Your explanation of class makes it very clear to me the division of classes and the parameters that define each, including the gray areas.

I am trying to organize a union in my workplace, and we are in the very beginning stages, so I am using a name that will not identify me.

Our workers are very much divided: they believe they need the middle and owning class, and they are greatly divided amongst themselves.

The tactics the middle and owning class use to undermine workers’ confidence in themselves are easily recognized. If you ask workers, many would agree they are being patronized.

That the workers have chosen to side with both management and owners, or to keep their heads down to keep their jobs, is also obvious to many workers.

There are many issues in my workplace that workers can see are in their common interest: job security, safety, retraining, and benefits.

The workers remain divided, even though there is much dissatisfaction with the workplace and common knowledge of unfair practices.

I am not aware of any organizing tactic that can overcome these problems, other than creating a core group and carefully working to increase the number of workers willing to sign union cards. I am working with the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World), as they do not have paid union bureaucrats, but are activist based.

Whatever issue people organize around, it appears to me that the same ground-work needs to be done; organizing one by one, with each person organizing others.

I understand the need to organize across unions to create real social change, and that unions by themselves are organizations of “reform, not revolution” (Power and Powerlessness, pgs 175-179).

In solidarity, KC