John Clark makes the point here that consciousness is not a static thing; it is complicated. It is fluid and we have to recognize, as Marx says, that consciousness is a product of being. He gives a concrete example of this in the essay below.
John writes:
As I’ve argued before, the power of the ruling ideas in this society is considerable but it is challenged by oppositional forms of thinking that flow from the conditions of working-class life. These two factors are always in competition and this can produce strange results. FFWP Admin
John Clark.
Toronto
After a lot of discussions I’ve had and social media posts I’ve read, I want to offer some thoughts on how problematic it is to base your conclusions on immediate consciousness. I’m going to argue that the situation is usually far more complex and often holds more possibilities than that which you can gather by simply noting the opinions working-class people express at a given moment. I’ll begin with a concrete example that made a strong impression on me.
Way back in the 1970s, I was working for the Ford Motor Company in its Basildon Tractor Plant in Essex to the east of London. In this factory, there was a huge problem with racism among the majority white workers and a member of the fascist National Front was even elected as a shop steward. Down the road from us, at the very much bigger factory in Dagenham, things were even worse, with rampant anti-Black racism hugely prevalent. The infamous ‘rivers of blood’ speech that the infamous Conservative Enoch Powell had made a few years earlier to whip up racism was still reverberating in British society.
One day, a young Black worker in Dagenham, after weeks of being harassed by a racist foreman, threatened his tormentor with a hammer and lost his job as a result. The whole factory exploded in anger, with workers stopping work but remaining on the property, and management had to reinstate the worker.
A left-wing shop Dagenham shop steward I spoke to shortly afterwards was predictably thrilled by this development but had to admit that he would never have imagined that such unity in action could instantaneously replace divisive hatred.
Of course, the racism was still there but even white workers with horrible ideas hated the employer and recognized their class interests and the need for solidarity in this situation. Yet, if you had based yourself on the immediate thinking of many of the white workers the day before this struggle broke out, you could never have predicted it or even imagined it possible.
As I’ve argued before, the power of the ruling ideas in this society is considerable but it is challenged by oppositional forms of thinking that flow from the conditions of working-class life. These two factors are always in competition and this can produce strange results. A worker who insists that the boss worked hard for his wealth and should be respected may still be on the lookout for ways to restrict the quantity of surplus value that has to be provided. Someone who expresses great respect for authority may hate the cops with a passion.
This is not to say, of course, that the views people express are irrelevant and they need to be properly understood. It’s just that the contradictions and social tensions in this exploitative society have the potential to spark resistance and this can happen when it is least expected.
The other vital consideration, when it comes to overcoming the ruling ideas that keep working-class people passive and divided, is that the class struggle is engaged in collectively and we are dealing with social consciousness and not just individual thinking.
In my Dagenham example, at the point at which the rebellion broke out, there would have been white workers who actively opposed racism, a minority who deliberately worked to spread it and a majority who had been influenced by racism but only to a certain degree. In the period leading up to active resistance, there would have been discussions and debates in which the racist core lost their dominant position. A leap in consciousness occurred and collective working-class action, based on the real interests of all the workers in the factory, suddenly exploded and scared the living daylights out of management.
So, when you hear depressingly backward talk in your local coffee shop or read a report of an opinion survey on immigration that can lead to pessimism, while you need to take stock of that present reality, you also shouldn’t lose sight of the contradictions and possibilities that can produce very different forms of thinking with great speed.
When you read news reports or watch footage of sweeping struggles of astounding boldness, you should realize that many of those on the front lines held the most conservative and compliant views just weeks or even days before they were caught up in one of the leaps in collective awareness that marks such social explosions.
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