Whenever I see anarchists going on about how only the working class is important and how everything is about class struggle and must be analyzed through the lens of class, that anyone who isn't whatever their definition of "working class" is must be ignored, viewed with suspicion, and/or pushed out of "the movement", and that anyone who objects to this is just doing so because they're "really middle class," I yawn and roll my eyes.
People.
We don't need to use this unwieldy old approach anymore that fetishizes the classic image of the strong, muscular male manual laborer, and the Puritan Christian notion that only manual labor is real work, and only it can purify the soul and make you truly connected with reality and "down to earth" or whatever. There is so much more than that to this struggle. The working class itself is so much broader than that, and there are many other ways to be at odds with the system of the state and capitalism than just the alienation and exploitation of physical production that can give you a true incentive to stand against it. There's service industry workers and office workers and artists and sex workers and teachers and queer people and women and black people and indigenous people and disabled people and immigrants and you know, some of those people won't be in your favorite special class, but that doesn't mean they can't have good points or don't have an interest in ending the state and capitalism.
This fetishistic focus on the working class — and a specific conception of it at that — isn't even borne out by history. To my knowledge, of all the anarchist and socialist revolutions that have happened, very few were started by the "working class" as workerists conceive of it.
@anarchopunk_girl As a disabled person who does not work, I've always found "working class" to be a term that falls flat for me. I'm below working class, and I matter too. I may not contribute labor, but like all human beings, I deserve support
@darlingofishtar exactly. The focus on the working class as the heroes and protagonists of revolutionary struggle and the ultimate oppressed class completely buys into the capitalist notion that the capacity for work is a major determinant in someone's worth, as well as just not understanding that there are many other classes of people that are oppressed by capitalism and the state. So they end up ignoring people that are very much worth including in the struggle and caring for.
@darlingofishtar@anarchopunk_girl yes yes! I am disabled, indigenous, and unable to work. When I hear working class, I feel left out. In fact, I feel very left out by many and treated like I should be eradicated. The poor, the week, and the disabled should all have a chance at a happy, enjoyable life as everyone else.
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