Comments Elsewhere

Jonathan, I think that your analysis leaves a lot of questions unanswered, but suppose we grant, arguendo, that this is a good account of how things are. Now what? Are we supposed to give up class analysis? If so, why? It seems that what you’ve offered here is just a claim that there are more classes than simply a monolithic managerial class and a monolithic working class, and that some classes of workers might seek to benefit at the expense of others?

(Or, to put it another way: if you aren’t offering a class analysis of the transit strike, what level of analysis are you offering? Individual?)

Generally speaking, the idea of an “aristocracy of labor,” and of the possibility that people at higher strata within the working class might try to benefit at the expense of people at lower strata — including by means of labor unions — is not exactly new. In fact it’s a standard part of many radical Left critiques of the AFL and related unions. (See Paul Buhle’s Taking Care of Business for one example.) It doesn’t demonstrate “the poverty of class analysis;” it just demonstrates the need for, well, richer class analysis.