Sorry about the long post (shortest leftist wall of text be like)
When it comes to the “labour aristocracy” in the first world, I feel like many leftists wildly exaggerate both its size and wealth. This is often done to the point of erasing class conflict in the first world, as this article does. I might be totally wrong here, but i feel like these authors are making anti-marxist errors. The following points are emblematic of what I am talking about (emphasis mine):
The class interests of the labour aristocracy are bound up with those of the capitalist class, such that if the latter is unable to accumulate superprofits then the super-wages of the labour aristocracy must be reduced. Today, the working class of the imperialist countries, what we may refer to as metropolitan labour, is entirely labour aristocratic.
This is just completely wrong when one considers just how many poor people live in the first world who obviously don’t receive super-wages. US poverty rates alone are always above 10%, and that poverty line is widely known to be inadequate. The US also is significantly more wealthy than Europe, where the calculus is even worse. And that doesn’t even account for the wild wealth disparities that exist in the first world.
When … the relative importance of the national exploitation from which a working class suffers through belonging to the proletariat diminishes continually as compared with that from which it benefits through belonging to a privileged nation, a moment comes when the aim of increasing the national income in absolute terms prevails over that of improving the relative share of one part of the nation over the other
What it is saying is that when the working class share of national income becomes high enough, they start to want to exploit other nations as that becomes beneficial. However, the expansion of imperialism in the neoliberal era is also the reason for the stagnation of living standards in the imperial core. By accessing a larger pool of labor in the south, the position of northern workers is threatened. That’s why Northern workers have fought against outsourcing, the very fundamental imperialist measure.
Thereafter a de facto united front of the workers and capitalists of the well-to-do countries, directed against the poor nations, co-exists with an internal trade-union struggle over the sharing of the loot. Under these conditions this trade-union struggle necessarily becomes more and more a sort of settlement of accounts between partners, and it is no accident that in the richest countries, such as the United States—with similar tendencies already apparent in the other big capitalist countries—militant trade-union struggle is degenerating first into trade unionism of the classic British type, then into corporatism, and finally into racketeering
I am not too familiar with the history of the trade union, but wasn’t the degeneration of the unions largely a result of state and corporate action against the unions? They engage in union busting, forced out radical leaders, performed assasinations, etc. This seems like an erasure of the class struggle to the point that the unions are depicted as voluntarily degenerating.
I feel like these kinds of narratives, which are popular amongst liberals as well (liberals will often admit that weak nations are exploited. Example - America invades for oil meme) tend to justify imperialism to westerners. I have on more than one occasion seen westerns outright say that they don’t want to fight against imperialism because they benefit from it. I think that’s how a lot of westerners justify supporting imperialism. This kind of narrative ironically cements the power of imperialism
Keep in mind that most of the impoverished and imprisoned within the US are colonized nations, not dominant settler nation. Also, most of our goods are produced in the global south, while we work jobs that don’t create much value. That said, the USian petty-bourgeoisie is being proletarianized and would benefit from decolonization and socialism. The problem is this is leading more to these vulnerable bougie white people turning more toward overt fascism.
Don’t include the lumpen in the labor aristocracy, first off. There’s a reason for the distinction and it has to do with revolutionary potential. The Black Panthers’ analysis was that in the USA the lumpen are the revolutionary class because their incentives are not as tightly coupled to the bourgeoisie as the proletariat (labor aristocracy).
The reason the interests are so aligned has nothing to do with super profits and everything to do with reproduction. The labor aristocracy can reproduce their labor, not because of what they themselves as a class produce (Americans produce very very little) but because of what the periphery produces and they purchase cheaply. If the periphery were to strike, they would harm not only their domestic bourgeoisie but also the labor aristocracy of the imperial core. Where does your food variety and price come from? Where do your clothes come from? Your fuel? Your electronics? Your vehicles? The USA imports more than 100x the number of shoes than it produces domestically.
The labor aristocracy benefits immensely from imperialism due to abundance, variety, and cost of goods. They benefit immensely from at risk immigrants providing them services at cut rates with no safety or protection. Hell, even the lumpen benefit from the meager wages of the global majority because goods are so cheap they can actually afford them. Don’t forget the carbon footprint of an unhoused person in the USA is still above the maximum sustainable on the BP carbon footprint map. That’s not because of the fuel they burn but because the only way they eat and dress is because of imperialism.
This emerges in unions because unions for a long time now have been al.ost exclusively about wages and workplace safety. The wages are only good enough if they keep pace with the inflation in prices. If the cost of coffee goes up because of the end of coffee plantation slavery, then the cost of a cup goes up for every union member. Multiply this by every single item a union member needs to live, and suddenly the wage suppression of imperialism is perfectly aligned with the wage protection of the unions.
Don’t include the lumpen in the labor aristocracy, first off.
I didn’t include the lumpen at all. The vast majority of the American poor are working and poor. Same goes for the lower-middle class who are also not a part of the labour aristocracy (low level government officials, nurses, teachers etc).
Where does your food variety and price come from? Where do your clothes come from? Your fuel? Your electronics? Your vehicles? The USA imports more than 100x the number of shoes than it produces domestically.
This kind of demonstrates what I am complaining about. You’ve assumed that America produces nothing, yet in like half of the examples you have listed, America is a top producer. Food, oil, solar energy, electronics are major American industries. A lot of the variety in food in America definitely comes from imports, but in terms of quantity, well, America has vast plains and a network of rivers. It’s been a major producer since pretty much day 1.
It is also true that America outsources a lot of clothing production, however, by exaggerating the extent to which the American proletariat is reliant upon imperialism, you have come to the view that the American proletariat is just straight up devoid of revolutionary potential. Even if that were true about the white proletariat, saying that about the black proletariat (not lumpen) is just wrong
even the lumpen benefit from the meager wages of the global majority because goods are so cheap they can actually afford them.
The low wages of third world workers are also what destroyed the power of the unions in the first world. American real wages have stagnated for the past 40 years in part because of outsourcing. The intensification of imperialism has gone hand in hand with a falling share of national income for labor at home.
This whole notion implies that a significant part of the surplus value extracted from third world workers is being transfered to first world workers instead of the first world bourgeoise. But the whole reason the bourgeoise turned to outsourcing in the first place was a crisis of profitability in the first world. Bribing workers with a larger share of the pie would be counterproductive for them.
Don’t forget the carbon footprint of an unhoused person in the USA is still above the maximum sustainable on the BP carbon footprint map.
The only study (the MIT one, is that what you are referring to?) that everyone seems to be citing divides the carbon footprint of the government and infrastructure equally among the population. How are those a homeless person’s fault?
If the cost of coffee goes up because of the end of coffee plantation slavery
This is a pre-marxist error. Increases in the price of labor-power don’t substantially increase the price of a commodity. The end of plantation slavery will reduce the profit rate of coffee plantations, and that eats up most of the extra cost. Add in the incenvisation it causes for automation and on the long run, the price of coffee might actually fall.
America has vast plains and a network of rivers. It’s been a major producer since pretty much day 1.
A lot of the variety in food in America definitely comes from imports, but in terms of quantity, well
Yes. Exactly. Americans get their food variety from the global south by trading cash crops. Americans eat mostly because of imperialism, not production.
You’ve assumed that America produces nothing
For 300M Americans, the country only produced 25M shoes, and most of those are way too expensive for the working class to buy. Americans have shoes because of imperialism, not production.
oil
Yes, the US produces oil, but most of it is saved for strategic reserves. The US consumer gets oil at discount rates because of imperialism, not production.
You’re confusing GDP with actual use value. The USA produces so much for exchange value and then uses it’s position as the imperial hegemon to extract super profits in unequal exchange. Those super profits keep costs of goods low enough for the American consumer to purchase while still making sufficient margin for the owner.
The low wages of third world workers are also what destroyed the power of the unions in the first world. American real wages have stagnated for the past 40 years in part because of outsourcing. The intensification of imperialism has gone hand in hand with a falling share of national income for labor at home.
But people still live in large homes, have two cars, have wardrobes larger than they can use, have cheap access to coffee, chocolate, bananas, cane sugar, avocados, wheat, fish, etc. Cellphones, computers, hard drives, etc. Yes, the USA makes solar panels, but the US produces less than 2% of the world’s lithium. 70% of the world’s cobalt is from Congo. Zero industrial diamond stone is produced in the USA. The only way anything works at all in this country is through unequal exchange.
The low wages of the third world did not destroy the power of unions. The domestic bourgeoisie used imperialism to destroy the power of unions by removing from them as many means of production as possible and removing their bargaining power, thus, making them entirely dependent on the bourgeoisie. Attacking the bourgeoisie now means attacking your salary.
This whole notion implies that a significant part of the surplus value extracted from third world workers is being transfered to first world workers instead of the first world bourgeoise.
- The average individual daily consumption of water is 159 gallons, while more than half the world’s population lives on 25 gallons.
- Americans constitute 5% of the world’s population but consume 24% of the world’s energy
- “A child born in the United States will create thirteen times as much ecological damage over the course of his or her lifetime than a child born in Brazil,” reports the Sierra Club’s Dave Tilford
- the average American will drain as many resources as 35 natives of India and consume 53 times more goods and services than someone from China.
- between 1900 and 1989 U.S. population tripled while its use of raw materials grew by a factor of 17
- “With less than 5 percent of world population, the U.S. uses one-third of the world’s paper, a quarter of the world’s oil, 23 percent of the coal, 27 percent of the aluminum, and 19 percent of the copper,” he reports.
- “Our per capita use of energy, metals, minerals, forest products, fish, grains, meat, and even fresh water dwarfs that of people living in the developing world.”
So, this notion is correct. The bourgeoisie OWN everything, they consume more per capita than the proles, but they are vanishingly small in number.
But the whole reason the bourgeoise turned to outsourcing in the first place was a crisis of profitability in the first world. Bribing workers with a larger share of the pie would be counterproductive for them.
Yes, capitalism is all about contradictions. The solution here, of course, is the Fourth Reich. Instead of allowing the proles to revolt and establish global solidarity, they will once again stoke the flames of nationalism, xenophobia, religious fanaticism, and bloodlust, concentrate the power into the hands of the ideologically pure fascists, and fight a world war to maintain capitalism.
The only study (the MIT one, is that what you are referring to?) that everyone seems to be citing divides the carbon footprint of the government and infrastructure equally among the population. How are those a homeless person’s fault?
Whoever said anything about blame? The point is that the homeless person in the USA draws more benefit from imperialism than the homeless person in the periphery. They didn’t ask for it, but if you start to reduce availability of goods, services, and infrastructure, you’re going to harm people and that means reaction, hence, the lack of revolutionary potential. Just imagine if the USA had to pay the same for automobile fuel as the rest of the world. The whole place would shut down almost instantly because most people live in places that require not only long haul trucking for their daily existence but they would need to spend nearly $100/day just to get to work.
This is a pre-marxist error. Increases in the price of labor-power don’t substantially increase the price of a commodity. The end of plantation slavery will reduce the profit rate of coffee plantations, and that eats up most of the extra cost. Add in the incenvisation it causes for automation and on the long run, the price of coffee might actually fall.
It raises the floor price of the commodity, as Marx clearly demonstrates in Capital. Once the rate of profit of coffee plantations falls, there won’t be enough margin to cover the costs of shipping, storage, and waste.
Consumers in the US are getting a worse deal due to inflation, corporate greed, and the inability of bourgeoisie governments to make concessions to the masses in the imperial core. The utter insanity of unstoppable unpopular neoliberalism is what drives people away from the status quo. It is the job of Marxists to explain that another world is possible and to their benefit to lead them away from the foolish answers of fascism. Attempts to reform like Roosevelt did were insufficient to make capitalism work for the proletariat of Turtle Island.
As democracy gets eroded by the Republicans and as the Democrats do nothing to stop them. I don’t see an electoral way out of this.
Marxists must be seen as the solution to people’s very real problems so that the easy answers of blaming trans people, ethnic minorities, women, and foreigners are less appealing. The trade union movement is coming back for the most exploited of the first world. The Indigenous sovereignty movement is also becoming more mainstream.
These are things that I think marxists can do on Turtle island:
Expand the use of permaculture with indigenous knowledge. Get the local tribes on board with this if they are not. Join them if they are currently doing this. Find ways to make this scale enough to feed the current population of your reigion. Obtain as much land to expand these practices and/or encourage current farmers to do this. This combats soil erosion, fossil fuel consumption and acknowledges in a real way that the best managers of this land are not the settlers, but the indigenous peoples.
Expand anti consumptionist practices in communities enough for people to opt out of capitalism. Capitalism encourages consumption and people feel like they have no choice but to consume. Create institutions to help people share items that are often owned but not used often. This is beneficial to the would be consumer because it it would cost less than owning and storing these items. This is better for the environment becuase it requires less production. This is also undermines imperialism because the need for cheaply produced goods from exploited nations can be replaced with durable quality goods, locally produced, perhaps of recycled materials, open source design, and designed in a manner that it is easy to repair for the good of all of us.
None of this shit is controversial, nor asking for someone to accept a worse state of affairs for moral reasons.
Consumers in the US are getting a worse deal due to inflation, corporate greed, and the inability of bourgeoisie governments to make concessions to the masses in the imperial core
This is the inherent contradiction of capitalism.
The utter insanity of unstoppable unpopular neoliberalism is what drives people away from the status quo.
It alienates them, but it doesn’t drive them away, it entraps them further. No one is being driven away from jobs, on the contrary they are clamoring for jobs so they can get health care.
It is the job of Marxists to explain that another world is possible and to their benefit to lead them away from the foolish answers of fascism. Attempts to reform like Roosevelt did were insufficient to make capitalism work for the proletariat of Turtle Island.
Yes, that’s absolutely true. It is our job. No one has figured out how to do it yet.
As democracy gets eroded by the Republicans and as the Democrats do nothing to stop them. I don’t see an electoral way out of this.
There never WAS an electoral way out of it.
Marxists must be seen as the solution to people’s very real problems
Yes, but it’s not and we’re still struggling to figure out how to achieve this.
The trade union movement is coming back for the most exploited of the first world.
We’ll see. The unions were infiltrated by the CIA a long time ago. It’s unclear whether they can be the vehicle for revolutionary change. Even in Russia Lenin exposed the problems of trade unions as the revolutionary vehicle, because their economic incentives were tied to heavily to partnership with the bourgeoisie.
The Indigenous sovereignty movement is also becoming more mainstream.
Yes, but even the PSL says “landback doesn’t make sense”. And the reality is, this is a schylla/charybdis problem. Indigenous sovereignty is the end game, but you can’t get the working class onboard with that because they would literally lose their right to decide how the land is ultimately used unless they adopt indigenous ways of knowing and being. This is exactly how reactionary movements generate fascism.
Expand anti consumptionist practices in communities enough for people to opt out of capitalism
This is literally impossible. Every thing you can possibly do to help people gain power to opt out will be co-opted, destroyed, or obviated. The bourgeoisie are not blind. They have been disrupting this anarchist mutual aid work for decades.
None of this shit is controversial, nor asking for someone to accept a worse state of affairs for moral reasons.
I think lots of it is controversial to the American working class. But worse, I don’t think it’s actually effective. As far as I can tell, the empire needs to lose a lot more before revolution is possible, and then there will be years of bloody conflict between the forces of reaction and the forces of liberation, and they will be confused for each other constantly as the propaganda war advances to far beyond what it was 80 years ago when fascists first donned the socialist moniker.
Yes, but even the PSL says “landback doesn’t make sense”.
And they’re the vanguard? I’m sure a good bit of the rank and file disagrees. Most people I know are either apathetic petty bourgeois, people who are done with electoral politics and know there are great injustices against indigenous people to be rectified in the least, or functionally fascist.
This is literally impossible. Every thing you can possibly do to help people gain power to opt out will be co-opted, destroyed, or obviated. The bourgeoisie are not blind. They have been disrupting this anarchist mutual aid work for decades.
Anarchists don’t centralize things enough or enforce the politicization of their mutual aid. They were scared of the BPP and we repeat their successes while dodging cointelpro.
cash crops
No? America produces almost a fifth of the world’s cereal. I don’t understand this attempt at downplaying American industrial capacity. It’s atrophied to begin with, I don’t see why we need to pretend as if it just doesn’t even exist.
Yes, the US produces oil, but most of it is saved for strategic reserves
What are you even talking about. The strategic reserves are 700 million barells and the yearly production is overly 4.4 billion
You’re confusing GDP with actual use value
No I’m not, I’ve deliberately used use values and haven’t made a single mention to market value or gdp.
The low wages of the third world did not destroy the power of unions. The domestic bourgeoisie used imperialism to destroy the power of unions by removing from them as many means of production as possible and removing their bargaining power
That’s just saying the same thing in another way. The loss of union bargaining power is just one cost the American workers have to pay for imperialism.
the list
Does not say anything about how much America produces domestically, how much American labour is spent exchanging for imports, how this consumption is distributed, how much of it is by the American military (a bigger polluter and consumer than literally pver a 100 countries).
Also, when you list freshwater use, are you saying that American steal water from the third world?
Whoever said anything about blame.
Who gets the blame is absolutely important when it comes to class analysis. Assigning the emissions of the military to the homeless is one way the study comes to its poor-shaming conclusions. If you are not using that study, then can you tell me which one you are using?
It raises the floor price of the commodity
Commodities aren’t sold at their floor price, so that’s irrelevant.
Once the rate of profit of coffee plantations falls, there won’t be enough margin to cover the costs of shipping, storage, and waste.
Shipping and storage aren’t paid from profits.
From Day 1
Cash Crops
No
Yes. From Day 1, the USA was organized as an export economy because it was a colony. It was fundamentally envisioned as an export economy.
I don’t understand this attempt at downplaying American industrial capacity. It’s atrophied to begin with, I don’t see why we need to pretend as if it just doesn’t even exist.
I’m not. I’m saying it’s not relevant to your question. The means to produce what Americans consume en masse IS NOT PRESENT.
Does not say anything about how much America produces domestically, how much American labour is spent exchanging for imports
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_trade_of_the_United_States#Imports_and_exports
https://www.bea.gov/data/intl-trade-investment/international-trade-goods-and-services
The trade deficit is real. How much of this is the American military? The USA is the largest weapons exporter in the world, so I would say that if you remove the military it becomes abundantly clear that the trade deficit looks rosier with the military included than excluded.
No I’m not, I’ve deliberately used use values and haven’t made a single mention to market value or gdp.
You haven’t mentioned many use values at all. So far I think you mentioned cereal grains and oil.
The strategic reserves are 700 million barells and the yearly production is overly 4.4 billion
Yes, but the USA only became a net exporter in 2020 and production peaked in 2019. Statistically, this is a small time frame, considering it was a growing net importer of oil for over 50 years. Maybe the USA could maintain its oil production with working class solidarity, but it could certainly ONLY do so by continuing to oppress the indigenous, and loss of the dollar as the world reserve currency and the petrodollar would certainly make it incredibly difficult to refine and make us of all that crude extraction.
So what other use values does America produce in enough quantity to not be harmed by an ascendant global south?
Also, when you list freshwater use, are you saying that American steal water from the third world?
They certainly colonize water from the third world. Fiji water and Nestle come to mind.
That’s just saying the same thing in another way. The loss of union bargaining power is just one cost the American workers have to pay for imperialism.
American workers don’t need bargaining power unless the bourgeoisie are in power. You’re confusing cause and effect. If the bourgeoisie were not in power, the American proletariat would STILL be incentivized to suppress wages in the global south in order to maintain their rate of their consumption which is supported through unequal and extractive trade. Exploitation is GLOBAL.
Who gets the blame is absolutely important when it comes to class analysis
This is so anti-Marxist its ridiculous. Blame is a concept in ethics, not in political economy.
Assigning the emissions of the military to the homeless is one way the study comes to its poor-shaming conclusions.
It’s only poor-shaming to liberals. It’s an accurate account of what it means to have national defense in America.
Shipping and storage aren’t paid from profits.
You’re not doing the math. The PROFIT is what the owners take away. The MARGIN is the delta between price points. The PROFIT is taken from MARGINS. As wages increase, MARGIN absolutely decreases. That margin is the margin between the market price of the good and the wages paid to produce it. That margin is not all profit. Much of that margin is spent on transport, storage, marketing, distribution, and waste. What’s left over is where profit is extracted from. As wages of coffee plantations increase, the margin shrinks. As wages of shipping companies and storage companies increase, the margin shrinks. As environmental controls protect more people, the cost of waste increases and the margin decreases. Eventually, that margin gets thin enough that it becomes uneconomical to establish cash crop monocultures with massive shipping dependencies, which is what the USA has been doing in Africa for generations. When these things come to pass there will be massive adjustments in the quality of life across the world. People in the global south will finally have the freedom to produce what they need domestically, while people in the global north will have to sacrifice so much of their international consumption while they struggle to rebuild their productive base after it was hollowed out.
NONE of these problems exist in the global south. And this is why the analysis is that the labor aristocracy lacks the revolutionary potential of the periphery. It’s likely also why the analysis has so far been accurate with regard to history. Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, China, and Soviet Russia were predominantly peasant revolts, without even the possibility of a proletariat due to under development. Show me an industrialized country that had a successful communist revolution after industrialization. It doesn’t exist.
The more I look into this, the more I find that I am lacking in sufficient knowledge to to address your claims. I will concede this thread and on the points you make. Going further would just be pointless. Thanks for taking the time to discuss this. I’ll have to do more in depth research which will take time
I have on more than one occasion seen westerns outright say that they don’t want to fight against imperialism because they benefit from it. I think that’s how a lot of westerners justify supporting imperialism. This kind of narrative ironically cements the power of imperialism.
This is evidence that the thesis is correct. Revolutionary movements are unlikely because of the relationship with imperialism, whether conscious or not. If admitting this works against us, then there is no project to build. We MUST admit this if we are to eventually succeed where others have failed. If the problem with the thesis is that it makes things harder to articulate with our routine rhetoric, then the problem is denial.
Fair enough. I shouldn’t assume that revolution must be possible in the first world, at least for now.
If the thesis is true, then what does success even look like for first world comrades?
I don’t feel like retyping it, so I’ll link a recent comment here. Generally we need to weaken imperialism, build dual power, and get the confidence to be able to direct spontaneous movements. This means doing Black Panthers type mutual aid, building power among the colonized. An example that currently exists in Chunka Luta. Also, just remembered this podcast.
I think it is fair to say that it has not been properly conceptualized or theorized. However, solidarity with the global south and well articulated anti imperial politics will be vital.
I think of how unionization is having an upturn in the US. For example, Starbucks now has a union. Generally, this is a good thing for Starbucks workers. However, as revolutionaries we have to think globally and ask ourselves what does it all mean for solidarity with coffee farmers. Is there a way to include more workers in our movements? Is there a way to link labor movements with anti-imperialist political movements? There would almost certainly be legal barriers, but still we must answer this.
There also needs to be a reckoning for metropolitan workers, laboring settlers, and white people. We must understand our social relations and we must face up to the fact that we have not always been helpful in building and maintaining solidarity and this is largely because we have played a key role in empire building. Perhaps then we can correct our course.
I also think there is a tendency for anti imperialism to only organize around the low hanging fruit. It is good that we support Palestine in official capacity, or in the streets, or online. However, we never ask how we can support anti imperialism at the bargaining table, with our labor, or by withholding our labor. Further, we are even less willing to take risks for banana farmers, than we are for Palestinians resisting genocide, but both are important.
We have to be willing to potentially ignore our own needs and take risks that show real solidarity. If we stand against land grabs, unequal exchange, dependency, and imperial aggression, we have to recognize that we are likely disqualifing ourselves from healthcare reforms in the near future. Maybe it won’t necessarily actually mean such dire risks in reality, but we must be prepared for them. Instead, I’m afraid much of the left has gone that way because they believe it should be a simple matter of correcting wealth distribution. If we can problematize our reliance on imperial spoils (which the relevant thesis effectively does) we may be able to shift our collective consciousness toward something better, for our own sake and for others. Reliance on slavery is no real form of dignified sovereignty if you ask me. Maybe others can agree.
Finally, since there is rarely a willingness to take a risk or go further than leftist profile building, I feel that we are exploiting the Palestinian cause to build and solidify coalitions at home which will only help ourselves at the end of the day. I think this is a faux anti-imperialism, a fake solidarity, that must be addressed as well.
Speaking from personal experience; labour aristocracy only need to be reminded of their material conditions to go hardcore nazi. And pro-social stances they had will slowly erode away as the contradictions pile and get resolved to the right.
As a disclaimer, I am not saying that the western bourgeoisie don’t benefit from imperialism or that western proles don’t have it better than peripheral proletariat. Also, I won’t be able to respond for a few hours because timezones
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