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| What happened to class action? | What happened to class action? |
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| Could it be possible that most of our political class suffers from a severe case of mistaken identity? While they are scrambling to appease the "squeezed middle", which always always sounds like a Gok Wan ensemble, they assume that we all see ourselves as middle class now. Even though we have repeatedly been told that and got the kitchen appliances to prove it, the new British Social Attitudes survey finds 60% of us stubbornly identifying ourselves as working class. Even when we know what parma ham is and everything. Lawks! | Could it be possible that most of our political class suffers from a severe case of mistaken identity? While they are scrambling to appease the "squeezed middle", which always always sounds like a Gok Wan ensemble, they assume that we all see ourselves as middle class now. Even though we have repeatedly been told that and got the kitchen appliances to prove it, the new British Social Attitudes survey finds 60% of us stubbornly identifying ourselves as working class. Even when we know what parma ham is and everything. Lawks! |
| This is somewhat disturbing information for both the left and the right. The calculated vilification of the poor by this government has not stopped people seeing themselves as working class. Social anxiety, personified by the Daily Mail, has us refusing to "admit" we are middle class and insisting such an identification is nostalgic. Given the decline of heavy industry, the rise of home ownership and the move to white collar jobs, their distress that only 35% of us call ourselves middle class is palpable. | This is somewhat disturbing information for both the left and the right. The calculated vilification of the poor by this government has not stopped people seeing themselves as working class. Social anxiety, personified by the Daily Mail, has us refusing to "admit" we are middle class and insisting such an identification is nostalgic. Given the decline of heavy industry, the rise of home ownership and the move to white collar jobs, their distress that only 35% of us call ourselves middle class is palpable. |
| Lurking here is a presumption, sadly wrong, about class consciousness and what kind of politics it may produce. Labour only got in by appealing to the aspirational voter, but has lost much of its tribal base. Now we have the spectacle of Ed Miliband fumbling with the TUC, giving one of his "here's the thing" speeches. His insistence on breaking collective ties comes when so many collective ties have been severed anyway. | Lurking here is a presumption, sadly wrong, about class consciousness and what kind of politics it may produce. Labour only got in by appealing to the aspirational voter, but has lost much of its tribal base. Now we have the spectacle of Ed Miliband fumbling with the TUC, giving one of his "here's the thing" speeches. His insistence on breaking collective ties comes when so many collective ties have been severed anyway. |
| It is this link between class identification and collective class action that is at stake here. We may individually feel working class, but there are few ways to express this alongside other people. The decline in social mobility coincided with the decline in any expression of mass class politics, which petered out with the miners' strike. Mainstream politics is really now a battle for a few swing seats in the centre, but presented as a huge struggle by the media. | It is this link between class identification and collective class action that is at stake here. We may individually feel working class, but there are few ways to express this alongside other people. The decline in social mobility coincided with the decline in any expression of mass class politics, which petered out with the miners' strike. Mainstream politics is really now a battle for a few swing seats in the centre, but presented as a huge struggle by the media. |
| Class hatred has been siphoned off on to chavs, scroungers, benefit fraudsters, single mothers, all the new untouchables, so that the architects of austerity can justify their cruelty. In order to do this, class has become detached from work and demarcated through leisure. | Class hatred has been siphoned off on to chavs, scroungers, benefit fraudsters, single mothers, all the new untouchables, so that the architects of austerity can justify their cruelty. In order to do this, class has become detached from work and demarcated through leisure. |
| The boom years gave us cheap goods and marketed consumption as the ultimate expression of individuality. You are not what you produce but what you consume. So now supersized TVs equate with supersized people as a signifier of powerlessness. We were meant to believe that the new barns of superstores and call centres would replace the old jobs and the quaint need for unions or collective bargaining. They didn't, so what exactly are we holding on to when we identify ourselves as working class? Something authentic and valuable? | The boom years gave us cheap goods and marketed consumption as the ultimate expression of individuality. You are not what you produce but what you consume. So now supersized TVs equate with supersized people as a signifier of powerlessness. We were meant to believe that the new barns of superstores and call centres would replace the old jobs and the quaint need for unions or collective bargaining. They didn't, so what exactly are we holding on to when we identify ourselves as working class? Something authentic and valuable? |
| If this is a recognition that we are all in it together, then the left should not be in such a bad way. But what mere class identification misses is the concerted attack on any notion of collectivity. Most collective experiences are now entirely passive: we are spectators at matches or in the audience at highly-priced festivals. All other gatherings are suspect. The transformative feeling of being part of a crowd that can change things – that seminal political process – has been tasered. The mass arrests of those protesting against the EDL last week, or at Balcombe, runs counter to our basic right to assemble. | If this is a recognition that we are all in it together, then the left should not be in such a bad way. But what mere class identification misses is the concerted attack on any notion of collectivity. Most collective experiences are now entirely passive: we are spectators at matches or in the audience at highly-priced festivals. All other gatherings are suspect. The transformative feeling of being part of a crowd that can change things – that seminal political process – has been tasered. The mass arrests of those protesting against the EDL last week, or at Balcombe, runs counter to our basic right to assemble. |
| This process begins early. Some of the academies don't like children to assemble in groups of more than three. We fear gangs and mobs, so we happily have CCTV, schools built as panopticons, unprecedented surveillance and control. | This process begins early. Some of the academies don't like children to assemble in groups of more than three. We fear gangs and mobs, so we happily have CCTV, schools built as panopticons, unprecedented surveillance and control. |
| The structures that foster attachment to others outside the workplace are in decline. We don't join political parties and we are losing our religion. Fewer of us believe it is up to the government to ensure a decent standard of living. We may be more socially liberal, but this goes hand in hand with a belief in self-reliance. | The structures that foster attachment to others outside the workplace are in decline. We don't join political parties and we are losing our religion. Fewer of us believe it is up to the government to ensure a decent standard of living. We may be more socially liberal, but this goes hand in hand with a belief in self-reliance. |
| This is particularly true for younger people. Have they less empathy? No. Perhaps simply not having had free education, access to home ownership or great jobs, they have much less investment in the state than previous generations. | This is particularly true for younger people. Have they less empathy? No. Perhaps simply not having had free education, access to home ownership or great jobs, they have much less investment in the state than previous generations. |
| This is surely as significant politically as class identification, not because I want an intergenerational war, but because the language of the left trails so far behind this reality. If we cannot appeal to class consciousness or assume support for the welfare state, how do we express collectivity or even envision the good life? | This is surely as significant politically as class identification, not because I want an intergenerational war, but because the language of the left trails so far behind this reality. If we cannot appeal to class consciousness or assume support for the welfare state, how do we express collectivity or even envision the good life? |
| Clearly the new forms of connectivity may be horizontal, not vertical, emphasising empathy and alliance. In fact they may look absolutely opposite to traditional party structures. For surely if the majority of us identify as working class then a party that adequately represented that would sweep to power. No such party exists because there seems to be no collective expression of working-class identity that is actually active, modern and positive. | Clearly the new forms of connectivity may be horizontal, not vertical, emphasising empathy and alliance. In fact they may look absolutely opposite to traditional party structures. For surely if the majority of us identify as working class then a party that adequately represented that would sweep to power. No such party exists because there seems to be no collective expression of working-class identity that is actually active, modern and positive. |
| We simply get archive footage of industrial disputes or "constructed reality" shows where the goal is eyelash extensions. All of this well suits our feral overlords who would not want 60% of us to express our class consciousness confidently and coherently. An atomised class, with no real understanding of its magnitude or power, too scared to get together, never mind act, has produced … what? A government that with no real mandate will happily crush any notion of collective action. What can we do? Only connect. Communicate a vision of the future where class is not an embarrassing and old-fashioned idea, but the place where common decency comes from. | We simply get archive footage of industrial disputes or "constructed reality" shows where the goal is eyelash extensions. All of this well suits our feral overlords who would not want 60% of us to express our class consciousness confidently and coherently. An atomised class, with no real understanding of its magnitude or power, too scared to get together, never mind act, has produced … what? A government that with no real mandate will happily crush any notion of collective action. What can we do? Only connect. Communicate a vision of the future where class is not an embarrassing and old-fashioned idea, but the place where common decency comes from. |
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