Tony Blair informs us that there is no such thing as class any more. So are we all middle class or something? The following are figures from the Class War web site.
3.1
Rich – Poor
The Ruling Class About 5% of the population.
Some examples: Owners of major companies, landowners judges ,top cops, church leaders and the aristocracy including the Royal Family.
The Middle Class About 20% of the population
Some examples :professionals e.g.journalists,doctors,teachers,management,social workers Also priests officers in the armed forces and the owners of small businesses
The Working Class About 75% of the population
Some examples: Factory shop and office workers,nurses,technicians agricultural workers, soldiers up to NCO level and the unemployed
The above figures are not the invention of Class War – they come from the State’s own figures and were updated after the 1981 census.
“Maybe the class system could be simplified to help Tony Blair to understand it better. The rich class -The poor class”.
Racism
Within the ruling classes racism is of no account. Color means nothing when money and power is involved. The upper classes don’t care what colour you are, what nationality, Arab; African, Chinese, Russian or what religion or anything else. They do not care how many die in their wars created to achieve what they seek. Whether it’s the enemies troops and civilians, or whether it’s their own is also of no account. They only care about power and the accumulation of wealth. How they achieve it or what it costs is secondary.
Racism was invented to keep poor whites and poor blacks apart in the days of slavery. Lest the poor black and white joined to organize against there rulers. Class, is a very useful word when describing the gap between the top and the bottom for really that is what it is all about. For what ever the issues under discussion, whether it be race, politics or religion you will find the class system at its core. Which is why people like Tony Blair deny the existence of class
Think global act local
As I have said. We don’t send kids up chimneys anymore. However, today the devices of domestic exploitation and repression are of a more subtle nature than they were the days of our ancestors.
While then, and now on shores detached from our island our government, along with others can murder and brutalize to gain submission to their agendas. Today on the homeland, while racism is still a staple device. Television, entertainment and public relations are the main submissive forces.
We need to understand that both these forms of repression both violent and submissive at home and abroad are inextricably linked and in solving one we can help solve the other.
Exploitative wages anywhere, every worker will eventually suffer at home and abroad. We do not progress by being in competition with each other but by cooperation and understanding that what hurts one hurts us all. Understanding the class system is an important tool in achieving this end.
Links
Participatory Economics and the Self-emancipation of the Working Class
The emancipation of the working class must be the work of the workers themselves.