Tema: Arbejderklassen

Arbejderklassen

Sigurd Sejer Skov + Jørn Andersen: Hvorfor er arbejderklassen og venstrefløjen i defensiven?
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 359, maj 17 – side 8
Note: Den enkle forklaring er, at der er alt for få, der slås – strejker, demonstrerer, besætter. Men også at kun få på venstrefløjen siger, at det er nødvendigt at slås.
 

Joseph Choonara: Er arbejderklassen blevet til et prekariat?
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 358, mar 17 – side 12
Note: Et kig på modeteorien om, at arbejderklassen i stigende grad erstattes af et ”prekariat” med mere usikre (”prekære”) jobs.
 

Ben Selwyn: Book Review: Emerging workers’ movements
International Socialism Journal nr. 150, apr 16 – side 209
Note: A review of Immanuel Ness, Southern Insurgency: The Coming of the Global Working Class (Pluto Press, 2016), £15
Since the 1980s the institutionalisation of global neoliberalism has been pursued based on a range of ideological claims which have been advanced (or at least accepted) across the political spectrum. These claims include the arguments that the working class is increasingly a thing of the past, both structurally (as industry gives way to services and information) and politically (as traditional left parties embrace varieties of neoliberalism); that globalisation is reducing world poverty and that as a result the global middle class is expanding rapidly; and, seemingly logically, that radical politics are a thing of the past.
 

Sean Vernell: The working class, trade unions and the left: the contours of resistance
International Socialism Journal nr. 140, okt 13 
Note: Since the onset of the economic crisis that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, governments across the world have attempted to implement policies that try to stabilise capitalism. In Britain these attacks have focused on the welfare state, cutting the cost of the social wage, scrapping and cutting benefits, wage freezes, slashing pensions, privatising the NHS and raising student fees.
 

Day School: Work, Class & Resistance
International Socialism Journal nr. 141, jan 14 
Note: Video recordings of the day school held by International Socialism on 8th February 2014.
 

John Smith: Feedback: Southern labour—“Peripheral” no longer: A reply to Jane Hardy
International Socialism Journal nr. 140, okt 13 – side 185
Note: In 1980 half the world’s industrial workers lived in Europe, North America and Japan, ie the imperialist nations. Since then, in just three decades, their numbers have declined in absolute terms by around a quarter, while the export-led expansion of the industrial workforce in low-wage countries has grown rapidly and now comprises 80 percent of the world’s industrial workers.
 

What We Think: Workers have the power to change the world
Socialist Worker nr. 2361, jul 13 – side 5
Note: A 17 million-strong revolt from below brought down a second president in Egypt last week. It shows what is possible at the height of mass struggles.
 

Sadie Robinson: The power of workers
Socialist Worker nr. 2341, feb 13 – side 14
Note: Sadie Robinson explains why socialists emphasise the central role of workers in struggles for freedom and liberation.
 

Sadie Robinson: Have workers lost their strength?
Socialist Worker nr. 2341, feb 13 – side 15
Note: Some people say social changes mean that the working class no longer has the power to transform the world. They claim that the working class is divided between “traditional” workers and a new, precarious class.
 

Simon Basketter: Oil industry: the hands on the tap
Socialist Worker nr. 2298, apr 12 – side 10
Note: In the wake of the petrol panic, Simon Basketter looks at how restructuring of key industries has hit workers, but also given them more power.
 

Anindya Bhattacharyya: Unemployment: Is there a new class of worker?
Socialist Worker nr. 2297, apr 12 – side 6
Note: The last in our series warns against seeing false divides in the working class.
 

Anders Bæk Simonsen: Ah hvad... Arbejderklasse?
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 313, okt 11 – side 4
Note: Hvis man definerer arbejderklassen ud fra tre grundlæggende parametre; 1) er man udbyttet, 2) har man kontrol over betingelserne for sit arbejde og 3) er man tvunget til at sælge sin arbejdskraft, fremstår det klart, at den største del af befolkningen tilhører arbejderklassen.
 

Mike Haynes: Global cities, global workers in the 21st century
International Socialism Journal nr. 132, okt 11 – side 93
Note: We live in a world of workers. Global social change in the last generation has seen workers become the majority class in the world for the first time in history.
 

What Socialists Say: Why do strikes matter and how do they win?
Socialist Worker nr. 2253, maj 11 – side 9
Note: Resistance to the Tories’ war on ordinary people is springing up everywhere. It’s there in the huge marches, such as the one organised by the TUC in March, and in smaller protests, such as those targeting businesses or councils.
 

Julie Sherry: Revolutionary Lessons: Do workers still have power?
Socialist Review nr. 355, feb 11 – side 36
Note: Julie Sherry argues that the working class still has the power to change society.
 

Martin B. Johansen: Findes der stadig arbejdere i Danmark
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 297, apr 10 – side 8
Note: Skal man tro medierne, de politiske partier og akademikere er begrebet arbejderklasse noget fremmed og gammeldags. Disse barske mænd i blå overalls, som arbejder på beskidte fabrikker, eksisterer ikke længere. I dag findes der kun en meget stor middelklasse og en lille gruppe af fattige – hvis vi overhovedet taler om klasse.
 

Jakob Nerup: Hvem er den herskende klasse?
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 297, apr 10 – side 9
Note: I nutidens samfund er de to største klasser defineret ud fra deres position i kapitalismens produktionsproces: hvem udnyttes, og hvem udnytter.
 

Freddie Nielsen: Klassekamp og klassebevidsthed
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 297, apr 10 – side 10
Note: Når socialister som noget ganske givet siger, at arbejderklassen er den revolutionære klasse, og samtidig siger, at socialisme er er arbejderklassens objektive interesser – så rejser det ganske naturligt spørgsmålet: Hvorfor har den så ikke lavet socialisme for længe siden?
 

Jakob L. Krogh + Alexander Lassithiotakis: Introduktion til socialisme: Arbejderklassen er central
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 294, jan 10 – side 11
Note: Når socialister insisterer på, at arbejderklassen er den helt centrale kilde til social forandring, bliver vi tit kaldt gammeldags.
 

Simon Basketter: Car workers: being driven to destruction
Socialist Worker nr. 2180, dec 09 – side 13
Note: A new book looks at car workers’ struggles against ‘management by stress’. Simon Basketter spoke to the authors, and former and current car workers, about these ‘lean production’ methods – and how to fight back.
 

Charlie Kimber: Book review: Precarious reflections
International Socialism Journal nr. 123, jul 09 – side 198
Note: Kevin Doogan, New Capitalism? The Transformation of Work (Polity, 2009), £16.99
There is a myth that changes in capitalism have made workers virtually powerless. Many commentators and academics suggest that permanent jobs are a thing of the past and that everyone now faces a world of constant turbulence, transient work and rootless employment. If the great majority of us are permanently insecure at work, the balance of power has swung massively towards the employers.
Kevin Doogan robustly challenges such lazy conclusions and the whole idea of “societal shifts based on a more tenuous connection between employers and workers”.
 

Amy Leather: A to Z of Socialism: W is for workers
Socialist Review nr. 336, maj 09 – side 20
Note: As economic crisis, war and poverty sweep the globe many people rightly feel that capitalism is failing us. For anyone wanting to challenge the system the question of who has the power to bring about change in society becomes crucial.
 

Bill Dunn: Myths of globalisation and the new economy
International Socialism Journal nr. 121, jan 09 – side 75
Note: Social scientists and journalists have bandied about terms such as “globalisation” and the “new economy” for some time. Behind much of this lies the argument that the working class is dead and with it Marxist hopes of working class self-emancipation.
 

The workers of the world
Socialist Worker nr. 2125, nov 08 – side 8
Note: The global working class has grown over the past decade, says a new report from the International Labour Organisation.
 

Martin Smith: Challenging the whitewash: ruling class stereotypes of workers
Socialist Review nr. 324, apr 08 – side 10
Note: The recent BBC White Season painted a bleak picture of the white working class in Britain today as bigoted and broken. Martin Smith argues that these stereotypes are encouraged by politicians and the media to divide us and are far from the experiences of working people's real lives.
 

Leo Zeilig + Claire Ceruti: Slums, resistance and the African working class
International Socialism Journal nr. 117, jan 08 – side 69
Note: Mike Davis’s book Planet of Slums provides a brilliant account of the rapid growth of urban areas and megaslums, created by the hammer blows of the global restructuring of the world system since the 1970s. This article focuses on some of Davis’s claims about the working class, and concentrates exclusively on the situation in sub-Saharan Africa.
 

The return of the working class: Introduction
International Socialism Journal nr. 116, okt 07 – side 17
Note: If the commentators and academic theorists are to be believed, the growth of global capitalism has as a necessary correlate a reduction in the level of working class struggle.
 

Ben Selwyn: Review: Workers’ power under global capitalism
International Socialism Journal nr. 116, okt 07 – side 206
Note: Beverly J Silver, Forces of Labour: Workers' Movements and Globalisation since 1870 (Cambridge University, 2003), £16.99
Beverly Silver has written an important, accessible and I think excellent book that contributes significantly to our understanding of workers’ bargaining power under global capitalism.
 

Martin Smith: Britain: The shape of the working class
International Socialism Journal nr. 113, jan 07 – side 49
Note: ‘There was a time when one in four of the world’s big ships were built on the Clyde and more than 1 million of the UK’s workers were coal miners. Today the supermarket giant Tesco’s employs just over 250,000 workers—making it the biggest private sector employer’. So began a report on BBC 2’s Newsnight. The programme took for granted the ‘common sense’ argument that the traditional working class in Britain is in terminal decline and is being replaced by a low paid, unorganised, part time, casualised workforce based in the service sector.
 

Paul Blackledge: Questioning post-Fordism
International Socialism Journal nr. 113, jan 07 – side 202
Note: A review of Bill Dunn, Global Restructuring and the Power of Labour (Palgrave, 2004), £45
Bill Dunn, whose edited collection on Trotsky was recently reviewed on these pages, has produced an excellent critique of the assumption, common across parts of the left, that changes in the conditions of labour over the last few decades have had disastrous consequences for the capacity of workers to mount collective struggles against capital.
 

Chris Bambery: Rosa Luxemburg: "Massestrejke, parti og fagforeninger": Massestrejken, der kastede lys på arbejderklassens styrke
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 238, feb 05 – side 9
Note: Rosa Luxemburg stammede fra Polen og var indblandet i 1905-revolutionen. Hvad hun erfarede dér inspirerede hende til at skrive en mindre bog, "Massestrejken", som bør læses også i dag.
 

Chris Harman: The workers of the world
International Socialism Journal nr. 96, sep 02 – side 3
Note: WORKING CLASS self emancipation lies at the heart of Marxism. But this idea has always been contentious, and in recent years it has become fashionable to argue that the working class is disappearing. Chris Harman, whose books include "A People's History of the World", argues exactly the opposite – on a global scale the working class is larger than ever before. He goes on to examine the relationship between the workin g class and other classes, the urban poor and the peasantry. He concludes with an assessment of the kind of socialist strategy that flows from the current make-up of the class structure.
 

Dan Rasmussen: Danske arbejdere er spillevende
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 180, feb 00 – side 7
Note: Gennem de seneste år har vi set flere konflikter i Danmark. Dette viser, at arbejdsgivernes påstand om, at arbejderklassen er død, ikke holder vand.
 

Martin B. Johansen: Hvad er marxisme?: Derfor er arbejderklassen så vigtig
Socialistisk Revy nr. 6, aug 98 – side 26
Note: "Man skal deltage i de franske arbejderes møder for at værdsætte den livlighed og stolthed, som disse arbejdshærgede mænd udstråler ... Det er blandt disse 'barbarer' i vores civiliserede samfund, at historien forbereder det praktiske aspekt af menneskehedens frigørelse."
 

Martin B. Johansen: Er arbejderklassen blevet borgerlig?
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 167, sep 97 – side 4
Note: En “chokanalyse” blev det kaldt, da Ugebrevet Mandag Morgen kort før Socialdemokratiets kongres fremlagde en ny analyse af Socialdemokratiets vælgere.
 

Jørn Andersen: Er arbejderklassen død?
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 149, dec 96 – side 4
Note: For socialister er arbejderklassens kollektive kampe nøglen til progressive forandringer. Hvordan har arbejderklassen det så i midten af 1990’erne?
 

Martin B. Johansen + Harald Lillevang: Er Danmark et klassesamfund? Vi er ikke i samme båd
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 131, mar 96 – side 4
Note: Myten om, at der ikke findes klasser i Danmark, og at vi “alle er i samme båd”, florerer stadig.
 

Ole Mølholm Jensen: 1995 – året der gik: Arbejderklassen lever fortsat
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 125, dec 95 – side 4
Note: 1995 har vist, at rygterne om arbejderklassens og klassekampens død atter en gang er stærkt overdrevne.
 

Tom Christiansen: Arbejderklassen eksisterer stadig
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 105, jul 94 – side 10
Note: Selvom det er over 100 år siden, at Marx karakteriserede kapitalismen som et klassesamfund, gælder hans opfattelse også i dag.
 

Tom Christiansen: Er arbejderklassen død?
International Socialisme nr. 4, feb 93 – side 5
Note: I løbet af 1980'erne var det almindeligt blandt intellektuelle på venstrefløjen at tale om arbejderklassens død. Kapitalismen havde i følge teorierne ændret sig så meget, at Karl Marx' forudsigelse om, at arbejderklassen var hovedaktøren i omvæltningen af kapitalismen, ikke længere kunne bruges.
 

John Molyneux: Spørgsmål vi ofte møder: Kan arbejderklassen ændre verden?
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 41, aug 88 – side 4
Note: »Samfundet som helhed«, skrev Marx i Det Kommunistiske Manifest, »er mere og mere splittet op i to store fjendtlige lejre, i to store klasser der står direkte overfor hinanden: Borgerskabet og proletariatet.«
 

Jørn Andersen: Der er to klasser
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 37, feb 88 – side 10
Note: Når socialister snakker om, hvordan krig, sult, fattigdom, udbytning og undertrykkelse kan afskaffes, henviser de altid til, at arbejderklassen er den, der kan gøre en ende på alle disse ting.
 

Paul Kellogg: Goodbye to the working class?
International Socialism Journal nr. 36, sep 87 – side 105
 

Ågot Berger: Spørgsmål vi ofte møder: Forsvinder arbejderklassen?
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 27, feb 87 – side 4
Note: Det er svært for mange socialister og militante at tro på, at arbejderklassen kan ændre samfundet. De sidste år har været præget af nederlag som havnestrejken, mangel på resultater efter de omfattende påskestrejker, bryggeristrejken i 85 og nu sidst den passive accept af et elendigt overenskomstresultat.
 

Chris Harman: The working class after the recession
International Socialism Journal nr. 33, sep 86 – side 3
Note: One of the myths feeding the policies of Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock and his supporters has been that of the ‘decline’ of the working class, or at least of the organised working class. (This article was later published in the book "The Changing Working Class".)
Alt. url: Marxists Internet Archive (MIA)
 

Martin B. Johansen: Spørgsmål vi ofte møder: Kan arbejdere regere?
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 21, aug 86 – side 4
Note: Denne avis har gang på gang understreget, at løsningen i Sydafrika er, at den sorte arbejderklasse tager magten.
 

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