But….but….in America, it’s a sin to talk about class struggle. Since the 1950’s it has been taboo to objectively discuss such an issue. The irony is…despite there being no laws against a Communist Party, or a Workers Party or Socialist Party; the corporate media and the political establishment has made it clear that such orientations shall be deemed radical and subversive. Folks like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, and now Zohran Mamdani have finally broken through to encourage an open minded discourse.
Hopefully your Substack here will open the discussion even wider.
There used to be such a thing as class consciousness in Australia, but that has disappeared in the last few decades. We don't have a "working class" anymore, we have "working families." The language shifts to fragment the notion of class identity and therefore the very idea of class solidarity.
You'll also find words like "solidarity" - a recognition of common interest and support for each other based on that, tends to have negative connotations. Establishing that solidarity (which is especially important for the US working class with all the shit you are going through right now) is the first step. The IWW (international workers of the world) started in the US. Time to reclaim our collective (another word they don't like!) labor history and move it forward to the new age.
Very well laid out explanation about that trump mentality. Sad but true- his career in politics was always about the grift and increasing his own wealth. Victimizing hardworking Americans through his lies and illusions has made him wealthy and hated. But in a culture where $$ is king, he is successful. He doesn’t care if he is hated because his primary goal is being achieved- more money and more money. I hate to see him hurting my fellow Americans. He is without conscience- that’s is how he has been successful….A very bad combination of circumstances. I look forward to the end of the nightmare for America that is the Trump administration . Let’s hope that all of us have learned something from this painful experience. We must educate ourselves and not allow just any nitwit with a lot of money or notoriety inhabit the Oval Office.
Thank you comrade! We REALLY are in basic, elementary level learning about socialism down here in Texas. We have to meet people where they are, and we appreciate easy, relatable content like this!
The ruling oppressors of the United States would sooner destroy the entire nation than lose the game. And they can get away with it, too, because their corporations are multinational. They will simply pack their bags and move to their favorite holiday destination spot in Europe or Asia while America burns because of their actions.
Trump a master marketer? my friend, you are wrong, is one orange clown, if peoples were trinned to swallow without look or think western Morgans & Murdochs bullshite propaganda by tv for decades and half of morrikan public are idiotized with him is another thing. by the way, he's one fascit, that use the force against other countries with tariffs and threats, and the Army in the street against his ows to impose his "kingdo of lies" . This is not to be a master, instead, one vulgar jerk as well as those who sat before him as President.
Class is a thing. Race is a thing. Nature is a thing. Americans dread having honest discussions about any of these topics. They would rather that any problems related to these would just go away so that they can get on with the important things in life - making money and growing the economy!
I didn't read a word of Marx / Engels before my '50s, but I had heard a lot about class struggle from better-educated European peers. The idea that we're all workers has resonance. The exact nature of the bourgeoisie
still puzzles me. Who (what class) would make things happen at the local, immediate level, were there no social or economic incentives? In any case, it's incontrovertible that "the billionaire" class and an indeterminate number of others (corporate? gerrymandered pols? $10M-$999M?)are "the class enemy" to nearly all of us. Their wealth must be expropriated to the treasury and the methods they used to acquire, multiply and hold it must be investigated. Some of them won't survive the process.
A great value! It takes some effort to get up every morning an do what you do. In the communist apotheosis, not everyone will be creative, but everyone will have to eat and be secured with 'inalienable' rights.
That's right, just want to added in this, that's why education is so important in the communist world, everyone will find a place to become a contributing member of the society. That's the goal!
That’s exactly why communism is so difficult to achieve at this stage. We still need economic growth, and economic growth requires certain elements of capitalism to exist in our society.
But at the same time, we must understand that workers are an exploited class. The balance of society depends on whether workers can recognize how the system actually works and find ways to counter the exploitation from capitalists. This is basic social knowledge, and everyone should understand it.
Another reason communism is hard to realize is that our level of productivity, culture, and consciousness has not yet reached that stage. Humanity is simply not there yet. It may take a long time. When productivity develops to a point where people can be freed from basic labor and spend more time on genuine creativity, and when people reach a level of cultural awareness where labor itself becomes a natural way of life, then communism might become possible, maybe hundreds of years from now.
There are a lot to talk about this kind subjects, thanks for upgrade your subscription, I really appreciated this.
Yeah…. I don’t know. America never had Old World aristocrats and peasants. We can statistically divide into income brackets, sure, but there is (or has been) historic mobility between those brackets. We are not traditionally an old school class-based society. Current complaints (some, not all) are coming from young “well educated” white collar office or tech workers who aren’t doing as well as their immigrant forebears, but who were brought up with those high expectations. I don’t doubt that many working people are struggling, but trades people can do extremely well today, if what I have to pay my plumber is any indication. (If I were starting over I would train up in at least one “blue collar” skill set, to go alongside basic scientific and humanistic education— what used to be a college education.) Clearly there are Big corporate and financial interests dominating politics (Trump or otherwise — both parties), and these kinds of structural problems are really the problem as I see it. It’s not exactly the old bourgeois capitalists and imperialists of the 19th c. so again not really class-based. I’m not averse to learning from other cultures, histories, political philosophies, tech and industrial practices, and more managed economic strategy (China), but I’m not about to go all “Comrade!” any time soon. Thanks for the challenge though. Workers (as such) certainly have never had it easy in the history of the world.
class doesn't vanish because there are no lords or aristocrats. In this modern society, the hierarchy is financial; still the same dynamics, who owns the capital vs who sells the labor. The plumber may be doing well right now, but he still depends on the system setting up the price, tax, insurance, etc.
The plumber is doing well because in some sense he has become a capitalist with his own business (yes, requiring as all businesses do to pay taxes, take out insurance, comply with licensing and regulations -- but presumably setting his own prices). The Marxist fallacy, at least in modern economies, including China, is that capitalists do work by deciding where to invest, providing skills and organization, taking risks. (No more "labor theory of value.") Capitalists (entrepreneurs, small businesses) are not doing wage labor, granted. But even corporate laborers today have pension plans and retirement accounts vested in funds across financial markets. It's all so intertwined that I just don't think the old fixed class thinking makes sense. But I agree that there are hierarchies, vast inequalities, and a lot of "dynamics" between giant financial powers and big corporations rent-seeking from government and political powerbrokers. Regular working folks are easily taken advantage of (manipulated) because those dynamics are opaque to them. Whether they should "collectivize" or cry for liberty *from* self-serving, exploitative, corrupt, and coercive collectivities seems to be the question.
But….but….in America, it’s a sin to talk about class struggle. Since the 1950’s it has been taboo to objectively discuss such an issue. The irony is…despite there being no laws against a Communist Party, or a Workers Party or Socialist Party; the corporate media and the political establishment has made it clear that such orientations shall be deemed radical and subversive. Folks like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, and now Zohran Mamdani have finally broken through to encourage an open minded discourse.
Hopefully your Substack here will open the discussion even wider.
Thank you, 😊 I don’t have much social pressure to talk about class struggles, I guess that’s an advantage.
There used to be such a thing as class consciousness in Australia, but that has disappeared in the last few decades. We don't have a "working class" anymore, we have "working families." The language shifts to fragment the notion of class identity and therefore the very idea of class solidarity.
That explains why I have never liked the term "working families"
I'm an unwed worker, lots of Americans are, but I understand it's deliberate now, meant to divide us, of course. Thank you comrade!
You'll also find words like "solidarity" - a recognition of common interest and support for each other based on that, tends to have negative connotations. Establishing that solidarity (which is especially important for the US working class with all the shit you are going through right now) is the first step. The IWW (international workers of the world) started in the US. Time to reclaim our collective (another word they don't like!) labor history and move it forward to the new age.
The working class in the USA lost the class war and they didn't even know that there was a class war.
Very well laid out explanation about that trump mentality. Sad but true- his career in politics was always about the grift and increasing his own wealth. Victimizing hardworking Americans through his lies and illusions has made him wealthy and hated. But in a culture where $$ is king, he is successful. He doesn’t care if he is hated because his primary goal is being achieved- more money and more money. I hate to see him hurting my fellow Americans. He is without conscience- that’s is how he has been successful….A very bad combination of circumstances. I look forward to the end of the nightmare for America that is the Trump administration . Let’s hope that all of us have learned something from this painful experience. We must educate ourselves and not allow just any nitwit with a lot of money or notoriety inhabit the Oval Office.
Since “every boy can grow up to be president” as we were told, then clearly it’s all my own fault.
Thank you comrade! We REALLY are in basic, elementary level learning about socialism down here in Texas. We have to meet people where they are, and we appreciate easy, relatable content like this!
Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!
The ruling oppressors of the United States would sooner destroy the entire nation than lose the game. And they can get away with it, too, because their corporations are multinational. They will simply pack their bags and move to their favorite holiday destination spot in Europe or Asia while America burns because of their actions.
Trump a master marketer? my friend, you are wrong, is one orange clown, if peoples were trinned to swallow without look or think western Morgans & Murdochs bullshite propaganda by tv for decades and half of morrikan public are idiotized with him is another thing. by the way, he's one fascit, that use the force against other countries with tariffs and threats, and the Army in the street against his ows to impose his "kingdo of lies" . This is not to be a master, instead, one vulgar jerk as well as those who sat before him as President.
So very interesting
Class is a thing. Race is a thing. Nature is a thing. Americans dread having honest discussions about any of these topics. They would rather that any problems related to these would just go away so that they can get on with the important things in life - making money and growing the economy!
I didn't read a word of Marx / Engels before my '50s, but I had heard a lot about class struggle from better-educated European peers. The idea that we're all workers has resonance. The exact nature of the bourgeoisie
still puzzles me. Who (what class) would make things happen at the local, immediate level, were there no social or economic incentives? In any case, it's incontrovertible that "the billionaire" class and an indeterminate number of others (corporate? gerrymandered pols? $10M-$999M?)are "the class enemy" to nearly all of us. Their wealth must be expropriated to the treasury and the methods they used to acquire, multiply and hold it must be investigated. Some of them won't survive the process.
I am happy to subsidize your thinking.
A great value! It takes some effort to get up every morning an do what you do. In the communist apotheosis, not everyone will be creative, but everyone will have to eat and be secured with 'inalienable' rights.
That's right, just want to added in this, that's why education is so important in the communist world, everyone will find a place to become a contributing member of the society. That's the goal!
That’s exactly why communism is so difficult to achieve at this stage. We still need economic growth, and economic growth requires certain elements of capitalism to exist in our society.
But at the same time, we must understand that workers are an exploited class. The balance of society depends on whether workers can recognize how the system actually works and find ways to counter the exploitation from capitalists. This is basic social knowledge, and everyone should understand it.
Another reason communism is hard to realize is that our level of productivity, culture, and consciousness has not yet reached that stage. Humanity is simply not there yet. It may take a long time. When productivity develops to a point where people can be freed from basic labor and spend more time on genuine creativity, and when people reach a level of cultural awareness where labor itself becomes a natural way of life, then communism might become possible, maybe hundreds of years from now.
There are a lot to talk about this kind subjects, thanks for upgrade your subscription, I really appreciated this.
Thanks for dialog.
My countrymen are woefully ignorant. We need a massive education for everyone.
🎯
https://griobhtha1.substack.com/p/rotcjrotc-in-k-12-schools-laws-problems
Yeah…. I don’t know. America never had Old World aristocrats and peasants. We can statistically divide into income brackets, sure, but there is (or has been) historic mobility between those brackets. We are not traditionally an old school class-based society. Current complaints (some, not all) are coming from young “well educated” white collar office or tech workers who aren’t doing as well as their immigrant forebears, but who were brought up with those high expectations. I don’t doubt that many working people are struggling, but trades people can do extremely well today, if what I have to pay my plumber is any indication. (If I were starting over I would train up in at least one “blue collar” skill set, to go alongside basic scientific and humanistic education— what used to be a college education.) Clearly there are Big corporate and financial interests dominating politics (Trump or otherwise — both parties), and these kinds of structural problems are really the problem as I see it. It’s not exactly the old bourgeois capitalists and imperialists of the 19th c. so again not really class-based. I’m not averse to learning from other cultures, histories, political philosophies, tech and industrial practices, and more managed economic strategy (China), but I’m not about to go all “Comrade!” any time soon. Thanks for the challenge though. Workers (as such) certainly have never had it easy in the history of the world.
class doesn't vanish because there are no lords or aristocrats. In this modern society, the hierarchy is financial; still the same dynamics, who owns the capital vs who sells the labor. The plumber may be doing well right now, but he still depends on the system setting up the price, tax, insurance, etc.
The plumber is doing well because in some sense he has become a capitalist with his own business (yes, requiring as all businesses do to pay taxes, take out insurance, comply with licensing and regulations -- but presumably setting his own prices). The Marxist fallacy, at least in modern economies, including China, is that capitalists do work by deciding where to invest, providing skills and organization, taking risks. (No more "labor theory of value.") Capitalists (entrepreneurs, small businesses) are not doing wage labor, granted. But even corporate laborers today have pension plans and retirement accounts vested in funds across financial markets. It's all so intertwined that I just don't think the old fixed class thinking makes sense. But I agree that there are hierarchies, vast inequalities, and a lot of "dynamics" between giant financial powers and big corporations rent-seeking from government and political powerbrokers. Regular working folks are easily taken advantage of (manipulated) because those dynamics are opaque to them. Whether they should "collectivize" or cry for liberty *from* self-serving, exploitative, corrupt, and coercive collectivities seems to be the question.