The class struggle: a long historical view

Abstract

The labour market stands at the centre of the struggle over the distribution of the share of total value going to capital and labour. The postwar Keynesian regimes of accumulation marked the period when the working class achieved its greatest concessions in mitigating the operation of the market and its corporate dominance. But social reformism and the accumulation process are contradictory in principle, and by the 1970s the postwar reforms were helping to stifle accumulation to the point of stagnation. By 1980, neoliberal policies were widely adopted as an attempt to re-establish previous rates of profit. By this time, however, a new regime of accumulation was unfolding in which new means of production were forcing changes to the role of the state, trade unions, the structure of the working class and world markets. Globalisation and then financialisation came to characterise the accumulation process, leading to a series of related crises throughout the period, culminating in the crash of 2008–2009. The system was saved with state debt, and austerity policies were introduced to underwrite the credit extended to near bankrupt financial institutions. Working-class resistance followed, but the postwar conditions had changed; the working class no longer had the leverage it once had—the former possibilities for resistance no longer existed.