Article received from Mr. Girish, Joint Secretary, Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC)
Today we are being told by the media like TV channel, current papers that only those people who work in those areas which require a lot of physical labor are workers. This understanding is also being spread through the media that today our society is divided into upper, middle or lower classes. Depending on who earns how much or how much wealth they have, a person is included in the upper, middle or lower class. The media of the capitalists propagates that in today’s society very few people belong to the upper class, a minority belongs to the lower class and almost all are from the middle class.
Karl Marx’s famous document Communist Manifesto has clearly established that in the direction in which our capitalist society is moving, two differences are becoming more and more clear in the society. On the one hand there are big capitalists who have all the means of production and on the other hand there is the working class who do not have any means of production, they get paid by selling their labor power.
Dividing society only on the basis of income or wealth helps to hide the basic contradiction between the capitalist class and the working class. On one hand, the capitalist owner tries hard to pay minimum wages to the laborers in order to increase his rate of profit. They pay only as much wages to the workers as is required for them to come back to work the next day. The working class aims to bring prosperity in the life of every person living in our society, working towards fulfilling their every need. The goals of the capitalist class and the working class are completely opposite to each other. There can never be a compromise between these two goals.
Irrespective of the difference in the wages of the workers, we are all part of the working class. One who does not own any means of production and who has to earn wages by selling his/her labor power to survive is a worker.
Not only those who work in factory and construction sector, but also those who work in big offices, run railways, work in electricity sector, bank workers, repair of tracks, aircraft pilots, who work in traffic sector, write computer programs , IT workers, gig delivery guys, Ola Uber drivers are all part of the working class. Even if some of them earn in thousands and some earn in lakhs, everyone who sells their labor power is a worker. Those who are unemployed today also come in the working class because in future they will join the working class only. Those living in working class families are also part of the working class because they are not exploiting anyone.
But, apart from the capitalist class and the working class, there are people who earn money by working on their means of production, such as someone earning money by working on an sewing machine, freelancing using their computer, or a farmer. All of them are called petty bourgeois or small capitalist. Their future is very uncertain. Many of these people join the working class in the future.
In today’s capitalist conditions, farmers or other toiling people are being exploited like workers. There is not much difference between their goal and ours. Today, domestic and foreign corporate houses of big capitalists are constantly trying hard to dominate the entire agriculture sector and governments keep dancing to their tune, no matter which party they belong to. That’s why the capitalist class is an enemy of all of us.
It is in the interest of us workers to forge friendship with these exploited peasants and toiling people and fight against our common enemy, the capitalist class. To achieve our goal, we workers will have to take the reins of power in our hands.
Another thing is spread that capitalists are necessary in the society because they provide employment. Capitalist class is a parasite in the society. Nothing happens with just capital. Imagine if we put five crore rupees in a closed room and leave it lying idle, not even a single rupee will grow from it. Value is created only when human labor works on this capital. It is the human labor that creates wealth.
When a worker works for 8 hours for the capitalist, 2 or 4 hours out of that is spent in creating value of his/her wages. The surplus value that is created by the rest of the remaining work is appropriated by the capitalist owner. Today, by using this capital, the capitalists are exploiting us workers more and more.
The capitalist class prevents us from uniting by spreading various misconceptions about who is a worker. Such propaganda damages the power of the working class to come forward and fight as a class. That is why it is very important that we refute this propaganda and gather as many people as possible as one class.
We have to remove all distinctions and bring the distinction between the capitalist and the working toilers in front of everyone. We have to make the working class organizations strong. We need such an organization that fights for the cause of the working class, such an organization that tirelessly struggles to bring the working class to power. Only our solidarity can help us to hold the reins of power.