Letter: The Working Class (1976)

Letter to the Editors from the August 1976 issue of the Socialist Standard

The Working Class

You are interested in the working class which is 60-70 per cent of the population. Have you any surveys, or are there any socialist-type surveys which indicate a particular psychology especially comparing them with other classes and how they differ? First money; according to probate statistics the working class leaves nil as far as this district is concerned in the overspill Manchester area. As far as I can see they are not interested in looking after their own social interests like tenants’ league and political meetings. They are certainly fond of children. They are also fond of hire-purchase. They do not tidy up their gardens like the middle class bungalows here. What have they not that the higher-ups have?

W. Popplewell, 

Knutsford

Reply:

You are approaching this matter from the wrong direction. The working class, as you indicate the overwhelming majority, is so called because the members of that class have to rely on a wage or salary in order to live and maintain their families. The term “middle class” is confused, although it is popularly used to denote those who earn relatively high wages or salaries; this does not influence the economic realities of the “middle class.” They too have to sell their labour-power in order to live.

Members of the working class leave relatively little because while they are selling a lifetime of labour- power they receive (in wages and salaries) only that amount which generally accords with the amount required for them to live. There is no surplus. Hire-purchase is a debt which workers incur because they are unable to purchase certain articles outright. But neither of these phenomena indicates a fondness or an innate characteristic displayed by workers: they are reflections of working-class poverty.

Matters such as the workers’ fondness of children, and gardening habits, clearly vary in individual circumstances and are also open to a wide range of opinion. Although it would be unsatisfactory to draw any common significance from them, what can be said is that by and large, members of the working class look after children and gardens. The point to note here is that these do not necessarily have to be their own.

On your last point—the working class have not got the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution. This is the factor which underlies all working-class behaviour, and not some “special” psychological characteristic.

The answers to the questionnaire you have also sent, cannot be dealt with here. We suggest you approach the reference section of a public library which will have many of the statistics you require.

Editorial Committee.