Social Movements and Class Politics in the United States

Abstract

Class is considered by the media and by the political establishments of the US to be an 'un-American category'. Class, as a category of analysis and bearer of power relations, is rarely mentioned. Aside from references to the United States as a middle class society (a society in which the majority of US citizens are supposed to be in the middle, between the rich and the poor), the category of class is seldom taken seriously, or even mentioned. Thus, the US population is supposed to be divided not by classes but by biological (e.g., gender, age, race) or ethnic (e.g., Polish, Italian, Hispanic) categories. In this hegemonic political scenario the majority of people are supposed to be in the 'middle', a 'middle' satisfied with its lot, with only a minority being in the category defined as poor. This specific reading of US realities leads to the political conclusion that the task of the progressive forces in this country is to call upon the compassion of the majority (the middle class) for the care of the poor and the marginal vulnerable minorities. Witness the call made by the Democratic Party's candidate in the 1984 Presidential election, Walter Mondale, for the Democratic Party to become the party of compassion.