This innovative study, explores the relevance of class as a theoretical category in our world today, arguing that leading traditions of class analysis have missed major elements of what class is and how it operates. It combines instersectional theory and materialism to show that culture, economics, ideology, and consciousness are all factors that go into making "class" meaningful. Using a historical lens, it studies the experiences of working class peoples, from migrant farm workers in California's central valley, to the "factory girls" of New England, and black workers in the South to explore the variety of working-class experiences. It investigates how the concepts of racial capitalism and black feminist thought, when applied to class studies and popular movements, allow us to walk and chew gum at the same time--to recognize that our movements can be diverse and particularistic as well as have elements of the universal experience shared by all workers. Ultimately, it argues that class is made up of all of us, it is of ourselves, in all our contradiction and complexity.
Foreword
Introduction
Section One: Worker Experience
Chapter 1: Experience
Permanent Antagonism
Gender and Class - Capitalism and Patriarchy
Conclusion
Chapter 2: Slavery and Wages
White Supremacy
Slaves and Wage Slaves
Industrial Productivity and Control
Intersectional Class Struggle
Conclusion
Section Two: Theory
Chapter 3: Materialism
Labor Theory of Value
The Emerging Socialist Idea
Marxism: Steps Forward and Back
Alienation
Surplus Value
Materialism
Conclusion
Chapter 4: Culture
The Problem with Materialism
Class Formation: Consciousness, Experience, Dialogue
Culture: Structure and Articulation
Conclusion
Chapter 5: Intersectionality
Racial Capitalism
Black Radical Tradition
Working Class Feminism
Black Feminist Thought
Conclusion
Section Three: Struggle
Chapter 6: Practice
Anti-Racist Class Struggle in Practice
Working-Class Feminism in Practice
Building Popular Power
Workers Democracy
Conclusions
Conclusion: On Hope and Solidity
Bibliography
