The ‘working class’ is an abstraction, not a person…we cannot predict or control it
July 16th, 2018 •
We have discussed many times the idea of a universal class. This does not negate the emphasis on the working class but only gives a warning that the abstraction the ‘working class’ is not a person and won’t behave as expected for that reason. The older conception of a revolutionary proletariat no longer works very well, to say the least. We can play it both ways with the idea of the working class and that of a universal class…
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R48G: working class vanguard leading to a new universal class…December 9th, 2017 •
Although the classic focus on the working class remains the keynote of any real majoritarian/democratic initiative it is useful to consider the larger framework of the ‘universal class’ so-called in order to really see the way in which social division as class struggle needs to yield to a platform that deals with all classes and subsets thereof. The working class focus can end up neglecting the real crisis unfolding: the ecological crisis, the onset of degrowth and no growth economics, the neglected ‘lumpernproletariat’, the ambiguous middle class, and ultimately the ‘bourgeoisie’ itself which is under threat of liquidation in the working class ferocity model.
We need a coherent plan that can give a focus to the working class but point to a unification of classes in a transitional socialism/communism that can mediate class differences beyond class struggle in a unified Commune.
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Red Forty-eight Group: universal versus working class…
January 24th, 2017 •
One of the reasons we changed the terminology of our (socialist/communist) ‘Red Forty-eight Group’ from working class to universal class
was to obviate precisely the difficulty we see now in discussions of the Women’s March: the splintering of focus between issue activisms and a more general leftist perspective, or set of perspectives. The universal class is really a superset of the working class and we can change gears immediately to consider a working class version of both the universal class and the ‘Red Forty-eight Group’.
The point is that the universal class is also the set of its own subsets and that includes the various issue subsets from Black Lives Matter, to Feminist groups and orgs, to much else, including the spectrum of socialist groups.
This approach automatically allows parallel groups to work together while at the same time sending a set of suggestions about considering a larger set of perspectives.
In general we have a huge list of issues that come together as separate yet unified into one larger perspective
ecological economics in itself or as a version of a new socialist/communism: the Red Forty-eight Group with a floating core as ‘democratic market neo-commuism’ is thus an ecological powerhouse in potential in the context of socialism
and this brings to the fore the number one crisis of capitalism next to economic justice: climate change
socialist, economic justice
neo-communist, the issue of private property
revolutionary action and political structures versus electoral/evolutionary
markets versus planned economies
anarchist initiatives and their challenges to revolutionary activism
democratic initiatives in the context of the communist/socialist sectors
economics and technology: universal basic income and automation
national versus international perspectives: we focus on a national economy, but the larger question of a federation of socialist nationalism emerges powerfully to challenge populist distortions we see now…issues of trade arise to complicate thus the whole formula: this is inevitable (and the older internationales in theory had all of this down pat)
Here feminism and race get thus powerful associations with a larger action
We can make analogous statements about ‘socialism’ frequently referenced, meaning in reality social democratic activism of various types. All such can be welcomed, but critiqued under the context of our universal category…
The Red Forty-eight Group isn’t an actual party or association (it could be) but is a set of abstractions (based on the once and future revolutions of the ‘1848’ legacy). It can be used as a benchmark for the different brands on the left, now in a state of confusion. It also allows for a post-marxist equivalent that can invoke that classic legacy but detach from it.
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