************   Class Struggle  *************
                from Workers Solidarity No 31

WHY IS THE concept of class so important to 
anarchists?  Why are we constantly talking about 
classes and class struggle?  Some of our opponents 
accuse us of living in the past, they claim the 
working class is dying out.  After all you don't see 
too many workers wandering around in donkey 
jackets, cloth caps and heavy boots.  So that settles 
the question, doesn't it?  No, it doesn't, so let us get 
away from silly caricatures and get down to 
basics.

The modern world, like the societies that preceded it, 
does not consist of a single group of people who have 
more in common than they have dividing them.  Sadly 
there is no single 'humanity', not yet.  In every country 
there is still a division of people into classes which have 
conflicting interests.

Classes are defined by their relationship to the means of 
production; their relationship to the factories, machinery, 
natural resources, etc. with which the wealth of society is 
created.  Although there are groups such as the self-
employed and the small farmers, the main classes are 
the workers and the bosses.  It is the labour of the 
working class that creates the wealth.  The bosses, 
through their ownership and control of the means of 
production, have legal ownership of this wealth and 
decide how it is to be distributed.

STOLEN WAGES

Only a part of this wealth is returned. Some is paid as 
wages, some as the "social wage" (hospitals, schools, 
public services, and so on).  The rest is creamed off as 
profit.  But labour creates all wealth.  An apple on a 
tree is worth nothing until someone picks it, coal in the 
ground has no use until someone mines it.  What is 
known as surplus value or profit is stolen wages.

The working class is the majority in Ireland today.  All 
who work for a wage, salary or commission are in its 
ranks.  It consists of all who have to sell their ability to 
work to those in control.  It makes no difference if you 
work in a factory, office, school, hospital or shop.  It 
makes no difference if you work with your hands or your 
brain, whether you wear overalls or a suit, whether you 
earn 'good' or bad wages.

WHAT ABOUT THE UNEMPLOYED?

The unemployed also form part of the working class.  
Social welfare payments are made to those who have 
worked and those who may potentially provide some 
employer with their labour power.  It is a condition of 
payment that a claimant is "available for and actively 
seeking work".  Needless to say, the partners and 
children of workers are also part of the same class, as 
are the retired.

The interests of the working class (wages, working 
conditions, jobs, useful public spending, etc.) are in 
constant and inevitable conflict with those of the boss 
class.  They seek to maximise their profits and gain an 
advantage over their competitors at the expense of the 
workers.  

NONSENSE  

Anyone who talks about 'social partnership', about 
labour and capital working together for the benefit of all 
is talking nonsense.  What rights we have and gains we 
have made have been the result of long and often bitter 
struggles.  The bosses only give such rights and 
concessions as they are forced to.  In times of recession, 
such as now, they try to make workers pay through job 
losses, cuts in real wages, cuts in public spending, 
productivity deals, etc. for the crisis that is a periodic and 
inevitable product of capitalism. 

Although capitalism oppresses people on many different 
levels, race and sex to name but two; it is the 
exploitation of our labour that is fundamental to the 
system.  It is on this front that the fight for a new society 
will be won or lost.  If we can reclaim that aspect of our 
lives, the system can be overturned and replaced with 
something much better.  

TAKING OVER

The working class are brought together in large towns 
and cities. At work we co-operate with others.  Each 
person has to do their bit so that the person at the next 
stage of production can do theirs.  In the services it is the 
same; in hospitals, schools and offices.  This means that 
the working class can be a force capable, not only of 
rebelling against injustice but of taking over and 
recreating society in its' own interests.

As a class we have to think and act collectively.  In a 
strike you need the support of your workmates and of the 
workers in supplier firms.  Individual action won't get 
you very far.  We have to co-operate.  The same applies 
to the mammoth task of creating a new society.  We 
cannot divide up an office or factory between all the 
workers there.  We act as a group or not at all.  This 
collective nature that is part and parcel of our class 
provides the basis for the solidarity and mutual aid we 
will need to scrap the old order and build a truly free and 
egalitarian society.

POTENTIAL FOR CHANGE

However just because someone is a worker it does not 
always follow that he or she will think of themself as a 
worker, or realise the potential for change that the 
working class collectively possesses.  We all know of  
workers who sometimes identify with their boss, or 
unemployed people who become demoralised and totally 
isolated from any sense of belonging to the working class.  
And there are plenty of ignorant academics running 
around talking rubbish about a new 'sub class' and a 
'natural conflict' between those with jobs and those 
without.

Class consciousness, an awareness of our common 
interests and the potential we have for real change, 
needs to be encouraged and strengthened.  This is one of 
the tasks of an anarchist organisation.  

The struggle between the classes will only come to an 
end when the boss class and the state which protects 
their privileged position are overthrown.  Nationalisation 
or state control of the means of production would not 
mean an end to class society.  It would simply mean the 
replacement of individual capitalists by a bureaucratic 
state capitalism.  Like their predecessors they would be 
in control and would have the final say about what 
happens to the wealth we create.  Whether they like it or 
not this would be the logical outcome of the statist 
politics of the Workers Party, Sinn Fein and the Labour 
Left. 

THE WAY TO FREEDOM
 
Only the direct control and management of production by 
the working class themselves can end the class division.  
A classless society is not possible without this.  

Everyone affected by a decision should have a say in 
making that decision.  Production in an anarchist society 
would be managed by an elected workers' council in each 
workplace.  Planning on a higher level would be subject 
to the agreement of delegates from the councils, delegates 
who would be subject to a mandate from their members 
and instantly recallable if they don't do the job they were 
elected to do.  In such a society the wealth would be 
created and managed for the benefit of all.  There would 
be no elite of bosses or rulers.  This is the vital 
precondition for real freedom.

Alan MacSim—in



