Techno-Managerial

[RedLenin]

We all know of the proletariat and the borgeouise but what about this supposed "techno-managerial class"? This class refers to middle management. They do not own the means of production and they do work for a wage, so according to Marx this makes them proletarians. However, they also serve the capitalists because they are like a buffer between the borgeouise and the proletarait. Are they a real class or are they workers? If they are a real are they our friends or enemies?

[redstar2000]

I don't think that it's a real class, at all.

Technical experts are, for the most part, workers.

Middle management are, for the most part, bourgeois or petty bourgeois.

Some reasons...

1. Technical workers are "order-takers" just like any other worker; they obey orders or they don't get paid. They may have some limited autonomy in how they carry out those orders...so does a gardener.

Most technical workers directly contribute to the production of commodities for sale in the market-place and thus generate surplus value that is appropriated by the capitalist class. By Marx's definition, that's a worker.

If they are self-employed, of course, then they are in the petty-bourgeoisie.

2. Managers are, on the other hand, clearly in a different class. Frequently, they are capitalists themselves -- through ownership of shares either of their employer's stock or other property. As a rule, they do little or no productive labor themselves -- thus producing little or no surplus value.

I think that it's the general Marxist consensus that managers are the capitalist equivalent of the overseer in the era of slavery...an "employee" but not a slave (worker).

You could call them a "new petty bourgeoisie" (as distinct from the traditional petty bourgeoisie).

In my opinion, they are inextricably linked to the capitalist class as a whole...and will always be part of the class enemy.

The habit that some folks have of "lumping them together" is, I think, a product of confusion -- perhaps resulting from uncritically accepting the managerial conceit that they are "experts" in the "techniques" of management.

A proposition that deserves to be greeted with scornful laughter. :lol:

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