's songs on Africa and China). The band critically examines aspects of life in quasi-communist countries such as China and Cuba in a manner that is devoid of much of the romanticizing of Third World Communism present in Joe Strummer of the Clash's earlier punk world-view and mythology. Consistent with the present age, there is no expectation in Rancid of any future utopian socialist society and this point also distinguishes Rancid from the Clash, with whom they have frequently been compared.

The realization of class consciousness by the proletariat (such as how Gramsci recognizes the existence of a “collective consciousness” under the sway of cultural hegemony), what results in the advent of a communist revolution, and the reason that Marxism can be defined (as by Gramsci) as a “philosophy of praxis” or the “science of class struggle”, is the process of social action by which an individual or a collective can actively change the political and economic conditions of the culture in which they live. Just as Marx wrote, “Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it”, and Weber spoke of a theory of social action, the Marxist interpretation of history and class consciousness asserts the primacy of praxis over theory in Marx’s social ontology. Marx argues that there is a reciprocal relationship between the base and the superstructure, however the base is the determinant of the superstructure in the “last instance” for the reason that praxis is aligned with the base, rather than the false consciousness of the dominant ideas of society (i.e. the superstructure). Therefore even if the nature of everyday practice is conditioned by the dominant ideology, the proletarian ideology acts as a material force where praxis is the active changing of the base material relations through class struggle, while the dominant ideology acts to reproduce the mode of production of capitalist society, therefore constituting the dialectic of political discourse as the resolution of the contradiction of private property. Raymond Williams writes, “So, we have to say that when we talk of ‘the base’, we are talking of a process, and not a state.” Marx asserted the dominance of the base over the superstructure in ’A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy’ (1859), where he writes, “In the social production of their existence, humans inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness.” However Marx also wrote in the ‘Thesis on Fauerbach’ (1845), “The materialist doctrine that men are products of circumstances and upbringing, and that, therefore, changed men are products of changed circumstances and changed upbringing, forgets that it is men who change circumstances and that the educator must himself be educated…The coincidence of the changing of circumstances and of human activity and self-change can be conceived and rationally understood only as revolutionary practice.”

Acid communism. Psychedelic socialism. The freak Left. What do these terms mean? The Youth International Party, with a red star and a marijuana leaf on its flag, formed in 1967, a youth-oriented countercultural revolutionary party, who ran a pig, Pigasus the Immortal as its presidential candidate, and the campaign of Hunter S. Thompson for Sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado in 1970, on the “Freak Power” ticket, whose logo for Gonzo journalism and his Sheriff campaign was the “Gonzo fist” which interestingly has 6-fingers and is holding a peyote button; these examples better embody than any others the fusion of revolutionary libertarian socialist politics with the counterculture of the 1960s.

Mark Fisher, forefather of the “Acid Communism” project, committed suicide in 2017. In ‘Capitalist Realism’ he included a discussion of mental health in terms of the dominating hegemony of capitalism, his personal mental health struggles, and the effects of capitalism on individuality. He argued that the revitalization of democratic socialism and libertarian communism as alternatives to contemporary neoliberal capitalism had to move beyond the politics of anti-capitalism to a politics of post-capitalism that would recognize that the destruction of the organized left was predicated on the failure of this movement to come to terms with the cultural divergence of 1960s counterculture from the political mainstream. Furthermore, he warned of the transition from anti-statism to anti-politics in postmodernity. His argument, however, was that even in the midst of a total economic and ecological catastrophe, that the very functioning of the neoliberal ideology as hegemonic negates the forms of class struggle that challenge capitalist realism. In ‘Capitalist Realism’, the second chapter is called “What if you held a protest and everyone came?”. He goes on to argue that neoliberalism since the 1960s has maintained its system of dominance but in our contemporary era of technological acceleration, it has changed form: into a “more desperate, even faux-melancholic edge”. His main thesis is that the “strategy” of neoliberalism is not to condemn anti-capitalist protest, but instead present the idea that there is no viable alternative to capitalism - i.e. capitalist realism.

The 1960s was defined by the emergence of the New Left, the civil rights movement, anti-Vietnam War protests, environmentalism, the anti-nuclear movement, second-wave feminism, the gay rights movement; as well as the rise of middle class drug culture, beats, mods, hippies, and of course psychedelia. The focus of this analysis, based on the basic idea of Mark Fisher’s posthumous introduction to his unfinished ‘Acid Communism’, we see through the lens of Derrida’s concept of hauntology (e.g. the idolization of Ché Guevara during Occupy Wall Street) of the “slow cancelation of the future”, and the persistence of cultural elements that return like a ghost from the past, and Fisher’s unpublished book attempted to advance a solution to the earlier outline of ‘Capitalist Realism’ through the excavation of Marxism and 1960s culture to return to the cultural revolution of the 60s in the vein of the reality of hauntology such that we see both Derrida’s original idea of the atemporal historicity of Marxism to haunt Western culture, such as how Marx’s critique of political economy can be viewed as an objective science that is always applicable in discourse to criticize capitalism as a monolith of political economy that seems to always only get more advanced as history progresses; so how can we speak of progress? Marx’s historical materialism is the very essence of progress; we cannot concede to the fashionable concept of “accelerationism” because Marx himself thought that the capitalism of the 19th century was almost at its point of implosion; we have heard this same refrain all throughout history, so though accelerationism is here rejected, Derrida’s hauntology is relevant in the sense that Walter Benjamin conceptualized revolution as the awakening of the dead of past revolutions; will the ghost of the 1960s return?

The state of class consciousness of working-class children in China has
received scant attention in the scholarly literature. This study examines the
class consciousness of rural migrant children as they are about to join
their migrant parents and become “China’s new workers.” Qualitative investigations
were conducted in two primary schools in Beijing. Focus group and
individual interviews were held with 87 fifth- and sixth-grade migrant children
in the two case schools and 324 valid student questionnaires were collected.
The findings reveal that migrant children are aware of the unequal
class relationships suffered by migrant workers; however, their interpretations
of class-based injustices exhibit false consciousness, shadowed by individualism,
meritocracy and the duality of images. Family and school may
play vital roles in shaping migrant children’s class consciousness.

O objetivo do trabalho é investigar se há intensificação das disputas sindicais direcionadas a um processo de enraizamento da práxis revolucionária em um dos setores estratégicos da economia, isto é, nos movimentos trabalhistas nucleares ao funcionamento do sistema financeiro. Para tal, investigou-se o processo de disputa sindical em uma autarquia pública federal que compõe o sistema financeiro nacional. Por meio de pesquisa documental e entrevistas semiestruturadas com sete representantes sindicais, foram analisados os desdobramentos do pleito eleitoral de 2015 e, posteriormente, foi investigada a percepção dos dirigentes eleitos acerca da luta trabalhista e do projeto revolucionário. Da análise dos dados, mediante Análise de Conteúdo, verificou-se que, apesar da instituição investigada ser peça-chave para garantir a devida liquidez operativa do capital e, portanto, ocupar papel central na estratégia de lutas da classe trabalhadora, não houve intensificação das disputas sindicais direcionadas a um processo de capilarização do movimento classista. Desta forma, a presente pesquisa põe luz à situação da luta sindical no país, que durante as últimas décadas se colocou progressivamente pacificada pelo capital, instaurando à unilateralidade das conquistas via canais institucionais. Ainda que esta estratégia tenha criado melhores condições de vida às classes assalariadas, em contrapartida, fez com que os sindicatos perdessem sua capacidade organizativa de resposta aos imperativos do capital e deixassem de construir as estratégias/articulações políticas com horizonte à emancipação humana. O presente artigo buscou contribuir com a diversificação das pesquisas em Administração no Brasil que, por vezes, restringem os estudos sobre organização à análise da empresa – vista como um todo harmônico e estruturado em torno de um objetivo comum.

Se Gli impiegati fosse un film, inizierebbe con una veduta aerea di Berlino, sul finire degli anni venti del XX secolo. È mattina presto, l'autunno già iniziato lascia tracce nella luce debole e nel foliage urbano. La città già sveglia scaglia le sue masse impiegatizie verso gli edifici del centro: eleganti banche, così come anonimi palazzi pubblici e privati, davanti ai quali gli impiegati si affollano in ordinate file per iniziare la giornata lavorativa. Formiche in abiti alla moda. Fuoricampo, la voce del narratore: «Ogni giorno centinaia di migliaia di impiegati popolano le strade di Berlino, eppure la loro vita è più sconosciuta di quella delle tribù primitive di cui gli impiegati ammirano i costumi al cinematografo» (Kracauer 2020, p. 19). A seguire, una serie di primi piani, ma senza volto: la cinepresa indugia su piedi, gambe, busti, dimenticando volontariamente il viso delle donne e degli uomini che entrano in ufficio. In rapida sequenza vediamo scarpe, pantaloni, gonne, camicie, quasi uniformi nei loro colori spenti-in contrasto con le vivaci foglie autunnali. Porzioni di tessuto in movimento, con il ritmo regolare di un dispositivo meccanico, inquadrati come indizi dell'uniformità degli impiegati, della sostituibilità funzionale che ne fa equivalenti inconsapevoli del proletariato di fabbrica, non fosse per le giacche impeccabili al posto della tuta da lavoro. Solo dopo questa carrellata di presenze assenti, il regista ci regala un primo piano, e un primo volto: quello di un'impiegata che, licenziata per ragioni ignote allo spettatore, presenta ricorso per riavere il lavoro o, al limite, un'indennità. Lasciamo per un istante l'interno del tribunale del lavoro, e la fantasia di questo film mai girato, per tornare sulle pagine di "Fata Morgana Web" e dichiarare il nostro scopo: non quello di recensire Gli impiegati di Siegfried Kracauer-compito già assolto brillantemente prima di noi da Walter Benjamin e Ernst Bloch, suoi colleghi alla "Frankfurter Zeitung"-ma, piuttosto, chiederci se e perché valga la pena leggere questo testo fuori dal comune che, a 90 anni esatti dalla sua prima edizione tedesca, la sociologia ha spesso snobbato. L'occasione ci viene offerta da Meltemi, che ha recentemente ripubblicato il testo con l'introduzione di Luciano Gallino alla prima (e fino a poco tempo fa) unica edizione italiana (Einaudi 1980) e un saggio di Maurizio Guerri. Innanzitutto, chi è Siegfried Kracauer? Un architetto con ambizioni da critico cinematografico e sociologo, frequentazioni importanti quali Theodor Adorno, Max Scheler e Georg Simmel, e uno straordinario teatro di osservazione della vita metropolitana moderna quale la Berlino degli anni venti. Uno dei suoi lavori più noti, Teoria del film, ne fa autore di rilievo per la sociologia del film e giustifica la libertà che ci siamo presi nell'immaginare uno sviluppo cinematografico de Gli impiegati; ma è soprattutto quest'ultimo lavoro a collocare Kracauer tra i pionieri della sociologia empirica di stampo qualitativo.

Most graduate programs focus on readying students for the procedural aspects of constructing a dissertation.  Few, on the other hand, prepare people for the promotional elements of this requirement.  The present study offers seventeen suggestions regarding how to plan, organize, and present a dissertation.

In a global context of union decline and widening economic insecurity, unions must decide how to relate to extra-workplace struggles and those without stable or unionized employment. One possibility is that unions will adopt a paternalistic view, in which they attempt to serve the interests of nonunion individuals and groups by disciplining them or speaking for them. Drawing on seventy-five brief interviews with participants in a protest led by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), I examine how union activists understood their relationship to the unemployed and local protests within residential areas. Revealing support for union involvement in extra-workplace struggles, the results show that South Africa’s legacy of social movement unionism remains strong. Yet, some union activists also wanted to discipline or substitute for community struggles, and felt the need to educate or speak for the unemployed. Such paternalistic views may become an obstacle to broad working-class solidarity, in South Africa or elsewhere.

De periode na de second reform act van het jaar 1867 was een van de meest belangrijkste periodes van de moderne Engelse politieke geschiedenis. De hervormingen van de second reform act zorgde ervoor dat na zijn implementatie een substantieel aantal van de Engelse industriële arbeidersklasse de mogelijkheid kreeg om te stemmen voor het Engelse parlement. Conservatisme onder de industriële arbeidersklasse werd vaak gezien als een abnormaliteit binnen de oude klassenmaatschappij. De Duitse denker Karl Marx noemden deze groep bijvoorbeeld het sociale uitschot van de maatschappij en omgekochte instrumenten van reactionaire intriges. 

Historici hebben conservatisme onder de Engelse industriële arbeidersklasse door de jaren heen genegeerd. Wanneer enkele historici wel aandacht aan dit fenomeen gaven, werd het weggezet als een fatalistische denkwijze, introvert of als iets defensief. In tegenstelling tot deze oude benadering, laat recent onderzoek zien dat er wel degelijk een substantieel aantal fracties binnen de Engelse industriële arbeidersklasse op de conservatieve partij stemden. 

Op basis van de bovenstaande beschreven problematiek doet dit stuk een poging om de oude benadering te herzien en de hoofdvraag te beantwoord over waarom fracties binnen de Engelse industriële arbeidersklasse de conservatieve partij begonnen te steunen na de second reform act van 1867.

The proposed capitalist solutions for the ecological crisis have proven to be contradictory in that they are conducted within a system that prioritizes profit and accumulation over the health of the environment. Through its so-called ‘sustainable’ approaches which seek to reduce carbon emissions, it is evident that these tactics are merely ways to avoid directly addressing the primary issue itself, which is the capitalist system. Solutions within ‘green capitalism’ such as zero population growth, technological advances, and ‘green’ energy sources are evidently contradictory to environmentalism when under a capitalist framework. Although solutions like zero population growth and technological advances can be useful within a socialist framework, the inherent characteristics of capitalism will make these solutions impossible to effectively implement. The capitalist framework is inherently harmful to the environment, which means the ecological movement is inherently anti-capitalist. Capital accumulation and growth is dependent on inequalities, imperial destructions and environmental devastation. In other words, capitalism is built on exploitation, and it will try and destroy anything that comes in its way of endless accumulation. Thus, the only possible solution to this crisis which is capable of entirely shifting this exploitative system is one which is built on a socialist economy. Socialism addresses the importance of including Indigenous communities within the discourse of the ecological socialist movement in that it can provide guidance towards our communal cultural shift towards less energy-consumption. This cultural shift will allow us to implement a socialist economy which prioritizes the basic needs of all people as well as mutual cooperation over competition. Overall, so long as we remain under this capitalist system, we will not be capable of implementing an environmental plan that can properly address the current and urgent ecological crisis. Socialism provides us with alternative thoughts and perspectives (i.e. Indigenous perspectives, class-consciousness, recognition of over-consumption etc.) necessary to reach a cultural shift focused on the reduction of consumption that will allow us to acquire an effective solution to the current ecological crisis at hand.

CICP Entrevista realizada por Oscar Martinez de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Perú, en Buenos Aires el 11 de diciembre del 2017. Publicada bajo el título de "Entrevista a Juan Iñigo Carrera: crítica de la economía política, sujeto histórico y destrucción del capital" en Martinez, Oscar (coordinador), Karl Marx desde América Latina. Dialéctica, política y teoría del valor, Editorial Ande/Gislat Editores, Lima, 2019, pp. 443-463.