John Clarke, former major organizer of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, recently posted this on Facebook:
We live in a society that is based on exploitation. The small minority of exploiters are raised under conditions that school them in the exercise of power and instill in them a fierce determination to preserve their system. They are highly class conscious.For working class people, a comparable level of class consciousness is very hard to achieve. It’s not only the ongoing pressure of the dominant ideas of the ruling class that act as an impediment, though this is a considerable factor. While workers do have a vested interest in united action, the material conditions of their lives work the other way as well. This is a commodity based society and workers sell their ability to work to employers in order to survive. This means that they face each other as competitors despite their common interests. Working class solidarity must be forged in the face of that contradiction.Even when united action takes place, there is a strong and very understandable tendency to remain within the confines of what this society deems possible. Trade union consciousness, while it is a huge step forward, is only an effort to limit exploitation and obtain a better deal under capitalism.This drives home a point I keep trying to make. To base yourself on the immediate consciousness of most people, is utterly hopeless. When I advance socialist ideas, I inevitably get “I wish I had your optimism” responses. This, of course, is a slightly sarcastic way of suggesting I’m not being realistic. However, this very ‘realism’ shows a complete lack of understanding.To assess the possibilities for change, it is necessary to comprehend how capitalist society works and appreciate the accumulating contradictions within it. This is what drives the ongoing class struggle, even when it is only at the level of isolated skirmishes. This is what makes possible leaps in thoughts and explosive sweeping movements. It is this consideration that Rosa Luxemburg captured with her brilliant observation that ‘Before a revolution happens, it is perceived as impossible; after it happens, it is seen as having been inevitable.”Contempt for the mass of working class people and a failure to grasp the possibilities that exist is a fatal impediment to an effective political practice. Ironically, those who take this view and imagine it is based on a clear understanding are utterly clueless and will be useless unless and until they can break free of their disorientated perspective.
If working-class consciousness and solidarity is hard to achieve, and if we are not to base our actions on the immediate consciousness of the working class, does it not then follow that, in order to achieve working-class consciousness and solidarity and engage in intelligent action, we need to engage continuously in ideological struggle against capitalist strucures and the ideas that defend those structures? Are many so-called Marxists doing that these days? Are so-called radicals doing that these days?
The Abolitionary 