Emotion over thought - ditching the fear

[Thirsty Crow]

Excuse this rather odd topic title, but I've been reading an excellent article over at libcom about migrant workers' struggles in Italy, which connected with some of my previous thoughts (pun not intended) on some matters. I'll quote a worker on strike in one of the warehouses:



The first problem was how to unite all the workers of the company and fight fear together, fight the blackmail of a low income and the threats of losing the job, a constant pressure that has made many of us ill. To rule, they pit us against one another, Italians against foreigners (who are 90% of us), Egyptians against Moroccans. At GLS there were lots of Indians, most of whom speak hardly any Italian and the employer just took advantage of that to exploit us even more. We organised assemblies with the Indian and Chinese workers, we sensed the difference between them and the Arab workers but I said: “Forget where we come from, we are all workers here and we are all being exploited. We just need to concentrate on that.

And a comment by the authors of AngryWorkers blog:


Lastly, we can say that fear amongst workers was and is a common feeling. When we see the footage of militant struggles in Italy, it is easy to forget how these same workers, up until recently, were overridden by fear: of being deported; of making trouble lest they lose their jobs; of jeopardising their meagre incomes with a family to support… In the film, many workers talk about this palpable sense of fear to try and change their situation collectively for the better. Many of our workmates in the warehouses in west-London talk similarly, especially the women (who seem to be able to admit it more). With poor English and limited reference points of large-scale, local victories, this fear is used as a reason to not embark on collective action. In Italy, this was overcome because of a number of reasons, which cannot be discounted from happening elsewhere: news of victories in other warehouses spread amongst workers and gave people a sense that something could be won; external supporters showed that even as a minority, it was possible for some action to be taken; conversations inside warehouses that had been happening for a year or two became the basis for 'spontaneous' action.

http://libcom.org/blog/ditching-fear-warehouse-workers-struggles-italy-their-wider-significance-12072015

Emphasis mine. And it's obvious why, I think. Over the years of discussing things with communists and reading stuff, I've gotten the impression that sometimes there is an absolutely unwarranted emphasis on this thing called "class consciousness". Whether developed better of basically a marker of acceptance of communism (on behalf of those who receive the light), the term can get so monopolistic that other considerations are simply left out of the picture.

And yes, emotion, fear in particular, is one of them. Come to think of it, I'm not so sure what I want the focal point of this thread to be; what I want to discuss is this impression about communists and class consciousness in relation to other aspecs of the daily life and struggles of the working class.

Do you think I'm kind of sort of right in this impression? If so, what are the possible ways to actually incorporate a more "integral" approach to both communists' writing and analysing stuff and practical activities?

One other aspect which this article forcefully foregrounds is, of course, migration and relationships between racism/ethnic chauvinism and working class struggles. With the recent proclamation of a European "crisis of migration", I think this is probably one of the most significant problems that communists should face with sober senses today in Europe (parallels with the US and Australia for instance are clear I think; I'm not exactly sure about other parts of the globe, but would rather that this is not interpreted as Eurocentrism). For example, the Hungarian government seems to be going along with its plan to build a 12 foot (4 meters) wall along the border with Serbia.

So enough about some of my relatively ill formed opinions. Read the article, it's exceptional.

Any thoughts?

[John Nada]

Something that was barely mentioned in passing was the workers' families. One places had squats for the workers' families. A worker said his father told him about a job, so that's why he immigrated. In the op's quote it mentions women seemed more open about their concern about the consequences of unionizing and going on strike. Women are expected to take care of their kids, men not as much.

The worker's were born to someone and might go home to their families after work. A lot of the migrant workers probably can't wait to go back home after all that bullshit and see their families again. I'd say what might happen to their families is more worrying than horrible working conditions, tear gas and a baton to the head. Probably the only reason a lot of them even work at those places. Fuck I'd rather get my ass stomped by the pigs, fired from the job and go to prison than see my family(or even friends) out in the streets hungry. That's why in some places, past or present, striking workers would fuck scabs up. Those fuckers are trying to take food out of your kids mouths. It wasn't out of leftist ideals but survival.

Another thing is the social dynamic. Many workers seemed to view their delegates not as peers but as outside help. One person wondered why delegates weren't having their once a month meeting with the workers. Are they friends with other workers? Hell, are the workers friends with each other? Is there people that are more well-liked or disliked? Do they live in the same area, hang out, go to the same house of worship? The article talks about xenophobia, sexism, racism and the language barrier to an extent. How does this effect the workers' social circle outside the job(ie segregate on race, nationality, religion, gender or fluent languages). What goes on 75% of the time besides work? The article doesn't really say.

The questions I have are the effects of what's outside of the job. Not getting paid and treated like shit is one part, what effect would this have at home? If there's no sense of community and camaraderie among the workers themselves then why risk it themselves possible with their family facing the consequences? It's not emotions taking over, but a response with some logic behind it. Kind of like a prisoner dilemma.

[Hatshepsut]

Class consciousness in communism is the antidote to fear. In turn, to feel fear is probably one of the first steps in developing a class consciousness. Polyglot serves the bourgeois well, I would be pretty scared if someone dropped me off in downtown Milano with the words “buona fortuna” given my non-existent Italian. While “si” can mean either “yes” or a material conditional “if,” SI means “multi-trade union” and Cobas is a word or acronym I haven’t the foggiest acquaintance with. The union says it addresses language issues, i.e.


“In the film we see that is dealt with is various ways: someone is translating one of the union leader's speeches at a picket line into Arabic on a megaphone and the union delegates are Moroccan/Indian etc. so speak to workers in their first languages...” (OP source link)

But this happens in a film, leaving the question of what happens on the ground; although people who speak Arabic or one of the 26 official languages of India must have learnt about the union if they are now delegates. Our favorite shipping company DHL, owned by Germany’s Deutsch Post, is advantaging itself of


“...laws like Bossi Fini [that] mean many workers automatically lose their right to stay in Italy if they lose their jobs...in the UK...new rules set to come in in April 2016 will send all non-EU migrants earning under £35,000 back to their country of origin.”

I’m not earning anywhere near £35,000 either, so if the “Bossi” says “Fini” a rather frightening situation might evolve were Mali the country of origin. Good thing I’m retired. Unfortunately, unions visible to the public haven’t ever been able to serve as a revolutionary home base—Solidarity, the motor for bourgeois transition in Poland, being revolutionary only in its first years before General Jaruzelski stepped on it. The police always know who’s in the union, limiting such organizations to role as front group or recruiting ground. In the interim they are better than nothing for workers, however, enjoying somewhat better laws in Europe than in the absolutely hostile USA, where a union must be in name only to secure recognition if at all. The 150 Latinos deported from Swift’s Hyrum, Utah meatpacking in 2006 were nonunion. The idea of completely boycotting unions current in some communist circles strikes me as cynical even given their provisional nature in tactics. Those wanting revolution still confront maximal fear—the price of failure, one’s head.

[Heilmann]

Over the years of discussing things with communists and reading stuff, I've gotten the impression that sometimes there is an absolutely unwarranted emphasis on this thing called "class consciousness". Whether developed better of basically a marker of acceptance of communism (on behalf of those who receive the light), the term can get so monopolistic that other considerations are simply left out of the picture.

I haven't read the article, but watched the (rather brilliant) film with the same name recently. In the film, when they talk about overcoming their fears, they at the same time express a feeling of gaining dignity and a sense of their collective strength when they struggle together, link up with the union and the squats, other workers from the region etc. If class consciousness is to be understood not as "receiving the light", but consciousness forming from practical experience of struggles - and as such currently evolving -, I don't see how emotions are not part of this consciousness. In the type of struggles chronicled in the film (and, I would guess, the article), overcoming emotions and gaining dignity is an important part. After a while, several of the SI Cobas activists, members and other workers participating expressed a sense of community, or rather common struggle, and they had indeed ditched the fear. If this can't be explained by (class) consciousness, how would you explain it? That's an open question, by the way. My thoughts on this are rather rudimentary.

Your question implies a distinction between emotion and thought - a solution to the problem could be to view class consciousness in terms emotion and thought.