Source: Common Dreams
by Robert Jensen
“Most politicians pledge to work for the working class, or sometimes for working families, a less Marxist-sounding label. Meanwhile, scholars struggle to define the category. I won’t assess the political posturing or adjudicate definitional disputes, but my work experience (spanning six decades and a wide variety of jobs) illustrates why the claims of working-class authenticity that are prized in today’s politics are so fraught. Once upon a time, the working class was understood as people in capitalist economies who don’t own the means of production and must sell their labor to owners. But as economies grew more complex, anomalies piled up. What about managers who aren’t owners but make lots of money doing the bidding of owners? What about technical employees whose specialized skills give them bargaining power? What about small-business owners of modest means who hire employees?” (08/08/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/who-is-the-working-class