Re: how many global class struggles? (fwd)

you suggested to operationalize "global class struggle". That's were I ran
into some problems. I am wondering whether this has been formally defined
and operationalized in the WS literature.

The expression "global class struggle" has three words with various meanings
which can be combined in various ways.

(a) "struggle" could mean "any type of struggle, including non-violent"; or
could mean "armed struggle"

(b) "class" could mean class in the petrified Marxist sense of proletariat
versus bourgeoisie, or class in the emasculated statistical sense of
"demographic-statistical category", or class in a broad sociological sense,
so that, for example, gender classes would also be considered as classes. A
particularly intriguing problem is how "classes of countries" (center,
periphery, high-, middle-, low-income countries) can be treated in this
context. For example, if a fascist, poor-country dictatorship fights the big
boys of NATO and OECD, does that qualify as "global class struggle" on par
with the class struggle of a Canadian church group which tries to raise
consciousness of global injustice or on par with a Canadian labour union
which goes on strike for higher wages?

(c) "global" could mean "existing worldwide" (like in "global resources",
"global presence of oxygen"); or could mean "acting globally" (like global
corporations); or could mean "having global consciousness"

(d) combinations: is it  "global class-struggles" (hyphen on second), i.e.,
class struggles (plural) in the global arena; or, "global class-struggle"
(singular), i.e., one class struggle in the global arena; or, "global-class
struggle" (hyphen on first), i.e., a struggle of global classes, as opposed
to nationally conceived and acting classes. This raises the next set of
questions: What is a "global class", as opposed to a national class? How
many global classes are there at the present time? Who can be a member of a
global class -- only individuals or also countries? (US author and Secretary
of Labor Reich mentioned somewhere that there is only one global class at
this time, namely, the global corporate class; all others are not "global
classes").

what does the WS literature say?

regards,
Gernot Kohler
Sheridan College
Oakville, Canada

-----Original Message-----
From: md7148@cnsvax.albany.edu <md7148@cnsvax.albany.edu>
To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
Date: July 31, 1999 5:44 PM
Subject: how many global class struggles? (fwd)



what about operationalizing "global class struggle first"?

BTW, i do not think that quantification should be a problem for many on
the left--at least for scientific marxists. marx and engels analyzed
capitalism by relying on the scientific methods of their time, albeit
utilizing them in a critical manner. marxism is not a speculatory
thought, nor is it an anti-positivist utopia. it is as scientific as
bourgeois science's claim to be _the scientific_.

regards,

Mine Aysen Doyran
phd candidate
dept of pol scie
SUNY/Albany
Graduate School-Nelson A. Rockefeller College
md7148@cnsvax.albany.edu