Originally posted by
[email protected] 30, 2007 01:37 pm
Him it depends, since I don't know your fathers concrete position it's hard to judge.
But of course if you have a total rigid class interpretation of workers being only factory workers he ain't. But that definition is just studpid. Let's take for example nurses, they don't produce surplus value, but they have a job that is pretty usefull for society. From the capitalists point of view they help fix the workers so they can go and produce much profit, since today with the increasing amount of skilled workers it's to expensive just to let them die. In that way a nurse is as much a worker as the people in industry. Of course a nurse can get working positions that put them in a managerial position, so then it sorta changes. It seems to me your fathers work is along some of the same line as nurses, so it really depends on what his concrete tasks are.
Only the industrial proletariat counts because they generally have a far greater level of class consciousness due to the nature of the work performed.
From the link I posted....
The industrial proletariat is the heart of the working class and has traditionally been its largest and most powerful section. The decisive role of the industrial proletariat is derived, first, from the productive nature of its work, and, second, from the collective and large-scale nature of its work.
Proletarians who work in production are in the best position to understand the nature of capitalist exploitation. It is their hands that produce the goods and services which provide sustenance for all of society. Factory workers, farm workers, construction workers, contract janitors, etc., are in a position to see that the product of their labor is the source of the capitalists’ profits. This picture of the essence of capitalist exploitation, which is critical to the development of class consciousness, is not so readily visible to the bank teller, the government clerk, or the private domestic worker. In addition, the conditions of work in the productive sector sharpen class antagonisms. Industrial workers are driven by capital to continually intensify their labor to the limits of human endurance, and their workplaces are almost universally dirty, unhealthy, and dangerous. Of course, many workers in the non-productive sector suffer under similar conditions, but these conditions are most extreme where material production and the creation of surplus value are involved.
The industrial proletariat stands out among productive workers, not only because it is the largest contingent of the productive workers, but also because in manufacturing and mining production takes place in the most collective fashion, and. on the largest scale.* Many factories and mines employ thousands and even hundreds of thousands of workers. The highly collective nature of this work imbues the industrial workers with a sense of discipline and organization which is invaluable in waging the class struggle.
The massive concentration of workers facilitates organization and political and economic activity. The dependence of the economy, first and foremost, on the production of industrial goods gives the industrial proletariat decisive economic strength. The concentration of industrial production in the hands of the monopoly bourgeoisie (to an even greater degree than other economic sectors) places the main contingent of the industrial proletariat in a position of direct confrontation with the ruling sector of the capitalist class. For these reasons the industrial proletariat has always played the decisive role in the working class movement.
The industrial proletariat includes within its ranks major contingents of all nationalities that make up the U.S. working class and a large proportion of industrial workers are women (39% of "non-transport operatives", an occupational classification that principally refers to the operators of factory machinery).14 Some industries are predominantly female (i.e. textiles, electronics, food processing) while others are predominantly male (i.e. mining, iron and steel, chemicals). National composition varies by region, and even though the majority of industries have been integrated, systematic discrimination and artificial stratification have kept national minority workers, in most cases, in the lowest paying, hardest and most dangerous jobs. There are, however, a great number of Anglo-American and national minority and male and female workers laboring side by side in the same jobs in many factories and this is a major factor which builds unity within the industrial working class.
In 1979, according to government statistics, there were 15,787,000 production and related workers employed in the manufacturing and mining sectors.15 This number specifically included production, maintenance, construction, repair, material handling and power plant workers in manufacturing and mining. This then was the approximate size of the employed section of the industrial proletariat, to which must be added the several million industrial workers who were on layoff.
The size of the industrial proletariat has varied greatly over the years. The industrialization of the economy led to the growth in the absolute and relative size of the industrial proletariat until World War II, although this growth was stunted and irregular because of the recurring, severe, capitalist economic crises. During the colossal industrial expansion that accompanied World War II the number of industrial workers grew to an all-time high of over 16,000,000. During the industrial contraction that followed the war, millions of workers were laid-off with the number of industrial workers reaching a low of 12,629,000 in 1949.16 Since then the number of industrial workers has grown again, reaching, as we reported, 15,787,000 in 1979. This growth was once again marked by severe contractions during the periods of industrial crises.
Another long-term trend, however, also began to limit the growth of the industrial proletariat. The accelerated introduction of labor-saving technology and the intensification of labor had reached the point that the size of the industrial proletariat had begun to decline in comparison to other sectors of the working class. In 1947, the first year for which comparable statistics are available, the industrial proletariat made up over 41% of all "non-supervisory workers on private non-agricultural payrolls." By 1979 this proportion had fallen to just over 26% (despite the fact that the absolute number of industrial workers had grown).17
The decline in the relative size of the industrial proletariat does not in the least take away from its role as the leading and decisive section of the working class. This leading role is connected with social and economic factors (the productive, collective, large-scale and decisive nature of its work) and not with its relative size. In czarist Russia, the industrial proletariat was only a small minority of the working masses (most of whom were peasants) but this did not diminish its leading role in the revolution. The industrial proletariat plays the leading role in the working class movement in all capitalist countries regardless of its size relative to the entire working population.
That why communists should orientate themselves towards industrial workers(factory workers, coal miners, dockers etc etc....) rather than white-collar stuff like school teachers, social-workers etc etc... who tend to have a bourgeois or petty-bourgeois attitudes.
Anyway never mind bout O.J or what's his name
That leather glove dosen't fit my hand, I tells ya!!! :P