Against:

Exploitation

Domination

Dispossession

Devaluation

CLASS STRUGGLES

A more general massive red istr ibut ion of weal th s ince 1979 (smal l b l ip under

labour) . Miner ’s s t r ike – c lass s t ruggle cent ral

(ht tp ://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/110795

We have had the longest depression of wages s ince 1979

Top rate of income tax has been halved ( i t was 83% in 1979) for the r ichest .

Br i ta in ’s r i chest inc rease thei r weal th by £69bi l l ion in 2014 a lone

Real incomes for the poorest have fa l len 40%. (33% of fami l ies lack bas ic

resources) . Cost of l i v ing has r i sen by 25% in last 5 years

There are more ser vants now working in the London area than there were 200 years

ago

Most people have huge debts (eg students – control) . The average total debt per

household – inc luding mor tgages – was £55,223

Slow death (Ber lant ) eg Western obes ity – profi t f rom poor

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

CONSTANT STRUGGLE- TU’s , L iv ing Wage

EXPLOITATION

Domination via the dominant symbolic (legitimating power and authority)

Mechanism = when judgment is institutionalized (eg law, welfare, media)

When value is institutionalized

When speech (and analysis) is delegitimated eg class denial over 30+yrs

……………………………………………………………………………………………………

Refusal to accept- de-authorization/de-legitimation

Struggle to generate alternative forms of culture eg ‘world-making’, not culture as consumption

CLASS STRUGGLE AGAINST DOMINATION

Accumulation through dispossession (Harvey – primitive accumulation –enclosures – since 16 thcentury)

In London class cleansing eg E15, NewEra (gentrification)

In the UK a family is made homeless every 15 mins

Global –movement of migrant labour

State punishment of the ‘unproductive’ (biopol disposabil ity) (eg £18b cuts in welfare to date; disabled wil l lose total £28b by 2017

…………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Many struggles to l ive, dwell , inhabit outside of the profit imperative

STRUGGLE AGAINST DISPOSSESSION

Eg enter tainment through devaluation –Reality T V – being forced to per form your need for transformation (defined by the dominant middle class symbolic)

Class divisions drawn between ‘subjects of value’ eg enterprising, accruing and ‘abject subjects’(reproduced in sociological theory! See CSC, Imogen’s ‘revolting subjects’)

……………………………………………………………………………………………………

Refusal

Alternative values establ ished (eg sol idarity, non- instrumental, ‘ just -talk’)

Keeping class on the agenda- because it connects the af fects of devaluation and injustice to an idea that can explain why and how

Class is per formative – bringing struggle into view

STRUGGLES AGAINST DEVALUATION

About exploitation, power, domination, dispossession,

devaluation

Not stratification, not about consumption likes/dislikes

Constant, on many fronts, constituted and disrupted through

other classifications of gender, race, sexuality, age, etc.

We have to keep fighting – it’s a struggle

CLASS STRUGGLES