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While there are numbers of Euro-Amerikan , ,- ..232!<br />
and historically -brief contradi'ction of proletarian class<br />
conflict within the settler garrison has been ended. Just as<br />
in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, the U.S. oppressor na- I-<br />
tion is again a non-proletarian society that is purely<br />
capitalistic in character.<br />
~hird-world ouuressed nations and national minorities as<br />
- -- - -<br />
"America has a working class majority." This implies<br />
about settler society what is not true.<br />
qd<br />
A more subtle distortion is to focus on Euro-<br />
Amerikans, but to determine "class" by sorting each individual<br />
man and woman into different occupational<br />
lets the revisionists claim that "the majority of white<br />
Americans are working class."<br />
This approach denies the "sensuous" reality of<br />
ferent circumstances and had different reiations to the<br />
owning and ruling classes. "(1) It is our task to discover<br />
and explore the tangible class formations that have their<br />
own existence in material life (completely independent of<br />
our investigation). The revisionist distortion on the contrary,<br />
seeks to arbitrarily concoct statistical categories, fill<br />
them up (on paper, anyway) with abstract individuals -<br />
and call this "classes." This is just bourgeois sociology<br />
with "left" rhetoric.<br />
The U.S. oppressor nation is a patriarchal settler<br />
society of some complexity. In general Euro-Amerikans<br />
exist in family units, with the class identity of the family<br />
primarily dependent on the husband or father. We should<br />
say that we neither advocate this situation nor see it as eternal.<br />
It is the prevailing reality at this time, in this century,<br />
and it is our task to understand it.<br />
The revisionist methodology comes up with conclusions<br />
like: "all secretaries are in the clerical sector of the<br />
working class." That sounds reasonable to many. Factually,<br />
however, it isn't true. For example, if a young Euro-<br />
Amerikan woman works as a secretary, came from a petitbourgeois<br />
family background, is married to a professional,<br />
lives in an exclusive white residential suburb or "arty" urban<br />
community, shares in a family income of $30,000 per<br />
year - is she working class? Could she be working class<br />
but her husband and children petit-bourgeois? Obviously,<br />
such a person would, in the actual social world that exists,<br />
be solidly flourishing within the petit bourgeoisie.<br />
This is not such a far-fetched example. Fully 25%<br />
of Euro-Amerikan women employed as clerical-sales personnel<br />
are married to men who are managers or professionals.<br />
17% of the wage-employed wives of male<br />
managers (includes small retail businesses) are blue-collar<br />
workers. (2) due to the patriarchal nature of Euro-<br />
Amerikan society, most women from the middle classes<br />
are forced, when seeking employment, to accept nonprofessional<br />
clerical and retail sales jobs. This does not<br />
necessarily change their class identity. One study shows<br />
that roughly one-third of all secretaries under 30 years of<br />
age are graduates of colleges or junior colleges. (3) This is<br />
commonplace knowledge. We have to describe classes as<br />
they exist, not define them as concocted categories of our<br />
making.<br />
We can gain a better idea of this patriarchal settler<br />
society's class structure by looking at Euro-Amerikan male<br />
occupations alone. While this is nowhere near as accurate<br />
as conducting social investigation, actually going out and<br />
surveying the masses in all aspects of their lives, it should<br />
help us see the general outlines of the class situation.* This<br />
outline is not a full class analysis, we must caution; for our<br />
purposes here we do not need to separately delineate the<br />
big bourgeoisie, regional and local bourgeoisie, and the<br />
varied middle classes (small business proprietors, salaried<br />
,46 managers, land-owning farmers, professionals, etc.). All