Raising Class Consciousness

A presentation by the People’s University as a part of its Summer Organizer School

People’s University

Organizer School

Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

• Understanding the meaning of the terms agitation and propaganda
• Understanding the difference between trade union consciousness and revolutionary class consciousness
• Practicing assessments of consciousness and conducting agitprop based on those assessments

People’s University

People’s University

Organizer School

From Last Time…

What is (Political, Class) Consciousness?

The Revolutionary Intelligentsia

People’s University

Organizer School

From Last Time…

Tactics

Organization

tasks

Ideology

ideas

Politics

demands

Method

~Aspects of Social Movements~

Strategy

Organizational Decision-Making!

Democracy & Centralism

Everyone makes decisions, and

everyone carries out decisions.

People’s University

Democracy guided by centralized leadership.

The individual interest and action is subordinate, and agrees to, the overall interests and goals of the organization. The decision of the organization is tightly followed and everybody is free in working towards the interests and goals of the organization.

Centralism based on democracy.

All must give emphasis to the general interest of the organization. An effective organization draws its strength from the active participation of all its members and parts. The decisions held inside the organization are collectively discussed based on the overall interest of the group.

*Democracy is not the opposite of Centralism*

**Their opposites are Dictatorship and Decentralism.**

Organizational Decision-Making!

Democracy & Centralism

People’s University

~Unity and Cohesion in~ ~Our Movement Work~

People’s University

Democratic Centralism

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(organizational)

Two-Line Struggle

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(political & ideological)

Two-Line Struggle

Proletariat vs. Bourgeoisie

Correct vs. Incorrect

Advanced vs. Backward

26 People

Line of the Majority

Line of the Minority

~Contradictions~ ~Among the People~

Contradiction = Problem, Conflict

• Antagonistic (AC) vs. Non-Antagonistic Contradiction (NAC)
• Unity - Struggle - Unity

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People’s University

“… The unification of our country, the unity of our people and the unity of our various nationalities -- these are the basic guarantees for the sure triumph of our cause. However, this does not mean that contradictions no longer exist in our society. To imagine that none exist is a naive idea which is at variance with objective reality. We are confronted with two types of social contradictions -- those between ourselves and the enemy and those among the people. The two are totally different in nature…

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“The contradictions between ourselves and the enemy are antagonistic contradictions. Within the ranks of the people, the contradictions among the working people are non-antagonistic, while those between the exploited and the exploiting classes have a non-antagonistic as well as an antagonistic aspect.” – Mao, “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People”

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Silent reflection: Can you think of a time when you experienced an interpersonal conflict with another person? What did they do that harmed or bothered you? Why do you think they did what they did?

Ideological

Organizational

Political

Interpersonal

~Dimensions of Internal Struggle~

If one agrees that Stalin was not to blame for the absence of revolutions elsewhere, then it is entirely logical that he should have proceeded on his own. That is, unless the inference is that Russia should have abandoned its social transformation until the workers revolted in Britain! Even Trotsky himself had no intention of doing so, and his comments as a historian conflict with this policy when in power, for in 1925 he was one of the “super-industrialization faction” in the Soviet Union. At that time, Tortsek was urging that Russia should rapidly industrialize. Since he criticizes Stalin for what he himself advised, one can only conclude that Trotsky’s stand is conditioned by bitterness through having been defeated in the struggle for power. To put it bluntly, personal considerations clouded Trotsky’s judgment and it becomes difficult to draw any distinction between Trotsky the political antagonist and Trotsky the historian. [Emphasis added.]

Rodney, The Russian Revolution: A View from the Third World

Transformative Justice

Restorative Justice

Emphasis on restoring the interpersonal conditions which existed before harm was caused.

Emphasis on transformation of the social conditions which made the interpersonal harm possible.

People’s University

Organizer School

What is (Political, Class) Consciousness

~Society~

maintains

(& shapes)

shapes

(& maintains)

*the conscious aspect

*the unconscious aspect

The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force.

?

?

Clash of Interests

Clash of Ideas

“We have said that there could not have been [revolutionary class] consciousness among the workers. It would have to be brought to them from without. The history of all countries shows that the working class, exclusively by its own effort, is able to develop only trade union consciousness, i.e., the conviction that it is necessary to combine in unions, fight the employers, and strive to compel the government to pass necessary labour legislation, etc. The theory of socialism, however, grew out of the philosophic, historical, and economic theories elaborated by educated representatives of the propertied classes, by intellectuals. By their social status the founders of modern scientific socialism, Marx and Engels, themselves belonged to the bourgeois intelligentsia. In the very same way, in Russia, the theoretical doctrine of [communism] arose altogether independently of the spontaneous growth of the working-class movement; it arose as a natural and inevitable outcome of the development of thought among the revolutionary socialist intelligentsia. In the period under discussion, the middle nineties, this doctrine not only represented the completely formulated programme of the Emancipation of Labour group, but had already won over to its side the majority of the revolutionary youth in Russia.”

V.I. Lenin, What is to be Done?

Trade Union Consciousness

Revolutionary Class Consciousness

particular

general

The (non-linear) Social Movement Process

Educate

Propagandize

Agitate

Organize

Mobilize

The Spectrum of Consciousness

People’s University

1. Read your statement and the place it on the spectrum of class consciousness.
2. Share why you placed in the region that you did
3. Share some ideas that you might want to share in conversation with them

Activity

~Society~

maintains

(& shapes)

shapes

(& maintains)

*the conscious aspect

*the unconscious aspect

Scientific Socialism, the science of (proletarian) class struggle

Political Economy, the science of commodity production

People’s University

Organizer School

The Revolutionary Intelligentsia

The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force.

scientific socialism

Clash of Interests

Only now, after having considered four moments, four aspects of the primary historical relationships, do we find that man also possesses “consciousness,” but, even so, not inherent, not “pure” consciousness. From the start the “spirit” is afflicted with the curse of being “burdened” with matter, which here makes its appearance in the form of agitated layers of air, sounds, in short, of language. Language is as old as consciousness, language is practical consciousness that exists also for other men, and for that reason alone it really exists for me personally as well; language, like consciousness, only arises from the need, the necessity, of intercourse with other men. Where there exists a relationship, it exists for me: the animal does not enter into “relations” with anything, it does not enter into any relation at all. For the animal, its relation to others does not exist as a relation. Consciousness is, therefore, from the very beginning a social product, and remains so as long as men exist at all.

Marx, The German Ideology

On consciousness…