A world without the one percent. That is worth occupying for.
Who are the ‘one percent’?
Posted by John, October 11th, 2011 - under Occupations, Occupy Australia, Occupy Wall Street.
There are two main classes under capitalism – the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, the ruling class and the working class, the bosses and the workers.
Workers sell their labour power to survive and have little or no control over their work. Bosses buy our labour and have control over us as a consequence.
There are other classes – a middle class made up of different groups like small business, peasants, managers and the like. It swings its support behind one or other of the major classes depending on the level of class struggle but often it sits in sullen resentment of organised labour and big business. This often makes it the social base of fascism.
Income is not a determinant of class per se.
Mine workers are paid very well compared to those on the average wage of almost $70,000. Yet they are still mine workers. Their job and role doesn’t magically change because they are paid $45000 more than the average wage. In fact their high wages disguise another reality – they are paid so much because they create huge profits for the mining bosses.
According to the ABS their average wage is $117,500. Yet each mining worker generated sales and service income of over $1 million.
According to the ABS, Industry Value Added (IVA) per person employed in mining was $608,200. The next highest was electricity, gas, water and waste services with $300,200 IVA per employee.
IVA per person employed gives us some inkling of the basis of the relationship between labour and capital – we work and they profit.
To give you soem idea of that divide let’s look at a recent analysis of the super rich.
The Business Review Weekly’s (BRW 2010) annual list of the richest 200 individuals and families in Australia shows that:
The combined wealth of the top 200 was $135.8 billion in 2010 (up from $83.37 billion in 2005);
The total represents an increase of 19 per cent from the previous year despite the turmoil in world economies and financial markets;
Only 16 of the top 200 are women.
Table 1: The Australian super-rich top 5, 2010—estimated wealth (AUD$ billion)
Frank Lowy 5.0
Gina Rinehart 4.7
Anthony Pratt 4.6
Andrew Forrest 4.2
Harry Triguboff 4.2
Source: Website to support John Germove and Marilyn Poole (eds) Public Sociology: An Introduction to Australian Society (2nd ed) Chapter 11: Class ands Inequality in Australia, adapted from BRW (2010)
What all of these people have in common is that they own large amounts of capital. They are a tiny minority. While estimates vary, given the interlocking shareholdings and networks between capitalists, Murray suggests that about 2 to 3 percent of Australian society make the major economic economic decisions – what gets done, how many are employed, what wages levels are etc etc. They are the ruling class.
This group owns the means f production, the factories, mines, offices, that mean they can take the surplus value we produce and reinvest it in new plant, machinery and the like. Or lend it out to others who want to do that. Or in the case of the State, take a share of that surplus and use it to defend the elites’ property and fund its armies to protect the national variant of capitalism. Maybe even use to prop up ailing sectors of the economy.
There is clearly a class divide in society. A small minority own the majority of the capital in society. The vast majority have only our labor to sell.
Most times the power of the ruling class appears overwhelming.
But if there is one message coming out of the Occupy movements around the globe it is this - we are many, they are few. Their power is built on our labour. Without our work they are nothing.
That points to a way forward. If we withdraw our labour the ruling class will often be forced to give us concessions. Of course the act of striking opens up a possibility of a new world – one of democracy in which production is organised to satisfy human need. A world without the one percent. That is worth occupying for.
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