Labour Wrap: Reality and the myth of class

Cape Town - When planning ahead or when making policy for a city, region or country, one of the biggest mistakes that can be made is to act on the basis of myth, to let perceptions override reality, says Terry Bell in his latest Labour Wrap. 

He points out that two good examples emerged this week.

Both referred to social class with that arch free marketeer Ann Bernstein of the Centre for Democracy and Enterprise (CDE) mentioning teachers as “middle class”, while the Democratic Teachers’ Union conference regarded them not only as workers but as agents for change, revolutionaries and socialists.

Bell maintains that most teacher members of various unions do regard themselves as workers, but probably not as revolutionaries or socialists. 

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And he notes that Bernstein’s insistence on the growth of a middle class buffer between rich and poor as a guarantee of stability, ironically puts her in an ideological bed with communist icons, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Lenin.

He points out that Engels more than 150 years ago referred to this generally economically better off social stratum as an “aristocracy labour”, prone therefore, to support the establishment and the status quo. In 1916 Lenin agreed, referring specifically to Britain. This myth was exploded in 1919 when this “aristocracy” went on strike.

An objective definition of class, Bell maintains, must rely on the relationship of people to work and the manner in which the economy impacts on this.  Only then, he says, can there be any reasonably accurate prediction of desires, attitudes and reactions of groups of people on which policies and plans can be based.

Share your thoughts or simply ask Bell a labour question.