
The discussion that follows was prompted by the article: A contribution towards a balance sheet of the technicians' strike at Movistar in Spain. The discussion was initiated by Fred.
Below is the discussion so far. Feel free to add your own comments!
This article about class struggles at Movistar in Spain, is so full of ideas and analyses of the difficulties associated with developing class consciousness and solidarity in the current historical moment of capitalism's decline, that I feel like I want to quote it all! But here are just a few points instead.
The first thing to be noticed says the article is that there is a reluctance in the working class to break out of its muzzled shyness and stand up with confidence in itself on its own feet. There is a temerity with regard to engaging with the wider class outside the individual factory, school, shop of office, perhaps for fear of failure and from lack of practice; and a tendency to hide and take shelter in bourgeoise legality, which Is itself the very system that helps imprison the class within bourgeois limits and for the satisfaction of the enemy class. This is a self-defeating ploy stemming from years of union brow beating and constant enforcement of the idea that workers are incapable of achieving anything on their own, and thus of necessity need other more professional people to think and do things for them, like asking for more money.
But class conscious workers don't ask politely for more pay, cap in hand, they demand it and cause difficulties for the capitalist until they get it!
So why are workers in general, so cowed and so timid in the face of bourgeois demands for austerity measures, their imposition of an all-round precarious existence, with no guarantee of any future improvement, and the clawing back by our rulers of Health Care provisions and education? What is it that generates such submission to bourgeois restrictions on our quality of life?
Capitalist society is in its closing stages and has lost its way. It can no more lead society forward to the brave new world it once presaged, because it has proven itself as bankrupt of progressive ideas as it is bankrupt of offering society an end to war. There is no new world available under capitalism, brave or otherwise, only stultification of the mind, creeping barbarism and environmental degradation. What is to be said about this overall situation today?
Readers will take from this what engages them most. I notice "the destruction of emotions and their replacement with pornography" also "mass gatherings of young people in the collective hysteria of song and dance". Others will notice different things. But...
Comrades we have a world to win. Take heart.