Labor aristocracy
Encyclopedia
"Labor aristocracy" or "Labour aristocracy" (or "aristocracy of labor" or "aristocracy of labour", see also English spelling differences
) has three meanings: as a term with Marxist theoretical underpinnings, as a specific type of trade unionism, and/or as a shorthand description by revolutionary industrial unions (such as the Industrial Workers of the World) for the bureaucracy of craft-based business unionism.
) in developed countries
who benefit from the superprofit
s extracted from the impoverished workers of developing countries
form an "aristocracy of labor." The phrase was popularized by Karl Kautsky
in 1901 and theorized by Vladimir Lenin
in his treatise on Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism
. Lenin's theory contends that companies in the developed world exploit
workers in the developing world (where wages are much lower), resulting in increased profits. Because of these increased profits, the companies are able to pay higher wages to their employees "at home" (that is, in the developed world), thus creating a working class
satisfied with their standard of living and not inclined to proletarian revolution
. Lenin thus contended that imperialism
had prevented increasing class polarization in the developed world, and argued that a workers' revolution could only begin in one of the developing countries, such as Imperial Russia
. This theory of the labor aristocracy is controversial in the Marxist movement.
While this theory is formally shared by most currents that identify positively with Lenin, including the Communist International, few organizations place the theory at the center of their work. The term is most widely used in the United States, where it was popularised in the decade prior to the First World War by Eugene Debs's Socialist Party of America
, and the Industrial Workers of the World
(see below). In Britain those who hold to this theory include the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist)
and the Revolutionary Communist Group, Many Trotskyists, including Leon Trotsky
himself, and the early congresses of the Fourth International
, have accepted the theory of the labor aristocracy: others, including Ernest Mandel
and Tony Cliff
, considered the theory to have mistaken arguments or "Third Worldist" implications. US revolutionary socialist Charlie Post has developed a contemporary critique of the theory.
in 1872 as a criticism of the notion that organized workers are the most radical. Bakunin wrote: "To me the flower of the proletariat is not, as it is to the Marxists, the upper layer, the aristocracy of labor, those who are the most cultured, who earn more and live more comfortably than all the other workers."
In the U.S. and Britain, the term "aristocracy of labor" is used as an implicit criticism of labor unions that have organized high-salary workers and have no interest in unionizing middle-income and lower-income employees—even in cases where organizing the unorganized would strengthen the unions involved. These unions, it is argued, are content to remain a "labor aristocracy." Examples might include the unions of professional athletes, which have raised the wages of a certain class of already highly paid workers—professional athletes—but refuse to organize other workers, including other employees of the teams they work for. It commonly charged that the Air Line Pilots Association, the Screen Actors Guild
, and a handful of other AFL-CIO
unions conform to the labor aristocracy model of trade unionism. In defense of these unions, the AFL-CIO's jurisdictional rules may forbid such unions from organizing workers in certain occupational classes.
(AFL) unions did not admit unskilled mass-production workers." Selig Perlman wrote in 1923 that skilled workers organized into craft unions were more interested in trade separatism than in labor solidarity. The craft workers were capable of demanding more from their employers due to their skills, and preferred to fight separately from unskilled or semiskilled workers. In Perlman's words, the trade unions "declared that their purpose was 'to protect the skilled trades of America from being reduced to beggary'."
In 1905, many existing unions actively lobbied for racist and anti-immigration policies through the creation of the notorious Asiatic Exclusion League
. That same year a new union called the Industrial Workers of the World
(IWW) was formed in Chicago. The IWW, also known as the Wobblies, differed from the AFL in significant ways:
From its inception in 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World criticized existing craft unions for creating a "labor aristocracy". Eugene V. Debs
wrote that "seasoned old unionists" could see that working people couldn't win with the labor movement they had. Debs believed the AFL practiced "organized scabbery" of one union on another, engaged in jurisdictional squabbling, was dominated by an autocratic leadership, and the relationship between union leaders and millionaires in the National Civic Federation
was much too cozy. IWW leaders believed that in the AFL there was too little solidarity, and too little "straight" labor education. These circumstances led to too little appreciation of what could be won, and too little will to win it.
Animated by a class philosophy that saw capitalism as an economic system dividing society into two classes– those who own, manage, or rule, and those who have only their labor to sell– the IWW declared that,
The AFL, in contrast, declared,
Labor Historian Melvyn Dubofsky
has written,
The AFL therefore preached "pure and simple" trade unionism. The AFL concerned itself with a "philosophy of pure wage consciousness," according to Selig Perlman
, who developed the "business unionism" theory of labor. Perlman saw craft organizing as a means of resisting the encroachment of waves of immigrants. Organization that was based upon craft skills granted control over access to the job.
While craft unions provided a good defense for the privileges of membership, conventions such as time-limited contracts and pledges not to strike in solidarity with other workers severely limited the ability of craft unions to effect change in society at large, leaving only the ineffectual means granted by a business-dominated elite society, i.e., electoral politics, lobbying congress, and a newly-enfeebled economic weapon, the injunction-circumscribed strike. But the AFL embraced this "businesslike" and "pragmatic" worldview, adopting the motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work."
The AFL outlived the class consciousness of its own founding Preamble, but the IWW embraced the goal of abolishing wage slavery. In 1908 the IWW responded to what it considered the AFL's class collaboration
ist tendencies with new wording in the IWW Preamble,
The IWW saw itself as the answer to the conservatism of the AFL. The IWW developed a variety of creative tactics in its effort to "build a new world within the shell of the old." Because the AFL declined to act as an ally in such a cause, the Wobblies sought to develop solidarity with all rank and file workers, while criticizing or spoofing
AFL union leadership. AFL union "bosses" were (and still are) referred to by the Wobblies as "piecards," a term that may have been borrowed from the itinerant workers– the hoboes– who filled the ranks of the IWW, had a particularly rich lingo that contributed significantly to Wobbly slang
, and described anyone with money as a piecard.
To the IWW, all the union bureaucracy of the AFL functioned pretty much as a "labor aristocracy." In that regard the IWW's views haven't changed much over the years.
Mainstream unions have evolved, embracing some of the principles of industrial unionism, and (in many cases) opening their doors to a greater spectrum of the working class. However, there are many aspects to business unionism that solidarity unionists still find suspect– a tendency to operate as a business, rather than according to "union principles"; enthroning elite hierarchies of leadership which are not easily recalled by the membership; deriving significant income from the sale of insurance or credit cards, arguably leading to conflicts of interest; union leadership compensation levels that are closer to those of corporate executives than of rank and file workers; top-down decision making; and building relationships with the leadership of corporations or political parties that the rank and file may view with suspicion.
All union movements function in some fashion to raise up workers in social/economic status, and/or in union privilege. The significant difference between a union movement with a labor aristocracy, and a union movement based upon class solidarity, is how and to what extent the structure, bureaucracy, and in particular, policies and practices of that union movement function, either to leave that level of increased privilege as the status quo– or, to recognize the necessity of building structural relationships, promoting education, and engaging in solidarity activities, with the specific intention of translating gains into an effort to enhance the status of all working people.
American and British English spelling differences
One of the ways in which American English and British English differ is in spelling.-Historical origins:In the early 18th century, English spelling was not standardized. Differences became noticeable after the publishing of influential dictionaries...
) has three meanings: as a term with Marxist theoretical underpinnings, as a specific type of trade unionism, and/or as a shorthand description by revolutionary industrial unions (such as the Industrial Workers of the World) for the bureaucracy of craft-based business unionism.
Use within Marxism
In Marxist theory, those workers (proletariansProletariat
The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...
) in developed countries
First World
The concept of the First World first originated during the Cold War, where it was used to describe countries that were aligned with the United States. These countries were democratic and capitalistic. After the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the term "First World" took on a...
who benefit from the superprofit
Superprofit
Superprofit , is a concept in Karl Marx's critique of political economy, subsequently elaborated by Lenin and other Marxist thinkers.-The origin of the concept in Marx's Capital:...
s extracted from the impoverished workers of developing countries
Developing country
A developing country, also known as a less-developed country, is a nation with a low level of material well-being. Since no single definition of the term developing country is recognized internationally, the levels of development may vary widely within so-called developing countries...
form an "aristocracy of labor." The phrase was popularized by Karl Kautsky
Karl Kautsky
Karl Johann Kautsky was a Czech-German philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theoretician. Kautsky was recognized as among the most authoritative promulgators of Orthodox Marxism after the death of Friedrich Engels in 1895 until the coming of World War I in 1914 and was called by some the "Pope of...
in 1901 and theorized by Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
in his treatise on Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism
Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism
Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism , by Lenin, describes the function of financial capital in generating profits from imperial colonialism, as the final stage of capitalist development to ensure greater profits...
. Lenin's theory contends that companies in the developed world exploit
Exploitation
This article discusses the term exploitation in the meaning of using something in an unjust or cruel manner.- As unjust benefit :In political economy, economics, and sociology, exploitation involves a persistent social relationship in which certain persons are being mistreated or unfairly used for...
workers in the developing world (where wages are much lower), resulting in increased profits. Because of these increased profits, the companies are able to pay higher wages to their employees "at home" (that is, in the developed world), thus creating a working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
satisfied with their standard of living and not inclined to proletarian revolution
Proletarian revolution
A proletarian revolution is a social and/or political revolution in which the working class attempts to overthrow the bourgeoisie. Proletarian revolutions are generally advocated by socialists, communists, and most anarchists....
. Lenin thus contended that imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
had prevented increasing class polarization in the developed world, and argued that a workers' revolution could only begin in one of the developing countries, such as Imperial Russia
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. This theory of the labor aristocracy is controversial in the Marxist movement.
While this theory is formally shared by most currents that identify positively with Lenin, including the Communist International, few organizations place the theory at the center of their work. The term is most widely used in the United States, where it was popularised in the decade prior to the First World War by Eugene Debs's Socialist Party of America
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
, and the Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
(see below). In Britain those who hold to this theory include the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist)
Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist)
The Communist Party of Great Britain is a British communist party which has a close relationship with the Workers' Party of Korea.-History:The party was founded on July 3, 2004 in London...
and the Revolutionary Communist Group, Many Trotskyists, including Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
himself, and the early congresses of the Fourth International
Fourth International
The Fourth International is the communist international organisation consisting of followers of Leon Trotsky , with the declared dedicated goal of helping the working class bring about socialism...
, have accepted the theory of the labor aristocracy: others, including Ernest Mandel
Ernest Mandel
Ernest Ezra Mandel, also known by various pseudonyms such as Ernest Germain, Pierre Gousset, Henri Vallin, Walter , was a revolutionary Marxist theorist.-Life:...
and Tony Cliff
Tony Cliff
Tony Cliff , was a Trotskyist who was a founding member of the Socialist Review Group which went on to become the Socialist Workers Party...
, considered the theory to have mistaken arguments or "Third Worldist" implications. US revolutionary socialist Charlie Post has developed a contemporary critique of the theory.
Criticism of unions of elite workers
The term was originally coined by Mikhail BakuninMikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism. He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists,...
in 1872 as a criticism of the notion that organized workers are the most radical. Bakunin wrote: "To me the flower of the proletariat is not, as it is to the Marxists, the upper layer, the aristocracy of labor, those who are the most cultured, who earn more and live more comfortably than all the other workers."
In the U.S. and Britain, the term "aristocracy of labor" is used as an implicit criticism of labor unions that have organized high-salary workers and have no interest in unionizing middle-income and lower-income employees—even in cases where organizing the unorganized would strengthen the unions involved. These unions, it is argued, are content to remain a "labor aristocracy." Examples might include the unions of professional athletes, which have raised the wages of a certain class of already highly paid workers—professional athletes—but refuse to organize other workers, including other employees of the teams they work for. It commonly charged that the Air Line Pilots Association, the Screen Actors Guild
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...
, and a handful of other AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...
unions conform to the labor aristocracy model of trade unionism. In defense of these unions, the AFL-CIO's jurisdictional rules may forbid such unions from organizing workers in certain occupational classes.
Criticism of craft-based business unionism
At the beginning of the twentieth century in the U.S., "most American Federation of LaborAmerican Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...
(AFL) unions did not admit unskilled mass-production workers." Selig Perlman wrote in 1923 that skilled workers organized into craft unions were more interested in trade separatism than in labor solidarity. The craft workers were capable of demanding more from their employers due to their skills, and preferred to fight separately from unskilled or semiskilled workers. In Perlman's words, the trade unions "declared that their purpose was 'to protect the skilled trades of America from being reduced to beggary'."
In 1905, many existing unions actively lobbied for racist and anti-immigration policies through the creation of the notorious Asiatic Exclusion League
Asiatic Exclusion League
The Asiatic Exclusion League, often abbreviated AEL, was a racist organization formed in the early twentieth century in the United States and Canada that aimed to prevent immigration of people of East Asian origin.-United States:...
. That same year a new union called the Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
(IWW) was formed in Chicago. The IWW, also known as the Wobblies, differed from the AFL in significant ways:
- The IWW organized without regard to sex, skills, race, creed, or national origin, from the very start.
- The AFL was craft basedCraft unionismCraft unionism refers to organizing a union in a manner that seeks to unify workers in a particular industry along the lines of the particular craft or trade that they work in by class or skill level...
, while the IWW inherited the tradition of industrial unionismIndustrial unionismIndustrial unionism is a labor union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union—regardless of skill or trade—thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in bargaining and in strike situations...
pioneered by the Knights of LaborKnights of LaborThe Knights of Labor was the largest and one of the most important American labor organizations of the 1880s. Its most important leader was Terence Powderly...
, the American Railway UnionAmerican Railway UnionThe American Railway Union , was the largest labor union of its time, and one of the first industrial unions in the United States. It was founded on June 20, 1893, by railway workers gathered in Chicago, Illinois, and under the leadership of Eugene V...
, and the Western Federation of MinersWestern Federation of MinersThe Western Federation of Miners was a radical labor union that gained a reputation for militancy in the mines of the western United States and British Columbia. Its efforts to organize both hard rock miners and smelter workers brought it into sharp conflicts – and often pitched battles...
(WFM).
- The IWW promoted the concept of all workers in one big union. Ever cognizant of the common practice of AFL craft unions crossing each other's picket lines, the IWW adopted the WFM's description of the AFL as the "American Separation of Labor."
- The IWW believed that unions needed to build a labor movement with a structure that closely mapped the industries they sought to organize. A great merger movement had swept through corporations in the period from 1899 to 1903, and labor radicals believed that "the unifaction of capital represented by the rise of the new trusts needed to be countered by an equally unified organization of the entire working class."
From its inception in 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World criticized existing craft unions for creating a "labor aristocracy". Eugene V. Debs
Eugene V. Debs
Eugene Victor Debs was an American union leader, one of the founding members of the International Labor Union and the Industrial Workers of the World , and several times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States...
wrote that "seasoned old unionists" could see that working people couldn't win with the labor movement they had. Debs believed the AFL practiced "organized scabbery" of one union on another, engaged in jurisdictional squabbling, was dominated by an autocratic leadership, and the relationship between union leaders and millionaires in the National Civic Federation
National Civic Federation
The National Civic Federation, was a federation of American businesses and labor leaders founded in 1900. It favoured moderate progressive reform and sought to resolve disputes arising between industry and organized labor. It emerged first in 1893 as the Chicago Civic Federation , which was also...
was much too cozy. IWW leaders believed that in the AFL there was too little solidarity, and too little "straight" labor education. These circumstances led to too little appreciation of what could be won, and too little will to win it.
Animated by a class philosophy that saw capitalism as an economic system dividing society into two classes– those who own, manage, or rule, and those who have only their labor to sell– the IWW declared that,
"the working class and the employing class have nothing in common... Between these two classes a struggle must go on until all the toilers... take and hold that which they produce by their labor through an economic organization of the working class..."
The AFL, in contrast, declared,
We have no ultimate ends. We are going only from day to day. We are fighting only for immediate objects—objects that can be realized in a few years... we say in our constitution that we are opposed to theorists... we are all practical men...
Labor Historian Melvyn Dubofsky
Melvyn Dubofsky
Melvyn Dubofsky is a professor of history and sociology, and a well-known labor historian. He is Bartle Distinguished Professor of History and Sociology at the State University of New York at Binghamton.-Early life and education:...
has written,
By 1896 GompersSamuel GompersSamuel Gompers was an English-born American cigar maker who became a labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor , and served as that organization's president from 1886 to 1894 and from 1895 until his death in 1924...
and the AFL were moving to make their peace with Capitalism and the American system. Although the AFL had once preached the inevitability of class conflict and the need to abolish 'wage slavery', it slowly and almost imperceptibly began to proclaim the virtues of class harmony and the possibilities of a more benevolent Capitalism.
The AFL therefore preached "pure and simple" trade unionism. The AFL concerned itself with a "philosophy of pure wage consciousness," according to Selig Perlman
Selig Perlman
Selig Perlman was an economist and labor historian at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.-Early life and education:Perlman was born in Białystok in Congress Poland in 1888...
, who developed the "business unionism" theory of labor. Perlman saw craft organizing as a means of resisting the encroachment of waves of immigrants. Organization that was based upon craft skills granted control over access to the job.
While craft unions provided a good defense for the privileges of membership, conventions such as time-limited contracts and pledges not to strike in solidarity with other workers severely limited the ability of craft unions to effect change in society at large, leaving only the ineffectual means granted by a business-dominated elite society, i.e., electoral politics, lobbying congress, and a newly-enfeebled economic weapon, the injunction-circumscribed strike. But the AFL embraced this "businesslike" and "pragmatic" worldview, adopting the motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work."
The AFL outlived the class consciousness of its own founding Preamble, but the IWW embraced the goal of abolishing wage slavery. In 1908 the IWW responded to what it considered the AFL's class collaboration
Class collaboration
Class collaboration is a principle of social organization based upon the belief that the division of society into a hierarchy of social classes is a positive and essential aspect of civilization.-Class collaboration under capitalism:...
ist tendencies with new wording in the IWW Preamble,
Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work," we must inscribe upon our banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the wage system." ... The army of production must be organized, not only for the every-day struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown.
The IWW saw itself as the answer to the conservatism of the AFL. The IWW developed a variety of creative tactics in its effort to "build a new world within the shell of the old." Because the AFL declined to act as an ally in such a cause, the Wobblies sought to develop solidarity with all rank and file workers, while criticizing or spoofing
Mr. Block
Mr. Block is a United States comic strip character commemorated in a song written by Joe Hill.Mr. Block, who has no first name, was created November 7th, 1912 by Ernest Riebe, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World . Block appeared that day in the Spokane newspaper Industrial Worker,...
AFL union leadership. AFL union "bosses" were (and still are) referred to by the Wobblies as "piecards," a term that may have been borrowed from the itinerant workers– the hoboes– who filled the ranks of the IWW, had a particularly rich lingo that contributed significantly to Wobbly slang
Wobbly lingo
Wobbly lingo is a collection of technical language, jargon, and historic slang used by the Industrial Workers of the World, known as the Wobblies, for more than a century.-Origin and usage:...
, and described anyone with money as a piecard.
To the IWW, all the union bureaucracy of the AFL functioned pretty much as a "labor aristocracy." In that regard the IWW's views haven't changed much over the years.
Mainstream unions have evolved, embracing some of the principles of industrial unionism, and (in many cases) opening their doors to a greater spectrum of the working class. However, there are many aspects to business unionism that solidarity unionists still find suspect– a tendency to operate as a business, rather than according to "union principles"; enthroning elite hierarchies of leadership which are not easily recalled by the membership; deriving significant income from the sale of insurance or credit cards, arguably leading to conflicts of interest; union leadership compensation levels that are closer to those of corporate executives than of rank and file workers; top-down decision making; and building relationships with the leadership of corporations or political parties that the rank and file may view with suspicion.
All union movements function in some fashion to raise up workers in social/economic status, and/or in union privilege. The significant difference between a union movement with a labor aristocracy, and a union movement based upon class solidarity, is how and to what extent the structure, bureaucracy, and in particular, policies and practices of that union movement function, either to leave that level of increased privilege as the status quo– or, to recognize the necessity of building structural relationships, promoting education, and engaging in solidarity activities, with the specific intention of translating gains into an effort to enhance the status of all working people.
See also
- LeninismLeninismIn Marxist philosophy, Leninism is the body of political theory for the democratic organisation of a revolutionary vanguard party, and the achievement of a direct-democracy dictatorship of the proletariat, as political prelude to the establishment of socialism...
- Industrial Workers of the WorldIndustrial Workers of the WorldThe Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
- labor unions