Guardian UK: We are all working-class now

[marmar]

We are all working-class now
Lord Lang scoffs at 'ordinary workers', yet his party's cuts will drive all but the very wealthy to identify with the working classes

Belinda Webb
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 10 February 2011


Most people who carry out ordinary jobs for employers are considered working-class – jobs such as shopwork, caretaking, driving buses, and waiting tables. I do, however, recognise that such classifications are problematic and risk generalising. In fact, a shop assistant might read this and think, "Bloody cheek! I'm not working-class!" This reaction is partly to do with the terminology, and partly to do with attitudes towards these terms.

In John Prescott's TV series on the issue of class a while ago, one of the most illuminating moments came when a young unemployed woman living in social housing in south London was offended at the suggestion she was working-class. Prescott asked her what she was, then. She replied that she was middle-class – that she couldn't be working-class because she didn't work. The term "working-class" still seems to connote for many only the negative; that it somehow applies only to factory and mine workers somewhere up north, yet whose industries now reside in developing countries.

I don't have any qualms about identifying as a working-class woman, despite being in a so-called middle-class, professional job, and studying for a PhD. I have no capital, own no property and have to work for someone else. I also grew up in social housing with working-class parents.

I find power in this allegiance; it helps me locate myself politically. I stand for something and, as Malcolm X said, "if we don't stand for something, we'll fall for anything". ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/10/working-class-lord-lang-cuts

[The Magistrate]

1. Ms. Webb Has The Right Of It, Sir

People need to understand this, accept it, and act on it, straight down the line.

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R