[A-List] Re: New Economy bull

[Sabri Oncu]

Mine wrote:

> After all, it is easy to talk about "making the
> ideas that masses own" (whatever that means), while
> you are not part of the masses. When was the
> last time you were a factory worker? keh.


I was busy with final exams so I had to stay away from A-List for
a while. As a result, I couldn't follow this discussion but
Mine's statement reminded me something.

A while ago Mark wrote this in response to an article by my
brother:

> Today, the division between mental and manual labour
> still exists and is inscribed into the fundamental
> division between North and South, but the technological
> basis of modern capitalist production has already
> superseded it; this is why Taylorism is obsolete. 100 years
> ago Taylorism was news and it was a harbinger of mass
> production, fordism and finally of the information,
> cybernetics and electronics revolutions of the late 20th
> century. These revolutions within the sphere of production
> have created a new, monolithic, massified scientific-technical
> proletariat; the technical strata which 100 years ago formed a
> lumpen petit-bourgeois intelligentsia have dissolved back
> into the working class, at least in the imperial metropoles,
> and the old manual working class, which 100 years ago formed
> the shock troops of socialist movements and of working class
> parties everywhere, is today an endangered species if not
> actually extinct.

Full:
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/2002-September/020664
.html

Except from a few summer trainings as a mechanical engineering
student, I have never worked in a factory. But still, I view
myself belonging to the proletariat, especially after eight years
of slavery at a few US financial corporations. If being part of
the masses means being part of the proletariat, then I am part of
the masses, and most likely Macdonald is too, if you agree with
Mark.

I think may be interesting if we try to expand upon Mark's above
observation here on A-List.

Are there any takers?

Best,
Sabri

P.S: This mail was not meant to criticize Mine. She just made me
remember the above statements of Mark. I state this just in case!