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Workers' strike in Milwaukee in January of 2014. (Photo: Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association/flickr/cc)
The Problem With the Fight for 15
On the need for workers to look beyond city councils and form a radical new labor movement
Jul 21, 2015
Is the best way to achieve higher wages really legislation? Many think so. Across the country, working people are eagerly waiting to feel the effects of new laws that raise the minimum wage. Seattle will see an increase to $15 by 2021, and Los Angeles will see the same increase by 2020. But this strategy detracts from the only power dynamic that can actually overturn economic inequality: class struggle.
Legislative wage hikes fade fast into inflated prices. Worse, they teach folks that ultimately we need not organize - except to ask the state to change things for us. That's a losing battle on all fronts and one that obscures class analysis. This analysis says that there are two classes under capitalism, whose economically ordained conflict propels the system: the working class, who creates the surplus value in commodities, and the ruling class, who receives most of the wealth of commodities.
Instead of ceding our collective power to city councils and corporate offices, we need to broaden and radicalize the movement for a living wage, embracing more powerful tactics that today's union leaders have dismissed. It's not simply about the outcomes of reform; it's about how we win it. That's what teaches us how to fight. That's what builds a movement. Without a movement, we have no hope for real, sustainable change. We have no hope of getting rid of capitalism.
If wage struggles are undertaken through strikes, work stoppages and occupations that physically keep out scabs--"replacement workers" who would take the places of strikers--struggles for higher wages can expose exploitation as the primary contradiction of capitalism. They can show that workers have the power to change the relationship between labor and capital and can teach class analysis on a scale that no college class can.
Read the full article at Creative Time Reports.
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Boots Riley
Boots Riley is a poet, rapper, songwriter, producer, screenwriter, humorist, political organizer, community activist, lecturer and public speaker. Follow him on Twitter: @BootsRiley
Is the best way to achieve higher wages really legislation? Many think so. Across the country, working people are eagerly waiting to feel the effects of new laws that raise the minimum wage. Seattle will see an increase to $15 by 2021, and Los Angeles will see the same increase by 2020. But this strategy detracts from the only power dynamic that can actually overturn economic inequality: class struggle.
Legislative wage hikes fade fast into inflated prices. Worse, they teach folks that ultimately we need not organize - except to ask the state to change things for us. That's a losing battle on all fronts and one that obscures class analysis. This analysis says that there are two classes under capitalism, whose economically ordained conflict propels the system: the working class, who creates the surplus value in commodities, and the ruling class, who receives most of the wealth of commodities.
Instead of ceding our collective power to city councils and corporate offices, we need to broaden and radicalize the movement for a living wage, embracing more powerful tactics that today's union leaders have dismissed. It's not simply about the outcomes of reform; it's about how we win it. That's what teaches us how to fight. That's what builds a movement. Without a movement, we have no hope for real, sustainable change. We have no hope of getting rid of capitalism.
If wage struggles are undertaken through strikes, work stoppages and occupations that physically keep out scabs--"replacement workers" who would take the places of strikers--struggles for higher wages can expose exploitation as the primary contradiction of capitalism. They can show that workers have the power to change the relationship between labor and capital and can teach class analysis on a scale that no college class can.
Read the full article at Creative Time Reports.
Boots Riley
Boots Riley is a poet, rapper, songwriter, producer, screenwriter, humorist, political organizer, community activist, lecturer and public speaker. Follow him on Twitter: @BootsRiley
Is the best way to achieve higher wages really legislation? Many think so. Across the country, working people are eagerly waiting to feel the effects of new laws that raise the minimum wage. Seattle will see an increase to $15 by 2021, and Los Angeles will see the same increase by 2020. But this strategy detracts from the only power dynamic that can actually overturn economic inequality: class struggle.
Legislative wage hikes fade fast into inflated prices. Worse, they teach folks that ultimately we need not organize - except to ask the state to change things for us. That's a losing battle on all fronts and one that obscures class analysis. This analysis says that there are two classes under capitalism, whose economically ordained conflict propels the system: the working class, who creates the surplus value in commodities, and the ruling class, who receives most of the wealth of commodities.
Instead of ceding our collective power to city councils and corporate offices, we need to broaden and radicalize the movement for a living wage, embracing more powerful tactics that today's union leaders have dismissed. It's not simply about the outcomes of reform; it's about how we win it. That's what teaches us how to fight. That's what builds a movement. Without a movement, we have no hope for real, sustainable change. We have no hope of getting rid of capitalism.
If wage struggles are undertaken through strikes, work stoppages and occupations that physically keep out scabs--"replacement workers" who would take the places of strikers--struggles for higher wages can expose exploitation as the primary contradiction of capitalism. They can show that workers have the power to change the relationship between labor and capital and can teach class analysis on a scale that no college class can.
Read the full article at Creative Time Reports.
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