The problem of relative privilege in the working class

Chris Slee ponders The problem of relative privilege in the working class.

Slee dislikes the term, “labour aristocracy”, and prefers to use “relative privilege” instead. It is this relative privilege that is the source of division among workers:

Material inequalities between different groups of workers can contribute to conflict between them. Often one group of workers will try to defend their position of relative privilege against other workers who are perceived as threatening it.

Slee argues that, given the global nature of the production process, the government should nationalise any factory is threaten by being moved off-shore:

How should Australian unions react when companies threaten to close a factory in Australia and move production to another country (whether a Third World or another imperialist country)?

We should argue that it is the responsibility of the Australian government to ensure that there are jobs with good pay and conditions for all workers in Australia. This means the government should take over factories threatened with closure and run them as public enterprises, or else provide the sacked workers with alternative work. Public housing, public transport and renewable energy are some of the areas that governments should invest in and create jobs.

Slee proposes that workers should aim for the leveling up of wages for all workers around the world:

One of our long-term goals should be to reduce inequality between workers in different countries, by raising the living standards of those in poorer countries. Pay rates should be leveled up, not leveled down as the capitalists would like.

Slee concludes that:

The struggle between solidarity and the defence of relative privilege is part of the struggle for a socialist world.