The Worker Elite: Notes on the Labor Aristocracy

Despite what radical intellectuals often think, workers know quite a bit about where they are situated within the class society. Thus, it's typical for members of the worker elite to identify themselves as middle class, though of course some workers may adopt that term merely as an inspiration. For the most part, workers decide that they are middle class on a very practical basis: their distinct, all-around preferential status as wage earners, consumers, and "citizens." These workers believe themselves to be separate in essential ways from the proletariat. We should take this perception seriously! From the author's preface: "These notes take a critical view of the role of the worker elite under capitalism. That doesn't mean I hate middle class workers. I'm one myself. I don't hate intellectuals or farmers or shopkeepers either. Middle class people aren't free under this system. And ultimately we can make individual choices; we can resist capitalism or not. "What I have learned to hate are the illusions and the opportunism that go along with middle class privilege. These are what continuously persude the worker elite to join the other middle classes in embracing capitalism. They also motivate the class to manipulate, dominate, and strnagle the freedom struggles of other workers for its own benefit. "The main force for revolution will come from within the working class. I believe that today, more than ever. But it will not come from the privileged worker elite. That's a deadly lie that has helped destroy the hopes of generations of radical activists and, more important, the hopes of generations of oppressed people."