We face austerity, privatisation, and toxic influence. But we are growing, and cannot be beaten
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What is a 'labour aristocracy' — did one exist in the past and does it exist today?
Did the entire British working class constitute a labour aristocracy during the colonial era? Do highly skilled tech workers now? The MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY investigates a controversial but useful area of communist discourse
Labour aristocracy
Trump’s economic adviser has exposed the actual strategy: forcing other countries to provide financial support for US world hegemony
Activist Angie Zelter has been arrested more than a hundred times. She’s not stopping now, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
Natalia Marques looks at last week's ruling that Khalil can be deported and its implications
We are not here to advocate for the arms industry or its CEOs, writes STEVE HANDFORD, and that means we must take a stand against the government’s spending on war
Educators must fight for an inclusive, creative system that values all children
Although our sector is hearing better things from the current government, the recognition that what we do is education in its own right, rather than just childcare, is still not reflected in policy, writes LUCY COLEMAN
LET’S start with the first question — what “labour aristocracy” means, because the term has been and is today used in a variety of ways and it remains an area of debate amongst Marxists.
The Russian anarchist (and anti-Marxist) Mikhail Bakunin first used the term “aristocracy of labour” in the 1870s to refer to what he called the “upper layer” of the working class; “those who are the most cultured, who earn more and live more comfortably than all the other workers.”
In opposition to Marx and others, he challenged the idea that organised workers are the most radical and could lead to a “dictatorship of the proletariat.”
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Most currently popular arguments for degrowth describe a real problem without recognising its true cause – capitalism’s insatiable need to accumulate, argues the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY
Most phenomena have an explanation, writes the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY, but occasionally ‘anomalous’ events have led to new scientific understanding
The fight to defend public services is as important as the struggle over wages, but presents different challenges to workplace organising — especially with regards to bourgeois propaganda and conditioning, writes the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY
Marx and Engels’ concern with soil provides a focus for understanding the relationship between capitalism and the environment, argues the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY
