Marx, Class struggles, knowledge workers and my life!

[A Primer on Class Struggle

by Michael Schwalbe

Michael Schwalbe is a professor of sociology at North Carolina State University. He can be reached at MLSchwalbe@nc.rr.com.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/31-4]

My thoughts in response:

An excellent erudite perceptive analysis of the hidden class struggle in any given society, influencing our day to day life.

The one difference I observe from what Marx considered in his treatise as well as what Prof. Schwalbe brought out in his competent analysis, is that both of them consider capitalists of Marxist variety and transformed and rechristened as modern Corporates by the author, as well as the working classes represented by trade unions have some kind of unity of purpose among themselves and act in unison.

Corporates too work to get at the throat of each other to strangle while driving the process as described by the author. This factor adds an additional dimension.

Further the new knowledge based service sector which evolved has made the knowledge workers a walking human capital which goes out of gates of factory every evening and the Corporate head goes to bed wondering whether he has done enough to retain the "loyalty" of his working capital and worrying too, whether his counterparts have already stolen his "working capital".

This new trend has taken over almost all sectors of industry with semi-automated robots taking over the production lines even in many a traditional manufacturing industry.

In efforts to retain the working capital, many corporates allocate sweat capital and the workers start owning substantial equity of the company too, transforming themselves in to a new breed of capitalist-workers.

Traditional clear cut divisions of workers and capitalists is further made irrelevant today, with financial institutions controlling finance having tremendous influence in survival of an industry and as uninvolved players, are practically dictating terms of assuring efficiency of their own working capital and returns.

The government too is now has to operate part corporate and part old model god-father for balancing social needs, leveraging the tax incomes and making policy shifts as lobbies want.

The large union bosses are now operating in the changed circumstances more as another corporate honchos than old model leaders caring for the "poor" worker.

The reality is in modern world either you are a well to worker or a job-less guy on the street. There is nothing like "poor" worker.

The unemployed are large in number but remain unorganized to become threat to any one. Long term effect on the politician losing vote looms as threat to the politician to make the necessary policy shift while manging the corporate interests which includes the trade union bosses' interests.

It has become a complex multi-dimensional class interest struggle now, to list a few:

# capitalist-worker

# corporate- where even the CEO is a worker but Board and Stock Exchange control their fate

# the dictating ruthless financial institutions who can shift their financial working capital from an industry without any emotional or fear of getting hurt in return by loss of production or strike action etc

# the walking "working capital" of knowledge workers who may take a flight any time unless motivated constantly

# the government with democratic base and freedom of speech in media

# the job-less reaching a critical mass using tea party politics to change governments

As compared to time of Marx, when only a few thinkers used to worry about society and "think", today there is a well entrenched class of think tanks, centers for policy exposition, thought leaders, opinion leaders, media commentators, fighting for the space to manage the trends of this complex multi-class struggle.

It is no more as simplistic as envisioned by Marx. Russia and China are the living examples of the transformation today.

I wish the Professor who is an expert, takes into account these additional dimensions and writes another article.

But I enjoyed this reading, which made me think.

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