Capitalism & Class Struggle — Socialist Night School #3

How is power distributed within capitalism? Why do workers have a unique capacity for social change? What is solidarity, where does it come from, and why is it important? Why is it important that our institutions, like unions and businesses, be democratized? 

Recommended Readings

Vivek Chibber’s “Capitalism and Class Struggle” or listen to Chibber discuss the pamphlet on YouTube.

Peter Camejo’s “Liberalism, Ultraleftism or Mass Action” or listen to this The Dig podcast episode which discusses Camejo’s speech.

If you’d like to go a bit deeper — and we highly encourage it! — we recommend the following readings and videos:

• Karl Marx, “Trades’ Unions. Their Past, Present and Future”
• Alex Gourevitch, “A Radical Defense of the Right to Strike”
• Mark Dudzic and Adolph Reed Jr, “The Crisis of Labour and the Left in the United States”
• David Calnitsky, “Understanding Class Means Understanding Exploitation” (~70min)

Discussion Questions

1. What is your biggest takeaway from the readings?
2. How do we build working-class solidarity across racial, gender, and other lines?
3. What is the single biggest obstacle to building solidarity and class power in your workplace? How could or would you change it? 
4. Which strategies and tactics are most effective for engaging in class struggle in an economy increasingly defined by gig work and short-term labor?
5. What skills must we develop as individuals and as a class to engage in effective class struggle?
6. In Camejo’s speech, he says the best way to mobilize the masses is by avoiding abstract demands like “End Racism” and instead focusing on concrete demands like “Black Control of Black Schools.” Do you think he is correct that this is the best way to build a mass movement?
7. What opportunities and pitfalls are provided by modern technology as we try to organize our class?
8. Is there anything you feel was not adequately addressed in the readings or presentation?