Date: Tue, 04 Jul 2000 10:21:48 +0100
From: "steve.devos" <steve.devos-AT-krokodile.com>
Subject: Re: AUT: Neo-conservatism and workers


Sean

I read him as a traditional CP member - i thought they had gone the way
of the dinosaurs.... still in the spirit of solidarity.

sdv

Sean Fenley wrote:

> is this guy posting to the right list?
> -Sean
>
> --- George Pennefather <poseidon-AT-eircom.net> wrote:
> >
> > The Canadian Alliance is a right wing party that is
> > growing in popularity
> > apparently because its programme includes tax
> > cutting policies  by way of
> > reducing the state budget deficit. Clearly cutting
> > taxes by reducing the
> > budget deficit can only mean cuts in state social
> > spending which reduces the
> > standard of living of the working class particularly
> > its lower layers.
> >
> > Why is it that support for such anti-working class
> > policies can lead to an
> > increase in electoral popularity? The Republicans in
> > the U.S., the Tories
> > under Thatcher and the PDs in Ireland are parties
> > that have made this policy
> > their clarion call.
> >
> > Clearly it is an indication, among other things, of
> > the changes in the
> > social composition of the working class over the
> > years. In the West there
> > has emerged a layer of comparatively highly paid
> > skilled intellectual
> > workers who gain almost nothing from  state social
> > welfare spending  and yet
> > pay high taxes. This layer is an upper layer within
> > the working class. It
> > is, in some degree, a transitional layer in the
> > sense that some elements
> > within  it are in a fluid condition whereby there is
> > a flux back and forth
> > between the working and middle class. Consequently
> > there obtains ambiguity
> > within this layer as to its social identity --its
> > definition in class terms.
> > This condition provides rich fertile ground for the
> > blossoming of petty
> > bourgeois ideas. Much of this layer may not feel the
> > need to unionise.
> > Sections of it tend to the view that welfare
> > spending is of no benefit to it
> > while such spending is supported by their fiscal
> > contributions. Their
> > ideology tends to support the belief that many of
> > the beneficiaries of
> > state welfare  don't want to work or are fraudsters
> > who scam by working in
> > the black economy while availing of welfare payments
> > and whatever else. Many
> > elements from this upper layer are very often
> > involved in private health
> > care systems. Consequently they have little sympathy
> > for even middle ranking
> > workers who may be earning a comparatively
> > reasonable wage yet must avail of
> > some of the state welfare benefits.
> >
> > These neo-liberal policies also strike a chord with
> > the middle class, many
> > of whom have small enterprises, who don't, in large
> > part, qualify for  state
> > welfare.
> >
> > The upshot is that neo-liberal or neo-conservative
> > parties draw support from
> > sections of the middle class together with the upper
> > stratum of the working
> > class. In that sense these parties draw from a
> > constituency that straddle
> > two classes in addition to the bourgeoisie. In this
> > way the middle class and
> > a relatively privileged layer of the working class
> > are particularly utilised
> > by the bourgeoisie to undermine the class
> > cohesiveness of the working class.
> > Neo-conservatism  is a clever bourgeois strategy,
> > anchored in specific
> > objective developments, to undermine the working
> > class economically,
> > politically and even ideologically.
> >
> > Much of this layer of the working class would have
> > had its origins in the
> > middle to lower strata of the working class. Due to
> > the growth of the
> > welfare state, in particular from the sixties
> > onward, much of the offspring
> > of the working class would have been able to avail
> > of  third level
> > education --free education, college grants etc. This
> > education would have
> > qualified them for admission to the upper layer of
> > the working class in a
> > period when enormous technological changes have been
> > in progress.
> > Consequently this stratum has grown in size and has
> > become largely more
> > affluent.
> >
> > This element was not so prevalent in the fifties and
> > sixties because the
> > composition of the upper layer of the working class
> > possessed a different
> > character then. The upper layer, then, principally
> > consisted of highly
> > skilled tradesmen. Later it increasingly included
> > highly skilled technicians
> > and commercial workers with a residue of highly
> > skilled craftsmen. Later
> > again it increasingly included a technical
> > intelligentsia engaged in the
> > electronic and financial sectors. The growth of this
> > new element of
> > intellectual worker in this layer led to the
> > emergence of a correspondingly
> > different culture within the upper layer. They
> > lacked the trade union
> > culture of the proportionately diminishing
> > traditional element within this
> > layer. This element came from a different background
> > in the sense that it
> > was college based bearing the particular petty
> > bourgeois culture  entailed
> > by college life.
> >
> > Consequently it did not see themselves as forming a
> > cohesive layer within
> > the working class.  Consequently their allegiance to
> > the trade union
> > movement, and labour politics generally, was less
> > certain. By virtue of its
> > particular education and environment its conception
> > of social being bore a
> > more individualist or egoist character --their
> > consciousness was less
> > collectivist. Its education and college experience
> > led them to question much
> > of  traditional labour politics. However this
> > questioning was grounded in a
> > negative reactionary perspective rather than in the
> > perspective of critique.
> > We see then that the very welfare state, that much
> > of this layer now seek to
> > have undermined, was one of the very conditions of
> > its crystallisation as a
> > prominent and significant section of the  working
> > class higher layer. It is
> > this section that has been  the decisive condition
> > in facilitating  the
> > destruction of the cohesiveness of the working class
> > by the bourgeoisie.
> >
> > Much of this layer likes to think of itself as good
> > as the bourgeoisie. It
> > likes to think of itself as cool, cultured and
> > "where its at".  It likes to
> > imagine --hence the significance of "the imaginary"
> > in this ideology that
> > envelops them-- that there is some assumed guarantee
> > that things can never
> > be as they were in the "bad" past. It never even
> > considers that living
> > standards, rights etc can be invaded by the
> > bourgeoisie or that if they are
> > it will not be adversely affected. It imagines that
> > there is some natural
> > scheme of things that guarantees that today will
> > always be so --and even get
> > better. For it fiction is reality and reality is
> > fiction. This is tantamount
> > to blissful superstition --a new religion, a new
> > ignorance, the post-modern.
> > It entertains a superstitious belief in capitalism.
> > Even when it shows an
> > interest in radical ideas it does so in a way that
> > lacks any sense of
> > urgency --any urgent sense of the need for real
> > change. Radical ideas are a
> > form of entertainment --literature and hence the
> > growing significance of
> > literary criticism as a cannibalistic ideology that
> > has been increasingly
> > dominating much of the universities.
> >
> > This layer emerges from an entirely new objective
> > conditions entailing a
> > "new" culture and mindset. It did not directly
> > crystallise out of the
> > working class and trade union movement. Instead it
> > is a product of the
> > schools and colleges --the ideological apparatus of
> > the capitalist state.
> >
> > The emergence of neo-conservatism as a populist form
> > is an acute reflection
> > of the failure of the working class movement to win
> > this section of the
> > working class over to the side of labour. It is a
> > reflection
> === message truncated ==>
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