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The Revival of the Working-Class Concept
Trump, the Class Struggle, and the (Somewhat Overstated) Specter of Fascism
Leupp, Gary http://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/the-revival-of-the-working-class-concept
Publisher: Canadian Dimension
Date Written: 29/11/2016
Year Published: 2016
Resource Type: Article
Details how the concept of a working-class has been misused in the media to blame specific groups for Trump's success in the 2016 election, and how recognition of broader working-class issues is needed to enact positive political change.
Abstract:
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Excerpts:
In fact, capitalist globalization has for a generation disappointed and alienated the (multi-ethnic) U.S. working class, if not impoverished it, causing its members inclined to vote at all to vote this time to back Sanders in the Democratic primaries or Trump in the election. And now all the pundits credit Trump's victory to support from this class - more specifically the white working class - even more specifically a posited angry white working class - to explain the mainly ugly phenomenon of Trump's win. (Interesting in this connection to hear MSNBC's Joe Scarborough defend the use of the term "redneck" and even refer proudly to himself as one.) This putative white working class triumph is being linked by the mainstream media with the rednecks' victory, if not "White Pride."
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What's really needed is for the Sanders supporters to join with the Trump supporters who would have voted Sanders, and the bulk of the working class - including those who supported none of the candidates, thinking none of them deserving support - to join to fight what should unite them: the capitalist globalization and imperialism that have so badly hurt them. This is a tall order given cultural divides. But maybe a wake-up call for the radical left that has long written off the "labor aristocracy" (as bought off by white privilege and U.S. global hegemony) while betting on the lumpenproletariat and identity politics to bring on a revolution that wouldn’t need the working class once so assiduously courted and organized by the left in this country.
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