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Review of Zak Cope, Divided World, Divided Class: Global Political Economy and the Stratification of Labour Under Capitalism (Kersplebedeb, 2012)
By Charlie Post (via New Socialist WebZine )
A specter has haunted anti-capitalist radicals and revolutionaries for more than 150 years—the specter of working class reformism and conservatism in the global North of the capitalist world economy. Why have those who Marx called the “grave-diggers of capitalism,” the wage-earning majority of the industrialized societies, embraced politics that either seek to “balance” the interests of capital and labour (reformism) or blame other workers for falling living standards and working conditions (conservatism)?
For most of the last century, the main explanation for working class reformism and conservatism has been the theory of the “labour aristocracy.” While there are several variants of the argument, all share the claim that the higher paid sections of the world working class have been “bribed” with “super-profits” accrued from the “super-exploitation” of lower paid workers.[1] Whether derived from profits from transnational investment in the global South, or from large firms’ “monopolistic” position in the markets of the global North, higher wages, more secure employment and social welfare benefits secure the loyalty of better-off workers for capitalism. The labour aristocracy’s embrace of reformist and, at times, openly reactionary (racist, xenophobic, sexist, heterosexist) politics is quite rational.