Who Counts as a Worker?
For most of the 20th century, class predicted voting behavior better than anything else. The recent process of class dealignment has proved disastrous for left politics — and to reverse it, we must have clarity on who counts as working-class.
The working class has always been broader than “blue collar.” But it’s not an infinitely flexible category, and the parameters inform who and how we organize. (Jeffrey Greenberg / Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
In the midst of Graham Platner’s high-profile Senate race in Maine, several media commentators jumped on whether he would fit within his own definition of the working class. Do we know how to identify workers from other classes? And what bearing does this have for socialist politics?
On the latest episode of the Jacobin Radio podcast Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber and Melissa Naschek offer a full definition of who’s in the working class, how to understand the modern US class structure, and why workers are central to left political strategy.
Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy and published by Jacobin. You can listen to the full episode here.
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