Let Us Proudly Own Our “Class Reductionism”
The meme of “class reductionism” shouldn’t faze us democratic socialists. If to accept that the world’s great problems are ultimately matters of political economy to be solved through the development of proletarian class consciousness and solidarity, if to be a Marxist, is to be a “class reductionist”, then yes, we are “class reductionists”!
Why should we be intimidated or jarred by the bewailing of our refusal to on any front suspend our historical materialism in favor of something else, of our understanding of the problems of racial and ethnic bigotry as component problems of the grand problem of capitalism that must ultimately be addressed as all other component problems of the grand problem of capitalism must be addressed, of our holding as truth the opening paragraphs of the The Communist Manifesto?
And are the insinuations and explicit accusations which accompany this castigation, the insinuations and explicit accusations that some kind of indifference towards the problems of racism and ethnic bigotry necessarily attends our consistent application of our historical materialism, not insinuations and explicit accusations we can easily demonstrate to be absurd ones? Do we democratic socialists fail to recognize that the ongoing despoliation of the planet could doom humankind simply because we understand it to be a component problem of the grand problem of capitalism that can only be solved through the building of proletarian class consciousness and solidarity? Absolutely not! By the same token, do we fail to recognize that the problems of Post-Age of Discovery racism and ethnic bigotry are among the greatest problems facing humankind simply because we understand them to be products of economic relations, to be, yes, component problems of the grand problem of capitalism that can only be solved through the building of, yes, proletarian class consciousness and solidarity? Absolutely not! We hold them to be, in addition to tools for the organization of exploitation (“exploitation” including, yes, hyperexploitation of the most oppressed castes of the exploited, or the “subaltern”) and protection of property relations, and the driver of tremendous misery corollary to this intended end of exploitation and protection of property relations, potentially terminal problems for humanity! We hold that they are perhaps the most powerful impediment to the realization of a proletarian consensus for the expropriation of Capital and the realization of socialism, and consequently, to the realization of a global cooperative commonwealth, that they could doom humankind!
Whether the slur in question is being used against us by Pseudo-Marxist organizations like the DSA Afrosocialist Caucus who contend that Post-Age of Discovery notions of “race” are a natural reality and inherent component of human psychology, and that racism must be overcome through something more than simple development of proletarian class consciousness and solidarity (something which entails, among other things, a mature sense of proletarian internationalism) , independent polemicists with somewhat less specious claims to “Marxism” such as Yanis Iqbal and the late Louis Proyect who, unlike the mouthpieces of these organizations, do not go as far as suggesting that these conceptions of race are natural realities and inherent components of human psychology which precede the Age of Discovery, but nonetheless act as apologists for the aforementioned apostles of these claims and loudly decry “economic reductionism” all the same, trendy social justice warrior Pseudo-Marxist social media gasbags like Emerican Johnson who, in their incoherent blatherings, sometimes halfway accurately describe race ideology’s role in capitalism, and sometimes contend that White supremacy has somehow violated the laws of labor exploitation and benefitted White workers (workers under the boot of Capital all the same, still oppressed by capitalism’s cultural systems in an ultimate sense, even if they may be privileged in relation to other workers, even if they may be under the boot of Capital’s toe rather than its heel), or admittedly non-Marxist socialists like John Halstead who invoke the rantings of “radical” liberal corporate human resource consultants like Robin DiAngelo and quasi-Afropessimists like Ta-Nehisi Coates in their arguments in support of incoherent stances similar to those taken by the trendies, it never amounts to anything more than what can easily be shown to be propagation of bourgeois race ideology, to be propagation of counter-solidaristic, anti-Marxian hogwash we must show to be bourgeois race ideology and counter-solidaristic anti-Marxian hogwash like any other. It amounts, ultimately, to opposition to our program to overcome these problems, to, just like any other propagation of bourgeois race ideology, reinforcement of the problem themselves.
Let us not be weak-kneed just because we are being spoken to in a derisive tone, just because we are being sprayed with a firehose of bile. Let us respond to their branding of us with confident assertion of the fact that we do understand these problems to be dimensions of the greater problem of capitalism, problems to be solved via the proletarian class struggle against Capital, and that this understanding in no way amounts to a downplaying of the severity of these problems.
In fact, let us own “class reductionism” with pride. Let us embrace this epithet which the “radical” essentialism-peddling opponents of our movement fling at us. Let us seize this weapon from their arsenal and employ it against them.
Acceptance of this label would deny them a cudgel they have used against our movement and provide us an excellent opportunity to both showcase our unifying anti-racism of proletarian solidarity and free our movement from its present popular conflation with the peddlers of sanctimonious “woke” garbage. It would present us an excellent opportunity to juxtapose Marxian historical materialism and proletarian internationalism against race and ethnicity reductionism, against the larger claptrap heap of historical idealism. It is something our movement would only stand to gain from.
Let us be unabashed “class reductionists”.
-Strom McCallum
(Republished from my blog)
