RCP's new REVOLUTION newspaper

[shadows]

Originally posted by redstar2000@Jun 19 2005, 01:23 AM


Because, you see, that's really what Marx meant when he used the phrase "a class for itself". It means a class that has consciously decided that it is "fit to rule"

Some elements of communist theory do require "advanced study"...it's unlikely that any working person would ever spontaneously think of the concept of "surplus value" and promptly sit down and develop the implications of that.

Individuals in this country rarely see themselves as members of a class - bourgeois hegemony extends to self-perception. The proletariat is not immune to this ideological dominance, except perhaps when conditions erode the influence of the bourgeoisie. From an inert 'in itself' to the active, purposeful and conscious 'for itself' is not a simple projection of the class, but a mediated movement requiring members of the class to adjust their worldviews and extend these beyond their immediate experiences, to re-perceive themselves as a class in opposition to a class that oppresses their own class and that prospers only at their own class expense. This, I believe, requires reuniting class theory with class experience, and for this a vanguard is essential.

[flyby]

just to be clear:

Class consciousness does not mean 'i am conscious that i am in a class." It is not a matter of self perception, or of having class be some kind of identity politics. That is trade union consciousness (at best) not genuine class consciousness. And by itself does not transend bourgeois thinking (or the narrow horizon of "bourgeois right.")

Class consciousness (for a class conscious proletarian) means to be conscious of the historic ROLE of the proletetariat -- to understand that the working class can only free itself by freeing all of humanity, and it means having a living sense of the role and interests of all classes in modern society (in active political reality and struggle.) In short, class consciousness means looking at the world from a communist point of view.

[shadows]

Originally posted by flyby@Jun 19 2005, 04:57 PM


Class consciousness (for a class conscious proletarian) means to be conscious of the historic ROLE of the proletetariat

Until individuals situate themselves within the contours of class, they will not likely perceive class as an independent agent within history. On one level, persons must be struggled with to extend, broaden, and transform their self-perceptions, to re-interpret their experiences; on a different level, the dynamics of class as set by the struggles of the past and the structural dynamics of current capitalist formations, internationally, substantiate the proletariat as a class agent representing the future destruction of class and liberation of humanity. Unless one is simply to have a leap of faith, and stretch from the personal to the structural, one must theorize. Without theory, and this is a function of the vanguard, one risks what I would call 'humanism' or 'personalism' on the one hand or an ethereal 'revolutionism' overly reminiscent of some apocalyptic occurrence, i.e., an ineluctable arrival of communism through the crash of productive forces or the gross deterioration in social relations.

[redstar2000]

Originally posted by shadows
Individuals in this country rarely see themselves as members of a class - bourgeois hegemony extends to self-perception.

I think it would be more accurate to say that "class identity" is not "uppermost" in people's minds in the course of their daily lives -- but most people (including most workers) identify themselves in polls as "middle class"...except for polls that include working class as an option.

I'm inclined to suspect that when working class people do chose the "middle class" option...they mean something rather different by that than the real middle classes mean.

They mean things like a decent home in a decent neighborhood, a decent car, a decent public school for their kids, etc....in material terms, a life of dignity, and not the humiliation of poverty.

The real middle classes mean by that phrase more than just material goods. In their case, it's a conscious assertion of "higher status" than the working class...often based on higher education.

This, I believe, requires reuniting class theory with class experience, and for this a vanguard is essential.

Well, in the sense that such theory is most likely to be produced and distributed by a relatively small group of people, I wouldn't disagree.

But you know as well as I that the word vanguard has historical implications that stretch far beyond such a modest educational task.

Without theory, and this is a function of the vanguard, one risks what I would call 'humanism' or 'personalism' on the one hand or an ethereal 'revolutionism' overly reminiscent of some apocalyptic occurrence, i.e., an ineluctable arrival of communism through the crash of productive forces or the gross deterioration in social relations.

I vote for the "ineluctable arrival" option. Theory can be useful; the massive uprising of the working class is essential.