Date: Sun, 12 Oct 1997 15:13:25 -0500
From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood-AT-panix.com>
Subject: Re: M-I: multicultural bourgeoisie


Siddharth Chatterjee wrote:

>Rakesh points out the truly staggering amounts of value generated by
>unpaid household work, a portion of which surely flows to big capital
>or the "haute bourgeoise" using Doug's terminology. One has to wonder
>where big capital would be without it.

Up a creek, of course. There's no doubt that capital has profited mightily
from the uncompensated domestic labor of women. That's not the point I was
making though. My point was that as women have entered the paid labor force
in recent decades, they've become essential to the workings of the
capitalist market as paid laborers. This isn't 1946, when it's time to send
Rosie the Riveter back home to cook & clean. Of course, women today still
shoulder most of the domestic labor, which men are expert at shirking, so
their hours of unpaid labor have declined nowhere near as much as their
hours of paid labor have increased.

James Heartfield wrote:

>Diversity, multiculturalism, even a dislike of old-fashioned bigotry are
>quite common amongst ruling elites these days.
>
>Of course, this is not any concession to progressive pressure. On the
>contrary. Respecting 'diversity' in this case means accepting social
>division. Multiculturalism is the modern form of divide and rule. And
>old-fashioned bigotry is rejected - especially if it can be pinned on
>the lumpen masses - in favour of a modern, politcally correct bigotry.

Just what is this modern, PC bigotry?

My understanding of corporate multiculturalism is that it's a recognition
that the workforce is inevitably "diverse," as are the targets of
marketing. It's not progressive by any means, but I still find it
preferable to old segmented labor force strategies, which encouraged people
to hate each other.


Doug

--

Doug Henwood
Left Business Observer
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