The Construction and Anatomy of the Working Class

Presented by: Nikki and Saleha

“The capitalist system makes it very much easier for people not to realize what they are doing, not to know about the danger and hardship, the despair and humiliation, that their way of life implies for others.”- Edmund Wilson, The Shores of Light

Working Class

Defined

4 Characteristics of the Working Class:

1. Labour Mobility

2. Segmentation

3. Discipline and Control

4. Resistance and Rebellion

Labor Mobility

19th Century

Italian Migrants› Chain Migration

Segmentation

Working class divided by race, religion, ethnicity, age and gender

Karl Marx; The Communist Manifesto

Blacks vs. Irish

The Segmentation of the Workforce

Women Discussion Question:

› Why do you think these corporations stationed in developing countries prefer to employ women over men?

› http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bhodyt4fmU&feature=related

The Domestic Garment Industry of Neza

The Black box of Capitalism Primary vs. Secondary

Discipline and Control

Introduction of ‘The Factory’

Time Discipline

Introduction of Free Labor

Factory Discipline

Resistance

Karl Marx- The estranged Labor : “The worker becomes all the poorer the

more wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and size. The worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity the more commodities he creates”

› Please expand on what Karl Marx is trying to convey in his quotation extracted from the reading.

Political economy Alienation

Resistance continued...

“Social revolution of the poor.”› http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc

Eza5Xq5wU&feature=related

Proletariat vs. Bourgeois

Resistance and Rebellion

“Disciplined Worker”

Resistance to Capital Discipline

The Creation of Free labour

Capitalist society › Working Class

Example of Mexico

Free Trade

Do you think that the working class has an option to opt out this game of capitalism? Also, in some countries people still prefer to be independent workers as farmers and crafts people rather than a life dependent on wage labour, why do you think they prefer it this way and do you think it can last in this fast paced economy?

Weber Iron Cage

Weber quotes:› "Specialists without spirit, sensualists

without heart; this nullity imagines that it has attained a level of civilization never before achieved.“

› What do you think Weber is trying to say in this quote.

Historical Materialism

The Growth of Assembly Plants

Maximizing surplus value= paying the laborer as little as possible

Black Box of Capitalism + laborer = crucial

American Workers Losing their Job

Conclusion