Date: Wed, 02 Aug 1995 15:20:33 BST
From: wdrb-AT-siva.bris.ac.uk
Subject: RE: College Professors and the Working Class


I'm not able to reply in detail to Jerry's
interesting post but briefly:
I am a technician at an English University.
I am a trade union activist and sit on
joint union committees with academics whio

are trade unionists. My reservation
about the thrust of Jerry's comments is
that there are significant differences
in UK universities between academics
and support staff and in general between
'middle class professionals' and the
working class. In particular these
differences centre on how much
people get paid and how much
power and status they have.

The average academic is paid twice what
I earn and has alot more status and
autonomy.

That is not to say that academics in
particular and middle class people
in general are not in some respects
exploited. They have to sell their
labour power, they own no capital.

But it is my experience that academics
particularly leftwing academics,including
some who use this list, are not
eager to discuss how they are
seperated from other workers,
pareticularly by their salaries.

Many working class people in England
regard the middle classes as people
who have been bought off. While
I have a lot of respect for many
leftwing academics, I think such
sentients cannot just be scorned
as\'false consciousness'


sorry this is rushed and sloppy

will brown   bristol england


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